Schultz Gang
| Also Known As | Dutch Schultz gang Schultz organization |
|---|---|
| Origins | |
| Founding Location | Bronx, New York City |
| Territory | The Bronx Upper Manhattan and other New York City rackets |
| Lineage | |
| Successor(s) | Dispersed among separate New York gambling and racketeering partnerships (not a documented institutional successor) |
| Profile | |
| Structure | Leader-centered gang and racketeering organization; complete roster and hierarchy uncertain |
| Activities | Bootlegging and beer distribution Policy and numbers gambling Extortion and protection Labor and other rackets |
| Politics | |
| Leader | Dutch Schultz |
| Notable Members | Bo Weinberg (early associate and manager) Otto Berman (accountant and adviser) |
| Rivals | Vincent Coll (during the 1930s gang conflict) |
| Activity | |
| Status | Dispersed after Schultz's death |
| Years Active | c. 1920s–1935 (exact founding date uncertain) |
The Schultz Gang—also called the Dutch Schultz gang—was a New York City criminal organization led by Dutch Schultz (Arthur Flegenheimer) during Prohibition and the early 1930s. Contemporary reporting used “Schultz gang” as an organizational label and associated it with policy gambling, bootlegging, and the activities of Schultz's aides.[1][2]
The gang was a leader-centered criminal enterprise, not a formal ethnic organization. Schultz was Jewish-American, but ancestry or neighborhood association does not establish membership in the gang. The surviving evidence also does not support treating every later partner of Schultz, or every participant in New York's broader underworld, as a member of the organization.
Formation and expansion
[edit]Schultz grew out of Bronx bootlegging and street-crime circles during Prohibition. Later histories describe his organization as expanding from beer and protection rackets into policy gambling and other operations, although they do not establish a single charter date or a complete founding roster.[3][4]
The gang's operations were built around Schultz's personal authority and a group of trusted managers and associates. Bo Weinberg was an early prominent associate, while Otto Berman was associated with the organization's accounting and strategic advice.[4] These documented relationships do not by themselves establish a fixed rank system for every associate.
Rackets and territory
[edit]The Schultz Gang operated in the Bronx and maintained rackets reaching into other parts of New York City. Its activities included bootlegging, beer distribution, protection, and policy or numbers gambling.[3][4]
In February 1935, while Schultz was in hiding, police reported that he continued to direct a policy racket and addressed a mass meeting of aides. The report demonstrates both the contemporary use of the gang's apparatus and Schultz's continuing influence, but it does not provide a complete membership list or prove that every aide held a formal command rank.[2]
Contemporary Senate organized-crime hearings later collected testimony and investigative material about Schultz's associates and New York gambling operations. Such material combines testimony, committee assertions, police information, and attributed reports; it should therefore be used with attribution rather than as automatic proof of a unified national hierarchy.[5][6]
Conflict and decline
[edit]The gang was involved in conflicts among New York bootleggers and racketeers. Contemporary accounts connect Vincent Coll with violence during the struggle around Schultz's organization, but responsibility for particular acts should not be generalized beyond the specific evidence.[3][4]
In 1933, Schultz was indicted for tax-related offenses and spent periods avoiding prosecution. In August 1935, police said members of the Schultz gang were attempting to force him to return to New York and resume control of his affairs.[1] The contemporary report supports the existence of an organized group of aides acting in his interest; it does not establish that the gang had become independent of Schultz.
On October 23, 1935, Schultz was shot at the Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey, and died the following day. The killing removed the gang's central leader. Afterward, its personnel, rackets, and connections were dispersed into separate gambling and racketeering partnerships rather than passing intact to a documented successor organization.[3][4][6]
Organizational limits
[edit]This article covers the gang identified in contemporary and historical sources as the Schultz Gang or Dutch Schultz gang. It does not equate the organization with the wider National Crime Syndicate, with later gambling partnerships involving former associates, or with a generalized “Jewish Mafia.” Cooperation, shared rackets, and personal association are not treated as proof of formal subordination or institutional succession.
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “Schultz Gang Seen Forcing His Return, Police Say”, The New York Times, August 5, 1935.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 “Schultz in Hiding Ran Policy Racket”, The New York Times, February 27, 1935.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Albert Fried, The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980; revised edition 1993).
- ↑ U.S. Senate, Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, part 7: New York–New Jersey (1950–1951).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 U.S. Senate, Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, part 18 (1951).