Danton and Diamond

Danton would play the part of Diamond not only here in the star role, but a year later as well in the movie about Dutch Schultz starring Vic Morrow that was called Portrait of a Mobster. Diamond was known as the clay pigeon because he survived numerous attempts by rival gangsters to kill him, but eventually his luck did run out. Joe (the Boss) Masseria, who ruled the Mafia in the 1920s, also had a similar reputation for dodging bullets, surviving about 15 attempts on his life, before being murdered by rivals at a restaurant on Coney Island.

Early on Legs worked for Little Augie Orgen and was shot and wounded when Orgen was murdered by one of his underlings, Louis 'Lepke' Buchalter, on Lepke's journey up the ladder of organized crime.

Diamond also once had a run in with Johnny Broderick, known as the toughest cop in New York City. Broderick considered Diamond a punk and in order to demonstrate this he beat Diamond up and shoved him head first into a garbage can and left him there, so that Diamond's colleagues and ordinary citizens would see the shine taken off Legs' tough guy image.