Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series

by David Pietrusza Narrated by Grover Gardner

Overview

The model for Meyer Wolfsheim from The Great Gatsby and Guys and Dolls' Nathan Detroit, Arnold Rothstein was an underworld genius, racketeer, rumrunner, political fixer, and criminal mastermind who, as F. Scott Fitzgerald observed, played “with the faith of fifteen million people with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe.”

David Piertrusza unearths the canny way Rothstein fixed the 1919 World Series and unravels the mystery of A.R.'s November 1928 murder in a Times Square hotel room. Transporting listeners onto Jazz Age Broadway with its thugs, bookies, denizens of the race tracks, showgirls, political movers-and-shakers and stars of the Golden Age of Sports, this is a biography of the godfather of organized crime in America, who reigned supreme when the fast buck ruled and violence stalked the streets of Gotham.

Editorial Reviews

JUN/JUL 04 - AudioFile

Dazzling! ROTHSTEIN is nonstop fiery journalism, finely researched and colorfully written, read with truly impressive panache by the inimitable Grover Gardner. Gardner tears into the material with vigor and intelligence, a knowing insider’s edge, and a smirk in each syllable. His style here is reminiscent of period radio announcers, conjuring vivid images of the streets and denizens of old New York in every breath. Be prepared for over fourteen hours of scintillating history that reveals the rampant corruption and indelible characters of the times. Arnold Rothstein grew from a rebellious Jewish boy of the tenements to one of the most influential and conniving criminal minds in history. His intricate rigging of the 1919 World Series was a gem, but Rothstein, clearly an obsessive-compulsive gambling addict, engineered some of the biggest scams, criminal networks, and graft systems ever known in America. Like many of his ilk, his personal life was a tragedy, and Rothstein surely shared the wealth. A must listen, must own audiobook. D.J.B. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169914467
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	06/25/2005
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

He did much of his fixing at Lindy’s Restaurant, in Times Square, spending so much time there many thought he owned it. Half of Broadway treated Lindy’s as their clubhouse. Actors in one corner; songwriters and song pluggers in another; gamblers in yet another. Damon Runyon gravitated to Lindy’s newspapermen’s section and wrote about those in the underworld section. In Guys and Dolls, Lindy’s became “Mindy’s” and Arnold Rothstein became “Nathan Detroit.” Elsewhere, Runyon turned A. R. into “Armand Rosenthal, The Brain.”

You could find A. R. in Lindy’s almost any night, making deals, lending money at rates as high as 48 percent.

Arnold Rothstein compartmentalized his whole life into various segments, some legal, most illegal—a confusing, but profitable, mix of legitimacy and corruption. Most knew him as a gambler. He was much more. His “Big Bankroll” nickname revealed far more than one might surmise. From his earliest days, he carried huge amounts on his conservatively tailored person— eventually up to $100,000.

A big bankroll conferred immense power upon the bearer. Have a scheme? See Rothstein. In a jam? Go to Rothstein. You’d get the money on the spot, no paperwork, no wait. And so, A. R. fenced millions of dollars in stolen government bonds, backed New York’s biggest bootleggers, imported tons of illegal heroin and morphine, financed shady Wall Street bucket shops, bought and sold cops and politicians.

Rothstein wasn’t merely rich, he was smart. That was how he became rich. A. R. was “The Great Brain,” smarter and savvier than those around him—no matter what crowd he was in—the gamblers, the reporters, the politicians, the hoodlums, the showpeople, the “legitimate” businessman. They knew it, he knew it; he prided himself on his overwhelming intelligence, his ability to calmly, coldly manipulate any situation.

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