Benjamin Snyder

Actor

BIOGRAPHY

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 Rosenzweigs 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.Snyders eventual arrest for Pauls murder would result in his turning states 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 Manhattans 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.

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