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If a picture is worth a 1000 words then here’s 10,000 of them. This picture was taken August 1, 1956. The man standing up against the wall with the glasses, is Larry Neumann. He was 28 years old at the time. He was just captured after being on the run for two months after shooting and killing three people on June 8, 1956.

The man that’s pointing at Neumann is Mickey Epstein. Larry Neumann killed his brother. He’s able to identify Neumann as the killer of his brother because he was there when he did it. On May 9, 1956 Larry got into a fight with the Epstein brothers, both Mickey and Max. He thought that they were shortchanging him less than two dollars. A month later Larry went back to the bar with a shotgun shooting at the Epstein brothers fatally killing one brother. He also killed a dice girl name Lois Gates, and a newspaper vendor named John Keller.

I was able to find a news article about the murders and I have transcribed it below. When you read it, you get the idea of how scary and tragic the whole event was. Larry was given 125 years for each life that he took to be served concurrently. At that time he was not to see the parole board for at least 40 years. That would have made him 69 years old. But the laws changed and he was able to be paroled in only 12.

He only served 12 years for killing three innocent people in cold blood. When on the run, he even exchanged gun fire with the police before he was captured. Look at the photograph, he is staring right at Mickey Epstein, almost daring him. He shows no fear and he shows no remorse.

How was Larry Neumann paroled? His father was very wealthy and it’s believed that he had something to do with it. In conversations I’ve had with Frank Cullotta, he mentioned that Larry didn’t have to do any of his time he went straight to the farm. When other prisoners had to earn the trust of the prisoner staff to get jobs, Larry did not.

I don’t know what happened at that hearing or who was there, but when a killer is let loose 12 years after murdering three people in cold blood, something is wrong. Larry served only four years for each person that he killed. That is not justice, it’s a crime. Larry should have not been eligible for parole  for 40 years. Larry Neumann would not have been released until 1999 or the year 2000. He would have been 69 years old.

If the system did not fail Robert Brown the jeweler would not have been hacked to death with a machete by Larry Neumann. Because somebody was on the take this man was killed in a very horrific way. My father Ron Scharff and Patricia Freeman would not have met their deaths on June 2, 1981. Now you know why it’s so important to never let corruption and injustice stand because it kills innocent people at tears families apart.

Here is the transcript of the newspaper article written on August 1st, 1956. It is from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. I have included a link to that article online. I also have a link to the AP Photos of Larry Neumann and Mickey and Maxie’s Miracle Bar. You will see the shotgun blast through the window of the front door were Larry Neumann shot and killed John Keller, the newspaper vendor.

 

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

August 1, 1956

 

MEEK TRIPLE KILLING SUSPECT CAUGHT UNDER CHICAGO PORCH

200 Police Joined Westside Search

CHICAGO, August 1 (UP)

Lawrence Neumann, wanted for the murder of three persons in a jazz spot June 8, was captured “as easy as pie”under a rear porch stairway early today in a “shoot to kill”manhunt by 200 policemen.

Neumann’s capture came several hours after he was spotted by police shortly after 1 AM. He was sought almost 8 weeks in the triple slaying at the Miracle Bar, a North Side “Dixieland” jazz Spot.

Drops Gun

A five man detail found the crouching Neumann after a policeman’s wife, Mrs. Alberta Rogan, 22, said she had heard in noise at the rear of her apartment building. The detail, which had been searching in an alley beside the building, entered the yard and found Neumann under the stairway.

Neumann quickly rose under the glare flashlights, dropped his gun and threw his hands in the air.

Police swarmed into the area west of Cook County (Chicago) Hospital after Neumann was spotted driving an old model car by two policeman assigned to the special detail in the case.

Sgt. Charles Fitzgerald and Patrolman Wilbur Davis, dressed in work clothes, watch from the car as Neumann pulled his auto up to the curb on the Westside. Then they maneuvered their car alongside Neumann’s auto.

“Your Neumann aren’t you?” Asked patrolmen Davis.

Shotgun Blasts

Neumann jumped from the car, holding blankets in front of him, apparently in a feeble effort to stop any bullets that might be fired.

Patrolmen Davis who held a shotgun on his lap, blasted at Neumann as he ducked around his car and scurried down an alley. When Neumann was about 20 feet away, the police fired again.

On June 8, Neumann entered the Miracle Bar, announcing he was “going to kill everyone in the place.”

Max Epstein, 54, whose brother owned the cocktail lounge, drop behind the bar and begged for mercy as Neumann approached, witnesses said the killer stepped up on the bar rail, leaned over the bar and shot Epstein to death with two blasts from a shotgun.

The killer then turned on Lois M. Gates, 28, operator of the lounges dice game, who fell to the floor screaming and was killed with a blast in the neck.

Owner Mickey Epstein dropped from sight in a booth and other patrons sprawled on the floor. The gunman then whirled towards the door just as a news vendor attracted by the shots, John Keller, 49, ran in. Keller was pushed back out the door and gunned down on the sidewalk.

And that was the news article. It’s accompanied by a strange picture of Neumann with a pistol pointed at him, as he just smiles. The caption below the picture states the following.

TRIPLE MURDER SUSPECT– Lawrence Neumann smiles as he is shown a pistol with which police say he killed three persons in a Chicago jazz spot June 8. Holding the weapon is Capt. Patrick Deeley, Detective chief. With him is Patrolmen Canzoneri, who helped make capture.

A couple things that are not clear is the reference to the pistol. Neumann used a shotgun.

Link to the Newspaper Pittsburgh Post Gazette August 1st, 1956

Link to the AP Photo’s of Larry Neumann and Mickey and Maxie’s Miracle Bar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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