Arnold Rothstein
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Arnold Rothstein | |
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Racketeer, businessman, bootlegger , crime boss | |
Spouse | Carolyn Green |
Arnold Rothstein (January 17, 1882 – November 6, 1928),[1] nicknamed "The Brain", was an American racketeer, crime boss, businessman, and gambler who became a kingpin of the Jewish Mob in New York City. Rothstein was widely reputed to have organized corruption in professional athletics, including conspiring to fix the 1919 World Series. He was also a mentor of future crime bosses Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Bugsy Siegel, and numerous others.
Rothstein "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business run like a corporation",
Rothstein refused to pay a large debt resulting from a fixed poker game and was murdered in 1928. His illegal empire was broken up and distributed among a number of other underworld organizations and led in part to the downfall of Tammany Hall and the rise of reformer Fiorello La Guardia. Ten years after his death, his brother declared Rothstein's estate was insolvent.[citation needed]
Early life and education
Arnold Rothstein was born into a comfortable life in Manhattan, the son of an affluent
Rothstein was known to be a difficult child, and he harbored a deep envy of his older brother, Harry. Rothstein's father believed that his son always craved to be the center of attention and would often get frustrated when he was not.[4]
As a child, Rothstein began to indulge in gambling, but no matter how often his father scolded him for
Illegitimate career
By 1910, Rothstein, at age 28, had moved to the Tenderloin section of Manhattan, where he established an important casino. He also invested in a horse racing track at Havre de Grace, Maryland, where he was reputed to have fixed many of the races that he won.
Rothstein had a wide network of informants, very deep pockets from some among his father's banking community associates, and the willingness to pay a premium for good information, regardless of the source. His successes made him a millionaire by age 30.
1919 World Series
There is a great deal of evidence both for and against Rothstein being involved in the 1919 World Series fix.
He was summoned to Chicago to testify before a grand jury investigation of the incident; Rothstein said that he was an innocent businessman, intent on clearing his name and his reputation. Prosecutors could find no evidence linking Rothstein to the affair, and he was never indicted. Rothstein testified:
The whole thing started when Abe [Attell] and some other cheap gamblers decided to frame the Series and make a killing. The world knows I was asked in on the deal and my friends know how I turned it down flat. I don't doubt that Attell used my name to put it over. That's been done by smarter men than Abe. But I was not in on it, would not have gone into it under any circumstances and did not bet a cent on the Series after I found out what was under way.[8]
In another version of the story, Rothstein was first approached by Joseph "Sport" Sullivan, a gambler, who suggested Rothstein help fix the World Series. Rothstein supposedly refused Sullivan's proposal but when he received Attell's offer, Rothstein reconsidered Sullivan's first offer. He figured that the competition to fix the game made it worth the risk to get involved and still be able to conceal his involvement. David Pietrusza's biography of Rothstein suggests that the gangster worked both ends of the fix with Sullivan and Attell.[9] Michael Alexander concluded that Attell fixed the Series "probably without Arnold Rothstein's approval", which "did not prevent Rothstein from betting on the Series with inside knowledge".[10]
Leo Katcher said that "all the records and minutes of the Grand Jury disappeared. So, too, did the signed confessions of Cicotte, Williams and Jackson.... The state, virtually all of its evidence gone, sought to get the players to repeat their confession on the stand. This they refused to do, citing the Fifth Amendment." Eventually, the judge had no choice but to dismiss the case. Katcher went on, "Thus, on the official record and on the basis of [State Attorney Maclay] Hoyne's statement, Rothstein was never involved in the fixing of the Series. Also, on the official record, it was never proved that the Series had been fixed." Despite the legal case against the ballplayer defendants being dismissed, all eight White Sox players named as trial defendants were permanently banned from playing or participating as coaches in Major League Baseball (MLB) by the newly named first Commissioner of Major League Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Despite all his denials, though, Katcher noted that "while Rothstein won the Series, he won a small sum. He always maintained it was less than $100,000. It actually was about $350,000. It could have been much – very much – more. It wasn't because Rothstein chickened out. A World Series fix was too good to be true – even if it was true."[6]
1921 Travers Stakes
Under the pseudonym "Redstone Stable", Rothstein owned a racehorse named Sporting Blood, a very popular race horse in the early 20's, which won the 1921 Travers Stakes under suspicious circumstances. Rothstein allegedly conspired with a leading trainer, Sam Hildreth, to drive up the odds on Sporting Blood. Hildreth entered an outstanding three-year-old, Grey Lag, on the morning of the race, causing the odds on Sporting Blood, to rise to 3–1. Rothstein bet $150,000 through bookmakers, allegedly having been informed that the second favorite, Prudery, was off her feed. Just before post time and without explanation, Hildreth scratched Grey Lag from the starting list. Rothstein collected over $500,000 in bets plus the purse, but a conspiracy was never proven.[11]
Prohibition and organized crime
With the advent of Prohibition, Rothstein saw the opportunities for business; he diversified into bootlegging and narcotics. Liquor was brought in by smuggling along the Hudson River, as well as from Canada across the Great Lakes and into Upstate New York. Rothstein also purchased holdings in a number of speakeasies. Later he became the first to illegally import Scotch whisky in his own fleet of transatlantic freighters. He knew that high-end booze would be the "chic thing to have."[12]
With his banking support and high-level political connections, Rothstein soon managed to end-run
Rothstein frequently mediated disputes among the New York gangs and reportedly charged a hefty fee for his services. His favorite "office" was Lindy's, at Broadway and 49th Street in Manhattan. He often stood on the corner surrounded by his bodyguards and did business on the street. Rothstein made bets and collected debts from those who had lost the previous day.[citation needed] Meanwhile, he exploited his role as mediator with the city's legitimate business world and soon forced Tammany Hall to recognize him as a necessary ally in its administration of the city. Many historians credit him as the first successful modern drug dealer.[13][14][15]
By 1925, Rothstein was one of the most powerful criminals in the country and had forged a large criminal empire. For a time he was the largest bootlegger in the nation, until the rise of George Remus. With a reported wealth of over $10 million (equivalent to $162 million in 2024),[16] Rothstein was one of the wealthiest gangsters in U.S. history, and is widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of organized crime in the United States.[4]
Death
On November 4, 1928, Rothstein was shot and wounded during a business meeting at Manhattan's Park Central Hotel at Seventh Avenue near 55th Street.[17][18] He died two days later at the New York Polyclinic Hospital in Manhattan.[19]
The shooting was reportedly linked to debts owed from a three-day-long, high-stakes poker game in October, for which Rothstein owed $320,000 (equivalent to $5.7 million in 2023). He claimed the game was fixed and refused to pay. The murder was intended to punish Rothstein for failing to pay his debt.[20] Gambler George "Hump" McManus was arrested for homicide, but later acquitted for lack of evidence.[20]
According to Kevin Cook, author of Titanic Thompson, the poker game was fixed by gambler
In his book Kill the Dutchman!, a biography of Dutch Schultz published in 1971, the crime reporter Paul Sann suggested that Schultz murdered Rothstein. He says this was in retaliation for the murder of Schultz's friend and associate Joey Noe by Rothstein's protégé Jack "Legs" Diamond.
On his deathbed, Rothstein refused to identify his shooter, answering police inquiries with "You stick to your trade. I'll stick to mine",[22] and "Me mudder (my mother) did it."[23] Rothstein was buried at Ridgewood's Union Field Cemetery.
Break-up of empire
At the time of Rothstein's death, Prohibition was in full swing, various street gangs were battling for control of the liquor distribution and the carefully constructed political boss structure of the late 19th century was in total collapse. Frank Erickson, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and other former associates split up Rothstein's various "enterprises" after his death. With Rothstein's death, the corrupt and already-weakened Tammany Hall was critically wounded because it had relied on Rothstein to control the street gangs.[24] With Tammany Hall's fall, reformer Fiorello La Guardia rose in prominence and was elected Mayor of New York City in 1933.
Ten years after his death, Harry Rothstein, Arnold's brother, declared Rothstein's estate insolvent and Arnold's wealth disappeared.[citation needed]
In popular culture
Theater
- In 1930, Rothstein's girlfriend, Inez Norton, to whom he had left a substantial sum in his will, appeared in the Broadway play, "Room 349," by Mark Lindner, which claimed to represent the actual circumstances surrounding his murder.[25][26]
Literature
- Rothstein is referred to as "The Brain" in several of Damon Runyon's short stories, including a fictional version of his death in "The Brain Goes Home". As a newspaper reporter, Runyon came to know Rothstein personally and later covered the trial of his alleged killer. According to historian David Pietrusza, Rothstein was also the inspiration for the character Nathan Detroit, who appears in the short story "Blood Pressure" as well as the musical Guys and Dolls.
- In the novel The Great Gatsby, Meyer Wolfsheim is a Jewish friend and mentor of Jay Gatsby, described as a gambler who fixed the World Series. The character is commonly assumed to be an allusion to Rothstein.[27]
Film and television
- In the 1930 film Street of Chance, William Powell played a gambler who is shot after cheating in a poker game. The film was widely recognized as being based on the murder of Arnold Rothstein.[28]
- With the fictional name of Murray Golden, he was portrayed by Spencer Tracy in the 1934 film Now I'll Tell, loosely based on the autobiography of wife and widow Carolyn Green Rothstein (or "Mrs. Arnold Rothstein," as the film's title card reads).
- He was portrayed in the 1960 film The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond by actor Robert Lowery.
- In the 1961 film The Big Bankroll (a.k.a. King of the Roaring Twenties: The Story of Arnold Rothstein) by David Janssen.
- In a deleted scene from the 1974 Academy Award for Best Picture winner The Godfather Part II, supporting character Hyman Roth is introduced to Vito Corleone, who suggests that he change his name, which was originally Hyman Suchowsky. When Vito asks him whom he admires, Suchowsky says Arnold Rothstein, for having fixed the 1919 World Series; accordingly, he changes his last name to Roth.[29]
- In the 1981 film Gangster Wars and series The Gangster Chronicles by George DiCenzo.
- In the 1988 sports drama film Eight Men Out by Michael Lerner.
- In the 1991 film Mobsters by F. Murray Abraham.
- In the 1995 Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal.
- In the 1999 biopic Lansky by Stanley DeSantis.
- In the HBO series Boardwalk Empire by Michael Stuhlbarg.
Associates
- Waxey Gordon – worked as a rum-runner for Rothstein during the first years of Prohibition.
- Harry "Nig" Rosen– involved in narcotics with Rothstein during the mid-1920s.
- Lucky Luciano – viewed to have been mentored by Rothstein, who supported him early on in his career as a racketeer and taught him how to be a full-fledged kingpin. They are both among New York's most notorious gangster kingpins, and both are directly responsible for the modernization and subsequent public obsession with American organized crime.
- Meyer Lansky – along with partner Luciano, he was somewhat mentored by Rothstein during Prohibition. Both Jewish Mob members, they were instrumental in the rise and glorification of modern American organized crime.
- Alfred Loewenstein, Belgian financier, with whom Rothstein allegedly had a deal to supply America with European-made heroin.[30]
- Enoch "Nucky" Johnson – business partners during the bootlegging boom of the Roaring Twenties.
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0306805653.
- ISBN 978-0375705472.
- ^ Bruccoli 2002, p. 179: "Meyer Wolfshiem, 'the man who fixed the World Series back in 1919,' was obviously based on gambler Arnold Rothstein, whom Fitzgerald had met in unknown circumstances."
- ^ ISBN 9780465029389. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
- ^ "Arnold Rothstein". Biography Jewish Virtual Library. Archived from the original on July 3, 2016. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
- ^ a b c Vanderveer, Victoria. "Arnold Rothstein and the 1919 World Series Fix". HBOWatch.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007.
- ^ Pietrusza, David. "Arnold Rothstein and Baseball's 1919 Black Sox Scandal". davidpietrusza.com. Archived from the original on May 16, 2007. Retrieved October 17, 2012.
- ^ Nathan, David A. (March–April 2004). "The Big Fix: Arnold Rothstein rigged the 1919 World Series. Or did he?". Legal Affairs. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale Law School.
- ^ Pietrusza, pp. 147–92
- ISBN 0-691-11653-9.
- ^ "Visit Saratoga! Racing". Tourism & Travel Guide to Saratoga Springs NY. City of Saratoga Springs. August 2, 2010. Archived from the original on December 3, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
- ^ David Pietrusza, Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series, Basic Books, New York, 2011, p. 193.
- ISBN 9780874369854. Retrieved May 4, 2018 – via Internet Archive.
- ISBN 978-1-62040-890-2.
- ^ "Arnold Rothstein and Drugs - Speaking for a Change". barrybradford.com. June 1, 2016. Archived from the original on May 15, 2017. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
- ^ "Inflation Translation". Dollar Times. Archived from the original on March 15, 2024. Retrieved March 15, 2024.
- ^ "Rothstein Dies; Ex-Convict Sought". The New York Times. November 7, 1928. Archived from the original on January 29, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
Arnold Rothstein, the gambler, died yesterday in Polyclinic Hospital without disclosing who had shot him on Sunday night in the Paris Central ...
(subscription required) - ^ "Gangsters Shoot Arnold Rothstein. Notorious Gambler in Serious Condition After Attack on New York Street". Associated Press. November 5, 1928. Archived from the original on January 31, 2013. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
Arnold Rothstein, millionaire gambler and race track man, was seriously wounded by a shot fired from a passing automobile tonight as he was walking up Seventh avenue near Fifty-fifth street.
- ^ "Ninety years later, Arnold Rothstein murder still a mystery". themobmuseum.org. November 6, 2018. Retrieved September 13, 2023.
- ^ a b "Tammany's Rothstein". Time. December 16, 1929. Retrieved January 12, 2019.[permanent dead link]
- ^ ISBN 978-0393340570.
- ASIN B003GY0KK2.
- ISBN 978-0374299248.
- ^ "National Affairs: Tammany Test". Time. July 8, 1929. Archived from the original on January 5, 2012. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
- ^ New York Daily News, 23 April 1930, p 268
- ^ Broadway Internet Database
- ^ Bloom, Dan (September 13, 2011). "Why's a Huge Bollywood Star Playing an Ugly Stereotypical Jewish Gangster in 'Gatsby'?". Reuters.
- ^ Variety, Feb 5, 1930, p 24. "Street of Chance". Internet archive. Retrieved November 7, 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Mob Mondays - Five True Stories Behind The Godfather: Part II". AMC. June 25, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
- Salon. San Francisco, California. Archived from the originalon December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
Sources
- ISBN 1-57003-455-9– via Internet Archive.
Further reading
- Alexander, Michael (2003). Jazz Age Jews, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-11653-9
- Cohen, Rich (1999). Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams, London: Vintage ISBN 0-09-975791-5
- Henderson Clarke, Donald (1929). In the Reign of Rothstein, New York: The Vanguard Press. ISBN 978-1425532857
- Katcher, Leo (1959/1994). The Big Bankroll. The Life and Times of Arnold Rothstein, New York: Da Capo Press ISBN 0-306-80565-0
- Pietrusza, David (2003). Rothstein: The Life, Times and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series, New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 0-7867-1250-3
- Rothstein, Carolyn (with Donald Henderson Clarke) (1934), Now I'll Tell, New York: Vantage Press.
- Tosches, Nick (2005). King of the Jews. The Arnold Rothstein Story, London: Hamish Hamilton ISBN 0-241-14144-3
External links
- Victoria Vanderveer, "Arnold Rothstein and the 1919 World Series Fix"
- "Arnold Rothstein", Biography Jewish Virtual Library
- Daniel A. Nathan, "The Big Fix: Arnold Rothstein rigged the 1919 World Series. Or did he?", Legal Affairs, March – April 2004
- Arnold Rothstein Death
- "Jon Kalish, "Arnold 'The Brain'"". Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2007.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Review of David Pietrusza, Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series, Jewish Daily Forward, October 31, 2003 - Arnold Rothstein at Find a Grave
- Edward Dean Sullivan, "The Real Truth about Rothstein!" True Detective Mysteries, (October 1930) pp. 20–26, 76–80.