Michael Malloy earned the nickname “Iron Mike the Durable” for good reason. This homeless Irish immigrant survived what may be the most prolonged murder attempt in criminal history. Between January and February 1933, five men tried desperately to kill him for insurance money. Their methods ranged from poisoning to freezing to vehicular assault. Yet somehow, Malloy kept drinking, kept walking, and kept breathing.
What makes this case truly bizarre isn’t just the victim’s supernatural resilience. It’s the sheer incompetence of his would-be killers and the darkly comic nature of their failures. Each attempt seemed more outrageous than the last, as if reality itself was conspiring to keep this 60-year-old alcoholic alive against all odds.
The Murder Trust’s Michael Malloy Insurance Scheme
Tony Marino owned a speakeasy on Third Avenue in the Bronx. He hatched the plot with four accomplices: Joseph “Red” Murphy, Francis Pasqua, Hershey Green, and Daniel Kriesberg. The press would later dub them “the Murder Trust.” Their target was perfect – a homeless drunk with no family to ask questions.
The conspirators took out multiple life insurance policies on Michael Malloy under the false name Nicholas Mellory. They stood to collect over $3,500 if he died accidentally. That’s roughly $85,000 in today’s money. The plan seemed foolproof. Give an alcoholic unlimited free drinks and wait for nature to take its course.
But Malloy proved far more durable than expected. He drank prodigious amounts daily yet showed no signs of dying. Frustrated, Marino began adding antifreeze to his whiskey. The ethylene glycol should have shut down his kidneys within hours. Instead, Malloy kept drinking and chatting as if nothing had changed. Scientists later explained that the ethanol in regular alcohol actually blocks antifreeze absorption, essentially creating its own antidote.
Escalating Attempts to Kill Michael Malloy
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When antifreeze failed, the Murder Trust grew desperate. They switched to turpentine, then horse liniment, then rat poison. Each toxic cocktail left Malloy unaffected. He’d gulp down the poisoned drinks and ask for more with a smile.
The group then tried wood alcohol mixed with regular liquor. Methanol poisoning should have blinded him before killing him. Again, the regular alcohol likely neutralized the poison’s effects. They served him raw oysters soaked in wood alcohol, inspired by Pasqua’s claim that he’d seen someone die from oysters and whiskey.
Next came a sandwich of spoiled sardines mixed with poison and carpet tacks. Various accounts described how Malloy ate the deadly meal without complaint. The carpet tacks should have shredded his digestive system. The spoiled fish and poison should have finished the job. Instead, he asked for seconds.
The conspirators realized that nothing Malloy ingested was going to kill him quickly enough. Their insurance policies had expiration dates. Time was running out.
Physical Attempts on the Indestructible Michael Malloy
On a brutally cold February night with temperatures reaching -14°F, the group waited for Malloy to pass out drunk. They carried his unconscious body to a park and dumped him in the snow. Then they poured five gallons of ice water over his bare chest.
Exposure should have killed him within an hour. Instead, police found him the next morning, barely alive but breathing. They rushed him to a homeless shelter where volunteers warmed him up and gave him dry clothes. By evening, Malloy was back at the speakeasy, asking for his usual drink.
The Murder Trust’s next plan involved Hershey Green’s taxi. They waited until Malloy was walking along a street, then Green gunned the engine to 45 miles per hour. The taxi slammed into Malloy, launching him through the air. Surely this would finish him.
The impact broke several of Malloy’s bones and put him in the hospital for three weeks. The conspirators celebrated, certain their victim was dead. They couldn’t collect the insurance money yet, but they assumed it was only a matter of time. Then Malloy walked back into the speakeasy, limping but very much alive.
The Final Success of the Murder Trust
By February 22, 1933, the insurance policies were about to expire. The Murder Trust had one last chance. They waited for Malloy to drink himself unconscious, then carried him to Murphy’s room above the speakeasy.
This time, they used coal gas. They forced a rubber hose into Malloy’s mouth and connected it to the gas jet. Carbon monoxide poisoning finally succeeded where everything else had failed. Within an hour, Iron Mike the Durable was dead.
Dr. Frank Manzella, a corrupt physician in their employ, signed a death certificate listing lobar pneumonia as the cause. Malloy was quickly buried in an unmarked grave at Ferncliff Cemetery. The conspirators filed their insurance claims and waited for their payday.
But rumors spread through the speakeasy district about “Mike the Durable” and his impossible survival stories. Dr. Charles Norris, New York’s pioneering chief medical examiner, ordered Malloy’s body exhumed. Forensic tests revealed carbon monoxide in his blood, not pneumonia in his lungs.
The Murder Trust was arrested, tried, and convicted. Four of the five conspirators died in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison. Their victim, meanwhile, became a legend – the man who survived forty murder attempts before finally succumbing to the forty-first.
Michael Malloy’s story remains one of the strangest cases in criminal history, a darkly comic tale of human resilience meeting criminal incompetence in Depression-era New York.
