Alex Birns (February 21, 1905 – March 29, 1975), best known as Shondor Birns, was an American gangster and crime boss who was a leading figure of the Jewish Mob in Cleveland, Ohio, between the 1930s and 1970s. Once labeled by the local newspapers as the city's "Public enemy No. 1", Birns was actively involved in a wide variety of racketeering and other organized crime related activities such as prostitution, theft, and numbers, from the days of Prohibition until his death in a car bombing in 1975, which is often attributed as a hit put onto Danny Greene.[https://www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org/historical/shondor-birns-a-look-into-the-mobsters-life-and-gruesome-death/clevelandpolicemuseum. (18 September 2023)
Early life Birns was born in Lemes, in the Sáros section of the Kingdom of Hungary in Austria-Hungary which later went to Czechoslovakia after the Treaty of Trianon. His birth name is given as either Szandor Birnstein or Sándor Birn, while his birth year is reported between 1905 and 1907. A commonly given birth date is February 21, 1905, but his age given during his 1907 immigration into the United States was stated as ten months, indicating a birthdate in May 1906.
Birns' parents were Hungarian Jews Hermann and lllona "Illon" Birn, who entered the U.S. via Ellis Island on the S.S. Chemnitz with Birns and two siblings on March 18, 1907. His first name was Americanized to Alex, the abbreviated form of Alexander, which is the English equivalent of his original name. By the time Birns was one year old, the family had settled in Cleveland, Ohio, residing in the Woodland Avenue neighborhood. Italian and Jewish neighbors took to calling the boy "Shondor", an approximation of the way most Americans would pronounce "Sándor", and the name stuck, with close family and friends calling him "Shon". Newspapers most commonly referred to him as "Alex 'Shondor' Birns".
Birns attended Outhwaite School (now Alfred A. Bensch Elementary) and later Kennard Junior High School, where he was noted as an exceptional athlete by age thirteen, excelling at baseball, basketball, and swimming. He regularly attended the Council Educational Alliance, a recreational youth center for working class immigrant children. Birns was reportedly known for his toughness and competitive nature since childhood. A former schoolmate recalled an incident in which Birns had missed a marble-shooting game, where the winner was awarded a medal. When Birns returned to school the day after, he went to the boy who had won the tournament and snatched away his medal, telling the boy and those present, "See? I would have won it anyway if I was here".
Like many families, the Birns family struggled to earn a living in the New World, and during Prohibition, they turned to bootlegging, taking in a small still from Cleveland Mafia boss Joe Lonardo to supplement their income and better provide for their children. On November 9, 1920, Birns' mother was tending to the 10-gallon still in their apartment, when a faulty gas connection caused an explosion. Her clothing caught fire and was engulfed in flames. She ran outside screaming, where a passing motorist helped extinguish the flames and drove her to the hospital. Horribly burned over 75 percent of her body, she died the next morning. As Birns' father was arrested for bootlegging in wake of his wife's death, 13-year-old Birns was sheltered for a time in the old Jewish orphanage. He grew up quickly, and took a job as a newspaper boy during the tough circulation wars. Later on, he lived with his grandmother.
After briefly attending East Technical High School, Birns dropped out of school after completing 10th grade at Longwood Commerce High School in 1922. He enlisted in the United States Navy in 1923, but was discharged six months later because he was underage. According to his stepmother, he spent some time homeless, occasionally selling newspapers while supporting himself and some family members through bootlegging and theft.
Criminal career On the streets, Birns developed a reputation as a fierce fighter, proving himself quick with his fists in many fights with street thugs. It was at roughly this time that he added the "s" to his surname to "spare his family embarrassment through association with his criminal repute".
Then his major brushes with the law began. Birns was prolific in his criminal activities, having several stacks of arrest records that are currently located in the Cuyahoga County Archives. Birns was convicted of car theft on November 14, 1925, for which he served 18 months in the Mansfield Reformatory. He soon acquired an assault conviction in which Birns broke the jaw of a motorist who had taken too long to make his turn in front of Birns. With 18 arrests in a 12-year period, Birns was on his way to notoriety in northeast Ohio. During this period, he gloried in his fame and enjoyed the attention which he received from local law enforcement as well as fellow gangsters. He soon developed a knack for beating legal charges.
During this period, he was successfully prosecuted only twice. At the age of 19, Birns was convicted of auto theft and served two years in prison. In 1933, he was convicted of bribery, served 60 days and paid a $500 fine. After six appearances in court, a prosecutor remarked, "It is time the court put away this man whose reputation is one of rampant criminality." Birns was only in his twenties.
Association with the Maxie Diamond gang Birns was soon recruited by Maxie Diamond, leader of the E. 55th street and Woodland Mob. Diamond was an associate of Teamster leader William Presser and was once referred to by the local newspapers as "Cleveland's Number One Racketeer". Birns became a ranking member of Diamond's gang during the battles for control of the city's dry cleaners and launderers.
In 1933, shortly after he hooked up with the Maxie Diamond gang, Diamond narrowly escaped death from gunfire by rival gangsters in what was called by the police, "a continuation of the city's dry cleaning racket war". Birns was among those picked up for questioning. He was released, but only after paying $2 for two overdue traffic tickets.
Later in the year, Birns was once again arrested by the police. In separate incidents in quick succession, two men were shot from the same passing car. Police called it "continuation of guerrilla warfare among policy game racketeers. They picked up Birns for interrogation along with five of his fellow henchmen." Birns and three others were charged with manslaughter but were acquitted. Four days later, Birns, along with co-defendant Yale Cohen and attorney Max Lesnick, were convicted of bribing a witness. It was, The Plain Dealer said, "one of the few cases on record in which men identified by police as 'gangsters' were convicted of anything." The judge sentenced them to 60 days in the Warrensville Workhouse."Shondor the Apprentice Hood"
While serving his sentence at the Warrensville Workhouse after being convicted for the bribery charges, Birns granted his first newspaper interview. Birns told the reporter that he was serving his time happily and enjoying the hard work. In the years to come, he became close to many of the city's newspaper reporters and could sometimes be found chatting with one over a cocktail. To them, he was an excellent source of news tips. He was soon labeled as "Cleveland's Public Enemy No. 1" by the local press.
The Rudy Duncan hit One of Birns's most serious arrests was for the 1934 murder of Rudy Duncan, a 36-year-old night club bouncer at Euclid Avenue's Keystone Club. Birns was sitting at Keystone with two of his fellow gang members when he rose to retrieve some cigars from his overcoat which he had checked in the coat room. Birns had misplaced his cheque and could not produce it when asked for it by the coatroom girl. The coatroom girl subsequently refused to give Birns access to his coat. Over her objections, Birns entered the coatroom, shoving her aside in the process, and retrieved some cigars from his coat. He then returned to the table, had two more drinks, and smoked one cigar.
The coatroom girl ran outside and summoned Rudy Duncan, the bouncer who also happened to be her live-in boyfriend. She told him about the incident with Birns. Duncan was a former boxer with arrests in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Cleveland, and had experienced previous run-ins with Birns and his gang.
Duncan came up behind him and in a menacing manner, demanded an explanation as to Birns's presence in the Club. Birns muttered something and the two lunged at each other. In the ensuing ruckus, two shots were fired. One hit Birns in the shoulder and the other hit one of Birns's friends in the leg. Duncan ordered Birns's crew out of the bar at gunpoint.
When the police arrived, they found Birns in his car ready to pull away, while holding a bloody handkerchief to his shoulder. They searched his car and confiscated a revolver which he had placed in his glove box. He denied ownership of the gun and would not reveal who shot him. The police drove him to the hospital. After two days, Birns checked himself out of the hospital and was well on his way to a full recovery when he was arrested and charged with carrying a concealed weapon. During the trial, Birns testified that he did not see his assailant and that whoever came up behind him in the cloakroom had the gun. He refused to identify Duncan as the man who shot him. He denied even knowing Duncan at all. Likewise, Duncan's recollection of the incident was so vague that he was not even called to testify as a witness.
Two months later, Rudy Duncan took his 11-year-old foster son, Stanley to a movie show at the Uptown theater outside E. 105th Street and Saint Clair Avenue. Afterwards, they walked to a confectionery for ice cream. When they got into their car back in the theater parking lot, two men wearing white cotton gloves walked up alongside, one on each side. With a terrified Stanley crouching in the seat, they fired five bullets into Duncan. Police immediately began a search for Birns. They found him, but they could not find evidence to tie him to the murder. He was released. Duncan's murder went officially unsolved.
Rise to power Birns' reputation as a brutal, ruthless enforcer made it easy for him to establish lucrative "protection" services. Legal businesses who wished to be allowed to operate undisturbed had to pay him as a labor consultant. Those who refused to pay would usually find their store windows broken or their cars blown up. In any event, those who initially refused would soon pay up.Shondor the Genial Host
During the late 1930s, Birns became heavily involved in extorting protection money from whorehouses, or "vice resorts" as they were dubbed by the media. With the backing of the Cleveland crime family, Birns operated freely. Many of Birns's clients were judges, politicians and police officers of high rank. They would serve as important contacts for him in the future and vice versa. In 1938, Birns visited Canada for a vacation. Upon his re-entry to the United States, he was questioned briefly about his criminal history and answered honestly. At the time, Birns was unaware of the Immigration Act of 1917 which required any alien convicted of a crime of moral turpitude to gain permission prior to entering or leaving the country. It would take a couple of years of paperwork to catch up.