Allan May

"Dandy" Phil Kastel

"Dandy" Phil Kastel was a little-known partner of organized crime heavyweights such as Frank Costello and Arnold Rothstein.  Allan May illuminates Kastel in a way that gives you a feel for the ever-changing face of organized crime.

by Allan May

Phillip Kastel had no illusions of becoming a top mobster in the country. However, he hitched his wagon behind two of the most successful crime bosses of all time; Arnold Rothstein and Frank Costello.

Kastel was born and raised, like many Jewish hoodlums, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Some say Kastel went to Canada during World War I to avoid having to serve his country. Whatever the reason, he wound up in Montreal where he operated a nightclub for a short time. After his return, Kastel and his first wife, Daisy, were arrested for swindling a wealthy businessman from New Jersey. In 1919, when the case went to trial, Rothstein’s attorney, William J. Fallon, known as the "Great Mouthpiece," successfully defended Kastel. The close relationship between Kastel and Rothstein lasted until 1928, when the latter was murdered.

Jacob "Yasha" Katzenberg

a/k/a Jacob "Yasha" Katzenberg played a minor role in the history of organized crime, yet he helped bring down some major mobsters and then disappeared forever.

by Allan May

Jacob "Yasha" Katzenberg played a minor role in the history of organized crime. His short, but sweet appearance confirms that narcotic and drug dealing was going on during the 1920s and 1930s and involved both Italian and Jewish mob leaders.

Born in Russia, Katzenberg grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side. In Rich Cohen's nostalgic, if not somewhat misguided, "Tough Jews," he provides us with the following description of Katzenberg:

"I do not know what he looked like, but I have tried to imagine him. I see his eyes as mirrors, reflecting not what he is looking at, but what he will see: mountains, rivers, wars. I imagine him tall and slender, wearing a hood, taking his time – something long prophesied, a nomad who has crossed wastes to get here. Or maybe he was completely unremarkable, just another curly-haired Jew boy in back of Hebrew class, saying the words but thinking only of the presents his bar mitzvah will bring. To me, Yasha Katzenberg was the ultimate example of the wandering Jew, going country to country, east to west, always on the other side of the glass, lost in the wilderness."

In the mid-1920s, Arnold Rothstein saw illegal drugs as an untapped field, one that could be developed and profited from. The drug traffic was unorganized and there was little competition on the level Rothstein chose to enter. In fact, the only competition at that time was provided by unethical doctors. Rothstein's plan was to purchase and sell in quantities so large that no one could compete with him. He could regulate supply and demand on an international basis. In 1923, a kilo of heroin, 2.2 pounds, could be purchased for $2,000. It could then be cut and resold for $300,000.

Arnold Rothstein

Arnold Rothstein is one of those legends that hang on the tip of the tongue -- "Don't tell me, don't tell me, I know who he is."   In "The Last Hours of Mr. Big,"  Allan May tells us not only who Rothstein was, but why the Big Guy finally shot craps.

by Allan May

Known by many names – A. R., Mr. Big, The Fixer, The Big Bankroll, The Man Uptown, and The Brain - Arnold Rothstein seemed more myth than man. He was Meyer Wolfsheim in "The Great Gatsby" and Nathan Detroit in "Guys and Dolls." He was rumored to be the mastermind of the "Black Sox" scandal, the fixing of the 1919 World Series. Arnold Rothstein was gambling, and Arnold Rothstein was money. He was Mr. Broadway and had his own booth at Lindy’s restaurant in Manhattan where he held court. Many know about the life of Arnold Rothstein; few know the details of his death.

"Man reported shot in Park Central Hotel, Seventh Avenue and 56^th Street. Ambulance dispatched."

That was the message recorded at 10:53 p.m. on Sunday, November 4, 1928 by a desk sergeant in Manhattan’s West 47^th Street station. By midnight, the information had been updated to show that Arnold Rothstein, 46 years old of 912 Fifth Avenue had been shot in the abdomen and found near the employee’s entrance of the Park Central Hotel.

Thomas A. Aurelio

In August 1943, Thomas A. Aurelio stood at the threshold of a dream. After nine years as an assistant prosecutor and 12 as a judge in New York City, he was about to be elected to a seat on the Supreme Court for the State of New York. Then Aurelio, in a wiretapped conversation, was overheard swearing his undying loyalty to gangster Frank Costello.
by Allan May

In August 1943, Thomas A. Aurelio stood at the threshold of a dream. After nine years as an assistant prosecutor and 12 as a judge in New York City, he was about to be elected to a seat on the Supreme Court for the State of New York. As the nominee of both the Democratic and the Republican parties, the election of the 48-year-old father of two appeared to be a formality.

Aurelio’s career had the sense of manifest destiny to it. He was a native New Yorker who grew up on the city’s East Side. Educated in the public school system, he went to college at New York University where he also earned a law degree. During World War I he served in Company F of the 51^st Infantry Regiment. After the armistice, he taught American soldiers commercial law in a military school in Germany.

Returning home, Aurelio was admitted to the bar. In 1922, he was appointed assistant district attorney at the age of 27. Mayor Jimmy Walker appointed him a judge in 1931 and four years later he was re-appointed by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. During a glowing swearing-in ceremony La Guardia stated, "I have re-appointed you because I know of your record, and have known you as a boy and a law student. You are the kind of career man I want on the bench." A review of Aurelio’s record as a judge showed his strong support of the police when their efforts brought them into conflict with big-name criminals.

As impeccable as Auerlio’s career had been, a seemingly unrelated event – the murder in January 1943 of Italian-language newspaper editor Carlo Tresca – would inadvertently snare Auerlio and derail his cake walk to the New York Supreme Court.

Mont Tennes and the Birth of the Race Wire. Virtually everyone who has ever been to a race track has used the Daily Racing Form, a newspaper that provides comprehensive information on horse races at tracks around the country.  In this first of a three-part series, Allan May tells the rich, mob-filled history of that small newspaper - so vital to gamblers across the nation.
by Allan May

 After an investigation of mobster Mont Tennes, the Illinois Crime Survey Commission reported, "If the complete life history of Mont Tennes were known in every detail, it would disclose practically all there is to know about syndicated gambling as a phase of organized crime in Chicago in the last quarter century."

Born in Chicago on Jan. 16, 1874, Jacob "Mont" Tennes was the son of German immigrants. Legend has it that one day in the late 1890s he walked into a State Street crap game and walked out with $3,800. Two days later, he was back and doubled his winnings. In 1898, Tennes then used this money to open a saloon and billiard room. His customers were the scions of the old gambler combine, the safe blowers, and confidence men.

In the first decade of the 20^th century, gambling ran wide open in Chicago and was controlled by three syndicates. Mont Tennes and his two brothers, William and Edward, ran the North Side. James O’Leary (whose mother owned the cow that started the Chicago Fire) ruled the South Side, while the Loop district was under control of the infamous Michael Kenna and John J. Coughlin, better known as "Hinky Dink" and "Bath House John." Of the three, Tennes would become the dominant force.

The rise of the Annenbergs. The great Annenberg publishing dynasty that controlled the Daily Racing Form, The Philadelphia Inquirer and TV Guide for decades produced the fortune that allowed Walter Annenberg to establish and endow the prestigious M. L. Annenberg Schools of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California in honor of his disgraced father, a major player in Capone’s underworld.
by Allan May

M. L. Annenberg and the Growth of the Race Wire

The Annenbergs came to Chicago via a remote, desolate village in East Prussia where Moses Louis Annenberg was born in 1878 during a period of brutal persecution of the Jews. On Christmas Eve 1881, anti-Semitic feelings reached a height in nearby Warsaw when several hundred Jews were beaten to death by Christian mobs claiming revenge on "Christ killers." Moses’ father, Tobias, had seen enough. In 1882, he took the small savings he had and traveled alone to America with plans to send for his wife and eight children later. He settled in Chicago and rented a storefront building on State Street where he opened a small grocery store. By 1885, Tobias Annenberg was able to send for his family.

The Annenberg grocery store was located in the "Patch." At the time it was a tough, predominantly Irish neighborhood, which would spawn future race wire service owners James M. Ragen and Arthur B. "Mickey" McBride. Although Tobias tried to raise his children in the Orthodox Jewish religion with its traditional values, the boys – Jacob, Max and Moe -- would have no part of it. Moe came to "despise all religions as traps to keep poor people docile," according to John Cooney, in his book The Annenberg’s. At an early age, he developed a love of gambling from the card and dice games played on the sidewalks of the neighborhood. He would remain a gambler all his life.

The conclusion of Allan May's three part series on the rise and fall of the notorious race wire service.

by Allan May

Part Three: Ragen and McBride and the End of the Race Wire

U. S. Sen. Estes Kefauver once called the Continental Press the nation’s Public Enemy Number One. "In my opinion, the wire service keeps alive the illegal gambling empire which in turn bankrolls a variety of other criminal activities in America."

When Moses Annenberg, under pressure from Capone, disbanded Nation Wide News Service in 1939, Arthur B. "Mickey" McBride established the Continental Press. Born in Chicago in 1888, McBride had a long career in the newspaper business. Recalling an incident as a child, he said he once purchased 50 newspapers for 50 cents, "I sold the batch of papers for $1, and I’ve been making business deals ever since." McBride learned the newspaper circulation business by working for William Randolph Hearst. In 1911, McBride became Hearst’s circulation manager for the Chicago American which took on the Chicago Tribune in a bitter circulation war.