Jacob Orgen
| Jacob "Little Augie" Orgen | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Born |
Jacob Orgenstein January 1893 Austria |
| Died | October 16, 1927 (aged 34) Manhattan, New York, United States |
| Cause of death | Murdered |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Little Augie |
| Occupation | Labor racketeer |
| Known for | Vice king, bootlegger, Labor racketeer, Drug trafficker |
| Home town | Morningside Heights, Manhattan |
| Height | 5'2" |
| Predecessor | Nathan Kaplan |
| Successor | Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro |
| Children | Zelda Orgen |
| Relatives | Joseph and Samuel Orgen |
Jacob "Little Augie" Orgen (January 1893 – October 16, 1927) was a New York gangster involved in bootlegging and labor racketeering during the Prohibition.
Born to a middle class Orthodox Jewish family from Austria as Jacob Orgenstein, Orgen became a well known labor slugger for Benjamin "Dopey Benny" Fein by the early 1910s. Being ambitious, he had formed his own gang, "The Little Augies" c. 1911. He operated his labor rackets diligently for the next five or six years until his former boss, Dopey Benny, had faded from prominence. His rising star was soon put on hold, however, when "Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan and Johnny Spanish were both released from Sing Sing in 1917. While they worked together at first, they soon resumed their old rivalry and each formed their own separate gang.
Orgen was even further hindered in his rise in 1919 when he was jailed on a robbery charge. Kid Dropper eventually eliminated Spanish that same year and reigned supreme while Orgen was in jail. While Orgen was in prison, his gang barely held together and fought, often unsuccessfully, against Kaplan's gang while waiting patiently for their leader to return to the streets.
Orgen was released and on the streets again in 1923. Quickly becoming a formidable rival again to Kaplan, Orgen gradually built up a powerful organization which included members such as gunmen Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro, and Jack "Legs" Diamond. Orgen, allied with Solomon Schapiro, challenged Kaplan over labor slugging activities, particularly in the garment district. In 1923, a gang war broke out after a dispute over striking "wet wash" laundry workers.
After several months of fighting, including a particularly violent gunfight on Essex Street resulting in the deaths of two bystanders, Kaplan was murdered by gunman Louis Kushner, a man attached to Orgen's organization, on August 28, 1923. With Kaplan's death, Orgen gained complete control over labor racketeering.
By 1925, Orgen, in partnership with Legs Diamond, had started to move into bootlegging, supplying Broadway night clubs and speakeasies. He also kept up his original core occupation of labor slugging. City officials soon began investigating union racketeering in New York which threatened to expose other criminal operations. In 1927, through intermediary Louis Buchalter (although some sources claim Meyer Lansky), Orgen was advised by Arnold "The Brain" Rothstein to concentrate instead on infiltrating labor unions instead of traditional labor slugging and strong arm tactics.
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