Read Online Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series by David Pietrusza - Free Book Online
Authors: David Pietrusza
Tags: General, Social Science, Crime, History, Biography & Autobiography, Sociology, True Crime, 20th Century, Biography, New York, New York (State), New York (N.Y.), Criminology, Urban, Criminals & Outlaws, Criminals, Baseball, Sports & Recreation, Nineteen twenties
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continue your little game some other time." And that's just what they did. Some said Arnold won $4,000 from the game at McGraw's. All in all, A. R.'s "friends" lost $10,000 backing Conaway.
On the way to the baths, Conaway and Rothstein agreed to meet in Philadelphia for $5,000. One can't be sure their rematch occurred, although those claiming it did say Rothstein won again.
More important than winning or losing, however, was the sheer notoriety of the match. Its marathon nature attracted major interest. The newspapers-and Manhattan boasted a dozen dailies at the time-picked up the story and reported the match as the longest continuously played game in history. They lionized the daring of the participants; the stakes wagered by them and their frenzied supporters; that it was all played out at the great John McGraw's.
When the match began, Arnold Rothstein was just one of the horde of gamblers infesting Times Square, when it concluded he was not just $4,000 wealthier, he was Broadway's newest celebrity.
AT SARATOGA SPRINGS Arnold Rothstein further honed his skills as a professional gambler, operated a casino, ran his own stable of racehorses, plotted a World Series fix.
And took a bride.
In 1904, when A. R. first discovered Saratoga, he was somewhat late to the game. New Yorkers had traveled to the upstate New York spa for decades. Some visited the baths and imbibed Saratoga's pungently healthful mineral waters. Most, however, came to play the horses. Saratoga first discovered the races in 1847, to be as exact as one can be about such things. In 1863 professional gambler and member of Congress John "Smoke" Morrisey opened a new track, the grand racecourse that attracted the rich and famous of the Gilded Age, including President Ulysses S. Grant, presidential hopefuls James G. Blaine and Samuel J. Tilden, Civil War heroes Philip Sheridan and William Tecumseh Sherman, and financiers Jim Fisk and August Belmont I.
The town featured more than the track and the baths. The Grand Union Hotel, America's largest, cost $3 million to build in 1864, and featured a block-long banquet hall and a solid mahogany bar much favored by President Grant. The United States Hotel, built a decade later, boasted 768 rooms, 65 suites, and 1,000 wicker rocking chairs upon its front porch. Elegant restaurants abounded. Nearby lake houses, such as Riley's and Moon's, provided equally fabulous cuisine as well as upscale gambling.
Saratoga's racing season runs just one month-August. And each August New York City's preeminent bookmakers arrived by the carload. Many traveled aboard a special rail excursion, known as the "Cavanagh Special" after organizer, bookmaker John C. "Irish John" Cavanagh. First run in 1901, the "Special" proved instantly successful, packing Cavanaugh's fellow bookies into as many as eight cars bound for Saratoga. Bookmaking was then legal, and the best people patronized the best bookmakers. And the best bookmakers even organized their own trade organization, the Metropolitan Turf Association (members known as "Mets"), also headed by Cavanagh. Even in 1888 membership cost $7,000-more than membership in a stock exchange. Mets wore distinctive buttons, and the sight of a Metropolitan Turf Association button almost guaranteed a better class of bet and bettor for its wearer.
Arnold Rothstein wasn't invited to join. Maybe he was slow to pay. Maybe he was already a "sure-thing gambler," not above manipulating events to dramatically increase his chances. He rubbed fellow gamblers the wrong way. He was just a little slicker than the other fellow-and, one way or another, he let you know it. John Cavanagh wouldn't allow Rothstein into the club, but he let him on the train. Starting in 1904 Arnold rode the Cavanagh Special.
On A. R.'s first excursion, three or four associates accompanied him. One of them wasn't a professional gambler, but nonetheless proved notable: twenty-year-old boxer Abe "The Little Champ" Attell. Abe was little,
On the way to the baths, Conaway and Rothstein agreed to meet in Philadelphia for $5,000. One can't be sure their rematch occurred, although those claiming it did say Rothstein won again.
More important than winning or losing, however, was the sheer notoriety of the match. Its marathon nature attracted major interest. The newspapers-and Manhattan boasted a dozen dailies at the time-picked up the story and reported the match as the longest continuously played game in history. They lionized the daring of the participants; the stakes wagered by them and their frenzied supporters; that it was all played out at the great John McGraw's.
When the match began, Arnold Rothstein was just one of the horde of gamblers infesting Times Square, when it concluded he was not just $4,000 wealthier, he was Broadway's newest celebrity.
AT SARATOGA SPRINGS Arnold Rothstein further honed his skills as a professional gambler, operated a casino, ran his own stable of racehorses, plotted a World Series fix.
And took a bride.
In 1904, when A. R. first discovered Saratoga, he was somewhat late to the game. New Yorkers had traveled to the upstate New York spa for decades. Some visited the baths and imbibed Saratoga's pungently healthful mineral waters. Most, however, came to play the horses. Saratoga first discovered the races in 1847, to be as exact as one can be about such things. In 1863 professional gambler and member of Congress John "Smoke" Morrisey opened a new track, the grand racecourse that attracted the rich and famous of the Gilded Age, including President Ulysses S. Grant, presidential hopefuls James G. Blaine and Samuel J. Tilden, Civil War heroes Philip Sheridan and William Tecumseh Sherman, and financiers Jim Fisk and August Belmont I.
The town featured more than the track and the baths. The Grand Union Hotel, America's largest, cost $3 million to build in 1864, and featured a block-long banquet hall and a solid mahogany bar much favored by President Grant. The United States Hotel, built a decade later, boasted 768 rooms, 65 suites, and 1,000 wicker rocking chairs upon its front porch. Elegant restaurants abounded. Nearby lake houses, such as Riley's and Moon's, provided equally fabulous cuisine as well as upscale gambling.
Saratoga's racing season runs just one month-August. And each August New York City's preeminent bookmakers arrived by the carload. Many traveled aboard a special rail excursion, known as the "Cavanagh Special" after organizer, bookmaker John C. "Irish John" Cavanagh. First run in 1901, the "Special" proved instantly successful, packing Cavanaugh's fellow bookies into as many as eight cars bound for Saratoga. Bookmaking was then legal, and the best people patronized the best bookmakers. And the best bookmakers even organized their own trade organization, the Metropolitan Turf Association (members known as "Mets"), also headed by Cavanagh. Even in 1888 membership cost $7,000-more than membership in a stock exchange. Mets wore distinctive buttons, and the sight of a Metropolitan Turf Association button almost guaranteed a better class of bet and bettor for its wearer.
Arnold Rothstein wasn't invited to join. Maybe he was slow to pay. Maybe he was already a "sure-thing gambler," not above manipulating events to dramatically increase his chances. He rubbed fellow gamblers the wrong way. He was just a little slicker than the other fellow-and, one way or another, he let you know it. John Cavanagh wouldn't allow Rothstein into the club, but he let him on the train. Starting in 1904 Arnold rode the Cavanagh Special.
On A. R.'s first excursion, three or four associates accompanied him. One of them wasn't a professional gambler, but nonetheless proved notable: twenty-year-old boxer Abe "The Little Champ" Attell. Abe was little,
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