http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/steve_buscemi_as_nucky_thompson_35Eo58rVrOqfO77Jp9787O/0
nice lil read about the guy the show is based on
nice lil read about the guy the show is based on
i use www.sidereel.com to watch shows that i miss but not available to the next day. and use the megavideo links. they work best for me.
I like this Show a lot, good plot.....good Acting
Loved the part where Jimmy was talking to the other Driver, outside of the Meeting.
I turned to my wife and said... Hey that guy has a scar like Capone... But No way that was him... because A) a Driver ?? and B) it was 1920
Guess you have to start Somewhere !!
Loved the part where Jimmy was talking to the other Driver, outside of the Meeting.
I turned to my wife and said... Hey that guy has a scar like Capone... But No way that was him... because A) a Driver ?? and B) it was 1920
Guess you have to start Somewhere !!
Here's how this really went down.
Capone came from NYC, 2 years earlier to work for Johnnie Torrio. Really started at the bottom. Swept floors and did shit like that. Torrio was Big Jim Colosimo's right hand man in Chicago. Colosimo was the first so called Italian mobster in the USA.
Colosimo had virtually complete control of prostitution in the First Ward of Chicago. For some 25 years, "The Ladies of the Levee" in the First Ward represented the biggest white slavery and prostitution concern in the world. Because of corruption and graft this went almost totally unchecked. But is was being broken up at about this time.
Colosimo was getting older and had just married a beautiful showgirl Dale Winter and had little if any desire to tap into illegal liquor. So Torrio along with Capone had him gunned down.
Another interesting character is Arnold "The Brain" Rothstein. We all know him as the man who fixed the 1919 "Black Sox" series. Prohibition started in January 1920
so at that time rumblings about The Fix" were only beginning. Well we all know the story there.
Meanwhile Man O' War won 20 of 21 races. His only defeat was to a horse named Upset in the 1919 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga.
According to the October 6, 2007 edition of The Thoroughbred Times, "Many believe that the uncharacteristic loss by Man O' War to Upset [ horses' name ] in the 1919 Sanford Memorial Stakes at Saratoga Racecourse was orchestrated by the same man who is believed to be the maestro behind the fix of the 1919 World Series Arnold "The Brain" Rothstein.
Newspaper clippings from the time from a gambling newspaper, Collyer's Eye were found in 2007 in a college library vault in Illionois which pretty clearly implicated Rothstein in the race fix. Collyer's Eye also happened to be the first print media of any kind which actually named the Black Sox players involved in the Series fix.
Though Rothstein wasn't charged, both Man O War's jockey Johnny Loftus and Upset's jockey Bill Knapp had their licenses to ride revoked and neither ever rode again. Famous trainer Sam Hildreth also played a role.
Later Hall of Fame trainer Max Hirsch helped Rothstein choose the horses for his own stable Redstone Stable. All kinds of chicanery went on prior the the 1921 Travers Stakes where one horse was taken off it's feed another was entered as a diversion and Rothstein's horse Sporting Blood brought home a check for $10,275 for its owner. It is said over half a million was collected by Rothstein from bookies all over the country. Future Hall of Fame Trainer Hildreth received a generous cut.
Rothstein clearly only bet when he had an edge...a huge edge. For a time at least.
According to The Thoroughbred Timess, "Rothstein's luck finally ran out at age 46, when he was shot in the abdomine, having not paid up on poker debts totalling $300,000. A day and a half later, November 6th, 1928, Rothstein died never having revealed the identity of his killer."
But in 1920, Rothstein did turn most of his his attention to rum running. It is said his style and genius influenced and shaped a whole new generation of underworld leaders including "Lucky" Luciano. Meyer Lansky, and Frand Costello.
Boardwalk Empire should be a great show.
Read my post above. Big Jim Colosimo was slowing down. Getting old and had just married a showgirl....wanted to settle down. Had run prostitution in Chicago for 25 years. It had been unchecked and highly lucrative. He was not all that keen to get into the illegal liquor racket at that time, but he ran Chicago and called the shots.
So he had to go. Johnnie Torrio and Al Capone could see the future. Big Jim's time was up. There was a grand funeral solemly attended by those who took him down.
