The red light came from an actual lamp, the red oil-lamp that hung on the last car of a railroad train.
These lamps were carried by railroad men to and from trains, and in some cases they were hung outside the brothels the men frequented between shifts.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed on June 19, 1953, at Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York. They were found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage and were labeled communists. Julius Rosenberg, thirty-five, was executed at 8:04 P.m. His wife, Ethel, thirty-seven, was executed at 8:11 P.M. It was the first execution of civilians…
Al (“Scarface”) Capone claimed he received the scar while fighting with the Lost Battalion in France during World War I. Actually, he was knifed in Brooklyn while working as a bouncer in a saloon, in a fight over a woman. Capone never served in World War I.
A death rattle is the sound a person often makes before dying. It is caused by air being forced through food or mucus lodged in the throat.
Aces and eights was the hand held by Deputy U.S. Marshal James Butler (“Wild Bill”) Hickok when he was killed. On August 2, 1876, in a saloon in Deadwood Gulch, Dakota Territory, Hickok was shot in the cheek by fellow poker player Jack McCall. McCall later said he had killed Hickok for shooting his brother.
A black act is slang for picking a lock in the dark.
MI5 is Britain’s counterintelligence service, which operates mainly at home. MI6 is Britain’s Secret Service, which operates mainly overseas. The official titles are DI5 and DI6, but the “M” titles, for Military Intelligence, Departments 5 and 6, are what everyone uses.