Who Was 'Mad Dog' Coll? The Killer the Mob Hunted Itself
Mobsters DailyVincent "Mad Dog" Coll was an Irish-American gunman who, at just 23, became so reckless — kidnapping mobsters for ransom and accidentally killing a five-year-old child in a botched hit — that the New York underworld united to destroy him; he was machine-gunned in a Manhattan phone booth in February 1932. Even in the bloodiest decade of American crime, Coll managed to be the man everyone agreed had to go.
The kidnapper of gangsters
Coll started as a Schultz enforcer, then went independent with a genuinely insane business model: snatching rival mobsters and holding them for ransom, banking on the victims never going to the police. It worked — briefly and lucratively. In July 1931, gunmen in a Coll-ordered attempt on a Schultz lieutenant sprayed a Harlem street and killed five-year-old Michael Vengalli. The public outrage and the "Mad Dog" headlines made Coll radioactive; even Dutch Schultz, no humanitarian, put a price on him.
November is here and the holidays are closing in, which makes this the season of the Tony Soprano Ugly Christmas Sweater — the black-and-white Tony stencil on a proper Christmas sweatshirt. Coll's New York was all fedoras and fear; the silhouette survives in friendlier December contexts.
The phone booth
On February 8, 1932, Coll stepped into a phone booth in a West 23rd Street drugstore, reportedly taking a ransom-negotiation call. Gunmen walked in and opened fire with a Thompson. The killing was never officially solved — with Schultz, Owney Madden and half the underworld as plausible sponsors, it hardly needed to be. Coll remains the era's cleanest parable: being feared was survivable — being hated by everyone at once, as gunmen like Hymie Weiss learned, was not.
Frequently asked questions
Why was Vincent Coll called 'Mad Dog'? The press coined the name after the 1931 shooting that killed a child — it captured his reputation for violence without discipline or limits.
Who killed Mad Dog Coll? Unknown gunmen killed him in a phone booth in 1932. Dutch Schultz and Owney Madden are the most commonly named suspects behind the hit.
How old was Mad Dog Coll when he died? He was 23 years old.
Keep reading: How Did Dean O'Bannion Die? · Lucky Luciano: The Man Who Invented the Modern Mafia · Who Was Joseph 'Mad Dog' Sullivan? The Hitman Who Escaped Dannemora
From the shop: Shadows of the Underworld — the real mob history behind the movies, in one book.
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