Part 28 (1/2)

186 ”Rachael Brown.”: Schenectady Union-Star, 5 October 1920, p. 8. In October 1920, a wire service reported that ”Brown” had sailed for Europe. Considering ”Brown” supposedly didn't exist, it was an unusually detailed account. It revealed ”Brown's” partners.h.i.+p with Rothstein in New York and Saratoga, his operation of dice rooms at 28th Street and Broadway, and his former a.s.sociation with Bridgie Webber. It even claimed that ”Brown” had been marked for death ”for crooked deals” a month before Herman Rosenthal's death and had fled to Spain for safety. Most likely, the article described Nat Evans, providing us with our best description of this shadowy figure and revealing that Rothstein had ordered him, as well as Attell and Sullivan, out of the country. Brown, the story said, ”was considered a 'piker' by the big gamblers. Because of this he decided that he would become a henchman of the big fellow rather than a gambler of small parts on his own. He with Joseph ('Curley') Bennett and Abe Attell 'steered' for Rothstein's gambling houses in the Tenderloin and at Saratoga and Long Island.” The October 6, 1920 New York Times, however, reported that any story of ”Brown” sailing to Europe was false-that he had been seen in the city since his alleged departure.

186-87”Q-Did Bennett ... with everything.”: NY Times, 19 July 1921, p. 15, NY Times, July. 20, 1921, pp. 1,3, NY Times, 21 July 1921, pp. 1-9; NY Times, 22 July 1921, pp. 1-4; Asinof, pp. 179-80; Ginsburg, p. 136.

187 ”William Burns, testifying ...” ... ”A-Yes, sir.”: NY Times, 24 July 1921, p. 5.

189 ”. . . I talked ...” ... ”... in New York ...”: Asinof, p. 284.

189 ”Ask ... tell you.”: NY Times, 23 July 1921, p. 5.

189-90”None of ... ”... ”... the country.”: NY Times, 26 July 1921, p. 17; Asinof, p. 292; Seymour, p. 328.

190 ”I met him only twice”: Chi. American, 25 July 1921, 25 July 1921, pp. 1-2; Chi. American, 26 July 1921, p. 1; Chi. Herald-Examiner, 27 July 1921, p. 4. In Baseball: The Golden Age (p. 328), Harold Seymour contends that ”behind the theft were William J. Fallon and Alfred Austrian.”

190 ”My name ... too far.”: Chi. Herald-Examiner, 27 July 1921, p. 4.

191 ”It will ... from New York.”: Chi. Herald-Examiner, 28 July 1921, p. 1; NY Times, 28 July 1921, p. 1; Ginsburg, p. 143. Zork and Joe Pesch continued fixing White Sox games during the 1920 season. In April 1921 St. Louis police arrested Nat Evans as a suspicious character. Was he in St. Louis to coordinate a defense with Zork and other defendants?

191 Attell's silence: Fallon not only worked on Attell's defense, he was also in contact with Boston attorney William J. Kelly regarding Sport Sullivan's defense. (NY Times, 5 October 1921, p. 1) (For more on Kelly see Chapter 17) 192 ”Why was ... Arnold Rothstein?”: NY Times, 2 August 1921, p. 24.

192 ”The state ... throw games.”: Ginsburg, pp. 143-44.

192 ”whistling and cheering”: NY Times, 3 August 1921, pp. 1, 3; Asinof, pp. 307-10.

192 ”Not a ... Rothstein.”: ”Hy Gardner Calling” column, 29 September 1961. The 1919 World Series was not the last time A. R. surfaced in a baseball betting scandal. In 1923 Collyer's Eye, a Chicago racing weekly, insinuated that Rothstein may have been involved in bribing two Cincinnati players, Sammy Bohne (Cohen) and Pat Duncan. They sued Collyer's Eye for $50,000, settling out of court for an apology, $100, and court costs. (Ginsburg, pp. 182-83; Pietrusza, judge and jury, pp. 257-59)

Chapter 13: ”The Chic Thing to Have Good Whiskey”.

193 Crackdown on vice: Other Progressive Era legislation concerning moral issues had preceded Prohibition: the 1910 Mann Act, prohibiting the transportation of women across state lines for immoral purposes; a 1912 ban on the interstate transportation of prizefight films (triggered largely by black champion Jack Johnson's regular pummeling of white challengers and upheld unanimously by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1915); and the 1914 Harrison Act regulating narcotics.

America went dry even before the Eighteenth Amendment. So-called ”Wartime Prohibition,” ostensibly enacted to conserve grain supplies, banned the manufacture of alcohol except for export. President Wilson did not sign it, however, until after the armistice; it did not go into effect until July 1, 1919.

193-94Mather: Fried, pp. 94-98; Katcher, pp. 232-33; Carey, p. 144.

195 Gordon: Fried, pp. 94-98; Katcher, pp. 232-33.

196 Lansky: On October 25, 1957 Anastasia was murdered while getting a haircut at the Park Central Hotel's barbershop. The murder was never solved, though many suspected ”Crazy Joe” and Larry Gallo.

197 ”Moustache Petes”: Rothstein appreciated cooperation across ethnic lines. He took particular offense to Chicago gangster Big Jim Colosimo's remarks about up-and-coming mobster Johnny Torrio's willingness to do business with Jewish ”sc.u.m.” When New York gunman Frankie Yale a.s.sa.s.sinated Colosimo in May 1920, Rothstein, Lansky, and Siegel sent a huge wreath, sarcastically labeled: ”From the sorrowing Jew boys of New York.”

197 ”We sat ... loyal to us.”Eisenberg and Dan, p. 104; Lacey, p. 49.

199 ”But first ... money is.”: Eisenberg and Dan, pp. 82-84.

199 Bloom: Eisenberg and Dan, pp. 98-101. Like Rothstein, Solomon failed to live to see the end of Prohibition, murdered in January 1933 in the men's room of a Roxbury nightclub.

201 Diamond, Moran: Katcher, pp. 239-41; Walker, pp. 234-39; Levine, pp. 39-41; World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime CD-ROM.

201 ”how to ... broads.”: Eisenberg and Dan, p. 83; Gosch and Hammer, pp. 95-97; Fried, pp. 118-19.

201 ”He ... real smooth.”: Gosch and Hammer, pp. 40-41; Rockaway, p. 9.

202-03 ”Arnold gimme ... blue serge.”: Feder and Joesten, pp. 57-59; Gosch and Hammer, pp. 52-59.

203 Collins: Rothstein, pp. 214-16; Clarke, pp. 261-62; Katcher, pp. 242-45.

204 Diamond: To Frank Costello, and his brother Eddie, Rothstein provided numerous loans-$9,000 to Eddie in 1925, $21,000 to Frank in 1928, and another $40,000 to Frank to purchase a brewery, a loan A. R. never collected. (Thomson and Raymond, p. 66) 205 Gordon, Madden: Katcher, p. 245; World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime CD-ROM.

205-06Fay, Guinan: Katcher, pp. 246-67, 264; Thomson and Raymond, p. 66; Rothstein, p. 173; Walker, pp. 240-49; Sann, pp. 183-85; Kobler (Ardent Spirits), pp. 233, 262-63; s.h.i.+rley, pa.s.sim.

207 ”higher-ups” ... ”... from the record.”: NY Times, 26 July 1925, p. 1; NY Times, 27 July 1925, p. 14; Metz, pp. 148-52; Katcher, pp. 249-53; Thomson and Raymond, pp. 169-70; Leo Katcher implies that the Park View A.C. was a speakeasy; in fact, it fronted for gambling. He also incorrectly calls it the ”Park City Club.”

207-08 ”Will You Love ...” ... ”... big gambler.”: NY Times, 9 August 1925, p. 20; NY Times, 16 August 1925, p. 7; NY Times, 21 August 1925, p. 2; NY Times, 28 August 1925, p. 3. Hylan also contended that ”the Tammany designee for Mayor likes but two things: one of them is money, and plenty of it-the other I will not mention, because there are women present.” He was right on both counts.

208 ”Now that ... the street.”: NY Times, 29 August 1925, p. 2.

208 ”The Mayor ... nominating speech.”: Walsh, p. 48; Carolyn Rothstein a.s.serted that Walker was ”never a favorite” of her husband's, but related this incident. Arnold and Sidney Stajer were attending a testimonial for Judge of the General Sessions Max S. Levine, at which Walker was speaking. ”Sid and I just stood at the back of the hall,” A. R. told her.”The Mayor was just coming down from the speaker's platform to go to the men's room. His eyes happened to catch mine, and he turned and came right across the hall in front of everybody there and shook hands. We had a pleasant, and rather lengthy chat before he went away. I call that pretty fine of Jimmy. A lot of them, you know, aren't like that when they are up there on top.”

208 ”Too many ... molestation.”: Katcher, p. 253.

208 ”there is ... Denmark,”: NY Times, 30 August 1925, p. 3; Walsh, p. 53.

Chapter 14: ”The Man to See Was Arnold Rothstein”.

211 ”crush labor and its organizations.” NY Times, 12 May 1915, p. 12; NY Times, 14 May 1915, p. 22; NY Times, 3 November 1915, p. 1; Katcher, pp. 280-01; Rockaway, pp. 95-96; Fried, pp. 34, 82-86; World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime CD-ROM; Jackson, p. 544. Hillquit was a longtime leader of the Socialist Party's right wing. In 1917 he ran as Socialist Party candidate for mayor, receiving 22 percent of the vote.

212 Orgen: Katcher, pp. 281-14; World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime CD-ROM.