On 23rd October 1935, in his newly established headquarters, The Palace Chophouse in New Jersey, Dutch Schultz sat at a table with his crew, possibly finalising the last details of a plan to whack special prosecutor Thomas E Dewey. The plan was to unleash 3 Tommy Gun's into the phone box Dewey used to call his office every morning on his commute to work. This would of been one the most notorious assassinations of a state official ever and, if he was given the chance to carry it out, would of brought a gargantuan amount of heat on organised crime and the mobsters of New York City.
Dewey had been after the Dutchman's head on a silver platter since he and his team of 60 assistants, investigators, stenographers and clerks had declared a war on organised crime in New York.
From his Manhattan Headquarters, Dewey had concocted evidence that Schultz had been avoiding paying income tax, similarly to how Elliot Ness & The Untouchables had caught Al Capone. However, with the first trial being held in New York, and with the jury intimidated, Schultz beat the case. Dewey then ordered the second trial to be held in upstate New York, in a place called Malone. Gaining the support and sympathy of the Malone townspeople through charitable acts such as donating toys to the local children's hospital, investing cash into small businesses, oftentimes paying for everyone's meal in whichever restaurant he decided to frequent and even buying the ice hockey team new equipment and kits.
Needless to say, the jury who sat on the Malone trial also found him not guilty, and he beat the wrap, liking him too much to convict him. This infuriated Thomas E Dewey and the current mayor of New York, Fiorella La Guardia, threatened Dutch that if he returned to New York he would be arrested on-site.
After requesting a meeting with Lucky Luciano and the newly formed commission, Dutch Schultz then requested the green light to whack Dewey. The commission knew how much unwanted heat this would bring down onto their operations and opted against it. Apparently at this point in the meeting, upon hearing the decision, Dutch lost his temper and vowed to whack Dewey himself, leaving the commission with no choice.
Shortly after eating a Steak, Fries & Peppercorn Sauce, at his new headquarters The Palace Chophouse in New Jersey, Dutch and his new were met with a rain of bullets from 2 hitmen sent on orders of the Commission. Those 2 hitmen were Charles ‘The Bug’ Workman and Emanuel ‘Mendy’ Weiss.
Dutch died the next day, after spouting a few hours of incoherent babble, which has now gone down in history as Dutch Schultz’s Last Words, with some skeptics believing it contains clues to a hidden £7,000,000 treasure in upstate New York.
If you want to know more about the life of the Dutchman, please scroll down after the recipe.
Ingredients:
1 Steak of your choice (I opted for Sirloin)
300g Russet Potatoes
1L Vegetable Oil
50g Peppercorns
100ml Cognac
300ml Beef Stock
300ml Cream
A handful of Thyme & Rosemary
3 Crushed Cloves of Garlic
A knob of butter
Method:
1. Remove your steak from the fridge & packaging 20 minutes before you are planning to start cooking.
2. Place a dry cast iron pan on the heat until smoking. Whilst the pan is warming up, generously season your steak on all sides with course salt & pepper.
3. Add a good glug of olive oil into the pan and when smoking again, lay your steak away from you. You should hear a loud sear.
4. Cook the steak on both sides for 2-3 minutes (2 minutes if wanting rare, 3 minutes if wanting medium rare-medium). Then add your thyme, rosemary, and crushed garlic.
5.Add the knob of butter immediately after the aromatics and baste your steak repeatedly for 30 seconds on each side. Remove from the pan and allow to rest.
6. Deglaze the pan with the cognac and when the alcohol has burnt off, and the beef stock and reduce by half.
7. When reduced, remove the garlic & aromatics and slowly incorporate the cream and pepper, tasting for seasoning regularly.
8. Simmer to a texture you're happy with and pour over your steak.
9. Serve with whatever your heart desires, and enjoy!
PS - look out for hitmen when you've finished.
The Life of the Dutchman
Dutch Schultz, real name Arthur Flegenheimer, was a notorious Jewish Gangster who operated in New York, mainly The Bronx & Harlem, during the 1920s & 1930s.
Like many mobsters, Schultz flourished during Prohibition, owning most speakeasies in the Bronx & controlling the supply of alcohol, earning him the name The Beer Baron of the Bronx.
He gained a fierce reputation of extreme brutality when he lost his temper, including one instance when a rival wouldn't give his territory over, Schultz and crew hung him up by his thumbs on meat hooks and rubbed his eyes with a bandage smeared with discharge from a gonorrhoea infection, causing him to go blind. They then broke both his legs and accepted 35,000 dollars for his release from the family.
After Prohibition he muscled his way into the Harlem numbers racket and began fixing the numbers using a maths whiz called Abbadabba Berman.
The numbers racket was a 'pick 3' lottery in which players would choose 3 numbers which were derived by the amount bet daily at the horse racing in Belmont Park. Berman was an accountant and a highly talented mathematician, all great characteristics to a mobster like Dutch Schultz who planned to fix the rackets
In a matter of seconds, standing next to the track, Berman could mentally calculate the lowest amount of money that Dutch needed to bet in order to alter the odds at the very last minute. This clever strategy always ensured that Schultz controlled which numbers won, guaranteeing himself a larger number of losers in Harlem than winners.
With the Numbers racket he was making millions of dollars each week and of course this was all tax-free for Dutch, which would ultimately be his downfall. Thomas E Dewey picked up on his lavish lifestyle and the fate of notorious mobster Dutch Schultz was sealed.