David Pietrusza - Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series

Also by DAVID PIETRUSZA

Teddy Ballgame: My Life in Pictures (with Ted Williams)

Judge and jury: The Life and Times of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis

The Roaring Twenties

Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball (co-editor)

Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia (co-editor)

Lights On! The Wild Century-Long Saga of Night Baseball

Major Leagues

Baseball's Canadian American League

Minor Miracles: The Legend and Lure of Minor League Baseball

DAVID PIETRUSZA

To Cathy Karp Who I look up to.

ix

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2 15

CHAPTER 3 23

CHAPTER 4 41

CHAPTER 5 52

CHAPTER 6 66

CHAPTER 7 92

CHAPTER 8 . 104

CHAPTER 9 123

CHAPTER 136

CHAPTER 111 147

CHAPTER 169

CHAPTER 13 193

CHAPTER 14 209

CHAPTER 15 219

CHAPTER 17 244

CHAPTER 18 268

CHAPTER 19 284

CHAPTER 21 316

CHAPTER 22 330

CHAPTER 23 343

CHAPTER 24 357

NICKY ARNSTEIN

Debonair international con man. Multimillion-dollar bond thief. Wandering husband of Fanny Brice. Arnold Rothstein's admirer, partner, and fall guy.

ABE ATTELL

Featherweight champion of the world. A.R.'s gambling buddy and bodyguard-as well as his indiscreet henchman in fixing the 1919 World Series.

GEORGE YOUNG BAUCHLE

Wastrel heir to the YD'S licorice fortune. A.R.'s front man at the Partridge Club, Manhattan's poshest floating card game.

LIEUTENANT CHARLES BECKER

Crooked and brutal police vice squad chief. His downfall paves the way for Rothstein to begin his career as the great middleman between the machine, the mob, and the cops.

HENRY "KID" BECKER

The Kid conjured up the idea of fixing a World Series. Too bad he didn't live to enjoy it.

AUGUST BELMONT 11.

Millionaire high-society sportsman. Erstwhile racetrack partner of Rothstein, but he eventually demanded A.R.'s expulsion from New York's tracks.

FANNY BRICE

Broadway's "Funny Lady" found husband Nicky Arnstein's illegal schemes with A.R. no laughing matter, nor the collateral he demanded to provide bail for her incarcerated spouse.

LEPKE BUCHALTER

New York's most vicious labor-union racketeer got his start with A.R. He got the chair from District Attorney Tom Dewey.

SLEEPY BILL BURNS

A.R. fixed it for Burns and his partner Billy Maharg to take the fall if anything went wrong in fixing the 1919 World Series. It did.

ASSEMBLYMAN MAURICE CANTOR

A.R.'s last attorney and the thief at his deathbed.

GEORGE M. COHAN

Broadway's "Yankee Doodle Dandy" knew when to bet and when not to bet on a World Series.

STEPHEN CRANE

The best-selling author (The Red Badge of Courage) who risked his reputation, his physical safety, and his friendship with Theodore Roosevelt to expose police corruption in 1890s New York.

NICK THE GREEK DANDOLOS

America's most fabled gambler-and Rothstein's favorite pigeon.

MARION DAVIES

Model, Broadway sensation, film star, William Randolph Hearst's longtime mistress, and the target of Bill Fallon's greatest courtroom scam.

WILL DAVIS

He drifted in from California, tried to rob A.R. at gunpoint, made A.R. a fortune in horse-racing tips, and departed just as mysteriously as he arrived.

JACK "THE MANASSA MAULER" DEMPSEY

Heavyweight champion of the world in the Golden Age of Sports. Did A.R. plot to cheat him of his crown?

BIG BILL DEVERY

Being New York's shadiest police commissioner, didn't stop Big Bill from becoming the first owner of the New York Yankees.

LEGS DIAMOND

Strong-arm artist. Thief. Labor goon. Bootlegger. Speakeasy operator. A.R's merciless (and seemingly bulletproof) bodyguard.

DRAPER DOUGHERTY:

The attorney general's alcoholic son on the Big Bankroll's payroll.

MONK EASTMAN

The original dim-witted but brutal East Side hoodlum. When A.R. wanted a loan repaid, he used the thuggish Eastman to collect.

NAT EVANS

A.R.'s partner in Saratoga and Long Island gambling houses; his underling in fixing a World Series.

BILL "THE GREAT MOUTHPIECE" FALLON

The Roaring 20s most flamboyant and successful criminaldefense attorney. Rothstein and Fallon did a lot of business together, but that didn't keep the duo from profoundly despising one another.

BRIDGET FARRY

The hotel chambermaid who knew too much. A spell in jail eventually made her forget much.

NAT FERBER

Manhattan's premier investigative journalist made life uncomfortable for A.R.'s cronies.

BIG TOM FOLEY

Powerful downtown Tammany district leader and Governor Al Smith's mentor. Protector of the city's crooked Wall Street firms. A.R.'s go-to guy at Tammany.

EDWARD M. FULLER

Mastermind of Wall Street's biggest con operation. Even A.R.'s connections and Bill Fallon's skills couldn't keep this miscreant out of Sing Sing.

WILLIAM JAY GAYNOR

New York's irascible reform mayor. He battled Tammany, took a bullet in the head, and did his best to "preserve outward order and decency. "

BILLY GIBSON

He managed boxing champions Gene Tunney and Benny Leonard and made sure he remained on Arnold Rothstein's good side.

WAXEY GORDON

A.R. bankrolled Gordon 's bootlegging operations, but only if Waxey did it Arnold's much more profitable way.