Arnold Rothstein (January 17, 1882 – November 6, 1928),[1] nicknamed "The Brain", was an American racketeer, crime boss, businessman, and gambler who became a kingpin of the Jewish Mob in New York City.

Rothstein was widely reputed to have organized corruption in professional athletics, including conspiring to fix the 1919 World Series.

He was also a mentor of future crime bosses Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Bugsy Siegel, and numerous others.

His illegal empire was broken up and distributed among a number of other underworld organizations and led in part to the downfall of Tammany Hall and the rise of reformer Fiorello La Guardia.

[6] In 1919, Rothstein's agents allegedly paid members of the Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.

[7] Summoned to Chicago to testify before a grand jury investigating the incident, Rothstein said he was an innocent businessman, intent on clearing his name and his reputation.

Rothstein testified: The whole thing started when Abe [Attell] and some other cheap gamblers decided to frame the Series and make a killing.

Katcher went on, "Thus, on the official record and on the basis of [State Attorney Maclay] Hoyne's statement, Rothstein was never involved in the fixing of the Series.

Hildreth entered an outstanding three-year-old, Grey Lag, on the morning of the race, causing Sporting Blood's odds to rise to 3–1.

He became the first to import illegal Scotch whisky in his own fleet of transatlantic freighters, knowing that high-end booze would be the "chic thing to have.

"[12] With his banking support and high-level political connections, Rothstein soon managed to end-run Tammany Hall to the street gangs.

Subsequently, his criminal organization included such underworld notables as Meyer Lansky, Jack "Legs" Diamond, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, and Dutch Schultz, whose combined gangs and double-dealing with their own respective bosses subverted the entire late 19th-century form of political gangsterism.

[citation needed] Rothstein frequently mediated disputes among the New York gangs and reportedly charged a hefty fee for his services.

[4] On November 4, 1928, Rothstein was shot and wounded during a business meeting at Manhattan's Park Central Hotel at Seventh Avenue near 55th Street.

Rothstein stalled for time, saying he would not be able to pay until after the elections of November 1928, when he expected to win $550,000 for backing Herbert Hoover for president and Franklin D. Roosevelt for governor.

[21] According to Cook, Thompson later told some of his acquaintances that the killer had not been McManus, but his bag man Hyman Biller, who fled to Cuba shortly afterward.

At the time of Rothstein's death, Prohibition was in full swing, various street gangs were battling for control of liquor distribution, and the carefully constructed political boss structure of the late 19th century had collapsed.

Frank Erickson, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and other former associates split up Rothstein's criminal enterprises after his death.

The already-weakened Tammany Hall had relied on Rothstein to control the new street gangs, and his death finished the corrupt political organization.