History remembers Arnold Rothstein as the man
who fixed the 1919 World Series, an underworld
genius. The real-life model for The Great Gatsby's
Meyer Wolfsheim and Nathan Detroit from Guys
and Dolls, Rothstein was much more—and less—
than a fixer of baseball games. He was everything
that made 1920s Manhattan roar. Featuring Jazz
Age Broadway with its thugs, speakeasies,
showgirls, political movers and shakers, and stars
of the Golden Age of Sports, this is a biography
of the man who dominated an age. Arnold
Rothstein was a loan shark, pool shark,
bookmaker, thief, fence of stolen property,
political fixer, Wall Street swindler, labor
racketeer, rumrunner, and mastermind of the
modern drug trade. Among his monikers were
"The Big Bankroll," "The Brain," and "The Man
Uptown." This vivid account of Rothstein's life is
also the story of con artists, crooked cops,
politicians, gang lords, newsmen, speakeasy
owners, gamblers and the like. Finally unraveling
the mystery of Rothstein's November 1928
murder in a Times Square hotel room, David
Pietrusza has cemented The Big Bankroll's place
among the most influential and fascinating
legendary American criminals.
"Rothstein paints a fascinating, engrossing portrait
of a modern-day Professor Moriarity, set in a
Roaring Twenties universe of crime and
corruption, violence and greed. Only Arnold
Rothstein dared to fix a World Series, or his own
trial for shooting two policemen. Only David
Pietrusza could have so vividly recreated his life,
his death, and his era."
—Dick Thornburgh, former United States
Attorney General and Governor of
Pennsylvania
"Arnold Rothstein was the Thomas Edison of
modern crime, inventing much of it and
streamlining the rest. Investment houses, credit-
card issuers, and lottery hawkers have been
enriched by his legacy. David Pietrusza's
monumental biography of this evil genius is
astonishingly detailed and grippingly narrated;
there's a revelation in every chapter. Only
Rothstein could have spun so tangled a web; only
Pietrusza, seventy-five years after his subject's
death, could have set it straight."
—John Thorn, sports historian and editor of
Total Baseball
"In the words of Michael Stuhlberg, the actor who
played him so superbly in Boardwalk Empire,
put it, playing Arnold Rothstein was 'like putting
clothes on a ghost.' David Pietrusza not only puts
clothes on the grandfather of American organized
crime but puts flesh on him and blood in his veins
as well. One of the handful of great books on the
history of the Mob."
—Allen Barra
"David Pietrusza's research opens the wonderous
underworld that lurked below the Roaring 20s.
Rothstein is witty, amusing, original, and ultimately
very informative."
—Donn Rogosin, author of Invisible Men:
Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues
"David Pietrusza's Rothstein: The Life, Times,
and Murder of the Criminal Genius who Fixed
the 1919 World Series is brilliant—a vivid,
superbly researched portrait of the boss who
ruled Broadway in its heyday."
—Kevin Cook, author of Tommy's Honor
and Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet
on Everything
"Excellent."
—Rose Keefe, author of Guns and Roses:
The Untold Story of Dean O'Banion and The
Man Who Got Away: The Bugs Moran Story
"It doesn't matter how much you know or
have researched the 1919 Black Sox Scandal,
you must read Rothstein. Pietrusza pulls it all
together and —or the first time—the pieces of the
ongoing mystery saga fall into place. "
—Susan Dellinger, Ph.D. , author of Red
Legs and Black Sox (Emmis Books, 2006)
who fixed the 1919 World Series, an underworld
genius. The real-life model for The Great Gatsby's
Meyer Wolfsheim and Nathan Detroit from Guys
and Dolls, Rothstein was much more—and less—
than a fixer of baseball games. He was everything
that made 1920s Manhattan roar. Featuring Jazz
Age Broadway with its thugs, speakeasies,
showgirls, political movers and shakers, and stars
of the Golden Age of Sports, this is a biography
of the man who dominated an age. Arnold
Rothstein was a loan shark, pool shark,
bookmaker, thief, fence of stolen property,
political fixer, Wall Street swindler, labor
racketeer, rumrunner, and mastermind of the
modern drug trade. Among his monikers were
"The Big Bankroll," "The Brain," and "The Man
Uptown." This vivid account of Rothstein's life is
also the story of con artists, crooked cops,
politicians, gang lords, newsmen, speakeasy
owners, gamblers and the like. Finally unraveling
the mystery of Rothstein's November 1928
murder in a Times Square hotel room, David
Pietrusza has cemented The Big Bankroll's place
among the most influential and fascinating
legendary American criminals.
"Rothstein paints a fascinating, engrossing portrait
of a modern-day Professor Moriarity, set in a
Roaring Twenties universe of crime and
corruption, violence and greed. Only Arnold
Rothstein dared to fix a World Series, or his own
trial for shooting two policemen. Only David
Pietrusza could have so vividly recreated his life,
his death, and his era."
—Dick Thornburgh, former United States
Attorney General and Governor of
Pennsylvania
"Arnold Rothstein was the Thomas Edison of
modern crime, inventing much of it and
streamlining the rest. Investment houses, credit-
card issuers, and lottery hawkers have been
enriched by his legacy. David Pietrusza's
monumental biography of this evil genius is
astonishingly detailed and grippingly narrated;
there's a revelation in every chapter. Only
Rothstein could have spun so tangled a web; only
Pietrusza, seventy-five years after his subject's
death, could have set it straight."
—John Thorn, sports historian and editor of
Total Baseball
"In the words of Michael Stuhlberg, the actor who
played him so superbly in Boardwalk Empire,
put it, playing Arnold Rothstein was 'like putting
clothes on a ghost.' David Pietrusza not only puts
clothes on the grandfather of American organized
crime but puts flesh on him and blood in his veins
as well. One of the handful of great books on the
history of the Mob."
—Allen Barra
"David Pietrusza's research opens the wonderous
underworld that lurked below the Roaring 20s.
Rothstein is witty, amusing, original, and ultimately
very informative."
—Donn Rogosin, author of Invisible Men:
Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues
"David Pietrusza's Rothstein: The Life, Times,
and Murder of the Criminal Genius who Fixed
the 1919 World Series is brilliant—a vivid,
superbly researched portrait of the boss who
ruled Broadway in its heyday."
—Kevin Cook, author of Tommy's Honor
and Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet
on Everything
"Excellent."
—Rose Keefe, author of Guns and Roses:
The Untold Story of Dean O'Banion and The
Man Who Got Away: The Bugs Moran Story
"It doesn't matter how much you know or
have researched the 1919 Black Sox Scandal,
you must read Rothstein. Pietrusza pulls it all
together and —or the first time—the pieces of the
ongoing mystery saga fall into place. "
—Susan Dellinger, Ph.D. , author of Red
Legs and Black Sox (Emmis Books, 2006)
| "Terrific" —The New York Times |
| Meet Arnold Rothstein and meet the legends of decades ago—con artists Nicky Arnstein and Wilson Mizner; legal mastermind Bill "The Great Mouthpiece" Fallon; crooked cops Big Bill Devery and Charles Becker; baseball's John "Mugsy" McGraw and the Black Sox; boxers Abe "The Little Champ" Attell, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, and Benny Leonard; politicians Jimmy Walker, "Big Tim" Sullivan, and Fiorello LaGuardia; ganglords Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Legs Diamond, Lepke Buchalter, and Little Augie Orgen; newsmen Damon Runyon, Herbert Bayard Swope and William Randolph Hearst; show business's Fanny Brice, George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin, Billy Rose, Marion Davies, and Fats Waller; speakeasy owners Larry Fay and Texas Guinan; gambler "Nick the Greek" Dandalos. Rothstein is the epic story of Manhattan in the Roaring Twenties as its never been told before. If you've been transfixed by Boardwalk Empire's Arnold Rothstein, now you can learn . . . the even more amazing rest of the story. |
| It's All Here— in Rothstein:
|
| . |
| ISBN: 0-7867-1250-3 $27.00 hardcover $16.00 paperback 496 pages Biography/True Crime |
| . |
Excerpted in
Matt Silverman
and Greg Spira's
USA Today
Sports Weekly's
Best Baseball
Writing
2005
Matt Silverman
and Greg Spira's
USA Today
Sports Weekly's
Best Baseball
Writing
2005
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Golden Headphone Award and been rated as
One of Booklist's Top Ten, chosen from titles
reviewed in Booklist from June 2003 through
May 15, 2004, these outstanding biographies
and memoirs are about individuals, both
famous and infamous, who through their stories
reveal much about the culture and society of
their respective eras. have a lasting impact.
One of Booklist's Top Ten, chosen from titles
reviewed in Booklist from June 2003 through
May 15, 2004, these outstanding biographies
and memoirs are about individuals, both
famous and infamous, who through their stories
reveal much about the culture and society of
their respective eras. have a lasting impact.
|
David Pietrusza
