Arthur Simon Flegenheimer was born on August 6, 1901 to Herman and Emma Flegenheimer. His parents were German and Jewish immigrants. He also had a younger sister Helen who was born in 1904. His father abandoned the family when Arthur was just fourteen forcing him to drop out of school. It was his responsibility to get a job and provide for the family. He tried his hand at menial jobs like roofing and working in a print shop but couldn’t make enough money for rent and food. This is when he decided to turn to the streets of the Bronx and became a petty criminal. When he was seventeen, Arthur was caught robbing apartments and was sent to prison for 15 months. The education he received in jail was not something he could have learned in a classroom. During this stay at the correctional facility he took on a new identity. This is when Dutch Schultz was born. He loved the new name. It sounded tougher and meaner than Flegenheimer. Arthur embraced his new persona.

Dutch teamed up with his friend Joey Noe and started the Noe/Schultz gang. They recruited other tough guys from the Bronx neighborhood. They muscled their way into the illegal beer and booze business. It was a simple business plan. Go to speakeasies and tell the guy running the show that you either buy our product or we will bust up the joint. Business grew quickly and they expanded into other parts of the city. They opened up their own speakeasies in and around New York and Long Island. One night while waiting for Dutch at a speakeasy Joey was ambushed and killed. This left Dutch devastated. He was forced to push ahead without his partner and best friend. He threw himself into his work. He was ahead of his time in his thinking and business dealings. He controlled every aspect of his illegal empire from production to distribution. He had underground distilleries and tunnels built to hide his beer and liquor. He had custom rum-running boats built with airplane engines to outrun the Coast Guard. He had a team of mechanics that travelled with his fleet of trucks transporting his illegal booze. He ran his business empire like a Fortune 500 company. This made Dutch Schultz a very wealthy man. He was one of the most powerful men in New York City in the 1920’s and 30’s. But it wasn’t all work for he found time to fall in love with a coat check girl named Frances. She became Mrs. Flegenheimer and they had two children; a daughter Ann and a son John.

Dutch’s rise to power put a bullseye on his back with fellow gangsters and the US Government. Special prosecutor Thomas Dewey was assigned to go after the Dutchman. They tried to put him away on tax evasion charges twice but they underestimated Dutch Schultz. Dutch and his attorney Dixie Davis outsmarted the Government at both trials. He knew they would be coming after him a third time so he asked Lucky Luciano and the Commission for permission to kill Dewey. Luciano denied the request instead putting a hit on Dutch. On October 23, 1935 Dutch Schultz was dining at the Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey with his accountant Otto Berman, and two bodyguards, Abe Landeau and Bernard Lulu Rosenkrantz when they were ambushed. The three crew members died while Dutch hung on for another 24 hours in a morphine-induced state where his ramblings took the police and hospital staff on a bizarre ride inside the mind of a brilliant but tortured soul.  He died on October 24^th honoring the gangster code and never giving up his assailants.  Six months before Dutch died, he liquidated some of his assets and put them in a custom-built airtight and waterproof treasure chest that is rumored to be buried somewhere in New York State. In 1935 the treasure was worth $7 million equivalent to $150 million today. The Dutch Schultz treasure has NEVER been found.