Dutch Schultz: The Ruthless Beer Baron of Prohibition Rogues Gallery 

Mama. Mama. >> Dutch Schultz is dying. A bloody massacre at the Palace Chop House has left three of his lieutenants dead. While Dutch has miraculously escaped with a single slug in his stomach. Now, as he teeters between life and death, drifting in and out of consciousness, [music] he talks. His sporadic statements are a cryptic yet often poetic ramble couched in gangster [music] vernacular.

>> Mother, mother is the best bet. And don’t let Satan draw you too fast. A boy has never wept nor dashed a thousand Kim. >> Talk to the sword. French Canadian beans. >> Are his ramblings some kind of a code? >> Is he spilling any secrets? >> The cops bring in a stenographer and record [music] his every word.

 They want to know one thing. Who shot you? >> But Dutch doesn’t know [music] who hit him. He has many powerful enemies. And even if he did know his killer, he wouldn’t tell the cops. But now as he lays dying, his [music] thoughts turn reflective. A parade of images looking back over an extraordinary life. [music] The roaring 20s, prohibition [music] has given rise to a culture of bootleggers, speak easys, and huge criminal empires.

It is into this climate that young Arthur Flegenheimimer, [music] a failed petty thief in hood, gets his first taste of success. After a brief stint working as a [music] gunman for Legs Diamond, Dutch meets Joey Noi, who will become his first and only partner when he invites Dutch [music] to join him in his hub social club speak easy.

>> Noi really gave him his real big chance by making him a partner in that hub social club. I mean, wouldn’t you love somebody who who put you on the path to underworld star them? >> The boys are a quick success and open several more speak easys before deciding to take over the far more lucrative beer distribution [music] racket.

>> By the time they got into the beer racket in the mid 1920s, [music] prohibition had already been flourishing for 5 years. The Bronx was taken care of. It was signed, sealed, and delivered among various racketeers. This was no deterrent to them whatsoever. [music] >> They muscled their way into the racket through a campaign of fear and brutality.

 Their standard business [music] proposal to competitors goes something like this. There are three choices. Get out, stay out, or get rubbed out. Most competitors accept the proposal with the exception of the defiant Rock Brothers. John and Joe Rock own one of the largest breweries in the Bronx. When Dutch and Joey try to take over, Brother John knows that resistance is feudal and bails out.

 But Joe thinks he’s tough enough to stand up to the boys and decides to resist. >> Hey, he was tough enough. Okay. They uh practically crippled him, tied him in a chair, took a gauze that was smeared over a gorrhea infection, and taped it around his eyes. Finally, after extorting a large ransom, [music] Joe Rock’s body is returned to his family, barely alive and well on his way to total blindness.

>> I mean, that’s pretty ruthless. I, you know, that’s that’s really almost inhuman, right? But he did it to prove a to make an example and to show his men exactly I’m the boss. Having established their credentials and effectively eliminating the competition, the boys quickly take over beer [music] distribution in the city.

 They move their headquarters to an armored fortress of an office at a [music] swanky uptown address while the actual distribution is operated out of a huge underground warehouse called the Tins. The boys are big time, living large, having gone from [music] street punks to big shots in a staggeringly fast rise. >> I mean, from a petty street thug to now they’re multi-millionaires in a few short years, right? Forget it.

 They felt like on top of the world, like King Kong. >> In their dominance of the beer distribution racket, Dutch and Joey eclipse their former boss, Legs Diamond. And it’s no secret that Legs is bitter about it. >> Diamond decided that he would have his revenge and lay an ambush for both partners. As it happened, he only got Joey Noli in front of the Chateau Madrid on the evening of October 15th, 1928.

The result was devastating for the Dutchman. Noi was his partner, his brother. Everything that they had had together was now Dutch’s. And for the first time, he could sense himself as a king, an undisputed monarch. >> After Joey’s passing, Dutch becomes even more prominent. In the papers, he’s referred to as the beer baron of the Bronx.

>> When Dutch became the beer baron of the Bronx, he loved the spotlight, of course, uh the homage and respect people paid to him. the average person in the street. [music] He like to go to uh various uh night spots. He may show up at only Madden’s Cotton Club in Harlem. Another night he may go down to the club agonaut in Manhattan. He loved women.

 He was a a party animal. There’s no question about that. He likes the attention and due to the general contempt for prohibition, [music] he is not an unpopular figure. But despite his new high profile and phenomenal success, Dutch remains notoriously tight-fisted [music] and frugal. Unlike other flashy gangsters, he never wears expensive clothes.

 [music] He never pays more than $35 for a suit and $2 for a shirt. I [music] think only queers wear silk shirts, he says. I never bought one in my life. Only a sucker would pay $ 15 or $20 [music] for a silk shirt. But one outfit Dutch does not skimp on is his crew. He begins to surround himself with the best gunmen in the city, assembling a lethal force.

>> Let me tell you something. He chose wisely for his aid decamps for his men. He chose very wisely because they were tough. >> Duchess lieutenants are the toughest in the city. Killers like Bo Weinberg, Abe Landau, and Lulu Rosenr. You could have took over a South American government with the men that he had.

 Every one of them was a stone cold killer. Really, especially Vincent Cole. Vincent Mad Dog Cole [music] is Dutch’s most vicious gunman. And now that Joey Noi is out of the picture, Cole demands to be cut in on a piece of the action [music] and made a partner. But Dutch’s one and only partner is now dead and buried.

 and his answer to Cole sets [music] off an explosive rivalry and one of the bloodiest conflicts in gangland history. [music] Life is good for young Dutch Schultz. He’s in [music] his late 20s, fabulously wealthy, living it up and maintaining a fairly high profile. After all, prohibition has made the [music] bootleger a necessary, even a respectable part of society.

 But despite his [music] brutal business tactics, Dutch does have his own code of ethics. I may do a lot of lousy things, he says, but I will [music] never make a living off of a woman or narcotics. There is a philosophy he had which is that everything in life comes through deceit, force, power um and honesty and integrity and all those things that we value are lies that they’re wolves and sheep and the ideas to be one of the wolves.

Everything seems to be going swimmingly for the Dutchman, and he probably would continue to thrive [music] if it wasn’t for the ambitions of young Vincent Cole. >> Vincent Cole brought more travail down on the Dutchman’s head than the whole New York City Police Department combined. >> Vincent [music] Mad Dog Cole probably could be a screen idol if he wasn’t so gun crazy.

 The handsome 21-year-old has come up through the ranks working with Dutch as a hired gun for Legs Diamond and now for Dutch himself. Together with his older brother, [music] Peter, Vincent Cole has become one of the most feared and respected guns in the city. And now [music] he wants to be cut in on his old pal Dutch’s operation. >> The Dutchman turned him down flatly. No.

>> Cole went under war pit. Dutchman’s trucks, beer trucks were being hijacked. His men were being murdered, truck drivers murdered. >> In terms of fatalities, the Schulz coal war was one of the most violent in the history of New York City. The war lasted about eight or nine months and there was no counting the number of people slain in it.

 The lowest estimates were 10 up to 50. Cole was willing to take Schultz on and taking him on meant that he was willing to try to kill Gut Schultz himself. He was crazy Cole. There’s no doubt about that. And which meant that he was capable of doing anything. >> There’s only one man that Schultz actually feared in his entire career and that was Vincent Cole.

 He was terrified of Cole. Everyone was terrified of Cole. >> Dutch Schulz was very, very scarce around town. Instead of his usual flamboyant style, okay, he was very scarce. >> It’s no exaggeration to say that he was hiding out in basements. He had as an opponent a mandor killer who would stop at nothing to eliminate him. >> The Schulz cold war got so bad that Dutch Schills had the cops guarding Schill’s beer trucks.

 The irony of using the police [music] to guard illegal beer deliveries is a good indication of the level of corruption rotting through New York politics during this lawless decade. But Dutch is so driven to distraction by the relentless cold that he takes it even a step further. >> Dutch actually went into the 42nd precinct in the Bronx one time and asked the detectives there if they would kill Mad Dog Call.

 He actually had the nerve to ask the captain, “If any one of your men in this prison shows me a notch, a Vincent Cole notch, I’ll buy them a mansion in Westchester County.” In that time, sometimes gangsters disguise themselves as police. You know, in the Valentine massacre in Chicago, some of the gunmen were were dressed as police, but they were not real police officers.

 Dutch wanted to go a step beyond and use real police officers to do the killing. >> But Dutch’s fear proves to be wellfounded [music] when Cole executes a hit so horrific that it blows the war wide open, bringing unbearable heat down on them and earning Cole [music] the title of mad dog. [music] It’s a hot July day in New York as a group of gangland mercenaries get in a car heading for Spanish Harlem.

 Their target, Joey Rao, one of Dutch Schultz’s chief lieutenants, is hanging out on the street where families and children are playing, trying to escape the heat. The hit goes terribly wrong. Joey Rayo is left without a scratch while two young children are gravely wounded and one 5-year-old boy, Michael [music] Vanali, lies dead.

The baby massacre, as it came to be called, led to an explosion of public indignation at the gang wars which were raging in New York. The idea of a 5-year-old kid to be gunned down in a beer war was considered to be the utmost act of [music] barbarism that New York had seen. Oh, forget about the murder of the innocents.

 I mean, it’s one thing killing each other. Like Bugsy said, Bugsy Seagull, we only kill each other. But to kill an innocent baby, the public was getting awfully tired of this indiscriminate [music] street shooting. They were beginning to realize that it wasn’t just gangsters killing each other, but that it was was exacting a terrible price on society and the justice system.

>> Here was a case where uh something unspeakable happened. It made things harder for all gangsters. >> After the baby killing, the New York mafia figured it was very bad for public relations. And that’s when Dutch started to become an outsider. Dutch is ostracized by the mafia, which by this time is trying [music] to distance itself from this kind of street fighting. He is an outsider.

Dutch doesn’t [music] realize it yet, but it’s this outsider status and his rough and tumble street mentality which will ultimately [music] prove to be his downfall. But for now, the carnage continues as the bodies of gangland foot soldiers continue [music] to pile up in the streets.

 Failing to get at the mad dog himself, Dutch strikes a lethal blow by rubbing out his beloved [music] brother, Peter. >> Vincent took his brother’s passing very bad, and he told a couple of gunmen that were with him that day, “When I grab that Dutchman, I wish I had him in my hands now. I’m going to rip his eye out of his head and eat it.

” That’s exactly the type of personality we’re talking about. By now, the Sheld war is raging out of control. Now it is personal. A no holds bar blood fest. Dutch puts a $50,000 bounty on Mad Dog’s head. On the night of February 1st, 1932, a group of Schultz trigger men [music] decimate one of Cole’s suspected hideouts on Commonwealth Avenue, leaving four of his men dead, but not catching the [music] elusive Cole himself.

Commonwealth Avenue massacre should have been was a major warning to Vincent Cole that he was highly vulnerable. He chose to disregard the warning. After the Commonwealth Avenue, Cole knows his days [music] are numbered. Most of his troops have been killed. He is starved for cash and he is being hunted by Dutch Schultz.

On the morning of February 8th, not a week after the massacre, Vincent emerges briefly from hiding, just long enough to make a phone call. This vicious war that took about 40 lives on both sides, all right, ended in a telephone boot. >> Shortly after Vince pumps a couple of coins into the phone, one of Schultz’s gunmen, [music] probably Bo Weinberg, pumps 15 lead slugs into Cole’s body, shattering the glass of the phone booth.

but miraculously not even touching [music] the wood frame. When Vincent [music] Cole takes his last breath, there’s no doubt that Dutch Schultz breathes a big sigh of relief. He’s eliminated one of his biggest [music] problems. Yet bigger problems loom ahead. Prohibition with all its glorious riches is coming [music] to an end, and all the rules are changing.

>> [music] >> The top figures of organized crime are coming together to form a national crime syndicate. Bugsy Seagull, Meer Lansky, Frank Costello, Lepki Bookalter, and Lucky Luchiano. Yet Dutch Schultz is not invited to this new syndicate [music] and remains an outsider. >> To invite him in meant running risks for themselves.

 Dutch Schultz had a capacity for being in the news all the time. And uh that’s very unhealthy for organized crime. They don’t like that. >> Dutch develops an uneasy relationship with the new [music] syndicate but remains an outsider. For now, he’s still the beer baron. But as repeal [music] becomes eminent, his empire is vulnerable.

 If he is to survive, he needs to find a new [music] racket. It’s in the face of this looming crisis that Dutch will make the shrewdest move of his career. >> [music] [music] >> What is going through Dutch Schultz’s mind as he deliriously rambles on his deathbed? Jagged reflections of a life in crime. Is he afraid? Does he [music] feel any guilt for the lives he destroyed? Dutch is not a religious man.

 [music] He was born Jewish but had never practiced his faith. Yet he is about to receive a profound biblical message. As Dutch >> [music] >> lay dying, a telegram is delivered to the hospital. It says simply, “As ye sow, so shall [music] ye reap.” Signed, Madame Queen of Policy. Madame Queen of Policy, also known as the Tiger from Marseilles, is in fact Miss Stephanie Sinclair, a feisty female policy banker who was one of Dutch’s victims in his hostile takeover of the Harlem numbers racket.

 But unlike her male counterparts, Madame Queen stands up to the Dutchman. She even has the audacity to go to the local police and complain about Dutch taking over her racket. >> The Mr. Schulz is trying to make trouble for me, but I set up a meeting with him next week and it is then I will make my position clear that she was able to dominate uh practically that whole numbers racket in Harlem, the only woman ever and that Dutch Schulz was able to wipe out every other banker and they were all male. He never touched her.

Madame Queen’s [music] bitterness is understandable. But for Schultz, the move into Harlem is also a matter of survival. >> By 1931, anyone could see that the [music] prohibition was going to be coming to an end. He looked around, saw that the policy field was ripe, and he went into it. The numbers [music] racket, or policy as it was called, is tremendously popular in Harlem for the [music] simple reason that one can bet as little as a penny or a nickel.

 At odds of 600 [music] to1, even a penny paid $6, a month’s worth of groceries in depression [music] era Harlem. Organized crime tends to look down on policy as a nickel and dime [music] racket. But Dutch sees an opportunity and begins a blitzkrieg through Harlem, utilizing the [music] same strong armed tactics he had used in taking over the beer trade to take over the minorityowned policy banks and organize them into [music] his own combination.

Eventually, through Duchess shrewd management, those nickels and dimes add up to a $20 million a year racket. There is only one minor problem with the policy racket. [music] It is illegal. And constant busts and police raids are an occupational hazard. So, Dutch acquires the legal skills of Dixie Davis, the best policy attorney in the city to keep the revolving doors of justice spinning.

 Dixie becomes his personal attorney and adviser. He also helps Dutch make an important political connection by introducing him to Tamonn Hall boss Jimmy Hines. They meet in a car on 6th Avenue in Chelsea. And before the ride is over, Hines is on Duchess payroll to the tune of $500 a week plus expenses.

 Well, Harlem, of course, was Jimmy Hines territory. That’s that’s where Jimmy Hines was the was the political boss. And with the support of Jimmy Hines and Jimmy Hines political connections with police and district attorneys and that it kind of smooth the transition for Dutch. >> Well, most of the municipal judges were corrupt and so a man like Hines being as high up as he was in the Tam organization uh was enormously valuable to Dutch Schultz.

Although he is technically a politician, there is very little [music] difference between the way Dutch runs his rackets and the way Hines runs his influence [music] pedaling racket. He is brutal, violent, and does much of his business on street corners outside of bars. A word from Hines can fix almost [music] anything from the courts to the police and everything in between.

Dutch’s empire is blossoming and he has branched out into a number of different rackets. One of his most profitable is the restaurant union in which restaurant owners are compelled to pay Dutch for protection. If the owners choose not to join the union, [music] well then they discover exactly what they need protection against.

 A stink bomb would be thrown into their restaurant at the height of either lunch or dinner and make all the meal unpalatable for the guests. As unpalatable as it may be, the restaurant owners join and pay dues to Dutch’s Metropolitan Restaurant Workers Association. And the man in charge of running and collecting dues for this union is Julie Martin, who makes the fatal mistake of attempting to embezzle from the Dutchman.

>> Something very, very bad is going to happen, you know, [clears throat] if you crossed him. really uh something really black will definitely happen to you. >> Dutch confronts Julie and accuses him of stealing his money. Julie pleads [music] and tries to explain. Dutch seems calm and reasonable until suddenly he casually whips [music] out his pistol.

>> Well, he just took the gun out and blasted the guy. No, no, no questions, no talk, no nothing. It was like drinking a cup of coffee. It was like nothing. >> Dutch is questioned about Julie Martin’s murder, but never indicted. He is above the law. He owns the law, at least for now. But things are changing.

 The public is sick of corruption rotting the city, and Mayor LaGuardia is elected, riding a sweeping tide of reform and vowing to clean up. Laguadia was a new voice and and and a different voice. I mean, he was uh tough and uh he was independent. He certainly made big changes in the city. >> But LaGuardia isn’t the only new candidate voted into office.

>> Jimmy Hines did get $30,000 from Dutch to support the election of a district attorney in New York County, that’s Manhattan, in 1933. $30,000 would have been a pretty considerable sum at that time. >> Duchess candidate William Copelan Dodge is a psy completely ineffectual as district attorney, but then again that’s the idea.

 He continues to botch the job of fighting crime in the city until something extraordinary happens. The grand jury, ordinarily a rubber stamp committee, rebelss against the district attorney, an unprecedented maneuver which sends a shock wave through New York City. uh it was obvious that he was not doing his job. He was not pursuing uh the big criminals.

 The grand jury for once took matters into its own hands >> and it became what’s what is known as a runaway grand jury. They ignored the district attorney and began their own investigation and issued their own report on organized crime here in New York City. The runaway grand jury becomes a catalyst for public outrage at political corruption and pressure is put on the governor to appoint a special prosecutor.

>> The pressure was so great that the governor then had to appoint someone who the public demanded uh namely Thomas Dwey. >> Thomas Dwey has already earned a reputation as an effective and fearless prosecutor [music] by the age of 31. Talented, fierce, and incorruptible, he is the one man the underworld fears, and the public demands him.

 [music] Everybody said, “This is the man for the job. He’s got the legal skills. He’s got the energy, the youth, the character, the fearlessness to go out and do the job that has to be done on the rackets here in New [music] York City.” >> That Dwey was a very, very formidable prosecutor. After Dwey came in, his goose was cooked.

 Everyone knew that once Dwey focused on him as he or was going to do, then he was finished. >> In fact, Dwey is preparing to not only indict Dutch, but to make an example of him. He plans to employ the new techniques pioneered in the recent conviction [music] of Al Capone. >> Dwey utilized the method of going after famous gangsters [music] and the only way that they could get them since they they couldn’t get them for any actual crime that they committed, but to get them on [music] tax evasion.

On January 25th, 1933, Dwey indicts [music] the Dutchman on federal tax evasion charges, claiming that he’d made $481,637.35 over the last 3 years. Finally, [music] Dutch finds himself in a mess that all of his money and power can’t fix. Faced with the prospect of a long prison stay, Dutch Schultz does something [music] startling.

Dutch Schultz is in serious trouble. He’s got that untouchable [music] prosecutor Thomas Dwey on his back and he’s facing a federal wrap for tax evasion. Faced with a situation he can’t bribe or shoot his way out of, Dutch [music] goes on the land. For the next 22 months, Dutch goes underground and becomes one of the most wanted men in [music] the country.

 In New York City alone, 50,000 wanted posters and 18,000 men in blue are out looking [music] for Dutch Schultz. So where does Dutch find his sanctuary from this dreadful manhunt? Right at home in New York City. >> With money, you could do a lot of things. If you’re on the land and you take care of people the right way financially, they’re going to keep their mouths closed.

They’re they’re not going to blow, you know, a sugar cane. He continued to go to nightclubs. He continued to live in New York City. And even though his uh wanted poster was up in all the post offices, he continued to evade capture for 22 months. Dutch does maintain several hideouts around town and in the country.

 But one of his favorite hangouts during this fugitive period is Polly Adler’s notorious house of prostitution. It’s ironic that although Dutch refuses to deal in the flesh trade, he certainly has no problem indulging in it and will while away many days and nights under the cover or under the covers of Paulie’s house.

 His high-minded ethics [music] apparently don’t extend to monogamy either. For by this time, Dutch is married to a [music] sweet-faced 19-year-old former hatcheck girl named Francis. Francis has already borne the Dutchman a daughter and is soon to deliver him a son. She puts up [music] with Arthur’s shenanigans and prowling and accepts it dutifully as part of the life. Besides, he isn’t all bad.

 In fact, Arthur can be quite sweet and doing [music] a fugitive has also given him a chance to indulge in one of his other great passions, reading. And when he isn’t frolicking with the call girls, Dutch [music] might be found at home reading aloud to Francis in bed. >> He was a very literate and well- read person.

 He read Shakespeare, Dickens, uh Plato. >> Dutch has a voracious appetite for knowledge and tries to make up for his lack of education through reading. He reads everything from novels to science to medical texts to history. He is particularly fascinated by Napoleon and relates strongly to the figure of the tragic emperor.

 Dutch even reads a manual on English grammar and tells a group of reporters, “Hey fellas, when you write this up, don’t forget to split my infinitives.” It may not be difficult for Dutch to stay underground during these early years of the depression. But by 1935, public opinion is changing. FDR is in the White House and the [music] federal government is cracking down.

 The evils of gang war, gambling, vice, political corruption, and organized crime can be eliminated from the American scene. Jay Edgar Hoover and his FBI Gmen have recently [music] become heroes after gunning down John Dillinger in Chicago. And the Treasury Department has stunned everyone by putting Capone away.

 Now the Secretary [music] of the Treasury, Henry Morgan thou turns his attention to Dutch Schultz. >> My father thought he’s just flaunting the law. He called Hoover and um uh he called Aguadia and and said, “We’ve all got to work together, Treasury agents, FBI, New York City police, and and uh find this bomb.” >> The action is swift.

 Hoover names Dutch Schultz public enemy number one within the bureau. And both he and LaGuardia pursued Dutch with new vigor. Dutch can feel the heat and knows it’s [music] just a matter of time. I think he realized it was a coordinated effort to to find him and that they would find him. I mean, you know, a man that lived the way he did in his lifestyle, if people really wanted to find him, they were going to find him.

>> Finally, Dutch decides to face the music and ceremoniously surreners to local law officers in Albany. For the first time since he was a teenager, Dutch spends a week in jail awaiting a hearing and prepares for his trial in Syracuse. Arriving to face the jury in New York was Arthur Flegenheim, right? More famous or infamous as Dutch Schultz, prohibition mobster and beer baron.

 The trial in Syracuse is a real cliffhanger. The government [music] has prepared a meticulous case detailing Dutch’s enormous income and expenses and calling the few witnesses brave or [music] stupid enough to testify against him. But the jury deliberates for only a day and a half before emerging [music] completely deadlocked.

Dutch is exuberant over the hung jury, but the celebration won’t last long. The government announces [music] that it will retry the case in the tiny upstate hamlet of Malone. >> It was probably a little bit like the day that Babe Ruth came to town. When Babe Ruth came to town, they had parade for him and I don’t believe we had one for Dutch Schultz, but uh he uh was a very prominent figure from the city.

Dutch decides to spend some time in Malone before the trial. He wants to do some pre-trial publicity, meet [music] the town’s folk, and attempt to buy their loyalty. He came here, as I recall, four or 5 days before the trial was to commence. He immediately started going around to various restaurants and bars, ingratiating himself.

>> Any place he went, if it was had you spend a dollar, it be 10 or something like that. And I was going in cigar cigars and he had just finished getting his cigars and he picking them up at the counter and he threw down a bill and he walked out and all I can recall is the man in the cigar picked up the bill and he said, “Gosh, I wish I had more customers like that.

” >> But after a few days, the judge decides to throw Dutch in jail for the course of the trial. He was in the jail and he was brought under guard but uh very very nice guard uh to the baseball games and uh was was a guest at the baseball games. >> Of course, Dutch doesn’t rely solely on his charm and good looks for his defense.

 He also adds two local attorneys to his formidable defense team. My dad was hired to handle Schultz’s defense at the trial here in Malone. My father knew he was a very undesirable character, but he was obviously a a very bright man. [clears throat] He just couldn’t help but feel it was too bad he got pointed in that direction. >> The trial itself is a dry two-eek [music] parade of facts and figures through the stifling July heat.

Then finally on August 2nd, [music] 1935, after 28 hours of deliberation, the jury returns. The courtroom [music] is jam-packed with press and onlookers as tension fills the room. The Dutchman [music] stands stoically as the verdict is read. Not guilty. [music] And the next thing we heard out there was a shouting and a clapping [music] that came from the courthouse.

 But that lasted about that long because that’s about as long as it took the judge to pound his camel, which we heard very very clearly outside. Uh and that’s when he delivered his reprimand to the jury. >> Before I discharge you, he says, I will have to say that your verdict is such that it shakes the confidence of law-abiding people in integrity and truth.

 It will be apparent to all who have followed the evidence in this case that you have reached a verdict based not on the evidence but on some other reason. Dutch’s victory in court comes as a big surprise to a lot of folks in the city who had written him off. And no one is more surprised than Dutch’s old pal and second in command Bo Weinberg.

 For a long time, Lucky Luchano had cast covetous eyes on the Dutchman’s policy empire, and so he entered into negotiations with Bo Weinberg in order to take it over. >> Schulz gave him a gift, a special pair of cement boots. >> It’s a warm summer night as an anonymous boat floats along the murky waters of the East River.

 On board, Dutch Schultz is watching his old pal Bo squirm and beg for his life as the cold cement hardens around his ankles. Is it tough for Dutch rubbing out his old friend? Or does Dutch enjoy watching him suffer? >> As they lower on Bo Weinberg over the side, the Dutchman tips his head. So long, Bo. Have a nice swim. By the end of 1935, things are starting to unravel for the Dutchman.

 He has beat the government fair and square in Malone only to find himself banished from New York City by an angry mayor LaGuardia. So he sets up shop across the river in Newark and begins to [music] try and make a comeback. Being in exile is difficult for business, but even tougher is being apart from [music] Francis and the son that she has given birth to while he was in Malone.

 It must bring back memories of when his father ran out on the family [music] when he was at the vulnerable age of 14. Now, as he tries to rebuild his empire from New [music] Jersey, like Napoleon on the island of Elba, Dutch may consider other ways of life. I want to settle down and be a plain citizen and be given a chance to earn a living.

 He says, “I want to be Arthur [music] Fleenheimimer and forget there ever was a Dutch Schultz. That bird has too much [music] trouble.” >> Things were closing in on Dutch Schultz by then from all sides. The the other gangsters uh saw the that he was vulnerable that it was only a matter of time before they get him.

 They’re like piranhas. Any one of them who’s seen as vulnerable and and weak will be devoured by others. >> Even as Dutch is fighting for survival, his battles in court are still far from over. Thomas Dwey refuses to [music] let him go and indictes Dutch yet again for tax evasion. This time on a state [music] rap. >> He definitely considered it a personal vendetta on the part of Dwey and he wanted [music] to return the favor.

 He wanted to launch his own mortal vendetta against Dwey. Dutch is furious [music] with what he considers Dwiey’s harassment. But with nowhere else to turn, he is forced to turn to his enemies and makes an unprecedented appearance at a meeting of the National Crime Syndicate. For Dutch Schultz [music] to attend a meeting of the National Syndicate would have been a scene filled with tension.

 [music] Here was an outsider, someone who with whom they generally prefer not to deal with. Dutch lays his case before the committee. Dwey is a menace and a threat to them all. Therefore, he proposes that Dwey must be killed. It’s an outrageous [music] proposal, just the kind of bloody diplomacy they’ve come to expect from Dutch.

 But the proposal is [music] considered and it’s put to a vote. >> To me, the deciding vote was Lepki and Luchiano. Killing Dwey would be very bad for business. >> They realized that if the special prosecutor was killed, I think as one of them said, the whole world will come down on us.

 The vote on the Dwey hit is a resounding no. Dutch is livid and storms out of the meeting vowing to kill Dwey himself and [music] promising to do the deed within 48 hours. Little does he know that with his pronouncement of his intent to kill Dwey, Dutch effectively signs his own death warrant. Lewis Lepki Buckalter said, “We have to kill Dutch before he can kill Dwey.

” Now, it also happened to work out to their business interests. They get rid of this wild man who’s going to bring a lot of heat on them. And two, they get control of [music] Dutch’s empire. They figured, hey, why kill Dwey and then suffer [music] in the pocket when we could hit Dutch, take all we’ll gain by taking him out.

 Understand? We’re going to gain. The contract [music] is given to two of the top guns at the infamous Murder Incorporated. Mendy Weiss and Charlie the Bug Workman. Gruesome trigger men [music] with countless corpses to their credit. It’s the contract of a lifetime, a glamour job to kill the Dutchmen. While in Newark, Dutch has begun conducting most of his business at the Palace Chop House.

 He favors this particular establishment because it is long and narrow, and with his table situated at the back, it makes it particularly difficult to sneak up on him. But on the night of October 23rd, 1935, the Dutchman’s back [music] is going to need watching. It’s late in the evening and Dutch has already taken meetings with his lawyers, bail bondsmen, [music] and wife Francis at his table in the back of the chop house.

 He’s just now getting down to the business of going [music] over the figures from his troubled rackets with his faithful sidemen Otto Abadaba Berman, Abe Blandau, and Lulu Rosenr. When the [music] assassins arrive, the killers march into [music] the chop house with guns drawn, stopping only to absently pump a bullet into a guy in the men’s room before they burst into Dutch’s inner sanctum and open fire.

Bullets are flying. Dutch’s men go down. But as the bodies hit the ground and the dust settles, the assassins are shocked to discover [music] that Dutch is not among them. It’s then that Charlie the Bug realizes that the guy in the bathroom is none other than Dutch himself. Rosen with five slugs in them.

 asked the bartender for change of a quarter so he can use the phone. Finally, Dutch staggers out of the bathroom, clutching a bullet wound in [music] his stomach and drops face down on the table, mortally wounded, but still very much alive. Dutch and his men are rushed to Newark County Hospital. Within hours, Abidavaba, Abe, and Lulu will all expire, [music] but Dutch will hang on for 20 hours, during which he will drift in and [music] out of consciousness and deliver his famous deathbed swan song.

 The text of his statements are practically a glossery [music] of gangster lingo and are so rich in form that they will later be studied by scholars as a piece of American folk literature. [music] Everyone from the police to historians have tried to crack the enticing code of these cryptic statements. Did he spill any secrets? Did he [music] reveal anything about himself? I don’t think he made any deathbed confessions.

 I, you know, he he said a lot of wild things at the end. There’s no doubt that Dutch’s deathbed swan song has poetry in it, literal poetry. There’s some lines of uh that scan as pentameter. It does have this wonderful Joysician stream of consciousness quality about it. There’s some secret uh language that uh may be terribly revealing.

 I mean, even some people looking for it to see where his where he hid his money. It’s impossible to [music] know what’s going through Dutch’s mind as death closes in on him. And Dutch’s final words, [music] like his life, remain an enigma. Finally, at 8:35 p.m. on October 24th, [music] 1935, Dutch Schultz is pronounced dead.

As planned, Lucky Luciano and the other organized crime figures [music] divide up the spoils of Dutch’s empire, only to find themselves the target of that pest, Thomas Dwey, just [music] as Dutch has predicted. Thomas Dwey is elected governor of New York and almost becomes the president [music] of the United States.

 While Dutch Schultz, a relic of the barefisted, roughneck [music] days of the hoochfueled roaring 20s, rises to the ranks of legend. The bottom line on Dutch is that he was obsolete. The skills that made him a big boss in the 20s were not the skills that were necessary to remain at the top in the 30s. He he was too wild.

 He has gotten a sort of bum wrap in history because he’s been depicted as a deeply pathological uh murderer. If there’s some truth to that, it’s altogether insignificant compared to Dutch Schultz as a impressive gang leader. Nobody, and I mean nobody, could stay on top forever. That was his time to go and that’s it.