One certified lunatic mob boss that existed in the opening of the 20th century was Dutch Schultz. He was born in the Bronx in 1902 to Jewish/German parents and his original name was Arthur Flegenheimer. At a very early age, his father had abandoned the family and this made Arthur to take up variety of jobs, which included working at Schultz Trucking Company. Although he was into legitimate work, still he was influenced by the crooks, who were into bootlegging during the Prohibition time.
His life as a mafia
As he got caught by the police officials for the initial time, he stated his name to be ‘Dutch Schulz’ that was the boss’ son’s name, to which he later confessed that this name appeared in the headlines much better than that of his own name ‘Arthur Flegenheimer’.
Quitting this job, he planned to join numbers racket at Harlem, where about $35,000 was bet in a day by the locals. He established a gang, including Otto Berman alias Abbadabba – a mathematical genius, Lulu Rosenkrantz and Bo Weinberg. The black gangsters were invited by the crew to a meeting as the former had control of the Harlem numbers racket and became a partner.
His rise to fame
Schultz was eager to do something else besides Harlem numbers. He took the help of Abbadabba for rigging the numbers game for achieving the goal, the money from which would be diverted to new rackets. He became popular as a mobster who could bear insult of his girlfriend, even spitting on his face, but not anyone stealing from his account. If done, then that person is sure to be dead.
He shot Vincent Cole and Jack Diamonds, which propelled him into big time, after which he had become equal in position to mafia gangsters like Louie Lepke, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Joe Doto and Albert Anastasia. Although he raked in millions of dollars, he spent very less on his suit and shirt.
His later life
His erratic ways only made his crew to become weary of him. An instance was his conversion to Catholicism for evading tax in Malone, New York, which helped him to get acquitted. But it was after his murdering Thomas E. Dewey, the special prosecutor of New York City, going against the syndicate that made him unpopular with them. A conspiracy to kill him was executed on 23rd October 1935, in which he was killed.