|
Arnold Rothstein (1882 - November 4, 1928) was a New York gambler widely reputed to have been behind the Black Sox scandal during the 1919 World Series. He was never convicted, however, and no evidence could verify his connection to the affair. When he was summoned to Chicago, to testify before the Grand Jury, he stated that he was an innocent businessman and that he was intent on clearing his name and his reputation. Years later, in her autobiography, his wife Carolyn Rothstein never admitted to knowing about her husband's illicit gambling activities.
Rothstein proved to be good with mathematics but apparently used it mainly for gambling. By 1910 he had moved to Tenderloin in New York where he took over an important gambling casino, and soon purchased number of nightclubs. His various nicknames among the New York underworld 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 the 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.
Rothstein's primary enterprises were bootlegging and narcotics, but his greatest love and his surest source of "The Big Bankroll" was gambling - especially horse racing. It was widely reputed that he "fixed" many of the races that he won most of the time. In fact, 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.
Rothstein's legacy is that he consolidated organized crime, later to be known as the Mafia due to his influence with such figures as Legs Diamond, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel, the men who inherited Rothstein's various "enterprises" after he was shot to death. Ironically, Rothstein's death is also attributed to the have contributed to the rise of Fiorello LaGuardia political power in New York, according to his former law clerk, in his biography on the former mayor of New York City.
Rothstein was shot to death in November 1928 following a spectacular three-day poker game that September in Manhattan. 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, no one will ever really know the real reason why Rothstein was shot and killed.
Arnold Rothstein's estate was finally declared bankrupt ten years after his death by his only surviving brother. But his true legacy was the mark that he left on the underworld, and how it shaped America in the 20th century.
Fiction
F. Scott Fitzgerald based his character Meyer Wolfsheim, Jay Gatsby's crooked associate in The Great Gatsby, on Rothstein; Gatsby even mentions to narrator Nick Carraway that "that's the man who fixed the 1919 World Series". Rothstein also provided the model for gambler Nathan Detroit in the musical Guys 'n Dolls.
The character of Hymen Roth from The Godfather Part 2 modeled his surname after Rothstein's in honor of his part in the Black Sox Scandal.
References
- Clarke, Donald Henderson, In the Reign of Rothstein, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1929.
- Katcher, Leo, The Big Bankroll, New Rochelle: Arlington House, 1959.
- Pietrusza, David, Rothstein: The Life, Times and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series, New York: Carroll & Graf, 2003.
- Rothstein, Carolyn (with Donald Henderson Clarke), Now I'll Tell, New York: Vantage Press, 1934.
|
