He was known throughout the underworld as “Mad Mick”, but when he gunned down five children in Harlem and killed a poor boy, Vincent Cole became known forever as “Mad Dog” Cole.

Vincent Cole was born on July 20, 1908, in Gweedore, a small town in County Donegal, Ireland. When he was a baby, his parents moved to the United States and settled in a cold-water flat in the Bronx. After five of his siblings died from accidents or illnesses, his father left the family and was never seen again. Cole’s mother died of pneumonia when he was seven years old, and Cole and his older brother Peter were taken by the state of New York and taken to the Mt. Loretto orphanage on Staten Island. The Cole brothers were in the orphanage for three years, and both were repeatedly beaten for insubordination. They eventually escaped and insinuated themselves into New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, where they became members of the notorious street gang called The Gophers.

Soon, the Cole brothers were working as assistants to the infamous smuggler Dutch Schultz. They were paid a hundred dollars a week to do Schultz’s dirty work, which included a few kills when necessary. Finally fed up with Schultz’s known cheapness in terms of paying his crew, Cole approached Schultz and demanded that he become a full partner. “I’m not your shoe shiner,” Cole told Schultz. “I’ll show you a thing or two.”

Cole formed a small gang, including his brother Peter, and his girlfriend and future wife, Lottie Kreisberger, who did little more than keep Cole company. Cole’s first move on Schultz was a brazen daytime robbery of Schultz’s Sheffield Dairy in the Bronx. Schultz was so angry at Cole’s betrayal that he stormed into the 42nd Precinct and told a roomful of cops, “I’ll buy anybody who can kill that Mick (Cole) a house in Westchester.

Cole then set about trying to lure members of Schultz’s gang away from Schultz and Cole’s gang. Through an old school acquaintance named Mary Smith, the Cole brothers arranged a meeting with one of Schultz’s top boys, Vincent Barelli. When Barelli rebuffed his advances, he was shot dead. Mary, horrified by what she had just seen and unaware of it, tried to run away from her, but Cole chased after her and shot her in the head in the middle of the street. A few days later, members of Schultz’s gang machine-gunned Peter Cole while he was driving in Harlem. Peter Cole’s death precipitated a full-scale war between Vincent Cole and Schultz, resulting in at least 20 murders.

Needing some quick cash, Cole accepted an assignment from Italian mob boss Salvatore Maranzano to kill Lucky Luciano and Vito Genovese, at Maranzano’s downtown office. Maranzano paid Cole $25,000 up front, with another $25,000 upon completion of his assignment. Cole was in the lobby of Maranzano’s office building, a machine gun hidden under his coat, waiting for the elevator, when three men ran from the stairs and crashed into him. Knowing who he was, the men told Cole that they had just killed Maranzano and for Cole to beat him before the police arrived. Cole smiled and turned and walked out of the building, whistling happily, knowing he had just pocketed twenty-five grand for doing absolutely nothing.

To further inflate his bank account, Cole began kidnapping the gang leaders’ top aides, such as Owney “The Killer” Madden, an Irishman. Madden paid Cole $35,000 for the return of his partner Big Frenchy DeMange, who co-owned with Madden at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Cole then kidnapped the Madden leader at the Stork Club, the highly popular Sherman Billingsley. Once again Madden paid the ransom and Billingsley soon returned to the Stork Club, happily in good health.

Next on Cole’s hit list was Joey Rao, Schultz’s number one man in Harlem. Rao and a group of his boys were standing outside his Helmar Social Club on East 107th Street, handing out pennies to neighborhood kids, when Cole and his gang rounded the corner in a touring car. Cole unleashed several shots from a machine gun, missing Rao and his men completely, but instead hit five children. Five-year-old Michael Vengali was shot multiple times in the stomach and died before he was rushed to hospital.

New York City newspapers ran terrifying headlines about the “baby killer” and called Cole: Vincent “Mad Dog” Cole. And like any “mad dog,” the public and underworld demanded that Cole be put down. New York City Mayor James Walker offered a $10,000 reward for anyone who provides information leading to Cole’s arrest. Madden and Schultz upped the ante, each offering $25,000 to anyone who could take down the “mad dog” with bullets.

Cole hid out in various parts of the Northeast, before eventually returning to New York City with Lottie. They were holed up at the Cornish Arms Hotel on West 23rd Street when police, following a tip, broke in and arrested Cole. His trial was expected to be a doddle for the prosecution, but the brilliant legal tactics of Cole’s attorney, Samuel Liebowitz, got Cole off the hook.

After the trial, Cole met with the press in front of the criminal courts building. He told reporters: “I’ve been charged with all kinds of crimes, but killing a baby was the limit. I would like nothing more than to get my hands on the man who did this.”

Cole was back on the streets, but he was still a man marked by the mob. He married Lottie at City Hall, but they were constantly on the run, moving quickly from place to place. On February 1, 1932, four men broke into a house in the North Bronx, shooting. They shot a table full of people playing cards. Two Cole gang members were killed (Fiorio Basile and Patsy Del Greco) and another was injured. Mrs. Emily Torrizello, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, was also killed, and another woman was injured. Two babies in their cribs were left untouched. Cole showed up at the house half an hour later, just as the police arrived.

Cole was on the run again. He broke up with Lottie at the Cornish Arms Hotel. Cole decided now was a good time to start kidnapping again, but this time with an unexpected twist. He called Madden and told him that he wanted $100,000 not to kidnap Madden. “Imagine how the Dagos and the Kikes will feel when they have to shell out a hundred grand to save your sorry ass,” he told Madden. “Pay me now, in advance, and I’ll save you the trouble.”

Madden said he needed some time to think about it. On March 8, 1932, Madden called Cole and told him to call him from the pharmacy phone booth across the street from his hotel. At 12:30, Cole walked into the New London Pharmacy on West 23rd Street and headed for the phone booth in the back. While he was talking to Madden on the phone, a man with a machine gun hidden under his coat calmly walked to the back of the pharmacy and opened fire. Cole’s body was riddled with 15 bullets. Hearing the concussion, Lottie arrived a few minutes later to see the ragged corpse of her husband.

Lottie Cole refused to speak to police, but yelled to someone nearby that her life savings, at the time, were a measly hundred-dollar bill that she had stuffed into her bra. This proved that Vincent “Mad Dog” Cole, despite the terrible bite from him, had died broke.