Coll got his nickname from NYC mayor, Jimmy Walker, after a shootout on July 28th, 1931, during which Coll attempted to kidnap a member of Dutch Schultz’s gang, Joey Rao. He did not sneak up behind Rao and blackjack him, or join with a couple thugs in dragging him into a car. Coll drove past Rao and opened fire on him with a tommy gun while he was standing in a crowd on the sidewalk. This crowd included children, one of whom, five year-old Michael Vengalli, was killed by four .45 bullets through his liver and lungs, which completely obliterated his abdomen and blasted his intestines into three children’s faces. Seven other children were seriously wounded.Coll actually pleaded not guilty to this crime, after none of the 40 or so eyewitnesses could work up the nerve to testify. The prosecution found one man who testified against him, but his testimony was destroyed by the defense when it was discovered that the “witness” was actually a professional witness for hire. Coll went free and smiled as he left the courthouse.This infuriated almost every Mafia family in New York. Dutch Schultz actually walked into a Bronx police station and offered a mansion in Westchester, NY, to the policeman who killed Coll. Coll was effectively on his own at this point, with flimsy ties, as a hit man to Salvatore Maranzano, until Charles “Lucky” Luciano had Maranzano killed.On February 1st, 1932, four men, probably sent by Schultz, broke into Coll’s apartment and killed two of his men and one bystander. Coll arrived 30 minutes late. One week later, on February 8th, Coll was on time to his own death. While placing a phone call at 12:30 in the morning, in a glass phone booth inside London Chemists pharmacy at 23rd and 8th Ave. Coll was busy extorting money from another gangster at the time, when a man with a tommy gun walked in and sprayed the phone booth for four seconds.This killer and his two accomplices were chased down the street by a passing policeman, but escaped. 15 bullets were excised from Coll’s corpse. The police never opened an investigation into his murder.