Lottie Coll, The Quintessential Mob Wife
Library of CongressLottie Coll (center) was just as much a criminal as her husband, Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll.
Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll was an aggressive, bullish member of the Irish mob, and his wife was no different. Born Charlotte Denninger in New York in 1899, she married her first husband, Samuel Kreisberg, in 1917. The two had one daughter together, but they divorced shortly after she was born, and Kreisberg retained custody of the child. Around the same time, Lottie was arrested for burglary, which led her to make some connections within the mob.
She met Mad Dog Coll around 1930. The following year, the two of them were arrested together after an unregistered gun was found in their hotel room. The gun was Coll’s, but Lottie told investigators that it belonged to her. Her dedication to him was clear. Unfortunately, the romance didn’t last long.
She took his last name, though they never actually got married, despite applying for a marriage license in 1932. Before they could complete the process, however, Coll was gunned down in a telephone booth. Then, in 1933, Lottie herself was arrested after accidentally shooting a random bystander in the Bronx, landing her a 10-year prison sentence.
It’s unclear what happened to her after. She was paroled in 1943, but she violated the conditions and simply vanished. No one knows where she went or what happened to her.
