Arthur Flegenheimer
Aug. 6, 1902, to Oct. 23, 1935.
"Dutch Schultz," "Charles Harmon," "Dutchman," "Beer Baron of the Bronx"
Dutch Schultz was probably the last of the big-time independent criminal operators.
Never an inducted member of the Mafia, he had some personal and business relationships with its members. Those relationships ultimately led to his demise.
Born in the Bronx, Schultz (who was not at all Dutch) grew up in street gangs. He did some jail time - more than a year - for burglary at age 17 and emerged from prison in time to join Arnold Rothstein's bootlegging operation. In that venture, he came into contact with such notables as Charlie Luciano and Jack Diamond.
Schultz and longtime friend Joey Noe became partners in a speakeasy and a beer distribution business and later coerced owners of other speakeasies into becoming outlets for Schultz beer. The Coll brothers were affiliated with the Schultz-Noe mob before going out on their own.
Some bad blood developed between Shultz-Noe and the Rothstein organization, including Diamond. Diamond looked to be responsible for Noe's death on Oct. 15, 1928 (Noe lingered at Bellevue Hospital until finally succumbing to his injuries on Nov. 21, 1928.)
Schultz's men attempted retaliation several times, but the bullet-riddled Diamond simply refused to die until blasted in his sleep on Dec. 18, 1931.
The Schultz men appear to have had better luck pursuing revenge against Rothstein, who was gunned down in his hotel on Nov. 4, 1928, before Noe passed away. Others were suspected of involvement in Rothstein's murder, but it was most likely done by the Schultz mob.
Schultz had a tight relationship with Harlem's Tammany boss Jimmy Hines, a useful situation as the gangster muscled in on Harlem numbers rackets and forcefully established a restaurant "union" protection racket. As a show of good faith to the American Mafia, Schultz cut Ciro Terranova, Mafia boss in Harlem, in for a share of his numbers business.
The relationship between Schultz and the Mafia appeared cordial as the Dutchman's old friend Luciano stepped to power in 1931 and thereafter established a national criminal Syndicate. Schultz remained apart from that Syndicate. Secretly, Mafia leaders were envious of the Dutchman's operations, particularly the lucrative numbers.
New York prosecutor Thomas Dewey and the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover began pursuing Schultz at the end of the Prohibition Era. Public Enemy No. 1 couldn't be touched for his rackets and his murders, so the government went after him - as it had with Capone - for federal income tax evasion.
Schultz was surprisingly successful in his court battles. After a deadlocked jury in Syracuse and an Aug. 24, 1935, not-guilty verdict in the small town of Malone, NY, where Schultz threw some money around in advance of the trial, it appeared the gangster had the government on the ropes.
But Dewey wasn't ready to quit. He prepared to charge Schultz with state tax evasion. Schultz left the state, heading into Newark, NJ, while he worked on a strategy. The pressure was on Hines as well, so Tammany was little help.
Schultz approached the Mafia's ruling Commission with a plan. With Mafia help, Schultz offered to bump off Dewey. Some accounts indicate that Schultz made a personal appearance at a meeting of the Commission. Others say he sent a message through Albert Anastasia. (There are also differences of opinion as to whether non-Mafia Syndicate leaders were permitted to vote at the meeting.)
Fearing the law enforcement pressure it would generate, the Commission decided it wanted no part of the assassination proposal. Enraged by the lack of support, Schultz swore he would see to Dewey's murder himself.
The Commission then acted against Schultz, using members of its enforcement arm (often referred to as "Murder Inc.") to eliminate Schultz and his gang leadership at Newark's Palace Chop House on Oct. 23, 1935. Under orders from Lepke Buchalter, salaried hitmen Mendy Weiss and Charlie "Bug" Workman did the job. Schultz clung to life at Newark County Hospital for 20 hours, speaking a prolonged stream-of-consciousness nonsense that historians are still puzzling over today.
Charlie Luciano would later claim that he saved Thomas Dewey's life, but for the time being he was content to carve up the money-making ventures of the dead Dutchman.
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© 2007 T.Hunt
The American "Mafia"