1. The Legend of “Mike the Durable”
Tony Marino and his coconspirators replaced the antifreeze in Michael Malloy’s booze with turpentine. Malloy was unfazed. They switched to horse liniment – basically, liquid Bengay. Malloy gulped it down and asked for more. They added rat poison to the mix. Malloy’s constitution did not notice. Oysters soaked in wood alcohol did not do the trick, nor did a spoiled sardines sandwich sprinkled with metal shavings. Finally, convinced that nothing he drank or ate would kill him, Marino and his coconspirators decided to freeze Malloy to death. One cold winter night, when the temperature dipped to minus 14 Fahrenheit, they waited for Malloy to pass out. When he did, they carried him to a park, dumped him in the snow, and poured five gallons of water on his chest to make sure he froze solid. Malloy showed up the next day for his booze on credit.
So Marino and his confederates ran him over with a taxi owned by one of the plotters. All that did was put Malloy in a hospital for three weeks with some broken bones. He reappeared at the speakeasy soon as he was discharged. So on February 22nd, 1933, they stuck a gas hose in Malloy’s mouth after he passed out and turned on the jets. That finally did the trick. The plotters collected on the insurance, but rumors of “Mike the Durable” began making the rounds. When the insurers heard the tales, they contacted the police. Malloy’s body was exhumed and reexamined, and the truth came out. Michael Malloy’s slimy “friends” were tried and convicted in 1934. One got a prison sentence, while the rest, including Tony Marino, got the electric chair.
_________________
Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
All That is Interesting – Better Know a Pope: Benedict IX
Binyon, Timothy John – Pushkin: A Biography (2007)
Brett-James, Anthony – Europe Against Napoleon: The Leipzig Campaign of 1813 (1970)
Chandler, David G. – The Campaigns of Napoleon (1966)
Dahl, Hans Frederik – Quisling: A Study in Treachery (1999)
Doyle, David W. – Inside Espionage: A Memoir of True Men and Traitors (2000)
Encyclopedia Britannica – Montezuma II
Encyclopedia Britannica – Julius III
Encyclopedia Britannica – Pierre Laval
Gizmodo – The Legend of Mike ‘The Durable’ Malloy, History’s Most Stubborn Murder Victim
Gregorovius, Ferdinand – History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages (2015)
Hayes, Paul M. – Quisling: The Career and Political Ideas of Vidkun Quisling (1971)
Hemming, John – The Conquest of the Incas (1970)
History Collection – Scandals the US Founding Fathers Tried to Keep Secret
Levy, Buddy – Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs (2008)
Maas, Peter – Killer Spy: The Inside Story of the FBI’s Pursuit and Capture of Aldrich Ames (1995)
Marrus, Michael R., and Paxton, Robert O. – Vichy France and the Jews (1981)
O’Malley, John W. – A History of the Popes From Peter to the Present (2009)
Orkneyjar – Earl Sigurd the Mighty, the First Earl of Orkney
Prescott, William H. – The History of the Conquest of Peru (1874)
Royle, Trevor – Culloden: Scotland’s Last Battle and the Forging of the British Empire (2016)
Russia Beyond – Dying for Pride: 5 Facts About Pushkin’s Tragic Duel
Smithsonian Magazine, February 7th, 2012 – The Man Who Wouldn’t Die
Suetonius – The Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Life of Tiberius
Tacitus – The Annals, Books 1 – 6