Don't go away. I don't want to be alone. I can't stand being alone. alone
If a man is dumb, someone is going to get the best of him, so why not you? If you don't, you're as dumb as he is. best
Arnold Rothstein
- Gender: Male
- Citizenship: United States
- Born: Jan 17, 1882
- Died: Nov 4, 1928
Arnold Rothstein, nicknamed "the Brain", was a Jewish-American racketeer, businessman and gambler who became a kingpin of the Jewish mob in New York. Rothstein was widely reputed to have organized corruption in professional athletics, conspiring in the fixing of the 1919 World Series.
According to crime writer Leo Katcher, Rothstein "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top." According to Rich Cohen, Rothstein was the person who first realized that Prohibition was a business opportunity, a means to enormous wealth, who "understood the truths of early century capitalism and came to dominate them." His notoriety inspired several fictional characters based on his life, portrayed in contemporary and later short stories, novels, musicals and films.
Rothstein failed to pay a large debt resulting from a fixed poker game and was murdered in 1928. His illegal empire was broken up and distributed among a number of other underworld organizations and led in part to the downfall of Tammany Hall and the rise of reformer Fiorello La Guardia.