WEBVTT - Long Live the Queenie: Stephanie St. Claire 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:05.200 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Zeron, Do 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:08.880 I know you? No? Oh cool? What's your name? Hey? 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:11.280 You know I'm Elizabeth Utton. Nice to meet you. You 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:15.120 know it's ridiculous. I do Zarin. Oh yes, pet rocks. 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.480 That ridiculous, right, Okay, if you just stop, just stop period. 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:22.040 Pet rocks. I've heard I heard about him, So I decided, like, 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:23.920 what is a pet rock? I went and looked it up, 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:25.919 and there's like a lot more to this than I 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:28.400 realized really. So it was this dude named Gary Doll. 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.200 He was an advertising executive. He was talking with his 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:32.680 friends at a bar and they were talking about, like 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:34.479 complaining about I gotta walk my dog and get up 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:36.040 so early in the morning. And he's like, oh, you know, 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:38.239 would be the perfect pet of rock. And they were 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:41.200 like yeah whatever, Gary, and say He's like oh yeah. 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:43.200 And he went out and he decided I'm gonna make 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:47.520 pet rocks into a thing. So he did. And so 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.680 he decides he gets custom cardboard boxes made. He gets 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.120 this little like uh like feeding and care instructions thing 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:56.520 that's filled with like puns like try to teach your 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.319 your pet rock to do tricks like sit and stay right, 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:02.760 and then there's difficult ones like come like, don't want 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:04.600 to be able to figure out that one yet maybe 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.080 you can that kind of jokes. Right, Well, anyway, it 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.120 lasted six months, the whole fat right. But in that 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.960 time he sells millions of these. He sells like about 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.280 one million of them for about four dollars each in 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.200 nineteen seventies dollars, which is like wild to me. He 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.679 becomes a millionaire. He then buys a bar in Los Gatos. 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.720 He's a local, Oh, I know, California locally. Yeah. Anyway, 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:30.000 he regrets doing it. In nineteen eighty eight, he said, 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:32.479 sometimes I look back and wonder if my life would 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:34.679 have been simple or if I hadn't done it. Oh, 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:37.319 he got things got complicated after that. Oh yeah, I 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.280 mean people would like just like sue him about my 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:42.399 pet rock dropped on my foot or I don't know, 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:46.280 he's getting a lot of lawsuits from cranks and waccos. Anyway, 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:49.120 Gary Doll pet rocks. There you go. That is ridiculous. 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:51.680 Do you know what else is ridiculous? No, tell me 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:54.800 a badass woman who stands up to the mob and 0:01:55.520 --> 0:02:19.760 black hitler. This is ridiculous crime a podcast about absurd 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:24.000 and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. It's always ninety nine 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:30.680 percent murder free and one ridiculous that we're murder free, right, Yes, okay, 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.160 so you're going to day. Well, that basically means that 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.480 the crimes that we cover aren't specifically murder, and the 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:41.760 criminals we cover aren't murders. We've both said that we 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:44.000 can't make light of the last day of someone's life 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:46.520 and the horrific events it's around it no good, and 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:48.120 you know that day is also the worst day of 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:50.400 the lives of that person's loved ones, Right, So we 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.680 keep it light and I'm going to do that today. Okay, 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:56.280 But here's the thing. The woman I'm going to tell 0:02:56.320 --> 0:03:00.600 you about is murder adjacent. We'll say you already said 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:02.840 black Hitler's I'm figuring this one's gonna get wild, little 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:06.079 fid Well. Her crimes are incredible and ridiculous in all 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.040 senses of the word, but murder seems to like swirl 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:12.760 around her. Okay, So she didn't really kill anyone. She's 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.320 a murder black hole. It's just happening around her. She 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:17.480 fought a guy in self defense and he fell and 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.760 hit his head. Okay, but her life is so so, 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:23.600 so much more than that other guy fell on knife 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.880 seven times exactly. And she's so fascinating that I figured 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:29.919 I'd use up our one percent on this. Okay, I'm 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:33.000 into it all right. So I'm talking today about Stephanie 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:37.920 Saint Clair. Oh, yes, aka Queenie Saint Clair, aka Madame Queen, 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:42.400 Madame Saint Clair and Queen of the policy rackets. For 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.760 some respect on her name. Yes, Stephanie Saint Clair born 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.920 on Christmas Eve eighteen ninety seven in Mule, Grandtaire, West 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.320 French Indies, you say so. Yes. She was born of 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:57.640 African descent to a single mother named Felicienne, beautiful name, 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:01.080 I know, Felicienne. She made sure that Stephanie went to school, 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.880 but then Feliciane got sick, so at fifteen years old, 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:07.480 Stephanie dropped out in order to take care of her mom. 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.880 After her mom passed away, Stephanie moved from the West 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:17.240 Indies to Montreal, Moan and she was part most likely 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:21.360 part of the nineteen ten to nineteen eleven Caribbean domestic 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:26.040 scheme that moved domestic workers up to Canada. So one 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.599 of the Great North migrations for Canada. Yeah, exactly, and 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.960 specifically to Quebec. So from there she immigrates to the 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:34.360 United States. She gets to New York in nineteen twelve. 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:38.520 She speaks English, Spanish, French, and that means she can 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:40.920 like skillfully navigate a lot of neighborhoods and a lot 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.359 of situations. Oh yeah, and she's slide in three situations 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:45.960 a bit totally well. So she has this brief relationship 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.480 after she gets her with a small time crook named Duke, 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:51.680 and he got caught up in nasty business and he 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:53.799 met a terrible end. But it had she had nothing 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.360 to do with it, is not by her hand. So 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:59.039 then she meets this new guy ed she decides to 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:02.880 sell drugs with it. Okay, with some help from ed um, 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.240 she makes thirty thousand dollars. Do we know what drugs 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:08.800 she was selling? No, but I'm thinking, what is it 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:15.599 nineteen fifteen, Like I'm figuring like it's cocaine adjacent type 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.360 stuff or even yeah, some of the good gauge weed. Yeah, 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:22.880 So she makes them jazz. She makes thirty thousand dollars 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.040 after just a few months, okay, and then she decides 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:30.320 I don't need ed right, and Ed finds out and 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:32.880 then they have a disagreement and it didn't end well 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.159 because he fell. Oh right, another guy fell bad. That's 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:39.080 the guy that fell. So after this, she's like, I'm 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.240 going to hire my own crew of guys I'm hiring 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:43.000 When he fell, did he fall off a building or 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:45.920 like he just felt backwards? Okay, I'll just wonder. You said, 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:47.720 hell backwards. You can fall off a lot of things. 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:51.039 He was clumsy. Yeah. Yeah, So she was like bribing 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:54.200 the cops to leave her alone, and then um, this 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:57.120 new kind of gang that she had. She's got serious income. 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.480 So she takes ten thousand dollars of that and she 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:04.680 invests it into a lottery game in Harlem and the 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.720 numbers games. Well yeah, it's called policy banking. Yeah, so 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:11.000 it's mix of gambling, investing, and then playing the lottery. 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:16.599 Policy banking wasn't really legal. The thing is, at the times, 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:21.039 bank weren't banks weren't accepting black clients. Yeah, so black 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.120 Americans couldn't legally invest their own money in white bank 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:28.080 you'd do, right, And so for many policy banking was 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:30.160 the only option if they wanted to grow their money. 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:32.880 If you didn't have black banks in your area, or 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:34.560 if you or if you'd run a foul the black well, 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:38.080 there's that too. Yeah. So it was common practice for 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:41.760 cosmopolitan black communities and major cities all over the country 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.440 to be involved in this numbers game as a means 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:48.240 of investing. Yeah. So there's this man, Stephen Robertson. He 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:51.080 wrote a book called Playing the Numbers, Gambling in Harlem 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:54.159 between the Wars, and he said of policy banking, quote, 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:57.120 it was akin to putting money in the stock market. 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.360 Many saw it as an investment, and it was just 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:02.640 as risky as putting money in the stock market back then. 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:05.920 So true, this is how it would work. Players would 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:09.560 place bets, so a nickel was considered a big bet 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:12.240 at the time, on a number between one and nine 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:16.560 hundred ninety nine. The organizers figured out what the winning 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.880 numbers were based on two figures, the total daily clearances 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.880 among all the member banks and the Federal Reserve Bank 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:26.320 credit balance. So they would combine the second and third 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.000 digits from the bank clearings with a third digit from 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:32.840 the Federal Reserve Bank balance. So, per Playing the Numbers 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.600 that book, the game worked out as such. The last 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:39.680 Monday before Christmas, nineteen thirty, the clearings were five hundred 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:44.240 eighty nine million dollars and the balance was one hundred 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:48.360 and sixteen million dollars. Hence the winning number was eight 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:52.440 nine six, So it's five eight eighty nine and then six. 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:55.320 Anyone who bet on eight ninety six got to pay out, 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.280 So this is going along great. Then in the late thirties, 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:04.200 financial institutions stopped announcing their daily figures, so the policy 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.280 bankers they had to figure out, where are we going 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:08.760 to get our numbers. They turned to the mutual totals 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:12.360 of what was paid out on horse races. So Saint Clair, 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.000 she's mathematically gifted. This is the numbers that I my 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.400 family played. I heard about this exactly. So she's she's 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:22.720 like this math whiz. Her lottery is just raking in cash. 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.280 She was such a boss that people started calling her 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:30.200 Queenie in Manhattan and Madame Saint Clair in Harlem. So 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.319 the Harlem numbers game, though that's a man's world at 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:35.480 this time. Oh yeah, she was like pretty much the 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.760 only woman out there and involved. But she's generating all 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:43.000 these jobs because her game is huge. She's making all 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.480 this money, so she's hiring numbers runners and Henchman and Henchman, 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:49.880 but she had like fifty runners at a time hired. 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:52.120 Do you know who worked as a numbers runner for 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.800 Queeny when she was a teenager, I don't know. Gordon Parks, 0:08:56.040 --> 0:09:01.280 Ella Fitzgerald is not incredible. So she Queenie lives this 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:05.400 absolutely lavish lifestyle. In the twenties, she was making about 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:07.640 twenty thousand dollars a year, and that's kind of like 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.400 three hundred and fifty thousand dollars today. That's not bad 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.360 at a nineteen thirties there's this journalist who figured out 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.400 that Queeney was worth probably around five hundred thousand dollars, 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.960 so that's like eleven million dollars today. She owned property 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:24.040 and she was just like building wealth the only way 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.840 that she could. She lived in an apartment on four 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:31.120 o nine Edgecomb Avenue that's in sugar Hill, looking over 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.160 what is now Jackie Robinson Park. Yes, couple blocks from 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.560 the Harlem River. There were a lot of esteemed members 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:41.000 of the Harlem community living in this same building. Callaway 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:45.400 the painter Aaron Douglas, future Supreme Court justice. They're a 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:50.960 good night, Marshal Nice Duke Gellington in this mix web. So, 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.800 Katherine Butler Jones was a neighbor of hers, and she 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.520 remembers seeing Queeney in the halls. This is what she said, 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.360 Madam Stephanie Saint Clair raising through the lobby with her 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:05.080 fur coat dramatically flowing behind her. She had a mystical 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:07.960 aura about her, and she wore exotic dresses with a 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.400 colorful turban wrapped around her head. Yeah. So she's just 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:17.000 like floating through the goddess. Yeah. So she she donated 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:20.760 to organizations that were focused on racial progress, and voting 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:23.760 rights was a big thing for her. She regularly paid 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:27.760 for ads to involved in suffragist movements. Essentially well at 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:31.679 this point in the thirties, I backed it up to you. 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:33.960 I'm sorry, but I mean before I'm sure. And so 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.640 she paid for ads in local papers because she wanted 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.520 to educate the community on their legal rights. Here's something 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:42.560 that she put in the Amsterdam News. Quote to the 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.480 members of my race, and that's in all caps. If 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:48.320 officers meet you on the street and suspect you of anything, 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:50.360 do not let them search you on the street, or 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:52.440 do not let them take you in any hallway to 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:55.160 be searched. If the police should ring your doorbell and 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:57.400 you open your door, refuse to let them search your 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.199 house unless they show you a search warrant. So it's 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.520 just these are our basic civil rights as Americans, something 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.640 that all of us should know. And at people because 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:09.120 didn't know, presume that if a cop is asking you questions, 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:10.600 that the best thing to do is to try to 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:12.520 exculpate yourself and tell them why you're in a right 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:13.800 and we're the best thing to do is not say 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:18.200 anything exactly everybody, And so she's wanting them to have 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:20.360 the same information as everybody else. I don't act like 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:24.000 a perp, right, So she was. She spoke out against 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:27.120 police brutality against the black community, and she filed complaints 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:30.800 about police harassment with local authorities. Um, I think it's 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.560 important to stop and acknowledge how dangerous that was for her. 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:37.040 Oh right, so the New York police she is brave 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:40.120 like to go ahead and bad racist at this time. Well, 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:42.760 of course nothing came of her complaints, right, probably not? 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:45.000 So what does she do? She ran more ads in 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:49.400 Harlem papers accusing senior officers of corruption. She just keeps 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:55.160 upping the antiamus. Here's this is from the nineteen, nineteen 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.520 twenty nine edition of the Amsterdam News quote, I don't 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:00.680 understand how these police who are supposed to be the 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.559 protection of the people can make raids for so called 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:06.640 policy slips when these same men are participants of the 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:10.520 game themselves. So she's calling out, look, you're my customers, 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:12.120 and then you turn around, you're going to raid me out, 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.800 thinks Okay, I love how she's just constantly taking out 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:20.600 ads in the papers. That's her bulletin board. So this 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:22.720 time though, when she calls out her own customers, she 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:26.880 gets a response. She got arrested. They came after her 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.360 and she wound up doing eight months in a workhouse 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:33.920 because of that. Would Queenie take this lying down? But no, no, 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:36.840 of course not. So she stayed cool. And then she 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.200 went and testified to the Seabury Commission, which was a 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:44.240 joint legislative committee formed by the New York legislature, And 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:48.520 that was because the governor FDR he had this probe 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.600 into corruption in New York City. So she tells them 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.440 all about the kickbacks that she paid to police officers. 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:57.440 She tells them all about the cops who played the 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.480 Harlem numbers games. This time she gets results. More than 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.440 a dozen officers were fired. Yeah, this is a big deal. 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:05.479 This is part of how he made his name exactly. 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.800 So it wasn't just crooked cops and politicians that she 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.320 aired out in her newspaper ads. If men came courting 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:18.760 and she wasn't interested, she'd run ads. Oh yeah, this 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:22.240 is what she quote to whom it may concern. I 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.280 have received letters and telephone messages from men which have 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.200 annoyed me very much, and I take this occasion to 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:32.439 ask them publicly to please not annoy me. I, Mademoiselle 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.920 Saint clair Am, not looking for a husband or a sweetheart. 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.240 If you do not stop annoying me, I shall publish 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:40.240 their names and letters in the newspaper. And you know 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.840 who you are. Right. I love how everything she does 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:47.920 is from this really confident and serene place. She's unflappable. 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:52.040 She's definitely a queen. Yeah, she has definitely earned the name. 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:57.560 So prohibition comes and goes, the Harlem numbers game just 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.720 keeps cooking along. Oh yeah, it doesn't mean anything, but 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:03.839 another challenge is at hand. Dude, Harlem's number game runs 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.280 until like the seventies. No, it just keeps going. But 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:12.240 here's this thing pro lottery basically, yeah, pretty much, prohibition ends. 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:15.360 It had been big business for a lot of people, 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.200 a lot of people like dancers and musicians. People you're 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:20.600 not thinking, you're not just people were bootleggers, but everybody 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:22.200 in the work the club. But when you look at 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:24.920 the bootleggers, they have to find a new source of revenue. 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:29.200 When we come back, I'll tell you who moved where 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:52.280 and how and why? Nice? All right, we're back. Hey, 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:56.000 look at us, Say Elizabeth, what you do when we've 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:58.720 left off. Let me give you a little recap. Queenie 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:02.280 Saint Clair, she was ruling the policy bank numbers game, 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.760 had worked hard for people in her community. She also 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:10.920 had now had a principal, Lieutenant Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson Bumpy. 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.840 He was a culture gentleman, but he was also a badass. Yeah, 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:18.800 oh yes he is. He They called him Bumpy because 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:24.520 he had a large bone on his forehead. Yeah. So 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:27.400 he and Queeney they're basically running her element at this point. 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:29.760 Oh yes, they're raking in the dough. They're living these 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:34.200 really comfortable lifestyles. Prohibitions coming going has no effect. Now 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.840 are they partners? Were member business like seers like, we 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:39.840 both get it exactly. I like this. She got some 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.120 on her level totally. So prohibition comes to an end. 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.440 Other criminal elements are losing money. No more illicit hooch 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:50.240 to sell. As such, this means that there's a loss 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.120 of the cash cow for both the Jewish and Italian 0:15:53.160 --> 0:16:00.840 crime families in New York, among among other diversification. They 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:03.800 make a move on the Harlem gambling scene. Oh yes, 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.280 they did so, as you said, Bronx mob boss Arthur 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:11.240 dutch Schultz Flagenheimer. Oh yeah, he kicked it off. Yeah, 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.400 he's the one. He gave the black and brown communities 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.240 in Harlem two options, give up their numbers business to 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:19.960 him or kind of in on the action. Those are 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:24.000 the choices. So dutch Schultz, he has high powered politicians 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.920 on his payroll, everybody, he had James Pines, leader of 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.280 Tammany Hall, everybody on his parents. And he'd also beat 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.040 and kill anyone who didn't go along with his protection scheme. Yeah, 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:36.280 he was ruthless totally. So this led New York State 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.600 Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey. And he was smart as hell too. 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:42.520 I mean, he wasn't one of those like twitchy mobsters. 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:44.960 This is somebody who was calculating cold and would have 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.120 been an amazing business man legitimately well, Thomas Dewey says 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.000 that he's public enemy number one because he was the 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.600 guy he ran. Now. Queeney, though, she's as brave and 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.760 as steadfast as ever, even when faced with Dutch Schultz, 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:00.800 she said, quote, I'm not a f of Dutch Schultz 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:03.480 or any other living man. He'll never touch me. I 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:06.120 will kill Schultz if he sets foot in Harlem. He's 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.560 a rat. The policy game is my game. Wow, that's 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:14.280 a huge statement to him tending to kill Dutch, So 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:17.000 that's not even it. So then Queeney and Bumpy they 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:20.040 send a message to Dutch by attacking business storefronts that 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:24.520 ran his own betting operations. They all on the attack. Queeney, 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:27.520 what else did she do? She took to the papers again, 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:31.840 so she started running ads encouraging the people of Harlem 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:36.879 to quote play black. So she's like she wanted gamblers 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:40.640 to only use black owned and controlled operations, right, So 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.200 she and Bumpy then they tip off the police about 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:47.760 Schultz's illegal activities. They raid Schultz's house, more than a 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.560 dozen of his men get arrested. They seize the equivalent 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.560 of about twelve million in cash today. Snap, what does 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:57.760 dutch Schultz do? He retaliates, Oh, violently. I imagine he 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.520 calls Queene at her own home and threatens her, and 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.919 that of course didn't work. He then kidnapped and murdered 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:06.520 her men. So there's there's our one person, some of 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:10.159 our one percon Yes, and she wouldn't budge. She's like 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:12.840 no by her men. Do you mean her henchman? Yeah? 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:16.480 So then dutch Schultz puts a hit out on Queenie. Okay, 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:19.080 this is what she had to say about it. We 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:22.080 know who who he hired for. No, she said she 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.200 hid in a cellar, quote while the super a friend 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:28.000 of mine, covered me with coal. So she knew that 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:31.000 the killer was coming in the building. Went to the cellar. 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:33.960 Super the superintendent of the building covers her with coal 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:38.800 to hide. Wow. Another time, Yeah, another time Schultz sent 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.720 a henchman to intimidate her. But you know Queeny's going 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:44.239 to Queenie. Yes, So she got the jump on him. 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:47.040 She pushed him into a closet, locked him in, and 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:49.440 then ordered her bodyguards to quote take care of him. 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:54.439 So that's another part of our one persons. Well, I 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:56.239 don't know for certain though, that she meant what we 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:58.639 all think she meant, because like maybe she understood that 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:01.440 hurt people hurt people, and that she wanted her men 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:03.919 to have an encounter therapy session with the guy, like 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:07.440 nurture him into a kinder state, lots of cozy blankets 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:10.320 and comfort for you, take care of him, take care 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:15.320 of him, feel good. Well anyway, so Duch shelts, he's 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:19.400 like bringing way too much danger and way too much 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:24.800 police attention and death. Why can't Queeny do her thing 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:26.840 in peace? That's what I wanted. She picked a fight 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:28.919 with mad touch shots. Well, she knew what she had 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:33.439 to do. She went legit she did. She passed the 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:36.560 crown to Bumpy, and she said, you're now in charge 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.000 of my entire criminal enterprise, and she trusted him. Yeah, 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:43.720 but what did Bumpy do? Well, Bumpy turned around and 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:49.560 made a deal with who Luck. So Lucky took over 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:53.520 Schultz's spots with a percentage going to Bumpy, and the 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.000 Italians now had to go through Bumpy if they had 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.359 any problems in Harlem. And that was the safest option 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:02.120 for Bumpy. That is the absolute smasting for good done. Yep, 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:06.159 so lucky Luciano. He felt like all of Dutch Schultz's 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:10.040 craziness was damaging the entire Cosin Nostra in New York. 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.720 In nineteen thirty five, he went to the commission the 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:16.000 bosses of the Five Families, and he had a hit 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:18.360 put on Shoults. He pretty much it helped form the commission. 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:20.119 I mean Frank Costello. There's a bunch of people, but 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:23.400 he's like a major player, the one who he goes 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:25.159 to them. He's like, Schultz is a problem. Put a 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:27.400 hit on him, he asks for it, he gets it. 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:30.800 Um Schultz. He gets sprayed with bullets while on the 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.640 toilet at the Palace chop House in Newark, New Jersey, 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:36.959 and he gets taken to the hospital. Queen, he had 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:38.760 nothing to do with the shooting. Can I just say 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:44.520 that she's not part there? However, she wasn't mourning the guy. 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:47.919 So when she found out, she wired a telegram to 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:53.919 his deathbed and this is what it said, Yes, this 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:57.159 is what it said, as ye's so, so shall ye 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:02.760 reap Galai six seven on that one? That's amazing And 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:08.359 she signed it Madame Queen of Policy. She's stone cold 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:13.480 on top this this act made the papers. The pers 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.680 sending the te made the paper. How did the nurses tell? 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:19.800 I guess Dutch Shultz. He died on October twenty fourth, 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:22.800 nineteen thirty five, one day after the shooting. I suppose 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:25.720 reaping when he had sown. Oh yeah. So after this, 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:29.080 Queenie eventually led a man into her life. She found 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:32.760 a partner and a man named sufi Abdul Hamid or 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.360 Eugene Brown. Oh okay. Before he moved to New York, 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:40.439 he'd been living in Chicago, calling himself Bishop Conshunkin, a 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.359 Buddhist cleric. Okay, so he's not like Noble drew Alie. 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:45.520 I thought he's like Black Moorish. Oh yeah, he is, 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:48.640 oh okay. So he was the eventual leader of an 0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:52.679 Islamic Buddhist cult. He's a black separatist. Yes, and he 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:54.520 used to tell people that he was born in the 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:58.840 shadows of the Egyptian Pyramids. I guess of then, yeah, 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:01.600 he wanted to make a move. Of course, of course 0:22:01.600 --> 0:22:03.479 he did. So he goes to Queeny and he asks 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:06.040 for money fund my dream project. We're in the in 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:11.520 the forties at this point, thirties okay, and she says no. 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.480 But they kept in contact okay. And then one night 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:18.440 he declared his love and said will you marry me? 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:21.680 And she said give me three days to think it over. Well, 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:24.080 they really stayed in content, huh. And then after three 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:26.879 days she goes, yep, I'll marry you. She accepts. What 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:29.760 so in nineteen thirty six they get married. What's the scam? 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:35.439 What's the angle? Queenie? But not legally so Hamide. He 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:38.960 draws up a contract that binds their mutual assets as 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:43.200 well as them their persons for ninety nine years. This 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:45.520