Arnold Rothstein is murdered after the most famous poker game of all time.
November 4, 1928: At the Park Central Hotel in NYC, Arnold Rothstein is shot by a hit-man for refusing to pay $475,000.00 in markers lost in a three day poker game. The gambler George “Hump” McManus was responsible for collecting all debts at the game and was soon arrested for the murder, but was later acquitted for lack of evidence. Rothstein died the next day at Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital in Manhattan.
Arnold Rothstein a/k/a “The Brain,” “Mr. Big,” “The Fixer,” “The Man Uptown,” & “The Big Bankroll” was an American racketeer, businessman and a kingpin of Jewish organized criminal activity in NY and is most remembered for fixing the 1919 World Series .
In his time Rothstein owned several gambling houses including a casino in Saratoga and was the biggest bookmaker in New York. Due to his status, Rothstein was the model for the character “Meyer Wolfsheim” in F Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.”