Born
Zelig Zvi Lefkowitz on the
Lower East Side of
Manhattan in
New York City, New York, Zelig was a well-known
pickpocket and thief by age 6. He was a member of
Crazy Butch's pickpocket gang before joining the Eastman Gang in the late 1890s. Rising up the ranks, Zelig sought control over the fragmented Eastman Gang in 1908, after "Kid Twist" (
Max Zwerbach) was murdered by a rival. Zelig's crew had more than 75 members, including satellite gangs such as the
Lenox Avenue Gang in
Harlem, led by "Gyp the Blood" (aka
Harry Horowitz). During this period, when ethnic Jewish gangsters became predominant in the gang, Zelig was also known as "The Big Yid".
Feud with Sirocco and Tricker After Zelig was arrested in 1911 for robbing a brothel, Jack Sirocco and "Chick" Tricker attempted to gain leadership of the gang by refusing to bail out their boss. Zelig was later released due to his political connections. One of his men told him that Sirocco and Tricker were planning on murdering him. The assassin, a gunman named
Julie Morrell, was lured by Zelig to The Stuyvesant Casino where he was killed by the gang leader on December 2, 1911. (That building at 140 Second Avenue is now used as the Ukrainian National Home.) The next year, the longstanding
Eastman/
Five Points feud flared anew. As Zelig left the Criminal Courts building on June 3, 1912, he was shot through the neck by Five Points gunman Charley Torti. He was a known associate of
Louis Pioggi, aka Louie the Lump, who had murdered Zelig's mentor, Kid Twist Zwerbach, four years earlier. Zelig had been released on $1000 bail after his arrest for "shooting up the saloon" of Pioggi's brother Jake. Davidson claimed he had shot Zelig over a $400 grudge, but it was popularly believed he had been killed to keep him from testifying against
Charles Becker in the
Rosenthal murder case involving the Lenox Avenue Gang. ==Legacy==