Birns was a leading figure in Cleveland organized crime, controlling much of the city's numbers racket from the 1930s to the 1970s.

Local newspapers dubbed him Cleveland's "Public Enemy No. 1."

• He was interned as an enemy alien during World War II, and was later convicted of tax evasion.

• He was killed by a car bomb in Cleveland in 1975, a killing attributed to rival mobster Danny Greene.