Prohibition-Era Mobsters Hired Plastic Surgeons To Hide Their Fingerprints

When you think of plastic surgery, you probably think that it’s a relatively recent thing. But in reality, plastic surgeons have been around for a while.

In fact, back in the 1930s, the major shift in organized crime – thanks to the whole prohibition movement that ramped up demand for bootlegging, etc., caused a whole new occupation demand to spring up: plastic surgeon.

Yeah, being a plastic surgeon for the mob was one way to make a decent living, since these organized criminals needed someone to be able to change their faces. But they didn’t just do face work, these surgeons also were able to remove or alter fingerprints, as the fingerprint was becoming a very standard way for law enforcement to identify criminals.

According to “The Justice Story: True Stories of Murder, Mystery and Mayhem,” One well-known plastic surgeon for the mob in 1933 was a doctor called Joseph Moran. He made his living by being a sort of medical Jack of All Trades as he was known for sticking up for mobsters, removing bullets from patients who had been shot, and other services.

He also agreed to start removing the fingerprints of two well-known Chicago mobsters, Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis. He seemed to be doing well-enough work, as Karpis found it difficult getting into Canada thanks to his lack of prints.

Unfortunately for Moran, his medical career with the mob was short-lived. According to Mentalfloss, in 1935, he was found washed ashore in Ontario, and he had no parts of his own. Granted, this wasn’t down to any work of his. It was because his hands got cut off, along with his feet. The reason for Moran’s violent end? Apparently, he went around bragging that he knew a whole lot of incriminating details regarding Barker and his gang activities, therefore, it was only a matter of time before he found himself swimming with the fishes so to speak.

Another well-known doctor to the mob was Wilhelm Loeser. This doctor actually took $5,000 in order to alter John Dillinger’s appearance as well as his prints.

According to the Mob Museum, Loeser used hydrochloric acid on the skin, then scrapped away Dillinger’s fingerprints using a technique he’s practiced on himself. But apparently, that wasn’t the criminal activity that Loeser was into. He had also previously been convicted of dealing both cocaine and heroin.

Given that he was the doctor tasked with changing Dillinger’s appearance, the work that Loeser decided to do was pretty involved. First, he smoothed down Dillinger’s cleft chin by using tendons that were taken from a kangaroo. But it worked – Dillinger was able to take on a new face. Even if he was killed in 1934 during a police shootout, his partial fingerprints were still a match!