MILLIONAIRE’S MURDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21356, 9 June 1931, Page 8

MILLIONAIRE’S MURDER

UNDERWORLD MYSTERY SOLVED JACK DIAMOND'S “BOSS” GAMBLER WHO WOULD NOT PAY. The news that Jack Diamond, the notorious gang leader, has been arrested and released on bail on the charge of having tortured a lorry driver to extract information about a rival organisa tion, has re-awakened interest in the man on whose shoulders Diamond climbed to uneasy notoriety. That man was Arnold Rothstein, millionaire, gambler and “ racketeer,” who once employed Diamond as his bodyguard. He was shot in the Park Central Hotel, New York City, on November 4, 1928. The police never discovered who killed Rothstein. The affair was extremely mysterious, and until now has remained a mystery. A series of articles has now appeared in the New York Graphic under the signature" Night Hawk,” in which a solution of the mystery iS claimed. t

Arnold Rothstein, it is related, began life selling cotton goods in Chicago. At the age of 23 he had his first encounter with the police, in connection with a gambling episode. Five years later, in 1910, he is stated to have become “the biggest gambler in the world. _ In _ one gambling coup he became a millionaire,'’ but he was not, only a gambler. i He had his place in the underworld, and before long there were few “ rackets ” or gambling houses in New York in which he had no interest.

At the same time he made . himself useful to other gangsters. He became their banker, and, for that reason, was safe from the machine guns and the “rides.” No other gangster ventured to molest him.

But he chose to throw away his immunity and sign his death warrant —a warrant which was not executed until II years later—by one fatal act, committed on May 15, 1917. One of his gambling houses was raided by five other gangsters, who got away with some hundreds of dollars. The men who did it were afterwards arrested on suspicion. In a private interview in prison with Rothstein, they said they had been unaware that it was Rothstein’s house they were raiding, and promised to return the money if they were released. ROTHSTEIN’S REVENGE.

The next day an identification parade was held. The suspects were lined up, and the witnesses who had been ordered to appear were given masks and long cents, and asked to identify them. They refused.

Then Rothstein arrived, refused to don mask or coat, and in a cold fury identified the men. They were given a long term of imprisonment. But Rothstein had broken the rigid code of I the underworld, the code of silence, and from that day his immunity was gone. For a time, however, he ,prospered. His gambling ventures were uniformly successful. He engaged in the drug traffic, in the drink traffic, and in any other kind of such traffic available. He swindled the Bank of the United States out of £32,000. ,

At the same time he was a more dr less respected member of society. He ran horses at race meetings. He courted society women. He spent money like water. But rumoursbegan to spread about him, and he was asked to give up racing, following disclosures regarding “ fixed ” races and bribed jockeys. Following that, his decline was rapid He grew greedy. His big coups became fewer. At the same time his "underworld enemies became bolder. Becoming apprehensive, ho hired Jack Diamond and his brother Eddie as a bodyguard Eddie Diamond was “ put on the spot ” by four rival gangsters, who, with others, were in turn killed by shooting or torture. TELEPHONE TAPPED. In the summer of 1028 the police tapped Rothstein’s telephone line, and were able to intercept his drug consignments. He lost £300,000 in that way. In September ho lost £44,000 in gambling with a gangster named Nigger Nate Raymond. He accused Raymond of cheating, and refused to pay. The underworld knew what would happen then, and leading gangsters hurried to establish alibis. Many of them left New York, including, it is believed. Jack Diamond. On November 4, Rothstein’s chauffeur told him that his house was being watched. 1 He shook off his pursuers, however, and reached a restaurant, where he dined for the last time with a woman friend. Then he was called to the telephone by his associate, George M'Manus, who asked him (speaking, it is disclosed, witli a revolver pressing against his ribs) to go around to the Park Central Hotel, where M'Manus was staying. At the entrance to the hotel a gangster came up to him and gave him a last chance to pay his debt to Raymond. He refused, and died in great agony, shot through the stomach. The man who fired the shot, according to the “ Night Hawk,” was one of Raymond’s creditors, whose name he gives. The murderer walked out of the hotel and escaped, and was last heard of in Chicago.

—On January 15. 1930, Germany had 3,092,000 unemployed. On the same date this year the number has risen to 4,705,000. America has 0,000,000 wholly unemployed and 4,400,000 on part time. This is 23.8 per cent, of the industrial population wholly unemployed and 21 per cent, on part time.