MURDER, INCORPORATED
Membership: Louis Buchalter, Brant Lee, Vic Logan, Louie, Duke Maffetore
Purpose: Performing assassinations for money
Affiliations: Unidentified clients
Enemies: Human Torch (Jim Hammond), Miss America (Madeline Joyce), Big John Osnato, Daffy Smith, Toro (Thomas Raymond)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Manhattan, New York, USA
First Appearance: Marvel Mystery Comics I#60 (December, 1944)
History:
(All-True Crime Cases Comics I#27/4) - When the New York police
assigned detective "Big John" Osnato to handle Murder, Inc. in 1940, he
targeted Duke Maffetore, who was already in police custody and known to
be connected to the operation. Osnato plied Duke by suggesting his
allies had left him to rot in prison while they enjoyed the "gravy" of
the proceeds. Finally, he started to get tough with Duke, suggesting he
would deprive him of the luxuries he'd been permitted in his cell. Duke
finally revealed he'd been the driver for a number of killings
performed by Murder, Inc. assassins and gave up the names of the
leaders of Murder, Inc. Duke's confession enabled the arrest,
conviction and execution of Louis Buchalter and a half-dozen other
killers, bringing an end to Murder, Inc.
(Young Men I#24 (fb)) - The Human Torch and Toro received credit for helping to break up Murder, Inc.
(Marvel Mystery Comics I#60/3) - Murder, Inc. was revived as an organization under the leadership of Brant Lee, who founded a community mission where he placed life insurance policies on poor men then arranged their murders so he could collect on them. When Miss America saw one of Murder, Inc.'s men shove Daffy Smith in front of a car, she confronted the man, who shoved Daffy and learned where the organization was based. Miss America burst into the mission as Brant Lee and his subordinate Louie were preparing to inflict pneumonia on a man. Louis knocked out Miss America then chained her up and threw her into a river but she broke the chains, swam to safety then returned to the mission and roughed up the leaders of Murder, Inc., delivering them directly to the police.
(All-True Crime I#49) - Vic Logan, who had been a gunman in Murder, Inc., avoided prosecution for his crimes and by 1948 was working for a numbers racket when he was killed by Dud Wickory, another gangster, in retaliation for one of his killings.
Comments: Based on the real-life criminal gang. Adapted into Marvel Comics by Otto Binder and an unidentified artist.
Murder, Inc. was infamous in its day; if you've sampled much of 1940s fiction, be it literature, cartoons or movies, you've probably encountered someone comparing a criminal organization to Murder, Inc. Probably the best-remembered member of the real-life Murder, Inc. was Bugsy Siegel; by far the most famous person they assassinated was Dutch Schultz.
The organization in Marvel Mystery Comics I#60/3 was only referred to as Murder, Inc. in the title of the story, they weren't called that in the story itself.
There seems to be some confusion on the internet about Murder, Incorporated, primarily because of fans who aren't aware that they were a real-life organization. Hence, most dialog references to Murder, Inc. in Marvel comics refer to the organization's historical record. For instance, in Silver Sable and the Wild Pack I#1, Sable refused an assassination assignment, declaring "I'm not running Murder Inc. for anyone." Similarly in Silver Sable and the Wild Pack I#30, she objected "Silver Sable International is not Murder Inc." Some fans who read those lines of dialog somehow concluded Sable was referencing a contemporary criminal organization rather than a historical one.
There are many other lines of dialog referencing Murder, Inc. Rocky Jorden made a quip about them in Private Eye I#1/3 ("What do I have to do for the fifty bucks? Something simple like rounding up Murder, Incorporated?"); a murder-for-hire organization in Justice I#27/4 was compared to Murder, Inc. by the narrator; the Red Skull approvingly said in his latest plot, he'd be "bigger than Murder, Inc." in Young Men I#24/2; Ben Urich mentioned them as he recounted the history of crime in New York in Daredevil II#56; the Hood compared his super-villain army to Murder, Inc. in New Avengers I#35 when he explained how the team would function; Ezekiel Stane's killer mercenaries were also likened to Murder, Inc. in Invincible Iron Man I#2; and there are possibly a hundred other references.
Profile by Prime Eternal.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Murder, Incorporated should not be confused with:
Brant Lee was the leader of the revived Murder, Inc. and ran his organization by using a mission community center as a front, locating poor men and giving them life insurance policies then arranging their deaths so they would appear to be accidents. Miss America brought down Brant Lee's Murder, Inc.
--Marvel Mystery Comics I#60/3
Louie was Brant Lee's chief lieutenant in his version of Murder, Inc. He fought Miss America to defend his employer. Although at first he succeeded in clubbing her from behind then chaining her up and hurling her into the river, when Miss America returned, she easily bested in a fight.
--Marvel Mystery Comics I#60/3
images: (without ads)
Marvel Mystery Comics I#60/3, page 4, panel 4 (Murder, Inc., main)
Marvel Mystery Comics I#60/3, page 2, panel 1 (Lee)
Marvel Mystery Comics I#60/3, page 1, panel 3 (Louie)
Appearances:
Marvel Mystery Comics I#60/3 (December, 1944) - Otto Binder (writer), unidentified artist, Vince Fago (editor)
All-True Crime Cases Comics I#27/4 (April, 1948) - unidentified writer, Gene Colan (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
All-True Crime I#49 (March, 1952) - unidentified writer, Vernon Henkel (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Young Men I#24 (December, 1953) - Hank Chapman (writer), Russ Heath (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
First posted: 11/20/2025
Last updated: 11/20/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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