Episode Details

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Michael Malloy is remembered as the man who couldn't be killed. The truth is darker. In the last year of Prohibition, men around a Bronx speakeasy insured the life of a vulnerable regular and tried to turn his open bar tab into a murder weapon.

George traces the documented insurance plot, the taxi attack, the gas murder, the false death certificate and the convictions that followed. He also separates the court-era record from the poison stories that were already being called legend in 1933. Along the way, he makes a Bronx cocktail with gin, sweet vermouth, dry vermouth, fresh orange juice and bitters.

Accounts of this case disagree on several details, including the Third Avenue address and the policy amounts. The show notes say where.

This episode was made with the assistance of AI, including an AI-generated voice.

IN THE GLASS: THE WHISKY & EMBER HOUSE BRONX- 1.5 oz London dry gin- 0.5 oz sweet vermouth- 0.5 oz dry vermouth- 0.75 oz fresh orange juice- 1 dash orange bittersShake with ice, fine strain into a chilled coupe, finish with an orange twist.Published Bronx formulas vary. This is the episode's house spec, not a claim about the one original recipe. The drink predates Prohibition, and it is a story pairing, not a drink anyone is documented to have served at Tony Marino's.

WHERE THE ACCOUNTS DISAGREEAccounts of this case disagree on several details. Among them: the address of the bar (3804 Third Avenue per Edmund Pearson in The New Yorker; 3775 Third Avenue per the Criminal podcast), the Prudential and Metropolitan Life policy amounts and totals, the date of the gassing (Feb. 21, 22 or 23 depending on the source), the length of Malloy's stay in hospital after the taxi attack, where he was left in the cold (Pearson says near the Bronx Zoo, others say Crotona or Claremont Park), and what first made the insurers suspicious. The episode uses Pearson's 1933 account as its strongest contemporary source and says where others differ.

SOURCES- Edmund Pearson, "Malloy the Mighty," The New Yorker, Sept. 1933. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1933/09/23/molloy-the-mighty- Smithsonian Magazine, "The Man Who Wouldn't Die" (Kahler, 2012). https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-man-who-wouldnt-die-89417903/- New York Irish History, vol. 21 (2007), "Of Hoods and Canaries". https://nyirishhistory.us/article/of-hoods-and-canaries/- The Journal.ie (2015), article on Michael Malloy.- New York Daily News (2007), article on the Malloy case.- Criminal podcast, episode 151 (interview with Simon Read).- CDC/NIOSH, "Methanol: Systemic Agent" emergency response card. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/emergencyresponsecard_29750029.html- National Archives, proclamation of the 21st Amendment (repeal of Prohibition). https://www.archives.gov/files/historical-docs/doc-content/images/21st-amendment-fdr-proclamation.pdf- Crockett, Albert Stevens, Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931), for the Bronx cocktail's history.- Boothby, William T., The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them (1908), for the Bronx cocktail's history.

AI DISCLOSUREThis episode was made with the assistance of AI. The script was researched, fact-checked and edited with AI tools, and the narration is an AI-generated voice trained on George's own voice.

A Cocktails & Crime episode from Whisky & Ember. Please drink responsibly.