Born: January 17, 1882, New York City
Died: November 6, 1928, New York City
Nicknames: The Brain, The Fixer, the Big
Bankroll
Associations: Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, Meyer
Lansky, Dutch Schultz, Jack “Legs” Diamond Arnold
“The Brain” Rothstein may have done more to corrupt
sports – and, inversely, encourage reforms – than
any other single person in the early decades of the
20th century. Rothstein always denied it, but he was
the man suspected by many of engineering the Chicago
“Black Sox” baseball scandal, when players threw
the 1919 World Series.
Rothstein had a hunger for gambling, especially
casinos games, cards and horse racing, but he also
used an extensive network of advisers to limit the
uncertainty in the results of his wagers. He was
accused of engineering the outcomes of many horse
races, for example. He reportedly operated an
illegal casino in Manhattan.
He was indicted but never convicted of fixing the
1919 World Series and always insisted that although
he made some money gambling on the result, others,
perhaps using his name, had actually compromised the
Chicago White Sox players. Testimony from a number
of White Sox players delivered to a grand jury
mysteriously disappeared, and none of the players
(eight of whom, including the famous Shoeless Joe
Jackson, were banned from baseball for life) would
testify during the actual trial, citing Fifth
Amendment protections against self-incrimination.
Prohibition helped Rothstein reach new heights of
power and income. Rothstein was quicker than some of
his mobster colleagues to see the huge profits that
could come from illegal sales of banned alcohol.
Notably, although Rothstein was often considered a
professional, even corporate, member of the Mob, he
was also unafraid to use his connections with
violent New York City street gangs to further his
business interests.
Rothstein was a major player in the growing East
Coast Mob syndicates before and during Prohibition,
until he was gunned down on November 4, 1928, at the
Park Central Hotel in Manhattan. Some blamed the
murder on a poker player to whom Rothstein owed a
$300,000 gambling debt. Although it took Rothstein a
day to die, he refused to tell police who did it,
and the gambler was never charged.
His death — and the breakup of Rothstein’s New York
City-based criminal association — helped pave the
way for reformer Mayor Fiorello La Guardia to take
office.
Rothstein has inspired many characters in novels and
films, appearing in Damon Runyon’s short stories, F.
Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby,
the films Eight Men Out and The Godfather, Part II,
and the television series Boardwalk Empire.