Konigsberg first became involved in organized crime working for New Jersey mob boss Abner "Longy" Zwillman, he became one of the crew's most prolific hit men. Konigsberg was described as a troublemaker from the beginning, "a malevolently wild creature in a house full of Sabbath-keepers". After being taken under the wing of Zwillman — the so-called "Al Capone of New Jersey" — Konigsberg became a violent and feared racketeer in Jersey City and Manhattan. He earned a reputation as a major loanshark who pummeled deadbeats with a lead-lined rubber hose. Konigsberg also stole, ran numbers, hijacked, assaulted, extorted and murdered. He was known to be charming - "adorable" even, according to one of his many lawyers - but at the bottom, a sociopath.