Michael Malloy, later known as either Mike the Durable or Iron Mike, was an Irish man who lived in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s. A former firefighter, he is most famous for surviving a number of murder attempts on his life by five acquaintances, who were attempting to commit homicide and life insurance fraud.
Failed murder attempts
Beginning in January 1933, while Malloy was unemployed, alcoholic and homeless, five of his acquaintances Tony Marino, Joseph "Red" Murphy, Francis Pasqua, Hershey Green, and Daniel Kriesberg plotted to kill Malloy by getting him to drink himself to death, in order to collect life insurance. Presumably achieved with the aid of a corrupt insurance agent, they collected insurance policies on Malloy's life under the name Nicholas Malloy and stood to gain over if Malloy died an accidental death. Marino owned a speakeasy and gave Malloy unlimited credit, thinking the alcoholic Malloy would abuse it and drink himself to death. Although Malloy drank for a majority of his waking day, it did not kill him. Marino then replaced Malloy's liquor with antifreeze, but Malloy would continue to drink with no problems. Antifreeze was replaced with turpentine, followed by horse liniment, and finally rat poison was mixed in. The group then gave Malloy raw oysters soaked in wood alcohol, the idea apparently coming from Pasqua, who claimed he saw a man die after eating oysters with whiskey. A sandwich of spoiled sardines mixed with poison and carpet tacks was then tried, but Malloy was fine, even asking for another. Concluding that it was unlikely that anything Malloy ingested was going to kill him quickly enough, the group decided to freeze him to death. On an extremely cold night, after Malloy drank until passing out, he was carried to a park, dumped in the snow, and had of water poured on his bare chest. Malloy reappeared the following day for his drink. The group then attempted to kill Malloy by running him down with Green's taxi, moving at. This put Malloy in the hospital for three weeks with broken bones. The group presumed he was dead, but they were unable to collect the policy on him. When he again appeared at the bar, they decided on one last approach.
Malloy's murder
On February 23, 1933, after he had 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. This finally killed Malloy, with his death occurring within an hour. He was pronounced dead of lobar pneumonia and quickly buried, with Dr. Frank Manzella signing the death certificate. 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. The five men were put on trial and subsequently convicted, and Dr. Manzella was held as an accessory after the fact, with a bail. 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.
