Dutch Schultz - Early Years

Early Years

Arthur Simon Flegenheimer was born to German Jewish immigrants Emma and Herman Flegenheimer. When he was 14 years old, his father abandoned the family. The event traumatized Schultz; throughout his life he denied that his father had left the family, instead defending the elder Flegenheimer as a respectable man and ideal father who died of disease while at other times denying knowledge of his father's identity. As a result of his father's departure, Schultz left school to find work and support himself and his mother. Between 1916 and 1919, Schultz held legitimate jobs as a feeder and pressman for Clark Loose Leaf Co., Caxton Press, American Express, and Schultz Trucking in the Bronx. While apprenticed to low-level mobsters at a neighborhood night club, Schultz began robbing craps games before graduating to burglary. Schultz was eventually caught breaking into an apartment and sent to prison on Blackwell's Island (now known as Roosevelt Island). A previously unknown photograph of Schultz at age 18, during his first and only incarceration, was published in the 2010 book "New York City Gangland." The prison staff soon found the young inmate to be unmanageable and arranged his transfer to the Westhampton Farms work farm in Westhampton, New York. Schultz escaped from the work farm but was soon recaptured and given an additional two months on his sentence. He was paroled December 8, 1920.

After Schultz's release from the work farm, he went back to work at Schultz Trucking in the Bronx and picked up with his old associates. When the mobsters he was hooking up with asked him what his name was, he said "Dutch" Schultz. Dutch was the nickname of the trucking company's owner's youngest son. With the enactment of Prohibition, Schultz Trucking went into the business of bringing hard liquor and beer into New York City from Canada. Dutch (Arthur) shot his first victim while there. Mr. Schultz was quite upset with the young Arthur Flegenheimer for using his son's nickname and for the shooting; an argument ensued and Arthur left Schultz Trucking to pursue a full-time career working for the Italian competitors of the German-born Schultz. As a result of Prohibition, Schultz, along with other organized crime figures, became a wealthy man.