1908 in organized crime

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Events

A gang war breaks out between Paul Kelly's Five Points Gang and "Kid Twist" Max Zwerbach's Eastman Gang.
By the end of the year Johnny Torrio's two dozen Brooklyn brothels earn over $5,000 a week.
Frankie Yale is allowed to join Johnny Torrio's Black Hand organization in New York.
Hymie Weiss is first arrested for burglary. It is this incident that, while caught robbing a perfume store, he is dubbed the "Perfume Burglar" by Chicago reporters.
Joseph Petrosino arrests Neapolitan camorrista Enrico Costabili, who is later deported to Italy.
Sicilian mafiosi Raffaele Palizzolo, wanted for murder, escapes Sicily and arrives in New York. He later leaves the city before Joseph Petrosino can arrest him.
Then 17-year-old Salvatore Sabella, future boss of the Philadelphia crime family, is sentenced to three years imprisonment in Milan for the murder of a local butcher, of which he was an apprentice, in 1905.
April 25 – Frank Costello is arrested for assault and robbery but is released.
May 14 – Eastman Gang leader Max Zwerbach and lieutenant Vach Lewis are killed in an ambush by members of the Five Points Gang after an argument between Zwerbach and Louis Pioggi over Coney Island dance hall girl Carrol Terry.
July 23 – Labor racketeer Cornelius Shea is sentenced to six months in prison for abandoning his wife and two young children.