He seemed the perfect victim for a gang of thugs (pictured above) who wanted to murder him and collect insurance on him. The men got Malloy insured for $1,788, and would collect twice that if Malloy died accidentally - and $3,576 was a sizeable sum in 1933. If they could kill him and make it look like an accident...

First they tried to O.D. him on whiskey - but he'd come back the next day looking healthier! Next, they spiked his drinks with antifreeze. Malloy would collapse on the floor, but after a while he'd get back up, apologize for passing out, and ask for another drink!

For a whole week the gang laced Malloy's drinks with antifreeze. It didn't work. Next, they tried turpentine, horse liniment, and rat poison.

They tried raw oysters tainted with deadly wood alcohol and sandwiches filled with spoiled sardines and carpet tacks. Malloy ate it all, muttered "appetizing" - and knocked back some more wood alochol to wash it down.

Now the gang got down to business. They got Malloy real drunk, stripped him and threw him in a snowbank. For good measure, they threw water over him. The temperature that night was 14 degrees below zero.

Incredibly, the next day Malloy walked back into the speakeasy complaining: "I got a wee chill."

Next, after getting him drunk again, the gang ran him over with a taxicab, leaving his seemingly lifeless corpse in the road. After two weeks, he reappeared - explaining that he'd been in the hospital with a brain concussion and a fractured shoulder.

Finally, after getting Malloy drunk again, they took him to one thug's room, put a rubber hose from a gas jet down his throat, and killed him. Malloy's Irish luck had run out