In the Prohibition era, the speakeasies of New York City provide some much-needed respite, particularly for the likes of Michael Malloy, an isolated Irish immigrant. But times are tough and for an unlikely group of associates – a bar owner, an undertaker, a greengrocer, a cabbie and a local gangster – desperate times call for desperate measures. And so, a simple plan is hatched: take out life insurance on the unsuspecting Michael Malloy and help him along to an early grave. What follows is a sinister concoction of poisoned alcohol, shots of antifreeze, tainted oysters, sardine sandwiches laced with glass, overnight exposure to freezing temperatures, and assault by taxicab. But ‘Iron Mike’ Malloy survives it all – until he doesn’t.

Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression and based on police reports, court records, and the colourful tabloid reporting of the day, The Many Murders of Michael Malloy details a crime so convoluted, so staggering in its audacity, authorities refused to believe it until the irrefutable evidence revealed ‘the most grotesque chain of events in New York criminal history’, securing Malloy’s status as a true crime folk hero.