Gangster, Author & Screenwriter. An Irish gangster, bootlegger and speakeasy owner during Prohibition, he had close ties with mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky and the two were partnered in various criminal enterprises as young men. On one occasion in the early 1920's they were hired by a New York labor union organizer to strong arm the Polish leader of a group of strikebreaking "scabs" at a Peekskill factory. After tailing him to his home Ahearn rang the man's doorbell and pretended to have a telegram to get him to open his door, at which point Lansky burst in and beat him unconscious with a lead pipe. This sent the desired message to the other strikebreakers, and earned the young hoods a reputation that led to similar jobs over the course of the next year. Another famous misadventure involved Lansky's 1928 attempt to murder fellow gangster John Barrett, whom he felt planned to double cross him in a racket they ran together. After driving the unsuspecting Barrett out of New York City, Lansky, Bugsy Siegel and several associates pushed him from the car and shot at him while the terrified man fled into to the darkness. Although shot several times Barrett managed to escape and ended up back in the city at a hospital. Lansky, surprised to learn of his survival, enlisted the help of his old friend Ahearn (then recently paroled after a stint in prison for bootlegging) to finish off Barrett. The two purchased a chicken, "juiced it up" with strychnine, and Ahearn then gave it to Barrett's wife to give to him in the hospital. When presented with a chicken given by Danny Ahearn, the rival gangster got wise and threw the bird from his hospital window! Ahearn was in and out of prison all throughout the 1920s, and by the end of the decade he had reinvented himself as an author, penning short stories for pulp magazines and writing best sellers like 1930's How To Commit A Murder (part autobiography and part "how to" guide for the aspiring criminal, which may be the first crime memoir penned by an American gangster) and 1936's Charity Girl. With the success of How To Commit A Murder Ahearn went to Hollywood, where he wrote or co-wrote numerous screenplays based on his stories, including Picture Snatcher (starring James Cagney), Bulldog Edition, Escape From Crime, Wild Boys Of The Road, etc. Ahearn surfaced again in the early 1950s when INS Agent Benjamin Edelstein, while trying to build a case for deporting Lansky as an alien undesirable, tracked him down to the Great Meadows Prison in Comstock, New York. He was then serving out a fifteen to thirty year sentence for racketeering and was more than happy to testify against his former friend. However Ahearn proved to be a less than stellar witness, easily led on the stand and openly admitting in court that he was testifying in the hopes his sentence would be reduced, so Lansky was able to avoid deportation. Overall a fascinating individual, and one whose unsigned books often sell for hundreds of dollars! ALS, 8½ x11, 53 lines over both sides of Prisoner Stationery from Great Meadows Prison, New York to Hollywood columnist Jimmy Starr: "Mr. Jimmy Starr - C/o Los Angeles Examiner Los Angeles - California - Sat Eve - May 4th 193_ - Dear Jimmy: - Just a few lines to let you know I am feeling fine and dandy - hoping this letter finds you likewise - Excuse me Jimmy for not writing sooner - really I was in a turmoil - with both work and the time on my hands - If I must say I have done my-self a lot of good. Creating ideas better than any series created before - Keep in touch with the Outside world as much as possible - via radio - newspaper's. The State May of taken everything I had when I entered here - but one thing I'll assure you they wont take, that's more knowledge of life --- do a lot of good book reading - studying up on important subject's - writing Scenario's during my spare time - Ask Arther Landan how He like's them - Jimmy there sure is a swell fellow - who has written many a Cheering letter - someday I will sit on both your lap's relating stories that will have you both biting your cuticles --- you aught to come up 'n see me sometime - how do you like the Mae Westonian in me this eve - guess it's the daresshness that make's me quote Miss West - Shhh I'm Creating a vocabulary all of my own ---. - If you can recall - I at one time suggested a good idea to you when I was your guest for lunch at the Brown derby - it was for both you and Walter Winchell to broadcast from the East - while you exchanging Chatter from the Coast. I¿ve listened to both Jimmy Fiddler and Miss Louella Parson¿s many a time - after they finished I would say to my-self - "Gee why doesn't Jimmy who has more Contact's than both - get on one of those National hook-ups" - I sincerely wish you connect broad casting real soon --- Have you heard about the expectant Father who, after hour's spent in pacing the maternal ward corridor, exclaimed; "Thank God," it"s a girl. I'd never want a son of mine to go through what I have to-day - Son-rise is at 6, A.M. --- Jimmy I'm telling you fellow's like Jimmy Tully (famed novelist, writer and screenwriter) and a lot of other's better get on there bicycle's - or Shit out there-dice, my heart's loaded (as I've said before) with, idea's - not forgetting I hold a lot of respect for Him - to me He is a Natural, can you imagine if We both ever Colloborated once a year to-gether whew it would be a honey --- Extend My best to Jim if you see Him - also to Arthur Landan - Maxey Rosenbloom - Frank Badsman, His faithful manager - Jerry Wald - Rian Jame's, and Baldwin - I thank you - Closing wishing you the best of good-luck in anything you ever undertake to do - that's not written nor meant in any Hollywood or B'way fashion - you know Me always from My heart - So long - Be Happy - As ever Danny Ahearn 12908 P.S. excuse writing in pencil"

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