Arnold Rothstein
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Arnold Rothstein (1882 - November 4, 1928) was a New York businessman and gambler chiefly famous for his role as a kingpin of organized crime. He is also widely reputed to have been behind baseball's Black Sox scandal in which the 1919 World Series was fixed. His notoriety inspired several fictional characters based on his life, including "Meyer Wolfsheim" in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, and "Nathan Detroit" in the Damon Runyon novel "The Idyll Of Miss Sarah Brown", which was made into the musical Guys and Dolls.
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Early life and successes
Born in New York City to a wealthy Jewish businessman, Rothstein was skilled at mathematics and developed an early interest in illegitimate business, unlike his older brother, who studied to become a rabbi. By 1910 Arnold had moved to the Tenderloin section of Manhattan where he took over an important gambling casino, and soon purchased number of nightclubs. He also invested in horse racing tracks, and it was widely reputed that he "fixed" many of the races that he won. Rothstein had a wide network of informants and very deep pockets when it came to paying for good information, regardless of how unscrupulous the sources were. His successes made him a millionaire by age thirty.
1919 World Series
In 1919, Rothstein's agents allegedly paid members of the Chicago White Sox $80,000 to lose the World Series, enabling him to make a significant sum betting against Chicago.
Summoned to Chicago to testify before the Grand Jury investigation, he stated that he was an innocent businessman and that he was intent on clearing his name and his reputation. No evidence could verify his connection to the affair, and he was never indicted. Rothstein said, "I wasn't in on it, wouldn't have gone into it under any circumstances, and didn't bet a cent on the Series after I found out what was underway." [1] (http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/March-April-2004/review_nathan_marapr04.html) Years later, in her autobiography, his wife Carolyn Rothstein denied any knowledge of her husband's illicit gambling activities.
Prohibition and organized crime
The advent of Prohibition enabled Rothstein to diversify into bootlegging and narcotics, and his criminal organization included such luminaries of the underworld as Meyer Lansky, Legs Diamond, Lucky Luciano, and Dutch Schultz. His various nicknames were Mr. Big, The Fixer, The Man Uptown, The Big Bankroll and The Brain. Rothstein mediated differences between New York gangs and often reputedly charged a hefty fee for his services. His favorite "office" was Lindy's Restaurant, at Broadway and 49th Street, where he would stand on the corner surrounded by his bodyguards and do business on the street. He made bets and collected debts from those who had lost the previous day.
Murder
Rothstein was shot to death in November 1928 following a spectacular three-day poker game in Manhattan the previous September. At the end of the game Rothstein owed $320,000 and refused to pay, claiming the game had been fixed. Gambler George McManus was arrested for murder but later acquitted for lack of evidence. While his murder was attributed to McManus, even Rothstein himself refused to identify the shooter. Rothstein was buried in an orthodox ceremony.
Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and Rothstein's other associates inherited Rothstein's various "enterprises" after his death. Rothstein's death was related to the fall of the corrupt Democratic political machine known as Tammany Hall, and contributed to the rise of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.
Arnold Rothstein's estate was finally declared bankrupt ten years after his death by his only surviving brother, but he left a legacy of shaping the form of American organized crime in the 20th century.
Fictional Portrayals
F. Scott Fitzgerald based the character Meyer Wolfsheim, Jay Gatsby's crooked associate in The Great Gatsby, on Rothstein, and Gatsby mentions to narrator Nick Carraway, "that's the man who fixed the 1919 World Series".
Rothstein also provided the model for gambler Nathan Detroit in the musical Guys and Dolls.
The character of Hyman Roth from the film The Godfather, Part II mentions Rothstein as his inspiration and modeled his surname after Rothstein's in honor of his part in the Black Sox Scandal.
References
- Donald Henderson Clarke, In the Reign of Rothstein, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1929.
- Leo Katcher, The Big Bankroll, New Rochelle: Arlington House, 1959.
- David Pietrusza, Rothstein: The Life, Times and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series, New York: Carroll & Graf, 2003.
- Carolyn Rothstein (with Donald Henderson Clarke), Now I'll Tell, New York: Vantage Press, 1934.
- Nick Tosches King of the Jews: The Arnold Rothstein Story, 2005.
External Links
- American Dreamer: The man who fixed the 1919 World Series used crime to get his share of milk and honey (http://www.triangle.com/books/bookreview/story/969520p-6889496c.html)
- Biography at the Jewish Virtual Library (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Rothstein.html)
- Did Rothstein really fix the Series? (http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/March-April-2004/review_nathan_marapr04.html)