the underworld genius, who as F. Scott Fitzgerald observed, played “with the faith of fifty million people—with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe." A.R. was so much more—and less. Loan Shark. Pool Shark. Gambler. Bookmaker. Operator of Illegal Gambling Houses. Thief. Fence of Stolen Property. Perjurer and Suborner of Perjury. Political Fixer. Wall Street Swindler. Real Estate Speculator. Labor Racketeer. Rumrunner. Mastermind of the Modern Drug Trade.
“The Big Bankroll” made 1920’s Manhattan roar. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had to invent his own “Napoleon of Crime,” Professor Moriarty, “the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld.” Arnold Rothstein invented himself, and made fiction pale in the bargain. Rothstein reveals the truth of Rothstein’s involvement in the Black Sox scandal. Rothstein unravels the mystery of the “The Big Bankroll’s November 1928 in a Times Square hotel room—who did it, who covered it up, and why.
Scene of Rothstein's 1928 Murder
Fall 2003
