Casper Holstein

Casper Holstein (December 7, 1876 - April 5, 1944) was a prominent New York philanthropist and mobster involved in the Harlem "numbers rackets" during Prohibition. He, along with his occasional rival Stephanie St. Clair, were responsible for bringing back illegal gambling to the neighborhood after an eight-year absence following the conviction of Peter H. Matthews in 1915.

Early life

Born of mixed African and Danish descent in St. Croix, Danish West Indies, Caspar Holstein moved to New York City with his mother in 1894. Attending high school in Brooklyn, he enlisted in the United States Navy following his graduation. During World War I, he was able to revisit his birthplace while stationed in what had become the United States Virgin Islands [Fabre, Geneviève Fabre and Michel Feith. "Temples for Tomorrow: Looking Back at the Harlem Renaissance". Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2001. ISBN 0253214254 ] . After the war, Holstein worked as janitor and doorman in Manhattan eventually becoming a messenger, and then head messenger, for a commodities brokerage on Wall Street.

The Rebirth of the Harlem Numbers Racket

During this time, he began to become familiar with the stock market and began studying the system and numbers. He was eventually able to devise a lottery system based on those principles. As Prohibition began, Holstein's lottery system proved popular and soon Holstein became known as the "Bolita King" going on to an estimated $2 million from his lotteries. He donated a great deal of his revenues towards charitable purposes such as building dormitories at Black colleges, as well as financing many of the neighorhood's artists, writers, and poets during the Harlem Renaissance. He also helped establish a Baptist school in Liberia and established a hurricane relief fund for his native Virgin Islands.

Prohibition and later years

By the end of the 1920s, Holstein had become a dominant figure among Harlem's numerous policy operators. Although both he and rival Stephanie St. Clair claimed to have "invented" the way operations that run games choose the winning number in the "numbers game" have long been in dispute [Crime Library, Black Gangs of Harlem : 1920-1939, http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/gang/harlem_gangs/4.html] , he controlled a large scale numbers-running operation, as well as nightclubs and other legitimate business. His income may have been as high as $12,000 a day at its peak, and he was generous with his wealth. According to the New York Times, he was "Harlem's favorite hero, because of his wealth, his sporting proclivities and his philanthropies among the people of his race."Holstein Set Free By Abductors," The New York Times, September 24, 1928]

In 1928, he was kidnapped by five white men who demanded a ransom of $50,000. He was released three days later, insisting that no ransom was paid. The incident was never explained. However, it may have been linked to Dutch Schultz's attempts to take over the Harlem gambling scene.

References

External links

*PDFlink| [http://www.yellowpigs.net/classes/harlem.pdf Harlem's Virgin Islanders] |88.8 KiB by Sara Smollett