[2] Duffy became involved in petty theft and other misdemeanors during his youth before more serious crimes during his teenage years, including armed robbery and hijacking prior to entering bootlegging during Prohibition.

[2] In May 1919, Duffy was arrested for assault and battery with intent to kill serving two years and eleven months at the Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia.

[1] Duffy earned such great profits from both beer and numbers businesses that by 1930 he had built a mansion for himself and his wife Edith in Penn Wynne, Pennsylvania.

Built by McWilliams & Maloney in the style of a Mediterranean villa, the structure had white with green satyrs on the sides and black palm trees painted on the facade.

[2] Initially, Mafia member and future boxing promoter Frankie Carbo of the Lucchese crime family was charged with Duffy's murder, but was not prosecuted after furnishing an alibi, due to a lack of evidence.

[4][5] Within several months, two individuals alleged to have been involved, Samuel E. Grossman and Albert Skale, were gunned down at a club on Watts Street and Girard Avenue in December 1931 beginning a wave of violence among various factions among the Philadelphia underworld.