Book review: Down and out in Donegal and New York — a forgotten victim of greed

Irish Examiner

17-05-2025

New York City was in the grips of depression in the early 1930s. The wealthy who survived the Wall Street Crash ignored the reality; most of the rest staggered on as best they could while the New York Yankees, at the height of their pomp, helped to boost the morale of the city.
Below these classes were the destitute — those whose life could hardly have sunk lower.
The destitute never featured in many of the stories about New York. They were largely immigrants, or the descendants of immigrants, who never caught the train that was to carry them on to the American dream of success and happiness.
Michael Malloy was one of the destitute. He is the subject of The Many Murders of Michael Malloy: The unbelievable true story of the Irishman who refused to die, by Simon Read.
It is a tale from the darkest corners of the underbelly of the greatest city in the world.
Malloy, who was in his late 50s at the time covered by this book, was born in Donegal and moved to live in New York. Simon Read succinctly sums up Malloy's life in one line: 'He arrived in obscurity and lived in anonymity.'
In movies about New York, Malloy would be described as 'a bum'. But for all of that, he was a man.
Because of prohibition laws on alcohol, bars were still illegal in the USA in 1933. Illegal bars were known as 'speakeasies'.
Body of Mike Malloy after it was exhumed; the Donegal native was the victim of a murder plot motivated by a life insurance scam. Picture: Getty
It is reckoned that there were about 30,000 speakeasies in New York, and policing them was not always a priority; even for the honest cops.
The speakeasy at 3375 Third Avenue, The Bronx, was central to the fate of Michael Malloy. It was not a glamorous facility like many of the 'high-class joints' in Manhattan.
It was a drinking den where the customers went to indulge their soulless addiction.
Tony Marino was the owner of this speakeasy, an unpleasant person who suffered from syphilis and other diseases that were never treated.
His premises attracted the lowest of the low; for them, money was a constant problem.
Marino managed to make a successful insurance claim on the life of a woman he had lived with for a short while.
It did not take long before the next financial squeeze came along, and he decided to try another insurance scam.
This time, he wanted to go bigger. He and four others, who frequented the bar, hatched a plan to take out an insurance policy on the bum in the corner, one Michael Malloy, and then to kill him.
Malloy was a nuisance, always hanging around, bumming drink when he had no money, and falling asleep on the premises.
He had no known family and nobody knew where he went when he was not at the bar. He was an easy target.
The gang came to be known as the Murder Trust, but they didn't know how to commit a murder. They also underestimated Michael Malloy.
He may have been a down and out, but he had the constitution of a horse.
Molloy turned out to be uninsurable. The gang had to give him a false name, Nicholas Mellory, and one gang member had to pose as his brother before they got their policies. Once he was insured, the attempts on Malloy's life began.
First, they tried to do it with whiskey, then they tried poison. When that didn't work, they swapped methanol for whiskey.
After that, they put broken glass and slivers of tin in his food. They then drove over him in a car, and still, Malloy turned up in the speakeasy looking for more drink.
Malloy eventually succumbed to their efforts but, inevitably, the word got around about what was going on.
One of the insurance companies became suspicious and a fatal falling out between the Murder Trust members got the police involved. The plot unravelled and the group was arrested and tried for murder.
The Many Murders of Michael Malloy was first published in the USA over 20 years ago. It has all the ingredients of a black comedy, except for the fact that it is a true story.
Greed and an absence of conscience brought about the death of the helpless and innocent Malloy.
The book will sometimes shock the reader and is undoubtedly a fascinating read.
It is a case history of man's inhumanity to man, except in this case of a destitute man in the Bronx, nobody mourned.