Example research essay topic: Gangster Biography Of Arthur Flegenheimer - 1,314 words

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Arthur Flegenheimer 1902 - 1935 Born: August 6, 1902 in New York, United States Died: October 24, 1935 Occupation: Gangster Flegenheimer, Arthur (Aug. 6, 1902 - Oct. 24, 1935), gangster, better known as Dutch Schultz, was born in the Borough of the Bronx, New York City, and was the only son and elder of two children of Herman and Emma (Neu) Flegenheimer. His parents were German-Jewish immigrants. He grew up in a slum section of the Bronx, and went no further than the sixth grade in school, though he had a keen mind and was an omnivorous reader. In Arthur's early boyhood, his father deserted the family, and his mother did laundering while the boy sold papers on the streets. Later he was for a time an office-boy, and worked in a desultory way as a printer's apprentice and as a roofer. He always thereafter carried his roofer's union card as "proof" that he was an honest laboring man.

At seventeen he was convicted of the burglary of an apartment in the Bronx and served fifteen months in a reformatory. He had become a member of a youthful neighborhood gang before this incident, and his prison term enhanced his reputation among its members. He was now given the nickname of a former bully of the neighborhood, Dutch Schultz, by which he was known ever afterward. Working at his roofer's trade, as a moving-van helper, and at odd jobs for a few years -- during which time his record showed arrests for grand larceny, felonious assault, homicide, and carrying weapons, but no convictions -- he finally became a partner in an illicit saloon in the Bronx in 1928.

This was during the prohibition era, and he now began trading in "bootleg" beer which he brought from New Jersey. Having excellent business ability, he rapidly built up a gang of gunmen, bought political protection, and furnished political backing, and within three years owned seventeen garages and "drops; " or secret storage places, for beer. He controlled the business in upper Manhattan and the Bronx. He continued to be arrested at times on one charge and another, but was always discharged, though upon one occasion, in 1931, the police killed his bodyguard. Oddly enough, he was in terror of the law, and an arrest gave him such a nervous shock that at least once a physician was called to administer a bromide to him.

Jack ("Legs") Diamond, Edward ("Fats") McCarthy, and the Coll brothers, Vincent and Peter, were at times (1929 - 32) in partnership with him in beer-running. He quarrelled with the Coll's, however, and they wrecked one of his garages, together with trucks and supplies of beer, and then, with a new gang of their own, began killing his henchmen. So dangerous did they become that Schultz went into hiding for a time, but not before Peter Coll was slain, and then Vincent and others of Schultz's enemies. He now seized the "policy" gambling game in the Harlem district of New York and took a hand in labor rackets. Estimates of his wealth ran into the millions. He maintained a luxurious apartment on Fifth Avenue, where he lived with his common-law wife, Frances Maxwell, by whom he had two children.

He was arrested for income-tax evasion in January 1933, but lay hidden until November 1934, when he gave himself up. He was tried twice, once at Syracuse and again at Malone, N. Y. , but skilful maneuvering by his attorneys and his own artful behavior secured, in the first instance, a jury disagreement and, in the second, an acquittal. When the prohibition law was repealed he bought shares in three licensed breweries. His attempt to force his way into rackets in Brooklyn controlled by the Amberg gang led to a feud in September-October 1935, during which at least four men were killed on each side. Louis Amberg employed gunmen from Paterson, N.

J. , to kill Schultz, and they wounded him and three of his gang fatally in a backroom of a saloon in Newark, N. J. , on Oct. 23. Schultz died on the following day in the Newark City Hospital, and he was buried in the Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Mt. Pleasant, N. Y. Schultz dropped out of school after the fourth grade.

He soon joined the Bergen Gang -- a gang of juvenile thieves and pickpockets. When Schultz was just fourteen, his father deserted the family. Armed with burglars' tools, Schultz committed numerous burglaries and holdups as a teenager. He worked for a while as a printer -- simply to provide a front for the more profitable business of theft. In 1919, at the age of seventeen, he was arrested for burglary and sentenced to a fifteen-month prison term. Schultz was afraid his given name -- Arthur Flegenheimer -- was too long to appear in newspaper headlines.

Following his release from prison, he changed his name to Dutch Schultz -- the name of an earlier gang leader. Shortly before the turn of the century, the original Dutch Schultz headed a band of Bronx gangsters known as the Frog Hollow Gang. Time behind bars did little to reform Schultz. After serving out the entire sentence, he returned to his earlier occupation.

With the earnings from several robberies, he purchased a bar in the Bronx and began to assemble a fierce gang of thugs. Among the men in his gang were Abe Landau, Julie Martin, Joey Rao, Lulu Rosencranz, and brothers George and Abe Weinberg. Schultz continued to open illegal bars during Prohibition (when the Eighteenth Amendment outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcohol), which he stocked with liquor that had been smuggled from Canada and Europe and whiskey that had been stolen from rival bootleggers. He also served homemade beer, which was considered to be among the area's worst.

Schultz's gang soon expanded its operations to include areas of Manhattan. But the new territories did not come easily. A number of rival gangsters were killed in the process. Numbers games and one-armed bandits Always on the lookout for new opportunities to make money, Schultz did not limit his activities to the illegal liquor business. In Harlem and other areas of New York, African American gangsters controlled an illegal gambling operation known as the numbers racket -- also called the policy racket. Most of Schultz's associates ignored the numbers racket, believing that it was a nickel-and-dime operation that provided little earning potential.

But Schultz knew otherwise. Schultz and his gunmen threatened Stephanie St. Clair, who presided over the numbers racket in Harlem. The cold-blooded mobster gave her a choice: allow him to take over her business, or face Schultz's death squad. St. Clair turned over her operations -- and other Harlem numbers leaders followed.

The numbers racket was a nickel-and-dime business. But most of Harlem's population wagered nickels and dimes on a daily basis. The business yielded millions of dollars, and Schultz amassed a private fortune. By the 1930 s, Schultz became involved in another money-making enterprise: the slot machine business.

Working with Frank Costello and Joey Rao, he and his gang flooded New York City with gambling machines known as one-armed bandits -- some of which were equipped with step-ladders so that children could play. Again, it was a nickel-and-dime business. And again, it reaped millions for Schultz and his colleagues. Diamond loses his sparkle Schultz hired a number of notorious mobsters to protect his many illegal operations.

Gunman Vincent Coll and a number of young gangsters delivered Schultz's beer and liquor to various New York speakeasies (bars that sold illegal alcohol). John Thomas "Legs" Diamond, whose gang controlled a portion of Manhattan's bootlegging empire, lent Schultz added muscle. But Schultz's alliance with Diamond did not last long. By 1930, their partnership had dissolved.

Schultz's beer shipments often disappeared: his delivery trucks were hijacked by rival gangsters. When he learned that Diamond wa...

Research essay sample on Gangster Biography Of Arthur Flegenheimer