Benny Snyder

Benjamin Snyder
Nationality	American
Other names	Benjamin Schneider
Occupation	Criminal
Employer	Joseph Rosenzweig
Known for	murderer of labor racketeer Philip "Pinchy" Paul; later became a state witness who revealed the first existence of labor racketeering in New York.
Home town	Manhattan, New York, United States

Benjamin "Benny" Snyder or Schneider (fl. 1900–1915) was an American criminal, union organizer and thug for hire during the turn of the century. A veteran gunman for New York labor racketeer Joseph "Joe the Greaser" Rosenzweig, his murder of Rosenzweig's rival Philip "Pinchy" Paul ended the first of the so-called "Labor Slugger Wars", which would continue on and off for well over a decade.

Snyder's eventual arrest for Paul's murder would result in his turning state's evidence and revealing to police the existence of "labor sluggers" used by businesses and unions alike during the early 1900s. His testimony would lead not only to the conviction Rosenzweig but of virtually every major labor racketeer in Manhattan's Lower East Side and eliminated "labor slugging" in the city for over two years.

This was one of the first instances of a criminal figure providing information on organized crime during the early 20th century. Similar cases would include Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, a former hitman for Murder, Inc., whose testimony resulted in the conviction (and later execution) of Louis Buchalter in 1941, and Genovese crime family mobster Joe Valachi, who appeared before the McClelland Committee in 1963 to expose the modern-day Cosa Nostra.

A well-known "starker" or strong arm man, Snyder was employed by labor racketeer Joseph "Joe the Greaser" Rosenzweig who controlled what was then known as "labor slugging" with Benjamin "Dopey Benny" Fein prior to the Labor Slugger War. Snyder recalled being recruited as a union organizer for the "Bakers' Union",

Snyder was hired out to various racketeers over the next decade. He later claimed that he received $10 for every man he hired to assault strikebreakers, paying each man $7.50 and pocketing the rest for himself. By early 1914, he had become Rosenzweig's main "starker" for the "Furriers' Union". He later committed a serious assault for Rosenzweig, knifing a man by the name of Jewbach at Rivington and Norfolk Street, slashing him twice before being arrested. According to one account, Rosenzweig and half a dozen henchmen found Jewbach before the trial and had his men hold him down while the gang leader cut out a large piece of his lower lip. When the victim failed to appear at the Essex Market Court, Snyder was acquitted.

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