A bootlegger and close associate of gambler Arnold Rothstein, Diamond survived a number of attempts on his life between 1916 and 1931, causing him to be known as the "clay pigeon of the underworld".

Jack Diamond was born July 10, 1897, to Sara and John Moran, who emigrated from Ireland to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1891.

Jack and Eddie both struggled through grade school, and Sara suffered from severe arthritis and other health problems.

However, he did obtain liquor, which was dumped overboard in partially full barrels that floated to Long Island as ships entered New York Harbor.

The club's bartender, three waiters and the hat check girl "vanished" (one of them was found shot dead in New Jersey).

[3] In 1930, Diamond and two henchmen kidnapped truck driver Grover Parks in Cairo, New York, demanding to know where he had obtained his load of hard cider.

On August 23, 1930, Diamond, under the false name John Nolan, boarded the ocean liner Belgenland, bound for Europe.

The NYPD then sent a wireless telegraph message to the crew of Belgenland, who replied that a man similar to Diamond's description was among the passengers.

[6] Diamond spent much of the voyage in the ship's smoking room playing poker; one report claimed that he won thousands of dollars in this game.

[6] When Belgenland reached Plymouth on August 31, Scotland Yard officers told Diamond he would not be allowed to land in England.

[8][9] On September 6, the German government decided to deport Diamond; he was driven to Hamburg and put on the cargo ship Hannover for passage to Philadelphia.

[11] On October 24, 1924, Diamond was shot and wounded by shotgun pellets, reportedly after trying to hijack liquor trucks belonging to a rival crime syndicate.

As Orgen and Diamond were walking down a street on Manhattan's Lower East Side, three young men approached them and started shooting.

[14] The assailants were supposedly hired by Louis Buchalter and Gurrah Shapiro, who were seeking to encroach on Orgen's garment-district labor rackets.

A local resident drove Diamond to a hospital in Albany,[18] where he was reputed to have told the attending surgeon, "they have not yet made the bullet that will kill me."

On May 1, while Diamond was still in the hospital, the New York State Police seized over $5,000 worth of illegal beer and alcohol from his hiding places in Cairo and at the Aratoga Inn.

At 1 a.m., Diamond and mistress, Marion "Kiki" Roberts, entertained themselves at the Rain-Bo Room of the Kenmore Hotel on North Pearl Street.

Likely candidates include Abraham Weinberg, Schultz, the Oley Brothers, the Albany Police Department, and relatives of Red Cassidy, another Irish American gangster at the time.

[23] The following are Dan O'Connell's own words recorded during a 1974 interview by Kennedy, which appear on pages 203 and 204: In order for the Mafia to move in they had to have protection, and they know they'll never get it in this town.

Fitzpatrick told him he'd kill him if he didn't keep going.Given the power that the O'Connell machine held in Albany and its determination to prevent organized crime, other than their own, from threatening their monopoly of vice in the city, some accept this account of the story.