Even after spending 12 years researching and writing a book about the Migden families from Tarnopol, Poland, I never found Jacob (a/k/a Jack “Cuppy”) Migden. This happened only after attending a presentation by Jewish genealogist Ron Arons, author of The Jews of Sing Sing: Gotham Gangsters and Gonuvim. Scanning the book’s index, I noticed a Jacob Migden mentioned on page 201. I knew of two Jacob Migdens in my family, but not the one who had ended up in the New York prison, Sing Sing—at least no one in my family had ever mentioned him. Curious, I decided to try to learn more. What follows is a step-by-step description of how I traced the life of a New York City gangster and attempted to learn of his possible relationship to me.

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Arons explained that much of his research was done at the Lloyd Sealy Library of the John Jay College in New York City. Mindful of Arons’s example, I decided to begin at the Sealy Library and next to search an old newspaper website: Jacob might have made headlines. The Sealy Library website <www.newspaperarchive.com/Genealogists. aspx> produced police mug shots of Jack Migden, alias “Cuppy,” dated January 10, 1931; on the reverse side of the mug shots was his New York City police booking number, B68739; identifying characteristics and personal information, including residence, crime, age, weight, height, hair, eyes, occupation, date of arrest, and remarks—a wealth of information.

Newspaper Archives

Since Arons’ book indicated that Jacob had been incarcerated at Sing Sing in the early 1940s, I reasoned that maybe Cuppy might appear in newspaper articles on the website <www.newspaperarchive.com>. There were more than 30 newspaper articles dating from the 1930s about Jacob, in such papers as The New York Times, Syracuse Herald Journal, Fitchburg Sentinel, and Amarillo Daily News. Headlines read: “J. Migden Believed Member of Murder, Inc.,” “Migden Arraigned in Bronx Court as Irving Penn Slayer,” “Gangster Nabbed After Face Lifting,” “Feds Cop `Cuppy’,” “Murder Suspect, Beautified by Surgeons to Escape Detection, Held in Penn Case,” “Death Suspect Under Arrest.” The articles went on and on. I had never encountered anything like this in any previous genealogical research. Using Google with the keywords “J. Migden,” “Cuppy,” “Kuppy,” as well as “Jack Migden,” many more articles were discovered.

One 1943 article included a mug shot of Cuppy when he was arrested by the New York City police in 1931, and I compared it to a photograph taken by the FBI on August 22, 1941, after plastic surgery. The headline read: “Migden Changed Faces to Escape Police….But It Didn’t Change His Luck.” Murder, Incorporated and the Brownsville Boys were the names given by the press for an organized crime group made up of Jewish and Italian-American gangsters operating out of Brooklyn, New York, during the 1930s. The group committed hundreds of murders on behalf of the Mob. In 1939, Jacob Migden was a 29-year-old hireling of Louis (Lepke) Buchalter, the head of Murder, Inc.

U.S. Census and World War II Draft Card

I had found someone with the same last name as mine—but was this gangster any relation to the Migden families from Tarnopol? Was he a distant cousin? I needed more evidence and turned to Ancestry.com for clues. I found Jacob and his family in the 1910 and 1920 U.S. census and learned that both Jacob’s father, Max, and his mother, Yetta, were from Tarnopol, the same shtetl as my grandparents, Esra and Clara. Max and Yetta emigrated to the United States in 1906, as did Rebecca Migden, (a/k/a Rifke), who was 55 at the time (born circa 1844) and also from Tarnopol. Rebecca was listed as Yetta’s mother. Ten family members all lived at 156 Goerch St., apartment 177.

Another piece of the puzzle found on Ancestry.com was a 1942 World War II draft registration card of Max Migden, stating name, address and—in his handwriting—his place and date of birth: Tarnopol, Austria, March 26, 1886. My parents, aunts, and uncles always said that we probably were related to any Migden from Tarnopol. The Tarnopol connection meant that Jacob likely was a distant cousin, and I wanted to see if I could determine the exact relationship.

New York City Vital Records

After finding the New York City death certificate number for Jacob’s father, Max, and grandmother, Rifke, at my local LDS (Mormon) Family History Center, I wrote to the New York City Department of Health,Vital Records Section <www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/vitalrecords/home. shtml> for Max’s death certificate. The death certificate identified Jacob’s father as Max and his mother as Sarah (nee Levine). Max died on July 6, 1942, and is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery, Queens, New York. Max’s father also was named Jacob, suggesting that Cuppy was named after this grandfather. The death certificate of Rifke Migden, Jacob’s maternal grandmother (Yetta’s mother), revealed that her father was Hyman Wohl and her mother was Mariem Nussbaum—but she was married to a Migden. Thus, both of Jacob’s grandparents were Migdens—prob­ably cousins.

Cemeteries

Next, I searched for any and all Migdens buried in Jewish cemeteries in New York City. Since Jacob’s family came from Tarnopol, I thought of searching the websites of such cemeteries as Mount Zion Cemetery, Mount Hebron, and Mount Carmel Cemetery, probably the largest and best-known Jewish cemeteries in New York. I first looked at the Mount Zion Cemetery website, since this is where my grandparents, Ezra and Clara Migden, and an uncle are buried. I remembered that Mount Zion has two sections devoted to the Tarnopol Burial Societies: the Tarnopoler #1 section and the Tarnopoler #3 section <www.mountzion cemetery.com>. A Jack Migden appeared in the “new section” (Mount Zion’s designation), grave XV-27-1, died September 30, 1997, at age 87. A quick calculation of year of death, minus age, yielded 1910, about the date of birth of the gangster Jacob Migden.

I telephoned Mount Zion Cemetery and asked for card file information for Jack Migden. “Debbie,” the person with whom I spoke, told me his last address, age at death, and last person maintaining the gravesite. I compared the data already collected and determined this was the Jacob (Jack) Migden I was researching. I also noticed that the numbered grave (XV-27-2) next to Jack’s was for a Florence Migden, age 71, died on April 8, 1997. The office staff could not verify a relationship, but I later learned that Florence was Jacob’s youngest sister. More questions, such as “Are other Migdens buried near him?” led me to find Jack’s grandmother, Rebecca Migden, an aunt, and other relatives buried in the Tarnopoler #1 and #3 sections.

Having confirmed that Jacob’s ancestors were from Tarnopol, I returned to the newspaper articles and court cases found on <newspapersachives.com>—where I found a genealogist’s goldmine of information.

Old Newspaper Articles on Microfilm

To avoid spending considerable money purchasing New York Times articles online, I went to the main branch of my public library, which holds New York Times microfilms from the 1850s to the 1980s. I viewed all the old articles found using Google with keywords such as “Jack Midgen,” “Jack ‘Cuppy’ Migden,” “Jack ‘Kuppy’ Migden,” “J. Migden” and “Kuppy Migden,” and was able to get good copies of the text and photographs—for only 10 cents per article. One August 1941 article reported that “When ‘Cuppy’ was arrested by Federal narcotics agents outside the Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, the agents said Migden was found undergoing extensive treatments to have his nose altered, his eyes re-shaped, and his features changed generally.” Another article noted that when Cuppy was brought to the Bronx Court House, District Attorney Samuel J. Foley remarked:

Gazing on the refurbished physiognomy, the Federal agents probably never would have recognized him. The deft surgeons had taken a bone from his nose and set that structure at a new and more harmonious angle. They had reshaped his eyes and taken in tucks and let out seams in other parts of his face. The surgeons had acted innocently on Migden’s explanation that he was a salesman and wanted a new face for business reasons.

Bronx County Court Records

The articles about Cuppy from 1931 to 1943 indicated that the 1941 and 1943 criminal trials were held at the Bronx County Court House. It was important to know the exact county of the court, and the exact dates of the trials, otherwise records of the legal proceedings would have been extremely difficult to find. I telephoned the Bronx courthouse and spoke to Mark Neusenbaum, archivist of the Archives and Records Section, room 118. I gave him the name of the defendant, trial dates, and other pertinent information, and Neusenbaum said that he would search the archives and call me back to report what he had found. Two days later Neusenbaum called to say that he had found case file #12 of 1941—184 pages of case files. Although there was no search charge, photocopies cost 25 cents each. He also explained that the only type of payment accepted at present is a U.S. postal money order. I asked if he could trim the amount to the most pertinent cases, and he responded, “I will select the juiciest and best ones.” A day later Neusenbaum reported that he had found 20 interesting pages for a total charge of $5.00. Five days later, the 20 pages arrived, replete with an incredible amount of data to pursue.

New York State Archives,
Albany, NY/State Prison (Sing Sing)

Sing Sing inmate records for much of the 20th century were lost in a 1984 fire. Bronx archivist Neusenbaum suggested that I telephone (518) 474-8955 or write to the New York State Archives, Cultural Education Center, 11th Floor, Albany, New York 12230, and ask for a “receiving blotter” on Jack Migden. State archivist Bill Gorman answered my telephone call and explained that the only possible records available for a Sing Sing inmate are a receiving blotter and 3” x 5” inmate summary index cards. These also may be retrieved by sending an e-mail request to <bgorman@mail.nysed.gov>. Gorman explained that it is helpful to provide the month and year of the start of the prison term. I knew the exact date—March 6, 1943—when Cuppy “Pleaded Guilty to Assault Attempt” and was sentenced to 5 to 10 years at Sing Sing. I requested the receiving blotter and soon received a copy of it along with copies of three inmate summary index cards. The receiving blotter provided: prison number (102052), prison term, date arrived, received from, judge, crime, term out by July 30, 1951, age, born where, occupation, read, write, smoke, single or married, height, weight, education, religion, residence when arrived, emergency contact, nearest close relations, address and more. The inmate summary index cards offered a surprise: the names of Jack’s siblings, including their married names, ages (in 1943), his time in Elmira Reformatory and parole date from Sing Sing, and the actual release date of July 25, 1951. The receiving blotter and three 3” x 5” index cards are the only existing records of Cuppy’s time at Sing Sing.

New York County Court Records

The 20 case-file pages from the Bronx County Court House also revealed that on August 31, 1927, Cuppy was convicted in the General Sessions court of the County of New York of “assault in the second degree” and sent to Elmira Reformatory. This meant that, at age 17, Jacob had been sent to a juvenile reformatory. This document provided information to search further into the New York City Municipal Archives, since I now had an exact date and sentence. I wrote to Ms. Leonora Gidlund, director of the Municipal Archives, <lgidlund@records.nyc.gov>, asking for any case files on Jacob Migden. The archives has a $15.00 research fee and charges 25 cents for each photocopy. Ms. Gidlund responded by e-mail a week later:

Dear Carl, I have found the DA Case file from 8/3/1927 (8 pages) and the Court of General Sessions from 8/11/1927 (12 pages). We do not have a case file for 1931; perhaps there was no trial.

She also stated the Archives would not have information from the Elmira Reformatory. The research fee is $15.00 plus $5.00 for 20 photocopies plus a $4.00 mailing fee totaling: $24.00.

Ten days after sending a personal check, I received 20 pages of records. Included were the district attorney case files and court papers of the General Sessions of the County of New York for August 31, 1927. Jacob was convicted of assault in the second degree and imprisoned in the Elmira Reformatory, “there to be dealt with according to law.”

U.S. Treasury Department, Bureau of Narcotics Book

I Googled “Cuppy Migden” and found a U.S. Treasury Department Bureau of Narcotics book entitled Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs for the Year Ended December 31, 1941. On page 17 of the government report, the author wrote:

Incident to their investigation of Emanuel Weiss, narcotic officers were able to capture at St. Louis, MO, in July 1941, and to turn over to NYC authorities another fugitive in the so-called ‘Murder, Inc.’ cases, one Jacob Migden.

Conclusion

After months of a most fascinating genealogical research adventure, having discovered hundreds of documents and newspaper articles, I still cannot directly tie in Jacob, alias Jack “Cuppy” Migden to my family. The only connection is that we have the same last name and our families come from Tarnopol..

Notes

Boyd Sealy Library, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 445 West 59th Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 237-8832; <www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/crimeinny> Special Collec­tions Librarian, Ellen Belcher <ebelcher@jjay.cuny. edu>

Arons, Ron. The Jews of Sing Sing (Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books,) 2009.