Joseph Amberg (1893-1935) - Find a Grave Memorial

Joseph Amberg (1893-1935) - Find a Grave Memorial

The bodies of Joseph Amberg and his chauffeur, Morris Keesler, lie on the floor of a parking garage located on Christopher and Blake Streets in Brooklyn, NY. They were shot by the members of the notorious Murder, Inc. gang on Sept. 30, 1935. ⁠ Joseph Amberg (1892 – September 30, 1935) was a New York mobster who, with his brothers Hyman and Louis "Pretty" Amberg, was involved in labor racketeering and other criminal activities. During the 1920s and 1930s the brothers competed with rivals such as Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Abe "Kid Twist" Reles and the Shapiro Brothers. On September 30, 1935, Amberg was murdered alongside associate Morris Kessler. The pair were ambushed in a Brownsville, Brooklyn auto repair garage and, after being ordered to line up against the wall, were gunned down by members of Murder, Inc. ⁠ Morris L. Kessler was born in New York City on January 6, 1912. Although he had no known criminal record during his life, he had become a member of Brooklyn mobsters Joseph and Louis "Pretty" Amberg criminal organization in Brownsville by the early 1930s. Kessler became Joe Amberg's personal chauffeur and bodyguard. ⁠ On the afternoon of September 30, 1935, at 12:45 pm, Kessler and Amberg stopped at the Blake-Christopher auto garage at Blake and Christopher Avenues prior to collecting "protection money" from neighborhood barber shops and restaurants. As they prepared to leave in their limousine, however, three unidentified gunmen believed to be members of Murder, Inc. entered the garage. Armed with pistols, they forced the two men against the wall at gunpoint. ⁠ According to the owner Henry Kutnetz and mechanics Nat Horowitz and August Mattern, all of whom witnessed the incident, the gunmen taunted the two men before gunning them down. They shot Amberg first and then Kessler; police later found Kessler had been shot once in the forehead and three times in the back. The two men were buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens, two days later. ⁠ Louis Amberg had been killed only three weeks before, the Ambergs being involved in a gang war with rivals Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro, though authorities believed the murders of Kessler and Amberg were linked to the then-recent deaths of small-time racketeers Abe Meer and Irving Amron. Although the getaway car used in the murder was later found by authorities, the crime remained unsolved. ⁠