He Refused to Pay a Gambling Debt — They Put One Bullet in His Stomach

Описание: Arnold Rothstein was the most powerful criminal mind in American history. He fixed the 1919 World Series. He built New York's entire bootlegging empire during Prohibition. He personally mentored Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello and Bugsy Siegel — the men who would go on to run organized crime in America for the next fifty years. He was known on every street corner in New York as The Brain.In September 1928 Rothstein sat down at a three day high stakes poker game at the Park Central Hotel in Manhattan and lost $320,000. When the men he owed demanded payment Rothstein refused. He said the game was fixed. He said he had been cheated. In the world he lived in — where a man's word was his life — this was the most dangerous thing he had ever done.On November 4 1928 Rothstein received a phone call at Lindy's restaurant. He handed his pearl handled pistol to an associate, walked to the Park Central Hotel, and was shot once in the stomach. He was found bleeding at the hotel service entrance — alone — holding his abdomen. When police arrived and asked who shot him he put his finger to his lips and said — you stick to your trade. I'll stick to mine.He survived two days. He never named his killer. He died on Election Day November 6 1928 — with $570,000 in election bets that died with him. His murder is officially unsolved to this day.


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