Titanic and The Brain

were saying. Over see, I read French, do not hear French. Okay, so that's that's that's what I think is ridiculous. That's a pretty good one. That that is darn goood. I mean we could just stop the show. Well, I'm trying to do ridiculous. I'm trying to tell you about stuff that's like a ridiculous fact rather than my normal mini Andy Rooney, what's irritating me today? You're taking my attack of like you of the blue whales. A Orda is big enough to drive a VW test driving that how

it feels? It's fun, isn't it? It It is? Well, I've got a story for you, So how about a story that's about the real life inspiration for Marlon Brando's role Skymasterson in the musical Guys and Dolls. And a friend of that real life inspiration another man who himself inspired the role of the big bank roll, the villain in the first season of Boardwalk Empire. Oh, this has so many good elements. I love it, all these references. Ready to get ridiculous. Yes, this is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast

about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. It's always murder free and one hundred ridiculous, Elizabeth. This story, it takes place in the twentieth century, and we'll pretty much be covering a lot of the architects, if you will, of the underworld and organized crime of America. You're going to hear some amazing names. It's like a Hall of Fame roster. Here we go. The two men were gonna focus on today have great names. They were called Titanic

Thompson and Arnold the Brain Rothstein. I'm already loving your ankles deep in the water waiting in right. Okay, So the Brain was a gangster. He was a banker for criminals, and he's known as the architect of American drug distribution. Yes, he came up with the model for basically financing heroin. Caroline was like a new drug back then. He's like, I've got a way to make this pay and was like, Brain, But that's not the story we're gonna tell. We're gonna

talk about him as a gambler. Now there's also Titanic Thompson. He was a con and a professional traveling gambler, a road hustler, if you will. And he was a man who could get one over on just about anyone, that is, except Arnold the brain Rothstein, except for he also could do that right. Yes, so the pool shark, Minnesota Fats. These names are coming at me fast and curious. Buckle up, baby, So Minnesota Fats one's called Titanic Thompson quote the greatest

action man of all time. Now, he didn't mean like, oh, he's, you know, a fit guy and looks like Jean Claude Van Damn. No. When he talked about action, he means money betting, big money bets. The action you find in Vegas and Atlantic City. Right now. The legendary golfer Sam Snead once called Titanic Thompson quote the greatest hustler of all time. Right, I'm I'm telling you this is a Hall of fame. This is just like, yeah, you pay

for this kind of admission to see this show. Now you have to understand that this guy, Titanic Thompson was a phenomenal laugh but he was also like you know, just street level a great golfer. He was so great well, I mean like ground level, you know, like pick up golf. He was the kind of person that other golfers who are really good like, why don't you turn pro? In fact, pro golfers would be like, why don't you turn pro?

And when professional golfers like Sam Sneed, who he golfed with, would be like, hey, Titanic man, you're pretty good, why don't you consider going pro, he'd be like, you know, quote, I could not afford that cut and pay. He was making money, because you have to understand, as a professional road gambler, he basically worked the country clubs of the newly oil rich Texas cities and towns. Now, that's a lot of loose and easy money to throw into your

pockets because it was new to them. This is when the Texas oil industry was basically brand new and just starting to boom, so he went down there was just cleaning up on the suckers. Right, So all those fresh marks in Texas they kind of like, you know, give him his name if you will, Like you'll find if you read golf magazine Golf Digest, which I know you get them as a subscription, right yeah, I make sure they send me the ones from the twenties and thirties.

They will. Those magazines often will run little profiles or mention things about Titanic Thompson, like he is still talked about figure in the golf world. What's is Titanic is not his government name? What's who? Titanic Thompson is not his government name? What are you talking? You don't think somebody's mother would name them Titanic Thompson, Right, No mother would name their child after a sunken ocean lighter. So that is a nickname. And we'll get into how he

earned that first. Let me tell you a little bit more about the shapes and contours of this man. One of his favorite cons was to bet against a golfer and he would go on and beat them. Now, and typically a con artist is not going to do that. They want to instill confidence in their mark. He's like, I'm gonna go the opposite way because people might see me coming if I like lose. So instead he would beat them and then guy was like a good game, Mr Thompson, and he was like, oh, tight handed if

you're nasty. But he's like, look, I know I just beat you, but how about this, I'll give you a chance to win back your money. And the person is like, I don't know about that, man. You just you beat me pretty handily. You know you're shooting in the eighties. I was shooting in the nineties. I don't know about the no, no, hear me out. I'll do the next game left handed. They're like, oh, now you're making a sporting Okay, okay, how about this double the bet double

your money double or nothing? And uh, I'll play left handed. That's suspicious. You see, you're smart, you're skeptical. These people down in Texas with their oil rich money. They're like okay. So he would go out there and he'd play, and in that second game he beat him too, and then they'd be like, man, how did you do that? And that's when they would learn his secret. He was left handed.

So he would beat him right handed, and then he beat him left handed because he knew if he could be him right handed, you know, done deal left handed. This is my man. No like your brother, he's a lefty. Right now, Trev, from what I recall, you were telling me that he, as a baseball player, would throw lefty and bat right or wait to get that back, he through left, batted right, and what you hear from our theme song, he plays the guitar right, but as a lefty.

But he doesn't he when he played baseball, he didn't switch hit. Okay, okay, so he didn't switch it. It was like Ricky Henderson throw left, bat right. I like that. Yeah, anytime you're like Ricky Anderson, you're winning. So Oakland, Now, can you imagine your brother doing any of this stuff as a righty? You know, like, could you imagine him being able to compete athletically at the level that you've seen him by doing it as a righty? I don't

think so. And now I really want to see him throw a baseball with his right hand, because that's always really funny. If I were to throw a ball with my left hand, it's really funny. Yeah, you like, as somebody who like I'm I tell people I am ambidexter's because I started out using my left hand in my right hand. I was a house painter, and I paint with my left hand, and I used my right hand to do like strong stuff, my left hand to do like delicate and like exact stuff. You know, they're basically

two different functions. But even if I go to throw with my left hand, I have to basically work out the mechanics before I do it, and then I can throw and I can hit whatever I want. But if you just throw me a ball and ask me to throw my left hand, it's probably gonna come out like a shot put you know, its awkward. So Titanic Thompson

did not do that. He could, basically, without being ambidextrous, perform as an ambidexter with he's pretty much yeah, he's a switch with golf with And also this is the kind of guy. He's a switch swinger. I'm just gonna let that one go, which I don't even know where to take that. He's a switch putter. Well he okay, Well just um switch potter. You know that just sounds like like butter, Yeah, like switch butter. You know it's just anyway, So Titanic Thompson he really likes to pick

on golfers. Another one of his like big scams was he wants bet a group of golfers that he could basically drive a golf ball five yards, which is in a phenomenal length of disc its right, it's just like these days. Oh you know, you drive up a golf ball five hundred yards, you put it in the passenger city a car and you drive that. Literally is how he wins bets. He once said he could throw a ball up to the top floor of the Empire State Building and he threw the ball into the elevator and

it just got sent up. So he's a big believer in your way of winning a bet, and in this case he did exactly that. Yes, he went out and he bet these guys I hit it five into yards. He's like, okay, now, guys, getting my car. And then he drove about to a frozen lake. He put the ball down on the edge of the lake, hit it and in golf, if it keeps skipping, that counts. So

he skipped it across the lakes. Wow, that's smarter than mine. Well, Thompson said at the time, I could outsmart out, cheat out cannive and roll higher than than I'm all in my day. And that's no lie, and it really wasn't. So Titanic Thompson was a lie. That was not his birth name. His government name was Alvin Clarence Thomas. Now, if you're a traveling gambler, it's good not to have

the losers know your government name. So therefore I was willing to turn Thomas into Thompson and keep it rolling. That's close enough. And it's like, yeah exactly, and people are like, oh, they must have misheard me. Yeah, if you missed state Thomas and they know you didn't hear me, right, I said Thompson exactly. It's that reasonable duck kind of situation. So there are two primary stories as to how my man Titanic Thompson got his name Titanic. Now, the first

goes he was actually on the Titanic. Yeah, right, So that doomed ocean liners out there in the Atlantic. It hits the iceberg and starts to go down. Thompson's like, oh, man, I gotta get out of here. So it throws on some women's clothes, hops in a life, just his voice, and then he hops in a lifeboat and he's like, take us to America whatever he said, and they're like all right, ma'am. So that was one way. The other way that he got his nickname. The story goes he

was in a pool hall in Joplin, Missouri. Now, interestingly both stories take place in the second story has nothing to do with that Titanic. He's just playing pool against the guy. The guy, though, is a pool sharp. He beats this other hustler, right, and it's just like pretty much too, you know, gamblers basically, and he he beats this guy and the guy's like, oh man, how was a good game. And Thompson is like, you want a little side bet? Guys like, what are you talking about?

I bet you I can jump over this pool table without touching the table. And I was like, what are you talking about? This is like a nine ft long table. Was like, no, no, no, these sides you know, from rail to rail. And he's like, I don't know even that. I don't I couldn't imagine somebody being able to do. I will jump over, I will not touch the table. That felt nothing. So it's like, all right, I want some of the money back. I'll take that but Thompson

then proceeds to jump over the pool table without touching. Felt. I told you he's a phenomenal athlete. But he also, like I told you, he kind of like you know, arranges his bets. So he had put a mattress on the other side of the pool table, and he just jumped up as high as he could and basically fell onto the mattress. So he cleared the table, but in a way that most people would never think to do. Wow. So wait, the up of having a mattress to eat? He just had a broad in He's like, go get

me a mattress right then. It wasn't like they were playing around a mattress. Just don't mind the mattress there. And this is not like a Seeley postropedic with springs and a pillow top. This is just basically a bag of straw. Mattresses were back, so it was a pile of bricks, just feathers and bricks. So this dude's like the guy who loses. He's like, someone's like, hey man, that guy who just beat you and then embarrassed you by jumping over a pool table. What's his story? What's

his name? And the guy who lost his Like, I don't rightly know, but he must be Titanic the way he's sinking everybody world star. So this nickname is fits, and of course it sticks because you know it fits. So the story goes that Titanic was known to always be ready for a bet. In his car, he carried a bowling ball, he had golf clubs, he carried a hunting rifle, a pool queue, and a throw throwing rock, A throwing rocket, right exactly, I saw, I saw this, bro,

what you gotta throwing rock for? But it turns out I just like the idea that it's not just we had a rock with him. It was a throwing rock. It was like it was gonna have him win some bets. This was like something he would use to you know, It's like, oh, I bet you I can hit that blossom on that tree. And so he would go out there and get his rock and he would basically side

arm it and hit whatever he wanted. But the thing is, m I say, a throwing the rock, he had beveled the edges so he could fit his finger in and he basically would just like whip it around. Titanic Thompson was committed to the bit right. Now. Of course, he also kept dice on him because who doesn't want to

play craps with a gambler. Now, he had years of practicing dice to the point that if you just set him out in a hotel room and he had a hotel bed, he could flip those dice in his hand and get them to never almost never sit up a six or a snake eyes. He wasn't gonna shoot craps, right, he wasn't gonna get a seven. So he could pretty much once every ten rolls uh six or a snake eyes would come up. He could literally control the role in the air of the dice. That's what I mean.

He loved the action. So this was the era of the proposition bet. And this is when professional golfers and gamblers and pool hustlers and card shops would challenge each other to do these crazy feats of skill or luck. And they would all do all of this for big money like Titanic Thompson. And I'm not saying I'm talking like thousands of dollars, not just like five dollars ten dollar bets. They would bet like hundred thousand dollars on

these things. There was this one time he's sitting out with his friends Hickory McCullough and Beanie Benson, and they're outside of Yeah, I thought you'd like these names outside of Joplin, Missouri and Titanic. Thompson tells the story this way. He says, quote, that night, I dug up a sign that said Joplin twenty miles, and I replanted it five miles closer to Joplin. The next day, we were riding along and I remarked to Hickory as we passed the

sign and said, those boys are crazy. It's not twenty miles to Joplin. Hickory and Beanie they bet me five hundred dollars each that the sign was right. This is Hulls back then. That's a lot of a lot of money on a sign, the placement of a sign. They're like, I'll take So they're like okay, and so, continuing the story with Thompson, he's like, of course I won that bet. Now do you know how we won that bet? He had moved the sign. So Hickory and Beaner were like,

oh man, Sandy. As Thompson tells it, Hickory and Beanie used that same sign to win plenty of bets. Later, they're like, it's a good idea. It's a good idea. It's now these names you you you commented on them earlier. Hickory and Beanie are some of my favorites. What about the Southern nicknames? Oh, they they're the masters Southerners and the masters of great nicknames. Yeah, you were in Carolina's.

I was in Georgia. I've traveled over the country. That is possibly, I think the birthplace of some of the best nicknames I've ever heard. I knew an old lady named punk. See this is what I'm talking about. I know someone who has a family member called Stumper Thumper. Oh my god, are you kidding me? How old is Stumper? He's a grandpa now apparently as grandkids all him thump Daddy, like granddaddy thumb dad. And then I know a guy named brother and uh yeah, nicknames and also just real names.

I mean like in the NFL, there used to be a player named Peerless Price. Now you know his mom is from the South when he named the baby Peerless Prices. Right, That's what I'm saying, on par with none. So we're going to take a little quick break and then I will be back with more of this story, and I'll tell you about a man with another great nickname, Arnold the Brain Rothstein. Elizabeth, Yes, are you ready to meet Arnold the Brain Rothstein born Ready? I like that about

you now. At fifteen years old, Arnold the Brain Rothstein realized that he had natural limitations, as you know, don't we all. But according to him, ever since that day, he's like, you know what, man, I'm never ever gonna put a bet against a man that I am sure can beat me the brain, right, I mean, you're smart if you can realize and recognize your natural limitations and then adjust in act accordingly. He's like, I ain't gonna

let me be the enemy. But don't you think everyone should say I'm not going to place a bet against someone that I'm sure I can't beat. Um. Speaking for the con artists of the world, no, I mean come on now, I mean, obviously, yes, it would be best if people are like, oh, but that's the whole point of the confidence of the con artists. They make you think like, oh, I can do this, and then they

just take your pocket. Now, Rothstein. He also had this nickname the Brain because he basically had a calculator for a brain. He could calculate the odds that you could count cards. He can memorize angles of any con he'd been a part of. And in the world of the gambling, having a brain that is basically a calculator is a money making right. So by the age of twelve, he was a professional gambler. Yeah, he's just imagining a twelve year old sitting at a card table is incredible. Oh,

it gets better. Right. The dude's born in two so we're talking like turn of the century. He was born to an Orthodox Jewish family. His dad has this nickname, Abe the just like he's deep in the community. Now Abe the Justice Beloved, and he's like, you know, he becomes a small time businessman and his son is like, all right, we're Orthodox Jewish, which means on the Sabbath on Friday night, we're gonna pretty much shut down everything

in my family and the household no power. I mean, you know, they had electricity, but like that we're not doing. I'm saying, yeah, but at that time they actually had it as an option, you know, because it's like but he's he's like, my family is not going to use it. We're always gonna be, you know, pretty much chilling for the Sabbat, right, And meanwhile, he's like, I don't feel that way, So I'm just going to go out and gamble while nobody's looking. So he would go in steal

money out of his dad's wallet on Friday night. He would go gamble all weekend, and as long as he got the money back in his dad's wallet by Sunday, his dad would never know. So he made his dad his credit line. At age twelve, He's down there gambling with his dad's cash. Like, I just love this guy. So in nineteen fifteen, this is exactly three years after Titanic, Thompson first earned his nickname. Either on an ocean line or a pool hall in Joplin, Missouri, we don't know

Arnold Rothstein. Meanwhile, his living in New York, and he's been super successful. He's been a professional gambler now for five years. He opened his own gambling house in nineteen After that, he becomes a millionaire. But he notices that his rivals, these other gambling houses, keep getting robbed. Now, hold on a second, he's been a professional gambler for five years. He's seventeen at this point. No, No, he was born in eighteen eighty two, so he would be

twenty eight years old. Yeah. So he's like a man at this point, like a full on, like and respected man of the community, right, but still a millionaire. Oh yeah, No, he's doing stuff right according to the American valuations. You know, this gambling out city opens. He's like, this is a target. So you know what, I've seen everybody getting hit, and I'm gonna come up with something nobody else has done. I'm ditching the permanent gambling house. I'm just gonna invite

people to my floating craps game. So he just let them know where the craps game was going to be that that night or that weekend. He pretty much invented pop up gambling. Everyone's like, this is genius. Now, if you ever heard of floating craps game. That is basically the major plot point of the musical Guys and Dolls, and I had mentioned that earlier as they were inspirations. Turns out, Arnold the brand Rostyn was a double inspiration, not only the intration for Boardwalk Empire, but also for

Guys and Dolls. And then we'll get more into that in a second. But first let's get back to Titanic. Thompson Titanic was a Southern born world class athlete. You know, he's like Amanda loves action, loves a good bet, and Arnold the Brain Rossty and he's from the East Coast, New York. You know, they're very different men, but at the same time, they had very similar views about how the word old is populated with suckers. Arnold the Brain Rothstein once said, quote, the majority of the human race

are dubs and dumbbells. They have rotten judgment and no brains. And when you have learned how to do things and how to size people up and dope out methods for yourself, they jump to the conclusion that you are crooked. It's kind of a missing throap, right exactly. No, they if you're gonna be a con man, I can just tell you right now, you're a missing So if you can believe it. These two men, these two very different men, the irresistible for us and the immovable object if you will,

of crime, they become friends, right exactly. And now some men are self made, like Arnold the Brand Rothstein. He was a self made gangster and in fact, he was so good at it he soon had enough money that he could basically build himself up into a real legitimate businessman. This is the traditional like, oh, I'm a legitimate businessman. He was the o g of that. He goes and gets himself involved in like Tammany Hall politics in New York. Now, just to let you know when I said earlier, this

is a hall of fame of criminals. Arnold brand Rostin is so successful early on in New York in the crime he gets himself a meshed with power politics which means the mayor and so forth, but then also with the underworld, the real power that runs the city. This is a list of some of the gangsters who once worked for Arnald de Brain. Lucky Luciano. Yeah, he's considered basically the godfather of organized crime. Then there was Meyer Lansky. He was a Jewish gangster in a close associate of Luciano.

He basically became known as the mob's accountant. He was the one who came up with a lot of the schemes that they would use for decades. Then there was Dutch Schultz. He was a friend and rival to Lucky Luciano. There's movies about him. I think, um, what's his name? Dustin Hoffman plays him in a movie. Then there was Bugsy Siegel. He gets played by Warren Beatty in a movie. He would go on to found Las Vegas as a

getaway and dream destination for both middle class and mobsters. Now, finally there were the Italian mobsters who also worked for I'm Carlo Gambino who was Cambino crime family and Frank Costello my my my father's favorite, the head of the Commission and the head of the Luciano crime family and basically created the the organization of the Five Families of

New York and New Jersey. All of these people get their start working for the Brain right now, this hall of fame of twenties century mobsters, and they, in a sense not just learn from the Brain, but they follow in the traditions. Remember I told you he invented the heroin trade. It was all because of like how he would loan money to mobsters. He basically took the model of Hey, I'm gonna break into my dad's wallet, I'm gonna go gamble, and then I'll put the money back.

He just kept doing that, but with other people's money. And he's start gambling and he's like, oh, I'm gonna buy heroin with your money, but I'll get it back in your wallet on Sunday. Essentially, it was so successful that was this thing. So he becomes known as a money lender. He's also a fence because like somebody who can move stolen goods because he knows all these legitimate rich people. He's of course a drug kingpin because of the heroin deals. He is also later a pioneer and

inventor of the bootleg get around. He basically comes up a way to get you know, whiskey from Canada and rum from Cuba and Puerto Rico and like the various islands of the Indies. He's bringing over, you know, champagne and brandy and stuff from Europe. He's like, we can get this here, right. Everyone was like, I was making bathtub gin. What do you got of champagne? He's like, man, I don't want your grandma to go blind trying to

drink this stuff. Here for some of this brandy I got, no I've kind of hinted at how much power he's had and like how influential this was, how influential he was with the power politics, and I quote, if politicians wanted something from gamblers and vice lords, they approached Arnold Rothstein. If the underworld sought protection from Tammany's judges and prosecutors and pliant police officers, it too approached Rothstein. He made things happen quietly and without fuss. More importantly, he left

no trails of evidence and everything ran smoothly and profitably. Right. That's kind of like, I'm not trying to say we need crime, but I'm just basically saying it's not going away, and so kind of this is the kind of criminal that I would like to see in the world if we have to have crime. Right, not to Louis Cannon exactly. It's just violent and exploitative anyway, these people. He's basically people what they want, and he would do that at interest. Well,

he's a businessman. Gambling is what ends up making him wealthy, and bootlegging makes him powerful and it turns into into a gangster. Prohibition starts nineteen twenty. Just to go over the particulars, I don't know if people know this stuff. January nine, nineteen, it gets ratified by all the states, and then one year later in January twenty, we get the passage of the Volstadak and boom. Now you can't drink unless you have very special dispensations, like you know,

a doctor's note. Oh I need this, it's my medical whiskey, which people got. People ud like Churchill when he came over. He had fdr arranged for him to have a little like I need my nippets a medical So this was common. Now the brain he was I told you he was ringing over like Booze from Canada. He's doing this on trucks and boats. He's got rum runners, which are fast boats. He's also got boats coming into the New England ports, so these fishing towns are also part of his rum running.

He just doesn't give a flying, flying flip, flying flip. So this dude, he also is very resistant to press. So the brain won't talk to anybody because he doesn't know what what good is it to him? Eventually, Yeah, what are they going to do for him? Yeah? How would this be good for? His publicity? Is not good? Everybody who needs to know and knows who he is, right, So, but eventually this journalist Zoe Beckley, who is a rare journalist who at the time as a woman is able

to score an interview with Arnold de Brain Rothstein. Yeah, she's like Nelly Bligh, Like she's like a badass. Right. So she writes the only portrayal that we have of him that takes place in his lifetime. Yeah right. She describes him as quote a promoter of big deals, a multimillionaire, a sentimentalist, a hard boiled egg, a whale of a

good fellow, and a power to reckon with. Wow. Right, she seemed to kind of like him, right, But meanwhile, like while she's describing to us all these things about like, oh, he's such a like, you know, a power broker, she also would point out that there has not been a big price fight, a gold rush, a Wall Street flurry, a great horse race, or real estate boom in years that Rostein hasn't had a hand in. Somehow, this is what he gets known as if it happened Rostin, probably

it happened right now. He also is known for having, as she writes, more friends than any other man in the United States. The reason he has is that he knows how to be a friend. It seems to be his religion. But don't double cross him or he will roll up the sleeves of his white silk shirt and get right after you. And when he's finished, the ambulance will be coming for you. Clang a Lang Lang. She actually put that in the article Clang a lang Lang.

So anyway, she also basically includes a couple of quotes from him. And so Beckley noticed that Rostein explains to her, my code of life is absolutely simple. Help a friend, be a friend. That's pretty good. Now, what's his definition of happiness? He also provides her that Rostyn tells Backley quote being a good scout, keeping busy and helping people. Right, it's just all Pablo nonsense. He doesn't mean any of it. It's like the worst responses to that cruised quiz in

the back of Vanity. What's your favorite cuss word? Yeah, he's My favorite cuss word is gosh, it's a plucky. So there was one other writer who got to know Arnold Debran Rosty and pretty well and actually was also friends with Titanic Thompson, and he would write about them. And this writer's name was Damon Runying. Yes, yes, right now. His writing style has its own adjective Runyon s exactly.

Now if you were to reach the level of a writer where you had an esque at the end of your last name, What could you imagine that something is dutton esque? Makes absolutely no sense. Come on now, I just think it would have things like, you know, dogs with sunglasses, they would have with sunglasses and overuse of the word perhaps and uh again, not make a whole lot of sense. Okay, I'll take you. I'll take that if you if you insist you know what's done in

Nesk better than anyone. So damon Runyan. He had a newspaper column that covered all these colorful characters that he was hanging out with in the old Broadway area of Manhattan, and his stories were typically would focus on colorful language. These bets is desired to like know, like wait, do you have the race and forum? That whole lifestyle of tracks and cards and pool halls. That was his thing.

So when he would meet a man like Arnold de Brain Rothstein or Titanic Thompson, He's like, oh my god, this is like literary gold. Right. So he ends up basically taking them and turning them into the characters who would then inspire the very famous musical that's based on Runyan's world. It's called Guys and Dolls, okay, right, And if you know anything about Guys and Dolls, it mostly takes place in this one deli called Lindy's. Now Linda's was a Manhattan deli made famous by this musical. It's

located or it was located on fiftieth and Broadway. And while it was a deli, it was really more of a restaurant. It had tables and chairs, waitresses and waiters, and of course killer desserts. So the question of whether Lyndy's sells more cheesecake or strudle ends up being a

central plot point in the musical Guys and Dolls. Now Brando and Sinatra in the movie version of that, and and Nathan Detroit is played by Sinatra, and he is a stand in for Arnold the Brain Rothstein Sky Masterson, played by Brando is a stand in for Titanic Thompson. So these two, and they're larger than life personas, are what Damon Runney us in Whole Cloth to create. These

characters have become so beloved. And after this break, I will be right back with the stories of these larger than life characters and what made them so large in life because their rivalry. Oh boy, oh, I can't wait. In the fall of nineteen fifty, the musical Guys and Dolls has its premiere on Broadway. Now Arnold the brand Rostein, if he had lived that long, would have likely never seen the show. He also probably wouldn't have seen the movie.

Apparently he never saw a single movie in his life. Instead, he would have just been at Linda's holding court the way he did on any given day, because that was his life. Now Running records that this guy Rothstein was a man of habit, a creature of habit, if you will. He would, according to Runyon quote, always sit facing the door so that nobody can pop in on and without

seeing him. Now, this is just you know, my father taught me the same thing and basically always did with your back in the wall, be able to see the front door. And that's just like some pretty much standard gangster you know, reasoning, right. But he's kind of the one who made that the thing this because before this people weren't getting popped in public, you know what I mean. He kind of like set the mold in in a

lot of ways. As I keep pointing out, the underworld owes a big debt of gratitude for him going, Look, if you want to do stuff right, this is how you do it. So imagine him at Lyndy's and this is the deli where these two men, Titanic Thompson and Arnold the Brain Rostin would finally meet and become gambling friends. You're ready, I'm ready, all right, I want you to picture it. Yes, you're seated at a table in Lindy's. You're enjoying a slice of cheesecake. Maybe it's a piece

of screw. I don't know how you live. Now you see a Titanic Thompson stroll into Lindy's deli. He walks right up to Arnold the Brain Rothstein, and he introduces himself to this famous gangster and gambler. And Thompson says, in his charming Missouri Twain, howdy, I'm album, but they all call him a Titanic. Now, the Brain he didn't

like to be touched. Thompson gets the clue, so he's like, let me, you know, not like press my flesh on him now before he can spin on his heels and walk away, though, the Brain takes this moment to invite Titanic to sit down and share his table. He's like, tie, sit down with me. Titanic is like all right, and he starts to like pore on the charm and he's basically trying to like, you know, like straight guy, woo

this gamble throw him down hard. So he's seated there with him, Thompson using all of his most colorful southernisms, and he's like, man, he's like bragging into the brain about he's got this get up and go card that's so fast that he's like, you know, man, quote it's as fast as a minnow swimming as a dipper. What fast as a minnow swims a dipper? What does that even mean? Le Braan draw stems like, man, I'm from New York. We talked in words that makes sense. I

ain't from Southern makeup up a stand. So this like Thompson's like, when we back up and put a little more charm on him, right, So now he's like, I'm kind of reading Rothstein. And at the same time, there was a third man at this table watching their exchange. It's Damon Runyon. So Runyan's like, oh man, this is like a star crossed moment. So he's just taking it all in he starts basically making mental notes and comparing how these two guys are alike and dislike. Right, and

he's like, well, this is very interesting. They both seem to be very health conscious. Neither man smokes her drinks at a time when pretty much every man smoked and or drank, and in fact Titanic Thompson would use the words health conscious like I'm thinking about my health right. He tells the men, Look, I don't need any these fried foods for a Southern man at that time, I don't need foods like just like, wait, are you really from the South? Bra So they're like oh. But luckily ARNOLDO.

Brand Ross Dean, being smart as he is, he's like, I'm about that life too, son, fresh foods. Only they're like, yes, you get me. So they we're both like pioneering the wellness. So Damni Ronn is sitting there, he's like, this is so bizarre to see. Meanwhile, you're in Lindy's watching this all with them, right, and you notice that the brain agrees about this value of fresh produce, and you're like, man, this is like I was expecting fireworks. But these two

seem to really dig each other. I at the next table. I'm sipping on a little cup of coffee and cut the cheesecake and I'm leaning in and they can see that I'm eaves dropping. Did you trying to act like the cheesecakes so good? Yeah? They're like, why is she leaning over to the side so much? But you know, they ignore me. I'm not a threat. I've made that clear. They know you're just possibly talking to me looking for like horse tips. I've got my my lipstick is sort

of smeared all. They're just like, let that crazy lady, you're just sending eating your cheesecake. I got the horse right here. Man's yeah, that's exactly Sorry, I'll stop singing. But anyway, then brain, He's like, man, you know I'm about that fresh food life too. He pulls out his bag of figs, which he keeps in his jacket pocket and basically just eats on all the time whenever hunger strikes. Like, oh man, that's that's dope. Man, you keep a bag of figs on you. He's like, oh, I keep this

thing on me. So now ros Stein gets up and you watch as he starts to leave the restaurant, and you're like, oh, wait, where are they going? And Tammic Thompson gets up and he walks out, and you're like, so now you turn and you watch as they leave the restaurant, and you look through the window and you notice that they stopped just outside. They talk for a moment. You're like, wait, what's going on? And I fog up the windows, have to like wipe it down. I should

have used my other hand. So you're watching his Titanic Thompson and the brain go over to this produce stand. Right, there's a fruit vendor at an all night fruit vendors shop or stand rather. Yeah, this is the big Manhattan Baby Times Square, all night fruit vendors seven farmers market to city and never sleeps, always has fruit for you. So the Titanic Thompson, you notice the two of them

are using some strange body language. You're like, what is he He's like looking like he's like like throwing his arm around, and the brain seems to be like laughing. And then all of a sudden, you can't quite hear it, but you see that like ten bucks comes out of Titanic Thompson's pocket. He slaps it on the fruit vendor stand, and you're like, oh, they're making a bet and you start paying attention. The fruit vendor pulls out a dollar bill.

He's like, I want some of this action. Tie. Meanwhile, the brain is like, all right, well, let's see it. Titanic Thompson basically takes a peanut in his hand. That this peanut he is taken from the fruit vendor who has a basically a barrel of peanuts, and he's like, I bet you I can throw this peanut across Times Square. The brains like, let me see it. You gotta bet Son, So he's like cool. Now, Titanic Thompson balances that peanut

in his hand. He begins this tremendously exaggerated baseball picture style wind up. You sitting in Lindy's. You're just impressed as all heck. You're like, who the wand marishell is that? Now? He leans back and fires that peanut and it goes slinging across the air. Right, it goes and skips like it's not touching the ground. I say skips, I mean like it's just flying hovering in the air. You're like,

what is that peanut doing. It's moving kind of oddly, just tumbling over something that's clearing the trolley tracks, it clears five lanes of traffic, it clears all the way over to the other side of time time Square, and the Brain watching this, he just starts laughing. He knows he's been taken. He knows he's been had. He's gonna have to pay up on this bet, but you know he's willing to do it. He pays up because he lost, and he's like, man, I just have to know how

you did it. And Titanic Thompson collects his winning from the Brain and he text his money from the fruit vendor, who's like, you know, man, that cost me a dog, but that was really impressive. Much later on, Damon Runyan shares with people who were not there that day, and for you sitting there watching from Lindy's unaware of how could a man throw a peanut across Time Square? Impossible?

It does not seemn conceivable. So it turns out he had doctor to peanut, but not only had he doctor to peanut, he carried a doctor to peanut around with him at all times. Note to self, I gotta start doing that. Yeah, he'd casually forced to this bet when he saw the dude, the fruit vendor had peanuts. He's like, perfect,

I'm gonna use my doctor peanut. So he pulled it out of his pocket, and then he got brain to go along with the bet, because who's ever like, hey man, I bet I can throw a peanut across Times Square, Like, yeah, you you've been drinking the bad whiskey. Let's take that bad. So the brain did not see this one coming, but it taught U a lesson about Titanic Thompson, which is Titanic Thompson is always wanted to surprise you. So the

brains like that was worth ten dollars of education, right. No, I used to do kind of like I've told you. I like con artistry. I like criminals. I was raised of loving the mafia. I learned more about murder inc And albert Anastasia than I did about like snow White. You know, my father would tell me bedtime stories about black cowboys and gangsters pretty much, right, So I knew all this stuff. But it also gave me this love

of things like con artistry. So later on, and I was like older, I wanted to be a little con artist. So like I would go like with my mother, we went on a trip to Seattle, went to a Pike Street marketplace. They had a magic shop there, and you're like, oh, a little kid, They're gonna go, you know, power nerd around this magic shop and find some stuff. What do I go by a double sided nickels? I can con

my friends back home. I'm not like to a trick and impressed on with my magic because he didn't want wanted. So like, I know, I'm odd to make my mother like take me on a family trip to a magic store so I can con my friends. But like, did you ever do anything like that? Am I alone in this like that? You would like, I'm gonna go get myself a double sided nickel on and I'm gonna get these suckers. No, I did not have that impulse. Yeah I didn't think, but I just thought maybe just teeny

a little bit. No, No, not really, Yeah, that was me. So this Titanic Thompson was basically a hero to me, because, like you know, he does this kind of stuff always. Like one day Titanic walked into Lyndy's Man of course, the brain is sitting in there at his private booth per usual. He walks up to the table. He points at the daffodil decoration on the table, and he offered the brain a new wager. He's like, I'll cut it down from ten paces. Titanic tells him. He's like, you

mean you mean the daffodil. Yeah, And he's like yeah. So the brain gets interested. How are you How are you gonna cut a daffodil down from ten paces? What do you even talking about ten? I was like, don't worry about that counts out ten paces. He's like, no, that's not enough. I'll give you an extra five. So he now steps back five more steps and he's like, okay,

that's the right distance. He reaches into his pocket and he pulls out from the depths of his suit jacket pocket a pack of playing cards and was like playing cards. There was a sports writer who was there that day at Lindy's who witnessed this, and they recorded it as such quote he scaled cards so skillfully that each sharp edge left its mark until the thirty five cards, it's snapped the stem of the flower clean. So they sat there while he threw five playing cards. I don't I

haven't had the deck basically right. I have a hard time understanding the whole betting culture of that and that's just me. That's what I'm trying to say is it's like I grew up revering these people and I couldn't get people into proposition bets because nobody wants like and see you jump over nod to me. I can cut that down from ten paces. I'd be like, well, good for you, I said, I can do it. I'm like, I'm sure you can. I'm no fun. You seem very talented.

People always want to make bets like I bet you, I can, you know, do whatever? And I'm like, you totally can. You seem like a goer. I love taking this stage. Well, you have to understand that this is what people did before we had smartphones. I did it before I had a smart phone. Well, not you, I'm saying, is I mean I have something fun to do it because before we had radio and smartphones. What what are you looking at? Well, I think it's just I think

it's a personality thing. And I think so also is a cultural thing because up to the point of mass communication, so basically radio is going to be new in the twenties, you know, so they we're like at that point, so people are into mass communication. But until then, you only knew regionally, so you only knew what you knew. So there was a lot of times people to take a bet just to see if it works, just to see if someone could do it, and that's often what you

see them doing. It is like all right, let me see this. Yeah, but no one wants to raise the public general education through mass communication. People like now, people don't do that in racing or whatever. You're trying to tell me, I've been too race scene, Like I don't know, I've seen race scene on the TV. So with him, it's a little bit more of an ego. And also he's got the money to be entertained, so he's like, for ten dollars, I want to see you do that, and so tit ta mc thompson is kind of an

amusement to him in some ways. So I got one more story between these two professional gamblers, and this one is a favorite. You ready for it. One night, the Brain and Titanic are standing outside of Lindy's outside the deli. Damon run ins there too. I just apparently just never had took time to write. I don't know when he got his writing done, but anyway, the three of them are sitting there passing time pretty smartphone style, and Titanic comes up a little action. He's like, I gotta bet

for y'all, Like, what is it? Tie? Like you seeing the passing cars? They're like, yeah, I see him. He's like see how the license plates? Like yeah, how we're not gonna see the licensees? Like you ever ever thought about how they look? Like a like a hand of poker? Like what do you means? Like you know, like the numbers you can just say like, oh, I got two twos, I gotta I gotta, I gotta five six seven. You're like, oh, yeah,

that's what you're saying that. Yeah, well, i'll bet you that I using only New Jersey license plates and you using New York license plates, I can beat you. Like what do you mean? Like, next car that goes by with the New York plates, that's your card. Next car that goes by with the New Jersey plates, that'll be my hand. Like oh now, all the Rascians like okay, I can't quite see the angles on this. I can't see what the advantage is, but I want to see how this plays at So he takes the bet ti

tanks like I'll bet you a thousand dollars. But the next New Jersey plate we see beats the next New York plate. I'd be like, oh, you're right, it will. I'm not going to bet you a thousand. Yeah, that's why you don't have a nickname like Elizabeth. You know, the brain. So the brain is like, man, I like this action. You got a bet son. So the men turn and they watched these approaching cars. Now there's a car with a New York license plate that drives past.

It's because they're in New York City. So of course, like the first car that goes past, and he's like, okay, that's yours. Now, this license plate has a pair of nine's on it. That's a pretty high pair to beat. So it's looking like Titanic. Thom's gonna have a hard time beating a pair of nine, but Titanic, he's ready for it. He takes off his hat, wipes his brow. Now, this was a signal to a man down the street who was waiting down the block in an idoling car.

This man spots the signal, he pulls the car out into traffic, and he drives past the three man standing out front of Lindy's. He drives past really slow, like so they can see the license plate all clearly, and the three gamblers read the license plate in unison and it has three threes on it. Get out of here. He had, you know how it is three of a kind of beats a pair. Titanic Thompson to beat the brain yet again. What if it What if he had

asked me, do you want to bet that? I'd like no, no, He's like, I just gave that money figs and walk around. He's like, oh, he's got to somehow. Hold on. He goes trotting down the street. He's save it for tomorrow. Might give me get a new sucker. Come back to you anything you're doing tomorrow. So anyway, basically Titanic Thompson. He beats the brain yet again, and this time the brain is like, man, I can't even mess with you anymore. You're just like, oh, because he knew he had been rigged.

This is not like he just got lucky. One new Jersey played happens to go by with three threes. He's like, man, come on now, now there's one other big bed amongst these fellows. But this is one of the Titanic Thompson had nothing to do with, and it was one that would later haunt Arnold the Brain Rothstein for the rest of his life. In fact, past the rest of his life. It is become his legacy. You see in nineteen nineteen, Arnold the Brain Rostein rigged the World Series. Oh yeah,

now that is a ridiculous car. It's called the Black Sox Scandal. What have you heard about or what do you know about the Black Sox Scandal? There's the movie, right, was it? Eight man? You have the John Sales movie? So that's it. I was waiting for more. I thought maybe you might mention Field of Dreams. I don't know where you're gonna go with. I got two covered. In nineteen nineteen, the World Series was interestingly a best of nine series. Yeah, it was the first year they've done

it well. The reason they did that is because they were experimenting with lengthening the series because there was it was a young professional sport basically spault at that time. They were they were young. They were experimenting exactly as the college years. There was there was two leagues at the time. There was the American League in the National League, but there was also a third league that most people do not know about these days, which is called the

Federal League. The Federal League only lasted for two days, fourteen to nineteen fifteen, but that was enough to give Major League Baseball a really good scare. And in fact, the Federal League is why we have Wrigley Field. The original team to play in Wrigley Field was a Federal League team called the Chicago Will and back then it was known as Wigman Park, and then later on a family chewing gum Empire purchased it and named it after a family which you now know as Juicy Fruit. So

back to back to the Cubs. They lost the series in eighteen to the Boston Red Sox. Now, for deep baseball fans, I don't have to tell you this, but for anybody else, neither one of those teams would win another World Series until the twenty first century. It began a long curse. People lived and died and never saw the man get close to a pennant. So the Red Socks finally doing two thousand and four, the Cubs Doudent Harry Carry. I once got a signature of his, and

it was like on a like a like. I saw him at the really field at the Cubs game and I was like, oh my god. Harry Carry went down there and I was like, yeah, may would you sign this? And I had the only thing I had on me because I'm a basically a young punk is a sharpie for like writing on busses and stuff. So I give that to him and he writes on the front page of the like the slick Chicago Cubs like whatever, like you know, basically the gonna score the game. So he

writes on that, Well, they'd slipped right off. So I have a Harry Carry like autograph in my imagination. Anyway, So the White Sox, who Harry Carey was a broadcaster announcer for it before the Cubs, they were the odds on favorite for the World Series, except for there were something called gamblers. Now there was a rumor that the previous World Series had been fixed, and you know, some gamblers are like, man, if that's true, I want in

on that. Actually, that's a lot of money. You got fifty million Americans probably gonna be gambled on this, but not all of them, but you know a lot of fifty million Americans at that time, we were really into baseball. So according to the story, there was a professional gambler from Boston. His name was Joseph Sports Sulivan. It's like the most generic. Yeah, it's like they ran out of names.

They're like, Okay, you're gonna be a sports sports Sullivan that works fingers and here, Yeah, you're a letter here gonna call you a bacon. Okay, So Sports Sullivan and this gambler he's like, oh man, I need to do something because I got a really crappy nickname. So he's like, oh, I'm gonna approach the first baseman Chick Gandle and the picture Eddie Sicktt of the White Sox and get them to throw a World Series. And they're like, is it the White Sox or the Black Sox. Well that's why

I get into that. But you want White Sox is the team name. Black Sox became the nickname for the players who were doing makes more sense, Ye, makes sense. So this gambler Sports Sullivan, he offers the player ten grand each if they tank the series. Uh, it's a pretty good amount of money. I mean it's not like you know, Titanic Thompson and Arnold the Brain betting kind of money, but it's good money. Well, and I don't know, how much were these ball players making. This is a

lot of money for them. This is like a good amount of money. Especially we're talking nineteen that is like, you know, a million whatever dollars. So the story always goes that Sports Sullivan contacted them, but as recent investigations have looked back, they discovered that is far more likely. The Chick Gandle and Eddie Sickett approached the Gamblers. They were like, look, last year some ball players and they rigged the World Series. We could do that for you.

The Gamble was like, really, well, you know who we're going to need to get in on this. Everybody else. And the ball players are like, yeah, the rest of my team because I'm a picture. And he's like, we can't do this on our own. I mean so the first base in the picture. I mean, we're important, but not that important. And if we just constantly miss all of our throws, that will look suspicious. So like, okay, So Gamble and sick It are like, look, we can

throw the World Series. We can get like, we don't need the whole team, but we need to get a couple more players. Again, it was like how many of you need? And he's like, well, let us talk to them. So they go on, they talk. They talked to h third basement, Buck Weaver, the shortstop, Swede Ristberg. There's a picture, Lefty Williams, the center fielder, Happy Felch, and third baseman Fred McMullin. So they're like, okay, hold on, we gotta talk to Buck, Swede, Lefty, Happy and Fred and Fred.

And then also that you have to keep in mind the star of the team I've not mentioned yet, Joe Jackson with the best nickname Sulis Joe. Yeah that's right. Yeah, so Shelis Joe got a get in there too, with Lefty and Buck and Happy and Swede. So I love how I only know these like little bled in parts of it, Like yeah, right, I think I've learned. I knew this at one point, but you did, Yeah, you know, you breathe in enough solvent well to refresh your solvent

stained memory. The White Sox decide, Okay, we got a eight of us. We're gonna be able to throw there. Okay, that's enough. But they go back to the gamblers, like, okay, we fixed the world series where it's gonna cost you eighty dollars for all of us dirty ballplayers, and the gamblers like, oh yeah, that's a little more than we expected to pay. We're gonna need to call in somebody. So they go to the man nicknamed the Big bank Roll a k a. The Brain. They're like, hey, Brain,

what can we do about this? So the gamblers they get these other gamblers, Sleepy Bill Burns, and a retired prize fighter Billy Maharg and the gamblers because Sleepy bill Burns was actually like a kind of a surrogate underling of the brain, so they're like, hey, go go talk to your boss in the brain. So Sleepy hits the brain up. He's like, hey, man, I got this new, this new uh investment opportunity for you. And brains like, all right, tell me about it. So they set up

a meeting. So the brain shows up to this meeting. It's the night before the opening game of the World Series. The brain meets with these professional gamblers. He sits down, they tell him about the fix. They're like, look, man, we got it all worked out, and they tell him this is how much it will be. It'll be about a hundred thousand dollars for you to pay for all of the ball players and the fixers and we got it covered and then you can bet whatever you want.

But they're like twenty dollar finders fee and that good good math. Right, So the brain is like a hundred thousand dollars to fix the world series. It's not a bad and they're like, yeah, we got it all lined up already, and Sleepy Bill Burns is like yeah, tell him, Billy, and Billy's like yeah, hey, brain, we got it all lined up. It's like you got it all. All the players are down yep, and like you you paid them? No, we haven't paid them yet, but they're gonna do it.

We just have to pay them after a couple of games. M No, I'm not doing it, but like, what do you mean you're not doing He's like why would I do it? And they're like because you're the brain, Rosty, and you were the financier. You were the Underworld's bank. And he's like, yeah, no, I'm not going to ruin my reputation. He walks out, But that wasn't the real thinking. He had ruined his reputation. Well, he can't get involved

in some like Penny Anny. And also these two rather less professional gamblers, Sleepy Bill Burns and Billy mar Hark. They had told the brain everything he needed to know. He's basically, like, you told me the fixes in, you told me we team you paid off. Why would I give you money now? Yeah. He They essentially went to like the best bank robber in the world and laid out the blueprints to the bank they were going to rob.

Told him they told him everything, So if you could just give us a little seed money, we can make this happen. And he said, He's like, I'll just pay someone else to rob that same bank. I'll just do it myself right at the same time, and then everyone will go after you guys like perfect. Oh, I can see where they call it. A brain's just going to say that. So regardless if he arranged it or if he had bankrolled it, the brain is such a presence in the underworld that everyone assumes that if the fix

is in, he must have done it. Oh. Yeah. And when I say everyone, I mean like even f Scott Fitzgerald knew about it. Yeah, Scott Fitzgerald he heard wind of this rumor and he added it to his book that he was writing at the time, The Great Gats Right. Yeah, and like, but he didn't call him the brain because he was like worried that, like the gambler gangster would go and kill him. So he's like, I'm name him

a something anti semitic, like meyer Wolf Shine. Right, So he comes at him and he has Nick Carraway meat at a luncheon and get introduced by Jay Gatsby and this gangster gambler anti semitic trope meyra Wolfsheim. He is looking sharp in a suit with cuff links made out of the muellers of a human being, right, remember that detail. So Scott Fitzgerald, not a fan of the juice, he goes through with this wildly anti semitic thing where he

basically pins all of the evils of America on this guy. Yeah, exactly. Here's how a Scott Fitzgerald writes some great Gatsby quote. The idea staggered me. I remembered, of course, that the world series had been fixed in nineteen nineteen. But if I had thought of it at all, I would have thought of it as a thing that merely happened the end of some inevitable chain. It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people. With the single mindedness of a

burglar blowing a safe. Yeah, so that's his rendition of the power of American individualism. Well, let's blame this guy. So meanwhile, pull under bootsteps, kids, because f Scott Fitzgerald was wrong, Arnold the Brain Rosty and had not fixed the World Series. He was way too smart for that. Instead, he just profited off of it and allowed some people to gamble. But a year later, all these whispers about Arnold the Brain Rosty and fixed the World Series they

bubble up into an investigation, a criminal investigation. They're in indictments. It's like a big deal. During the investigation, the Brain, the New York Times comes to him. They're like, hey, man, Brain, did you do this? And he's like, y'all no better than that, son, And he says, and I quote my friends know that I have never been connected with a crooked deal in my life. But I am heartily sick and tired of having my name dragged in on the

slightest provocation whenever a scandal comes up. Yeah. Meanwhile, the Brain gets indicted, so he has to go into court, but the trial doesn't last a terribly long time and eventually gets cleared. Of all charges or any involvement in fixing the series, because as they interview people like Sleepy Bill Burns, they tell them he told us no, so there is no paper trail. Bryce, and he's like, I

amin't gonna be dragged in with his nonsense. Meanwhile, the owners of Major League Baseball they create a new position because now they have a scandal on their hands. People are getting dragged into court because people are fixing the World Series and this is bad not just for sports, but for you know, the integrity of the game. So they hired this dude. Judge kennisaw mountain landis a retired judge who's brought in to clean up baseball. He stammed

after a Civil War battle. Wow Kenna saw mountain So he banned the eight players who have taken money to throw the World Series. They're all kicked out of the game for life. Buck Weaver argued that he had never done this till his dying day. Sheeless Joe Jackson. He takes his punishment because he knew he didn't so, but that's the great loss of the sports. Basically, sheeless Joe Jackson and then the heart of Buck Weaver, and then the Eddie sick. Cutting up to Willams was pretty good

pictures that he's sick. It was actually really good picture. But anyway, the other great loss is that this new commissioner was a virulent bigot. Yeah, can you believe it? So he decides, with his new power over baseball that he will rule to protect the integrity and the image of the game. So he decides that black players will also be banned the Major League Baseball. There were no black players involved in the Black Sox scandal. They were

gonna play black players on that team. But Judge Ladd is like, well, I gotta protect the game, so he decided black people who cannot be a part of this. He makes it illegal for Babe Ruth's All Stars to play exhibition games against the grou League players. And this essentially becomes the color line band that you hear about

in Baseball that Jackie Robinson had to break in. That all comes down to this black Socks scandal, and basically because they have these Jewish underworld figures and this idea that though black people are playing exhibition games, things are changing, they decided to throw it all together, like no black socks, no blacks, And so meanwhile everyone preferred to focus on the legend of all the Brain Rothstein, and they credited

him with this fix that he'd never actually arranged. Of all the crazy things that this dude did, like inventing the heroin trade, pretty much revitalizing bootlegging, or actually, I guess kind of inventing all of the tropes of bootlegging. We think of his criminal ways to get paid, all this stuff, being the banker to the mob, helping the mafia create a commission and create like the various structures.

None of that does he get credit for. Instead, everyone talks about this one thing that he did not do, which is fixed the World series. That's ridiculous. That is ridiculous. Not the good kind of ridiculous. It's more like the American history kind of ridiculous. But this is why I prefer to focus on the stories of the Brain and Titanic Thompson from their days as gamblers, as characters from that Damon Runyon story, and his inspirations for Nathan Detroit

and Sky Matterson. That to me is the good kind of ridiculous. That is a great kind of ridiculous. So, Elizabeth Dutton, what is your ridiculous takeaway from this story. My ridiculous takeaway is that, um, you just gotta make sure you got a solid nickname and like and then after that, just go where the wind takes you and hello, carry around a weighted peanut. Yeah, that is that was you took mine. That was exactly what I was gonna say, because I was like, I need to get back into

carrying around like sham goods and doctored things. It's a life hack. And I've learned to never accept a coin flip fet from you. Yes, my sister, we can tell you all the things about to trust about. I learned a lot today. Yeah, if we if we all learned some things and you learned important things. Well, thank you for joining us. I'm Elizabeth Dutton, I'm Zaren Burnett. You can find us online Ever Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter and Instagram. Thank you for joining us. No, thank you,

thank you, Thank you everybody, and we thank you. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnett, produced and edited by the real Commissioner of Major League Badassory Dave Kusten. Research is by the ever Skeptical never Easily conn to Marissa Brown. Our theme song is by Sleepy Thomas Lee and Travis the love Boat Dutton. Executive producers are Ben Big Hickory Bowland and Noel the Spling Brown m das que say It one more Time, We Dequeous Crime.

Ridiculous Crime is a production of I heart Radio. Four more podcasts to my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.