The real Iron Mike..
The events that led to Malloy's death began in January 1933.[2][3] He was, at the time, an alcoholic and homeless.[2][3] Five men who were acquainted with Malloy – Tony Marino, Joseph "Red" Murphy, Francis Pasqua, Hershey Green, and Daniel Kriesberg (later dubbed "the Murder Trust" by the headlines)[1] – "employed a ploy to destroy the unemployed Malloy" by getting Malloy to drink himself to death, in order to collect life insurance.[2][3] The first part of the plot was successful, presumably achieved with the aid of a corrupt insurance agent, they collected insurance policies on Malloy's life under the name Nicholas Malloy[citation needed] and they stood to gain over $3,500 (more than $66,000 by 2017's standards according to the CPI) if Malloy died an accidental death.[2][3]
Marino owned a speakeasy and gave Malloy unlimited credit, thinking Malloy would abuse it and drink himself to death.[2][3] Although Malloy drank for a majority of his waking day, it did not kill him. To remedy this, Marino replaced Malloy's liquor with antifreeze, but Malloy would continue to drink with no problems.[2][3] Antifreeze was replaced with turpentine, followed by horse liniment, and finally rat poison was mixed in.[2][5] Still, Malloy lived.
The group then tried raw oysters soaked in wood alcohol.[2][3] This idea apparently came from Pasqua, who claimed he saw a man die after eating oysters with whiskey.[2] Then came a sandwich of spoiled sardines mixed with poison and carpet tacks,[2][3][6] Malloy was fine, even asking for another. When that failed, they decided that it was unlikely that anything Malloy ingested was going to kill him quickly enough, so the Murder Trust decided to freeze him to death. On a night when the temperature reached −14 °F (−26 °C),[dubious – discuss] Malloy drank until he passed out, was carried to a park, dumped in the snow, and had five gallons (19 liters) of water poured on his bare chest.[2][3] Nevertheless, Malloy reappeared the following day for his drink.
The next attempt on his life came when they hit him with Green's taxi, moving at 45 miles per hour (72 km/h).[2][3] This put Malloy in the hospital for three weeks with broken bones.[3] The gang presumed he was dead, but they were unable to collect the policy on him.[2] When he again appeared at the bar, they decided on one last approach.
On February 23, 1933, after he passed out for the night, the murderers took Malloy to Murphy's room, put a hose in his mouth that was connected to the gas jet, and turned it on.[2][3] This finally killed Malloy, with his death occurring within an hour.[2][3] He was pronounced dead of lobar pneumonia and quickly buried.[5][7] Despite this, the Murder Trust failed to divide the collected loot evenly.[2][3] Eventually, police heard rumors of "Mike the Durable" in speakeasies all over town, and upon learning that a Michael Malloy had died that night, they had the body exhumed and forensically examined.[2][3]
The five men were put on trial and subsequently convicted. Green went to prison, while the other four members were sentenced to death and executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing in Ossining, New York: Kriesberg, Marino, and Pasqua on June 7, 1934, and Murphy on July 5, 1934
