Wife of Trigger Mike Coppola. Born 1922. Lived at 345 East 116th Street. A former cabaret dancer.  Married in 1943, the couple had a son, David, born in 1945.  Coppola ruled over an immense criminal empire that included all of the narcotics and numbers business in all of Harlem and held considerable sway over the area political scene.

In 1946, it came to Coppola’s attention that Joseph R. Scottoriggio, the Republican district captain in Harlem, intended to back the opposition candidate, which was not what Coppola wanted.

On election day, Coppola and one of his men, Joey Rao, (Of  337 East 116th street) with Doris and her father David Lehman, a retired salesman, in tow, drove to Scottoriggio home and waited for Scottoriggio to leave his house at first Avenue and 104th Streets. (The house is still standing ) When he did, Coppola and Rao trounced him and beat him so badly he died six days later.

The two men with Scottoriggio, poll workers, watched most of the beating, did nothing and then ran away. The assault outraged New Yorkers and Coppola and Rao were both arrested but released on bond.  Several days later, Doris and her father disappeared. Doris was sent to live with "Butsey" Morelli, the Mafia boss of Providence, R.I. However, after a massive manhunt but New York District Attorney Hogan, the father and daughter surrendered and appeared before a grand jury but essentially said nothing.

On March 17, 1948, Doris entered Saint Vincent’s hospital and gave birth to a daughter. The next day, at age 26,  she died from what was called “Complications from childbirth” No autopsy was performed. And her body cremated on Coppola’s orders. Five thousand attended her wake at Farenga Brothers Funeral Parlor at 204 East 116th Street. (Still in as a funeral parlor but under a different name) Years later, Coppola's second wife revealed she had proof that Doris was murdered by Coppola. S for Joey Rao, he never did any time for beating Scottoriggio to death. He rose up the ranks of the Mafia in Harlem and died in 1962 at age 61 of a stroke. Rao, who had once worked for Dutch Schultz was believed to be the true target of Vincent  “Mad Dog” Coll in 1931 when Coll’s men sprayed machine gun fire across East 107th Avenue.