Rothstein: The Life, Times and Murder of the Criminal Genius
who Fixed the 1919 World Series reveals not merely the story of 20th
century crime's seminal figure, a polished, millionaire, gambler manipulating
the system, buying and selling cops and politicians, smuggling booze and
drugs, fixing fights and ballgames, but also of his tortured family
relationships.
Consider the personalities involved:
- Arnold Rothstein: The crime boss driven by greed and ambition, haunted by
an inability to connect emotionally with his family.
- The Wife: Carolyn Green Rothstein: Arnold's wife. A former showgirl
driven to despair by her husband's neglect, by his infidelities, by their sexual
disfunction, by living a gambler's wife's life of fear and suspicion.
- The Father: Abraham Rothstein: A devout first-generation Orthodox Jew.
He wants his sons to grow up in the tradition. Arnold wants no part of
tradition or faith. He wants money (he steals from him to finance his gambling)
--and a practicing Catholic as a wife. Abraham Rothstein sits shiva for his
spiritually dead son.
- The Mother: Esther Rothschild Rothstein: She traumatizes five-year old
Arnold by leaving him home when she and his older brother visit her family in
San Francisco. When she lays at death's door, her husband refuses to let
Arnold pray for her recovery.
- The Psychologist: Dr. James B. Watson: Father of Behavioral Psychology,
disgraced John Hopkins professor, and chosen by Arnold Rothstein in 1928
to patch up his wounded marriage.
- The Older Brother: Bertram "Harry" Rothstein: His father's perfect son.
Honest. Studious. Reliable. Devout. Everything Arnold is not. Arnold hates
and resents him.
- The Younger Brother: Jacob "Jack" Rothstein: A social climber, ashamed
of his brother's crimes, who on marriage changes his name to "Rothstone"
and breaks his brother's heart.
- The Brother-in-Law: Henry Lustig: The pushcart peddler, who with
Arnold's help, becomes a Manhattan restaurant tycoon. He tries to cheat The
Great Brain. He gets caught.
- The First Mistress: Bobbie Winthrop: Arnold's first mistress. When Bobbie
commits suicide, a grieving Arnold's begs permission of wife Carolyn to
attend Bobbie's funeral, attends--and then goes to the track.
- The Last Mistress: Inez Norton: The blond Southern WASP actress and
model who sees Arnold as her ticket to the good life in Jazz Age Manhattan.
- The Orphan: Red Ritter: The New York street urchin who Arnold wanted
to adopt, but whose background proved too sordid even for Arnold
Rothstein.
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