WEBVTT - girlboss mobboss 0:00:08.285 --> 0:00:14.685 School of Humans. Let's start this episode with a man's 0:00:14.805 --> 0:00:15.485 dying words. 0:00:15.525 --> 0:00:18.045 Why don't we here? They are. 0:00:19.645 --> 0:00:23.165 A boy has never wept nor dashed a thousand kim. 0:00:23.685 --> 0:00:26.565 You can play jacks and girls do that with a 0:00:26.605 --> 0:00:28.445 softball and do tricks with it. 0:00:29.245 --> 0:00:31.045 Oh oh, dog, biscuit. 0:00:31.485 --> 0:00:37.405 And when he is happy, he doesn't get snappy. You 0:00:37.485 --> 0:00:39.525 might hear those and be like, what the fuck does 0:00:39.565 --> 0:00:42.645 that mean? And that is a great question, because we 0:00:42.765 --> 0:00:46.365 don't know. This was the dying utterance of New York 0:00:46.485 --> 0:00:52.165 Jewish mafia kingpen Dutch Schultz in nineteen thirty five. These 0:00:52.205 --> 0:00:55.325 famous last words were recorded by a stenographer working for 0:00:55.405 --> 0:01:00.085 the police. They've been immortalized in books and movies, and 0:01:00.125 --> 0:01:02.565 some people think they are a coded message or a 0:01:02.605 --> 0:01:06.165 clue that will help you locate some hidden in money. 0:01:09.285 --> 0:01:09.965 But I don't know. 0:01:10.405 --> 0:01:14.325 Maybe maybe he was just delirious because he was dying. 0:01:15.045 --> 0:01:17.805 He had just been shot while he was on the toilet. 0:01:20.805 --> 0:01:25.445 But we'll get to that. What is often less shared 0:01:25.485 --> 0:01:28.765 about this fatal moment in the life of Schultz is 0:01:28.805 --> 0:01:33.365 a telegram he received on his deathbed, presumably moments before 0:01:33.445 --> 0:01:37.565 these words left his lips. The telegram was from a 0:01:37.605 --> 0:01:42.685 woman and it read as ye sow, so shall ye reap? 0:01:43.685 --> 0:01:50.805 A Bible verse, A creepy but not so cryptic note 0:01:50.845 --> 0:01:53.885 from one of his most formidable foes and the first 0:01:53.925 --> 0:01:55.565 female mob boss seen. 0:01:55.485 --> 0:01:56.525 By New York City. 0:01:57.205 --> 0:02:02.885 Her name was Stephanie Saint Clair. So let's see how 0:02:03.005 --> 0:02:06.045 was she involved getting this mob boss to his deathbed? 0:02:06.725 --> 0:02:07.885 Cue the theme music. 0:02:14.765 --> 0:02:17.365 This is American filth and I'm your host, Gabby Watts. 0:02:17.485 --> 0:02:20.485 Each week I tell you a filthy story from American history. 0:02:21.205 --> 0:02:32.045 This week's episode, girl Boss, My Boss. So let's go 0:02:32.165 --> 0:02:37.765 back to the beginning. Whomst is Stephanie Saint Clair. That 0:02:37.885 --> 0:02:40.645 is a question that many historians are trying to answer 0:02:40.725 --> 0:02:45.285 because what it's not exactly clear. You know, on the 0:02:45.325 --> 0:02:48.925 one side, maybe her early years are lost to history 0:02:49.485 --> 0:02:52.885 because she was a Caribbean immigrant, people didn't. 0:02:52.725 --> 0:02:53.725 Keep the records. 0:02:54.725 --> 0:02:59.045 But it's also possible that she kept herself, her origins, 0:02:59.605 --> 0:03:03.285 and her exact movements throughout her life a mystery because 0:03:03.285 --> 0:03:03.885 she wanted to. 0:03:04.085 --> 0:03:07.085 It was on purpose, just to further. 0:03:06.925 --> 0:03:10.805 Shroud her in mystery, to heighten her status as a 0:03:10.805 --> 0:03:16.845 crime boss in New York City. So let's look at 0:03:16.845 --> 0:03:20.205 some of the hypotheses of where she's from. Some people 0:03:20.325 --> 0:03:23.445 think that she was from France, like some people who 0:03:23.525 --> 0:03:26.245 knew her swore that she grew up in Paris, was 0:03:26.285 --> 0:03:30.645 the daughter of an aristocrat. She was, after all, fluent 0:03:30.725 --> 0:03:34.405 in French and extremely well educated. And then when she 0:03:34.485 --> 0:03:38.325 was probably in her thirties or forties, she vehemently denied 0:03:38.365 --> 0:03:41.725 being from the Caribbean, claiming that she was from France 0:03:42.085 --> 0:03:49.885 one hundred percent more likely, though her early life was 0:03:49.925 --> 0:03:53.845 spent in Guadaloupe or Martinique, and she was either born 0:03:53.925 --> 0:03:57.165 on Christmas or Christmas Eve in the mid eighteen eighties 0:03:57.285 --> 0:04:01.325 or eighteen nineties. But what we do know, or what 0:04:01.365 --> 0:04:04.245 we are pretty sure we know, is that on July 0:04:04.565 --> 0:04:09.045 twenty second, nineteen eleven, she left the Caribbean and headed 0:04:09.205 --> 0:04:13.885 to New York City. However, at the time that wasn't 0:04:13.885 --> 0:04:17.765 her final destination. She then went to Quebec, where some 0:04:17.965 --> 0:04:21.165 historians think she was part of a program that recruited 0:04:21.165 --> 0:04:24.885 women from Guadalupe to be domestic workers for white households. 0:04:25.245 --> 0:04:28.165 And what would happen is basically the employer would pay 0:04:28.205 --> 0:04:30.005 your way there, but then you'd have to work for 0:04:30.045 --> 0:04:31.845 them for two years to pay it off, So kind 0:04:31.885 --> 0:04:34.525 of like a messed up, indentured servitude sort of thing. 0:04:35.125 --> 0:04:38.565 But it does seem that Saint Clair left Canada before 0:04:38.645 --> 0:04:42.245 she paid that off, because it looks like in nineteen 0:04:42.285 --> 0:04:50.645 twelve she finally ended up in New York City in Harlem. 0:04:50.925 --> 0:04:53.885 And Saint Clair reached Harlem in a very pivotal moment. 0:04:54.445 --> 0:04:56.325 She moved there in the nineteen tens, which was the 0:04:56.325 --> 0:05:00.405 beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. During this time, black people 0:05:00.445 --> 0:05:03.965 were moving into cities in what was called the Great Migration. 0:05:05.605 --> 0:05:11.645 Thousands and thousands of people moved into Harlem, black thinkers, intellectuals, artists, 0:05:11.685 --> 0:05:15.245 so many people made Harlem their home and Stephanie Saint 0:05:15.245 --> 0:05:16.765 Clair was right in the middle of it. 0:05:17.845 --> 0:05:19.565 And again, can you believe this? 0:05:19.765 --> 0:05:22.325 It's not exactly clear what she was doing when she 0:05:22.485 --> 0:05:26.205 first arrived in Harlem. We do know from a marriage 0:05:26.205 --> 0:05:29.005 certificate that she got married in nineteen fifteen to a 0:05:29.045 --> 0:05:30.325 guy named George Gaschett. 0:05:30.605 --> 0:05:34.365 He was from Dominica and an elevator operator. And while 0:05:34.405 --> 0:05:35.005 they were. 0:05:34.845 --> 0:05:37.725 Technically married and through their marriage she was eventually able 0:05:37.765 --> 0:05:41.525 to get citizenship, it doesn't seem that their actual relationship 0:05:41.645 --> 0:05:45.565 lasted that long. Most likely when she first arrived in 0:05:45.605 --> 0:05:49.045 New York City. Like a lot of other Afro Caribbean women, 0:05:49.365 --> 0:05:53.285 she was probably either working as a housekeeper or a seamstress. 0:05:53.805 --> 0:05:56.845 But what we do know is at some time in 0:05:56.925 --> 0:06:00.725 the early nineteen twenties she was like, hey, I can 0:06:00.765 --> 0:06:04.405 probably do better for myself than this shit, and that's 0:06:04.445 --> 0:06:08.285 when she started getting in with Harlem's drug lords, pimps, 0:06:08.325 --> 0:06:10.405 and big time gangsters. 0:06:13.365 --> 0:06:16.085 So apparently there was this long standing gang called the 0:06:16.125 --> 0:06:16.965 Forty Thieves. 0:06:17.005 --> 0:06:19.645 They had roots tracing back to the eighteen twenties in 0:06:19.685 --> 0:06:22.045 New York and it was these guys who showed her 0:06:22.085 --> 0:06:26.525 the ropes to the illegal gambling world and becoming the 0:06:26.605 --> 0:06:31.405 queen of gambling that would make Stephanie Saint Clair infamous. 0:06:33.485 --> 0:06:36.285 So in the nineteen twenties, there was a lot of 0:06:36.325 --> 0:06:40.485 different people playing these games of chance, because you know, 0:06:40.525 --> 0:06:42.685 you had all the rich people on Wall Street making 0:06:42.765 --> 0:06:45.645 their money by speculating. So it was like, hey, in 0:06:45.725 --> 0:06:49.085 the underground, in the underbelly of these cities, we're also 0:06:49.125 --> 0:06:52.245 going to start our own operations where you could pay 0:06:52.245 --> 0:06:55.525 into a pool and maybe win some money, maybe win 0:06:55.565 --> 0:06:58.405 a shit ton of money, also maybe lose a lot 0:06:58.445 --> 0:07:01.365 of money. But this was very popular at the time 0:07:01.525 --> 0:07:05.845 around the world. In New York City, specifically, black people 0:07:05.885 --> 0:07:09.725 weren't allowed to participate in Wall Street. So these games, 0:07:09.885 --> 0:07:13.325 also called the numbers game or the numbers racket, or 0:07:13.405 --> 0:07:16.845 policy banking, they were a way to circumvent this ban, 0:07:17.485 --> 0:07:21.885 allowing Black Americans to speculate, to scheme to maybe win 0:07:21.965 --> 0:07:25.005 some money, but then also by keeping that money inside 0:07:25.005 --> 0:07:29.445 of Harlem. And yeah, of course these numbers games they 0:07:29.485 --> 0:07:33.205 weren't legal, but it also seemed to become a fun 0:07:33.365 --> 0:07:37.565 pastime and a very ubiquitous experience in Harlem. Like one 0:07:37.605 --> 0:07:41.765 newspaper wrote, numbers was a people's game, a community pastime 0:07:41.805 --> 0:07:45.485 in which old and young, literate and illiterate, the neediest folk, 0:07:45.565 --> 0:07:49.525 and well to do all participate. All of Harlem played 0:07:49.965 --> 0:07:54.085 the humble laundry woman, the disrespectful pool player, as well 0:07:54.125 --> 0:07:58.485 as the respectable teacher. And the thing is, if you 0:07:58.845 --> 0:08:03.045 were the numbers game's game runner, or basically what they 0:08:03.045 --> 0:08:06.045 would call the banker, you had a lot going for 0:08:06.085 --> 0:08:08.845 you because not only would you control the game, you 0:08:08.925 --> 0:08:10.845 also would get a lot of money because they got 0:08:10.885 --> 0:08:12.885 to pay you to play the game. And that's where 0:08:12.885 --> 0:08:16.805 Stephanie Saint Clair came in. She established her own numbers 0:08:16.885 --> 0:08:20.325 operation sometime in the early to mid nineteen twenties, and 0:08:20.445 --> 0:08:25.605 her numbers game became very, very successful, and so Saint 0:08:25.685 --> 0:08:28.845 Clair began to build her enterprise. And the thing about 0:08:28.885 --> 0:08:32.125 this is that a numbers operation comes with a whole hierarchy. 0:08:32.205 --> 0:08:33.885 So you have Saint Claire at the top, and then 0:08:33.925 --> 0:08:38.805 she's hiring a bunch of people who are like numbers collectors, clerks, messengers. 0:08:39.365 --> 0:08:44.565 She's basically starting this whole ecosystem of illegal gambling. And 0:08:44.645 --> 0:08:47.685 with her game, Stephanie Saint Clair quickly rose to the 0:08:47.765 --> 0:08:52.325 tippy top of New York's underworld. She became known across 0:08:52.365 --> 0:08:55.685 Manhattan as Queenie, and up in Harlem people referred to 0:08:55.725 --> 0:08:59.045 her as Madame Saint Clair, Queen Madame, or simply Madame. 0:09:02.005 --> 0:09:04.765 And as she was becoming more and more wealthy, as 0:09:04.885 --> 0:09:08.485 she was having an even more successful enterprise, of course, 0:09:08.525 --> 0:09:13.285 she started getting noticed outside of Harlem by the other 0:09:13.405 --> 0:09:17.405 people who run illegal enterprises. Yes, I mean people in 0:09:17.445 --> 0:09:21.845 the mob for example, and her fellow compatriots in the underworld. 0:09:21.845 --> 0:09:26.405 A lot of people described her as extremely well educated, arrogant, confident, 0:09:26.765 --> 0:09:28.965 and that she also had an intense temper that you 0:09:29.005 --> 0:09:33.605 didn't want directed at you. By nineteen thirty, one journalist 0:09:33.685 --> 0:09:36.565 estimated that Saint Clair had about half a million dollars, 0:09:36.845 --> 0:09:40.445 which would be about ten million dollars in today's money. 0:09:40.885 --> 0:09:43.885 She also had a huge flamboyant personality when she was 0:09:43.925 --> 0:09:47.965 in public. She wore big hats for diamonds, the finest 0:09:48.045 --> 0:09:51.085 dresses cut in the latest styles, and she also owned 0:09:51.085 --> 0:09:54.725 apartments and houses in Harlem. She lived in the Esteemed 0:09:54.845 --> 0:09:58.805 Building four h nine Edgecombe Avenue, where her neighbors were 0:09:58.845 --> 0:10:02.805 led wev du Bois, their Good Marshall Duke Ellington cab 0:10:02.885 --> 0:10:07.845 Callaway baseball Great Willie May's. She was becoming a celebrity. 0:10:08.405 --> 0:10:11.765 One neighbor wrote about her that Madame Stephanie Saint Clair 0:10:11.845 --> 0:10:15.285 breezes through the lobby with her fur coach dramatically flowing 0:10:15.325 --> 0:10:18.845 behind her. She has a mystical aura about her and 0:10:18.885 --> 0:10:22.445 she wears exotic dresses with a colorful turbine wrapped around 0:10:22.445 --> 0:10:22.925 her head. 0:10:26.925 --> 0:10:28.165 And the thing is Saint Clair. 0:10:28.605 --> 0:10:30.325 She seemed to pour a lot of her wealth back 0:10:30.405 --> 0:10:34.605 into Harlem and also used her renown to support black causes. 0:10:35.165 --> 0:10:38.365 You know, she created jobs, She donated money to organizations 0:10:38.405 --> 0:10:42.605 that supported progress towards equality for black Americans. She wrote 0:10:42.765 --> 0:10:46.565 so many articles and newspapers that discussed black rights. She 0:10:46.645 --> 0:10:51.285 wrote letters to the presidents, congressmen, senators. She also spoke 0:10:51.325 --> 0:10:56.885 a lot about police brutality against black people. And of course, 0:10:56.925 --> 0:10:59.325 Stephanie Saint Clair she had a lot of run ins 0:10:59.325 --> 0:11:01.805 with the law. You know, she was a prominent banker 0:11:01.845 --> 0:11:05.325 of a numbers game with a flamboyant personality, so she 0:11:05.725 --> 0:11:08.685 for sure on the police's radar. But at the same time, 0:11:08.805 --> 0:11:10.925 like a lot of other mob bosses at the time, 0:11:11.565 --> 0:11:16.125 people suspected that she had police officers on her payroll. 0:11:16.725 --> 0:11:18.565 But at the same time, it does seem that the 0:11:18.605 --> 0:11:22.045 police did surveil most of her staff. For example, in 0:11:22.125 --> 0:11:27.045 nineteen twenty eight, the police arrested her housekeeper. They were like, 0:11:27.085 --> 0:11:29.485 you have gambling materials on you and she's like, no, 0:11:29.605 --> 0:11:31.405 I don't. They're like, give it to us, and she's 0:11:31.485 --> 0:11:34.605 like no. She was also like, you're only arresting me 0:11:34.685 --> 0:11:37.125 because you think I'm Stephanie Saint Clair, which I am not. 0:11:37.325 --> 0:11:39.725 I am her housekeeper. You guys are stupid. 0:11:40.605 --> 0:11:44.085 But unfortunately for the housekeeper, she did end up spending 0:11:44.085 --> 0:11:48.205 time in prison, and then Stephanie Saint Clair was arrested 0:11:48.245 --> 0:11:50.205 on December thirtieth, nineteen twenty nine. 0:11:51.045 --> 0:11:52.285 Obviously, she was pissed. 0:11:52.285 --> 0:11:54.845 She put an editorial in the newspaper talking about how 0:11:54.885 --> 0:11:57.245 she was arrested. She was like, yeah, I was arrested, 0:11:57.245 --> 0:11:59.445 but I was framed. She was like, these police are 0:11:59.565 --> 0:12:04.445 cowards who wear civilian clothes boo. In court, she ended 0:12:04.485 --> 0:12:08.045 up representing herself and she admitted to being a banker, 0:12:08.485 --> 0:12:11.325 and she gave a three hour court testimony basically shitting 0:12:11.405 --> 0:12:14.685 on the police, saying that the police arrested her because 0:12:14.725 --> 0:12:17.045 they were jealous that they were not on her payroll. 0:12:17.605 --> 0:12:19.685 They wanted her money, and she said that when they 0:12:19.685 --> 0:12:22.445 went to her apartment, they also took four hundred dollars 0:12:22.485 --> 0:12:25.125 of her money, and the officer who took it wasn't 0:12:25.125 --> 0:12:27.525 getting punished, and she was like, I'm going to expose 0:12:27.565 --> 0:12:29.245 who did it. But when I said I was going 0:12:29.325 --> 0:12:33.725 to do that, they threatened me. Unfortunately, her very vivacious 0:12:33.725 --> 0:12:36.205 testimony didn't work and she was sentenced to eight months 0:12:36.245 --> 0:12:44.405 and twenty days in a workhouse. This arrest led to 0:12:44.445 --> 0:12:48.405 two things. One, she lost her stronghold as the Queen 0:12:48.605 --> 0:12:52.725 of Numbers in Harlem, but also it made her even 0:12:52.805 --> 0:12:55.525 more pissed off at the police. Once she was out 0:12:55.525 --> 0:12:58.885 of the workhouse, Saint Clair went on a rampage. She 0:12:59.045 --> 0:13:02.725 was determined to prove how corrupt the police were. She 0:13:02.845 --> 0:13:06.765 testified before this commission quote Elee avishly dressed in her 0:13:06.845 --> 0:13:10.205 mink coat. She mounted the witness stand and hurled a 0:13:10.285 --> 0:13:13.685 series of charges. She's like, yeah, here are the people 0:13:13.725 --> 0:13:14.405 I paid off. 0:13:14.445 --> 0:13:15.245 That's corruption. 0:13:16.045 --> 0:13:18.005 But also even though I paid them off, they still 0:13:18.005 --> 0:13:23.525 surveil me, and that's rude. This testimony led to a 0:13:23.565 --> 0:13:26.725 lieutenant and thirteen other people who worked with the New 0:13:26.805 --> 0:13:27.925 York Police Department. 0:13:28.205 --> 0:13:30.485 It got them suspended. Amazing. 0:13:37.045 --> 0:13:39.605 So after this, Stephanie Saint Clair was back on top. 0:13:40.605 --> 0:13:43.765 You know, she was organizing numbers games. She was telling 0:13:43.805 --> 0:13:47.965 the police that they were dumb. But there's another threat 0:13:48.045 --> 0:13:51.285 on the horizon. Because we're in the nineteen thirties, baby, 0:13:51.325 --> 0:13:54.765 and what's happening. It's the end of prohibition, It's the 0:13:54.805 --> 0:14:00.005 Great Depression. People are losing money, people are sad, including 0:14:00.005 --> 0:14:02.565 all those white mobsters who had been keeping an eye 0:14:02.605 --> 0:14:06.845 on Saint Clair, people who had previously ignored Harlem. 0:14:06.965 --> 0:14:09.645 They're like, I don't care about their schemes. Over there. 0:14:10.725 --> 0:14:14.205 But the thing is now they're like, shit, we're losing 0:14:14.245 --> 0:14:16.725 all of our income streams. Maybe we should see what's 0:14:16.805 --> 0:14:20.205 up with Harlem. So Saint Clair's about to come up 0:14:20.245 --> 0:14:24.005 against her nastiest enemy, the crime boss of the Bronx, 0:14:24.245 --> 0:14:33.445 Dutch Schultz. We'll be right back after these soothing advertisements. Now, 0:14:33.525 --> 0:14:36.765 before we get to all of those white mob bosses, 0:14:37.725 --> 0:14:39.805 we got to go on a little side quest here, 0:14:40.645 --> 0:14:44.765 because while Stephanie Saint Clair was a girl boss mob boss, 0:14:44.925 --> 0:14:47.165 she also had a bunch of other shit to deal with, 0:14:48.525 --> 0:14:50.605 you know, as I was saying. She wrote editorials in 0:14:50.645 --> 0:14:55.045 the newspapers constantly about legal rights for black people, police brutality, 0:14:55.125 --> 0:14:59.005 voting rights, other issues, and a lot of people obviously 0:14:59.085 --> 0:15:02.245 had their opinions on what she wrote, but there was 0:15:02.285 --> 0:15:05.045 one group of people who she didn't want to hear 0:15:05.125 --> 0:15:06.805 back from ever again. 0:15:07.205 --> 0:15:09.485 Here's what she wrote in nineteen twenty nine. 0:15:09.525 --> 0:15:13.205 She said, to whom it may concern, I have received 0:15:13.285 --> 0:15:16.405 letters and telephone messages from men which have annoyed me 0:15:16.645 --> 0:15:18.965 very much, and I take this occasion to ask them 0:15:18.965 --> 0:15:22.965 publicly to please not annoy me. I, Madame Saint Clair, 0:15:23.205 --> 0:15:26.245 am not looking for a husband or a sweetheart. If 0:15:26.245 --> 0:15:28.765 they do not stop annoying me, I shall publish their 0:15:28.845 --> 0:15:30.525 names and letters in the newspaper. 0:15:32.485 --> 0:15:33.085 That's right. 0:15:33.205 --> 0:15:40.885 One of her biggest enemies were dudes constantly hitting on her. Now, 0:15:40.965 --> 0:15:44.885 while Saint Clair was technically married to George Gaschett, it 0:15:44.885 --> 0:15:48.405 doesn't seem their actual relationship lasted very long. You know, 0:15:48.445 --> 0:15:51.245 that was the man she married in nineteen fifteen, but 0:15:51.325 --> 0:15:53.645 it seems that around the same time she had several 0:15:53.725 --> 0:15:58.245 other relationships, and based on the rumors of how they went, 0:15:59.365 --> 0:16:01.685 it might be obvious why she wasn't really into having 0:16:01.685 --> 0:16:06.565 a boyfriend. Like at some point she was with this guy, Duke, 0:16:07.085 --> 0:16:10.245 but it turned sour when he tried to what prostitute her. 0:16:11.405 --> 0:16:14.365 She was like, fuck, no, I'm not doing that. And 0:16:14.485 --> 0:16:16.965 after that he ended up being shot in a gang 0:16:17.005 --> 0:16:18.005 fight and dying. 0:16:18.485 --> 0:16:20.965 Is that a coincidence? Perhaps? Perhaps not. 0:16:21.805 --> 0:16:24.645 She then had another lover named Ed and they had 0:16:24.645 --> 0:16:27.285 started selling drugs together and made a ton of money 0:16:27.445 --> 0:16:29.925 very fast. But then when she said she wanted to 0:16:30.045 --> 0:16:33.085 leave him, he tried to strangle her, and when he 0:16:33.165 --> 0:16:35.925 was coming towards her, she pushed him away, and apparently 0:16:35.965 --> 0:16:38.885 she pushed him so hard that he fell back and 0:16:38.965 --> 0:16:41.285 cracked his skull on a table and died. 0:16:41.925 --> 0:16:42.445 Whoops. 0:16:45.365 --> 0:16:47.885 So boo men in her romantic life. But now it's 0:16:47.925 --> 0:16:53.445 boo men and her professional life. Let's get to Dutch Shultz. 0:16:56.885 --> 0:16:59.285 So Steffie Saint Clair was officially known as the Queen 0:16:59.285 --> 0:17:02.525 of Harlem, just in time for the Great Depression, and 0:17:02.765 --> 0:17:05.645 obviously her reign didn't go on threatened for long. She 0:17:05.685 --> 0:17:10.045 got arrested, but now she had another enemy to contend with. 0:17:10.325 --> 0:17:13.685 The mob bosses that dominated New York City, specifically the 0:17:13.765 --> 0:17:17.485 Jewish and Italian mafias, and up until that point in 0:17:17.525 --> 0:17:20.645 the nineteen thirties, they had left the Harlem numbers games 0:17:20.685 --> 0:17:23.445 alone because for most of the white crime bosses, they 0:17:23.445 --> 0:17:26.405 didn't have any interest in Harlem. They're like these numbers games, 0:17:26.765 --> 0:17:29.685 they're not profitable. Also, it's only poor people doing it. 0:17:29.685 --> 0:17:33.805 There's not enough money. But throughout the nineteen twenties there 0:17:33.805 --> 0:17:36.325 were more and more articles talking about how rich people 0:17:36.365 --> 0:17:40.005 were getting off of these games. So the white crime 0:17:40.045 --> 0:17:42.885 bosses were like, hmm, let's keep an eye on this. 0:17:44.845 --> 0:17:48.685 And then when the Volstad Act was repealed, the white 0:17:48.765 --> 0:17:51.445 crime bosses started losing a lot of money because they 0:17:51.445 --> 0:17:54.125 had made money and selling illegal alcohol. 0:17:54.165 --> 0:17:56.725 But now people could drink because they're sad. It's the depression. 0:17:56.805 --> 0:17:57.525 Let them drink. 0:17:58.485 --> 0:18:01.325 So at this point they're like, Harlem's getting more and 0:18:01.365 --> 0:18:05.525 more interesting. Perhaps we should get involved, and by that 0:18:05.725 --> 0:18:11.285 I mean violently take it over. The head of the 0:18:11.325 --> 0:18:14.565 Bronx faction of the Jewish mobsters at the time was 0:18:14.685 --> 0:18:19.125 Dutch Schultz Duchy. He was very well known for his 0:18:19.165 --> 0:18:24.845 bootlegging operations during Prohibition, and he also ran numbers rackets 0:18:24.925 --> 0:18:27.805 similar to ones that Stephanie Saint Clair was running, but 0:18:27.925 --> 0:18:31.325 in the Bronx. But Schultz was also known for being 0:18:31.565 --> 0:18:35.645 very brutal. He loved his gun, he was very trigger 0:18:35.685 --> 0:18:39.405 happy and spared no one. He was such a bad 0:18:39.485 --> 0:18:43.125 boy that FBI director j Edgar Hoover called him Public 0:18:43.285 --> 0:18:45.845 Enemy number one, listing him as one of the most 0:18:45.965 --> 0:18:47.405 dangerous criminals of the time. 0:18:49.045 --> 0:18:53.525 So around nineteen thirty, Schultz starts moving into Harlem, and 0:18:53.605 --> 0:18:54.805 he had a strategy. 0:18:54.965 --> 0:18:58.285 He was like, basically, I'm going to tell these black 0:18:58.325 --> 0:19:01.485 and Latino numbers bankers that they can either give me 0:19:01.565 --> 0:19:04.245 their operation, or they can give me a big share 0:19:04.285 --> 0:19:07.885 of the profits, or I kill them. 0:19:09.005 --> 0:19:09.645 What a deal. 0:19:11.405 --> 0:19:15.445 So, yeah, he was ruthless, and eventually he got to 0:19:15.525 --> 0:19:20.445 Saint Clair. Apparently he started making threatening phone calls to her, 0:19:21.005 --> 0:19:24.165 and then he escalated it to kidnapping and murdering her men. 0:19:24.965 --> 0:19:27.525 Then he paid off police, who normally turned a blind 0:19:27.525 --> 0:19:30.485 eye to her operation, which then landed her in jail. 0:19:32.565 --> 0:19:35.525 In fact, she said quote, fighting Schultz from nineteen thirty 0:19:35.525 --> 0:19:37.645 one to nineteen thirty five cost me a total of 0:19:37.725 --> 0:19:40.725 eight hundred and twenty days in jail and three fourths 0:19:40.805 --> 0:19:45.845 to one million dollars. No surprise based on what we 0:19:45.885 --> 0:19:48.285 know of Saint Clair, she and her right hand man, 0:19:48.365 --> 0:19:53.045 Bumpy Johnson reacted immediately, making moves towards a swift and 0:19:53.085 --> 0:19:58.485 severe revenge. As payback, she started vandalizing his property. She 0:19:58.645 --> 0:20:01.565 herself would go to white store owners who were affront 0:20:01.645 --> 0:20:05.085 for Schultz and would destroy all of their products, smashing 0:20:05.165 --> 0:20:09.285 play glasses and destroying all of their gaming slips, and 0:20:09.325 --> 0:20:11.605 then she would order the small timers to get out 0:20:11.645 --> 0:20:15.325 of Harlem. Another time, when Schultz had sent an underlin 0:20:15.445 --> 0:20:18.485 to intimidate her, she pushed that dude into a closet, 0:20:18.645 --> 0:20:22.565 locked him in, and then got her four massive bodyguards. 0:20:21.885 --> 0:20:23.605 To take care of him. 0:20:24.085 --> 0:20:26.525 Saint Clair also tipped the police off to a bunch 0:20:26.605 --> 0:20:29.805 of his people in operations that led to them raiding 0:20:29.805 --> 0:20:40.445 his properties and finding two million dollars. But the thing is, 0:20:40.445 --> 0:20:43.485 Saint Clair was also frustrated that her fellow black bankers 0:20:43.485 --> 0:20:46.885 weren't putting up more of a fight. She said in 0:20:46.885 --> 0:20:50.325 a newspaper on January fifth, nineteen thirty five, I'm not 0:20:50.365 --> 0:20:53.365 afraid of Dutch Schultz or any other living man. He'll 0:20:53.365 --> 0:20:55.925 never touch me. I will kill Schultz if he sets 0:20:55.925 --> 0:20:58.565 foot in Harlem. He is a rat. The policy game 0:20:58.645 --> 0:21:00.645 is my game. He took it away from me and 0:21:00.725 --> 0:21:03.365 is swindling the colored people. And I'm the only one 0:21:03.365 --> 0:21:04.645 who's after him. 0:21:04.965 --> 0:21:05.285 She's p. 0:21:07.485 --> 0:21:10.205 And the thing is, Schultz hated that it was Saint 0:21:10.245 --> 0:21:13.125 Clair who was standing up to him because not only 0:21:13.245 --> 0:21:15.885 was she an enemy, but also she was a black 0:21:15.925 --> 0:21:18.885 woman and an immigrant who was fighting against him. 0:21:19.365 --> 0:21:20.045 He hated that. 0:21:21.885 --> 0:21:23.805 He hated it so much that he had a hit 0:21:23.845 --> 0:21:27.765 put out on her in nineteen thirty five. At that point, 0:21:27.805 --> 0:21:31.685 Saint Clair went into hiding. She said she quote hid 0:21:31.805 --> 0:21:34.125 in a cellar while the super, a friend of mine, 0:21:34.165 --> 0:21:38.485 covered me with coal. You know, a normal hiding spot 0:21:38.725 --> 0:21:42.645 under some coal, But lucky for her. 0:21:43.045 --> 0:21:45.285 Other people were also pissed at Schultz. 0:21:48.125 --> 0:21:50.645 So if you go down the rabbit hole of like 0:21:50.805 --> 0:21:54.005 mobster in mafia history in New York, it's very complicated 0:21:54.085 --> 0:21:57.205 and it's just like men being mad about shit. I'm 0:21:57.245 --> 0:21:59.965 just like, could you guys just calm down. But basically, 0:22:00.005 --> 0:22:02.365 there is this group called the Commission, and this is 0:22:02.405 --> 0:22:06.125 where the heads of the mafia families would gather and 0:22:06.205 --> 0:22:11.085 discuss mob mafia stuff. And so the Commission was met 0:22:11.125 --> 0:22:14.205 at Schultz because Schultz had tried to kill this senator 0:22:14.685 --> 0:22:17.525 even though the Commission was like, hey, don't kill that senator, 0:22:17.525 --> 0:22:19.205 but he had tried to and he had failed, so 0:22:19.245 --> 0:22:20.405 they were pissed at him. 0:22:20.845 --> 0:22:22.325 They were also pissed at him. 0:22:22.165 --> 0:22:26.005 That they were like, actually, we should just kill him. 0:22:26.525 --> 0:22:30.685 So on October twenty third, nineteen thirty five, they get 0:22:30.725 --> 0:22:34.605 some guys to go shoot Schultz while he's on the toilet, 0:22:34.725 --> 0:22:41.405 no less, And not only was he shot on the toilet, 0:22:41.485 --> 0:22:44.085 which is embarrassing, Oh no, it's worse than that. He 0:22:44.205 --> 0:22:46.765 was shot on a toilet that was in New Jersey. 0:22:47.405 --> 0:22:50.165 The place was called the Palace Chop House in Newark, 0:22:50.205 --> 0:22:53.765 New Jersey. And basically he was ambushed on the toilet, 0:22:53.885 --> 0:22:56.005 got shot. Then a bunch of other people were shooting 0:22:56.045 --> 0:22:59.325 his men. But I guess getting shot in the toilet 0:22:59.325 --> 0:23:01.205 didn't kill him, because then he was rushed to the 0:23:01.245 --> 0:23:04.645 hospital and he didn't die until three days later, which 0:23:04.685 --> 0:23:06.845 was long enough for Saint Clair to send him that 0:23:07.005 --> 0:23:11.005 creepy fucking telegram and then he uttered those last words 0:23:11.045 --> 0:23:16.605 of total nonsense. I'm sure this might be kind of 0:23:16.605 --> 0:23:20.405 an anticlimactic ending because Saint Clair didn't actually get to 0:23:20.525 --> 0:23:21.645 kill him or kind of. 0:23:21.525 --> 0:23:23.365 Be involved with that, it seems. 0:23:24.205 --> 0:23:26.285 But I think with this death at this point she 0:23:26.365 --> 0:23:29.805 was like, ah, maybe I should start retiring out of 0:23:29.845 --> 0:23:31.045 the Number's business. 0:23:31.085 --> 0:23:32.725 It's getting a bit crazy. 0:23:33.605 --> 0:23:37.005 So she handed her assets over to that guy, Bumpy Johnson, 0:23:37.325 --> 0:23:40.605 and they all seem to negotiate with the Commission that 0:23:40.685 --> 0:23:44.005 the other New York mafia gangs would stay out of Harlem, 0:23:44.405 --> 0:23:49.525 and eventually Bumpy became known as the Godfather of Harlem, and. 0:23:49.485 --> 0:23:51.205 Then Saint Clair. It seems she stopped doing the. 0:23:51.285 --> 0:23:55.005 Number stuff, but she continued to fight for political reform. 0:23:55.645 --> 0:23:57.445 The thing, though, is, even as her reign as the 0:23:57.525 --> 0:24:00.205