On a summer night in Albany, New York, on July 13, 1928, a Prohibition agent by the name of Irving S. Washburn, a White / Caucasian male of 34 years, met a violent end. In an era defined by the flourishing bootlegging trade, Washburn and his partner, Wilfred Grissom, were patrolling the city's South End, a known hub for the illicit manufacture and sale of alcohol.
Their duty was fraught with danger, and they had been warned of the risks, with threats of receiving a "belly full of lead" for their enforcement efforts.
Around 2:30 a.m., their attention was drawn to a Packard touring car on lower Madison Avenue. As the two agents approached the suspicious vehicle, a confrontation quickly escalated. Within moments, a group of four or five men burst out of a nearby building at 73 Madison Avenue. Agent Grissom, who had entered the Packard to make an arrest, was ordered out at gunpoint and struck over the head with a revolver. As he was momentarily stunned, he witnessed his partner, Washburn, running and exchanging gunfire with the assailants. By the time local police arrived, drawn by the sound of the shots, Washburn had been fatally wounded.
As he lay dying from blood poisoning, Irving Washburn managed to identify his shooter to the Assistant District Attorney, whispering the name "Bob Zullo." This dying declaration pointed investigators toward Barbero "Bob" Zullo, the 45-year-old operator of an unlicensed soft-drink parlor at 73 Madison Avenue, which also served as a front for selling bootleg liquor. Zullo, a prominent figure in the local gang scene, was paraded before Washburn's hospital bed just an hour before the agent succumbed to his injuries.
While Bob Zullo was the initial prime suspect, the investigation determined that it was his brother, Joseph Zullo, who fired the fatal shot from a. 45 caliber handgun. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Joseph Zullo vanished. It was widely believed that he had fled to Canada to escape justice. Despite the identification of the alleged killer, he was never apprehended for the murder of Agent Washburn. The two men who were seen leaving Washburn's room were never caught. In response to the killing, federal agents launched a massive crackdown on the South End's illegal liquor industry, raiding numerous establishments and making dozens of arrests in an effort to dismantle the criminal enterprises that had cost one of their own his life.
