Ernest Rupolo

Ernest "the Hawk" Rupolo (1908 – August 24, 1964) was a low-level New York mobster and hitman for the Luciano crime family, now the Genovese crime family. Rupolo would later turn informant and testify against then-capo and future boss Vito Genovese. According to Burton B. Turkus, “the Hawk” was a hitman in one of the Murder Inc., crews. Strangely, after Rupolo secured an early release for cooperating, he operated on the streets of New York with what seemed to be immunity from retaliation. Turkus suggests Rupolo received a pass from the bosses for his cooperation. The exact reasons remain elusive. Three decades later he was brutally murdered.