![]() ![]() According to The New York Times, he was "Harlem's favorite hero", because of his wealth, his sporting proclivities and his philanthropies among his community. His income may have been as high as $12,000 a day at its peak, and he was generous with his wealth. He controlled a large scale numbers-running operation, as well as nightclubs and other legitimate business. Clair claimed to have invented the way that " numbers games" chose the winning number, both claims have long been in dispute. He was a regular contributor of articles to the NAACP newspaper Crisis.īy the end of the 1920s, Holstein had become a dominant figure among Harlem's numerous policy operators. He also helped establish a Baptist school in Liberia and established a hurricane relief fund for his native Virgin Islands. The site was then developed by him as Holstein Court a residential building for Black business owners and professionals. He bought the mortgage on the New York hall of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and allowed it to continue to be used as a black function hall until the Marcus Garvey organization collapsed. ![]() Holstein was a major donor towards charitable purposes such as building dormitories at black colleges, as well as financing many of the neighborhood's artists, writers, and poets during the Harlem Renaissance. Holstein continued on the periphery as a wholesale lay off gambler for several years but was arrested and stopped in 1937. This was under mostly White leadership and by St. ![]() The numbers game then continued operating with mostly Black collectors and mid level management. Holstein saw himself as having a political mission which would be undermined by violence and dropped out of active or central involvement overseeing street collection. Most complied but he was resisted by Madame Stephanie St. One by one various numbers operators were picked up by Schultz and told they would have to deal with him. Rather than accept a back seat however, he decided he wanted the central role. In order to enforce his seizure of power, he brought in Dutch Schultz, who could see that Prohibition which had proved lucrative for him was reaching its end. In 1932 Dixie Davis, the court house attorney who provided service for the runners for many of the numbers operators, decided that he could make more money if he were to take over as central organizer. As the Prohibition began, Holstein's lottery system proved popular and soon Holstein became known as the " Bolita King", going on to earn an estimated $2 million from his lotteries. This change permitted a larger number of gamblers to play the same game and with reduced fear of fixing. At various times the US Customs House receipts, New York Stock Exchange daily share volume and leading horse race parimutuel betting handle have all been used to set the daily number. There were unrelated statistical numbers published by the newspapers which Holstein found could be used by an organizer instead. It also created limitations on disseminating the winning number out to the gamblers. This however allowed for the organizer to cut losses by fixing the outcome. Previously under and before Matthews the number was set by a system in which a set of digits 0 to 9 were drawn out at random and posted in a club house. He was eventually able to devise a lottery system based on those principles. Rebirth of the Harlem numbers racket ĭuring this time, he began to become familiar with the stock market and began studying the system and numbers. 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. During World War I, he was able to revisit his birthplace while stationed in what had become the United States Virgin Islands. ![]() Attending high school in Brooklyn, he enlisted in the United States Navy following his graduation. His mother was the daughter of an officer in the Danish Militia. His father was a landed mulatto who owned a butcher shop and owner of a large farm. Croix, Danish West Indies, Casper Holstein moved to New York City with his mother in 1884. Born of mixed African and Danish descent in St. His birth name was Egbert Joseph, he changed his name in honor of his maternal grandfather Holstein. Casper Holstein (Decem– April 5, 1944) was a prominent New York mobster involved in the Harlem " numbers rackets" during the Harlem Renaissance. ![]()
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