# For the Love of a Funny Girl: Nicky Arnstein

An episode of [Ridiculous Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1608230191), 22 May 2025, 48 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0b4bcc39-7ba2-453f-aaac-ae510011dd80/fa833ade-dd0f-4f13-8659-b2e50005e017/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=3a4c50f5-ff69-4807-aa26-ae510011dd8e

A cardsharp, a ladies man, a con artist extraordinaire. Nicky Arnstein skirted the law and lived the high life, even married the most famous woman in radio. A couple stretches of hard labor in the pen couldn't break him, but a film adaptation of his life almost did. Tough guy, thin skin. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
[0:03] Speaker 2: Zeren Zaren you get over here?
[0:06] Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I'm listening.
[0:10] Speaker 2: You're really eager. Yeah yeah, yeah, you know it's ridiculous.
[0:15] Speaker 4: Oh man, all right, what do you know? People like
[0:18] Speaker 4: they don't like cilantro. Yeah, they say it's like, yeah,
[0:23] Speaker 4: apparently there's another genetic cord where people can smell ants
[0:28] Speaker 4: really because they can smell the formic acid on the
[0:31] Speaker 4: outsid use, yeah, or the orlaic acid, either one that
[0:36] Speaker 4: they can smell, and apparently that's a chemical messenger for ants,
[0:39] Speaker 4: so they can smell the ant trail. So there's one
[0:42] Speaker 4: person on the reddit they were talking about how they
[0:45] Speaker 4: watched their boyfriend hunt down at a single ant using
[0:48] Speaker 4: his trail. Wow, all right, isn't that crazy? And then
[0:51] Speaker 4: so they asked, like, what what does it smell?
[0:54] Speaker 5: Like?
[0:54] Speaker 3: Yeah, you want to know blue cheese and gasoline?
[0:58] Speaker 2: Oh dear god?
[0:59] Speaker 3: Yeah?
[1:00] Speaker 2: Better? What Like then after it rains and the ants
[1:02] Speaker 2: come out, and they're just like pass out because the
[1:05] Speaker 2: smells so bad. That's crazy. Isn't there a similar thing
[1:09] Speaker 2: with like asparagus p that some people get it and
[1:12] Speaker 2: some people don't.
[1:12] Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I guess so I don't know the answer,
[1:14] Speaker 4: but yes, I think that basically, once again, it's it's
[1:16] Speaker 4: an expression of a gene.
[1:17] Speaker 2: So we are complex.
[1:19] Speaker 3: Yeah, just one letter here, one letter that exactly.
[1:22] Speaker 2: Do you want to know what else is ridiculous.
[1:23] Speaker 6: Other than ants, smell trail, there's not a whole lot,
[1:27] Speaker 6: but suing someone over telling a true story.
[1:30] Speaker 3: Oh, I thought about doing that.
[1:52] Speaker 2: This is ridiculous crime. A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
[1:57] Speaker 2: heiss and cons. It's always ninety nine murder free in
[2:00] Speaker 2: one hundred percent ridiculous.
[2:03] Speaker 3: Damn right.
[2:04] Speaker 5: I know.
[2:06] Speaker 2: The story I have for you today, Buddy. You listen
[2:10] Speaker 2: to a lot of old radio shows. I know you've
[2:13] Speaker 2: mentioned that, like as a way to escape the present. Yeah,
[2:17] Speaker 2: so I was looking into crimes that would be in
[2:19] Speaker 2: some way involved with old radio shows since I wanted
[2:23] Speaker 2: to tell you something entertaining that would make you happy.
[2:26] Speaker 3: Thank you.
[2:27] Speaker 2: And I need to atone for telling the George Santos story.
[2:32] Speaker 2: Maya culpa. So this is how I'm making it up
[2:36] Speaker 2: to you and everybody else. I searched around and I
[2:39] Speaker 2: found a radio adjacent crime, really and it wasn't on
[2:43] Speaker 2: the radio, but it was involved with someone who was
[2:46] Speaker 2: and this guy he traveled in some of your favorite
[2:50] Speaker 2: criminal underworld circles.
[2:52] Speaker 3: What is my birthday?
[2:54] Speaker 2: I know I don't always treat you right, dizzy and
[2:58] Speaker 2: times is trying. So this is my gift to you.
[3:01] Speaker 3: Thank you.
[3:02] Speaker 2: Today I shall tell you the story of Julius Wilford Arnstein.
[3:08] Speaker 3: Ooh yeah a name.
[3:11] Speaker 2: Julius born July first, eighteen seventy nine in Berlin, Germany.
[3:15] Speaker 2: What a time. So he's born into this Jewish family. Now,
[3:19] Speaker 2: in eighteen seventy nine, the Jewish community in Berlin, they
[3:23] Speaker 2: had this like period of relative legal equality but like
[3:27] Speaker 2: growing tension. Yes, so Germany had unified.
[3:30] Speaker 3: Yeah, the German Empire has now become a thing.
[3:32] Speaker 2: Yeah, eighteen seventy one Jewish people were granted full civil
[3:36] Speaker 2: rights under this new German Empire. But by eighteen seventy
[3:40] Speaker 2: nine when he's born, anti Semitism is really on the rise.
[3:44] Speaker 2: In fact, it was in eighteen seventy nine that Wilhelm
[3:47] Speaker 2: Marr coined the term anti Semitism.
[3:50] Speaker 3: Really when he.
[3:51] Speaker 2: Was founding the League of Anti Semites. Wow, so he's
[3:55] Speaker 2: like he's like pro ye, so yeah, he's like this
[3:59] Speaker 2: is what we will be called.
[4:00] Speaker 3: He named the people haters.
[4:03] Speaker 2: Call us the haters. So all that's going on Julius, right,
[4:09] Speaker 2: it's like, we're out of here. Immigrate to the United States,
[4:13] Speaker 2: and they settled in New Jersey, and then upon arriving
[4:16] Speaker 2: in the States, they made a big change. They decided
[4:19] Speaker 2: to become episcopalian, like the whole boiled wool set. It's
[4:24] Speaker 2: a big change. Sure, I'm guessing a survival method. Not
[4:30] Speaker 2: uncommon to do that kind of thing, but like what
[4:32] Speaker 2: a culture.
[4:32] Speaker 3: Shock in a dietary culture shock?
[4:34] Speaker 4: Oh my god, culture showhere? But yeah, just like we
[4:38] Speaker 4: show up for like a church event, You're.
[4:40] Speaker 3: Like, what is what?
[4:41] Speaker 2: What even is this? So Julius Wilford Arnstein eventually became
[4:47] Speaker 2: Nicki Arnstein, a d out of the arned Stein. He
[4:51] Speaker 2: picked up the nickname Nicky because he was like riding
[4:56] Speaker 2: bikes in these professional bike races and was really good
[4:59] Speaker 2: at it, and he had nickel plated bicycle spokes on
[5:02] Speaker 2: his bike, so everyone started calling him Nikky. He's like,
[5:05] Speaker 2: he's all quicksilver and tweeds and an easy cap.
[5:09] Speaker 3: Are they riding like Penny far like the big wheel?
[5:12] Speaker 2: Let's say they were on Penny Farthings just haul and
[5:15] Speaker 2: tail and nickel plated spinners out of penny farthing. He
[5:23] Speaker 2: wasn't one for school, and you know he went to
[5:24] Speaker 2: the school hardnecks. He got his education on the streets.
[5:28] Speaker 2: By his early twenties he had drifted into like the
[5:31] Speaker 2: social circles of gamblers, swindlers, con men. Yeah, just like
[5:37] Speaker 2: we like him. He was a super smart guy. He
[5:40] Speaker 2: was like you could say it was brilliant, and he
[5:42] Speaker 2: could be very persuasive. So you take those two qualities
[5:46] Speaker 2: and you got the fixens for a good criminal, great
[5:48] Speaker 2: con artists. So by yeah, and he could by the
[5:53] Speaker 2: early nineteen hundreds, Nicky's in his twenties criming it up
[5:58] Speaker 2: first though, May nineteen oh six he married Carrie Greenthal
[6:02] Speaker 2: of New Jersey. That was not meant to be.
[6:04] Speaker 3: He doesn't sound episcopalian, No, I do know.
[6:07] Speaker 2: He bailed out on her a few years later, just
[6:10] Speaker 2: up and left. There's a reference to a Julius Earnstein
[6:14] Speaker 2: in the Saint Joseph Newspress out of Missouri in nineteen ten,
[6:19] Speaker 2: and I don't think it's Nicky, but please indulge me
[6:22] Speaker 2: while I read it to you, and we can muse
[6:24] Speaker 2: on how far We've come, slash gone, slash evolved, slash
[6:28] Speaker 2: devolved as a society. Oh please, so the headline spoke
[6:31] Speaker 2: coarsely to women.
[6:33] Speaker 3: Okay, this is the headline.
[6:34] Speaker 2: Yeah. Justice nice finds Julius Earnstein for using rude language
[6:39] Speaker 2: in a wire conversation. It's a subhead. Here's the article
[6:43] Speaker 2: in Justice Nye's court this morning, Julius Earnstein, manager of
[6:47] Speaker 2: a dying and cleaning establishment, pleaded guilty to a charge
[6:51] Speaker 2: of peace disturbance and was fined three dollars and costs
[6:54] Speaker 2: thirteen dollars in all, which he paid. Earnstein disturbed the
[6:58] Speaker 2: piece of missus JF. Mc donald, an employee of the
[7:01] Speaker 2: Saint Joseph Gas Company, by using rough language to her
[7:05] Speaker 2: over the telephone. The language was quote you dirty old maid.
[7:11] Speaker 2: Luke H. Moss, assisting prosecuting attorney, was in court at
[7:15] Speaker 2: the time the plea was entered. He admitted to the
[7:18] Speaker 2: magistrate that Earnstein was not charged with having used profane language,
[7:22] Speaker 2: and that the words attributed to the defendant were merely
[7:25] Speaker 2: coarse and spoken in an angry manner.
[7:28] Speaker 3: They've forgotten degrees of criminal language.
[7:30] Speaker 2: He got. He got fine for saying you dirty old maid.
[7:34] Speaker 3: And like.
[7:36] Speaker 4: You dirty old maid. Like I kind of wonder is
[7:39] Speaker 4: if you can write it in the paper. How course
[7:43] Speaker 4: is the language right?
[7:44] Speaker 2: Exactly? Well, it's not our Nikki, but they share a name.
[7:48] Speaker 2: And I just was and this guy, this is this
[7:51] Speaker 2: guy who owns the dry cleaners. He pops up in
[7:53] Speaker 2: all sorts of Midwestern there's a little bit of trouble anyway,
[7:58] Speaker 2: So confusion for you. I it's just horrible and amazing.
[8:02] Speaker 2: I love it and I hate it. Back to NICKI okay,
[8:04] Speaker 2: so he's busy. He came up with a bunch of aliases,
[8:07] Speaker 2: including Nick Arnold, Jewels Aren't and j w Arnold. He
[8:12] Speaker 2: had developed this reputation in high society circles both in
[8:15] Speaker 2: the US and in Europe because he was going around
[8:18] Speaker 2: posing as a gentleman gambler and.
[8:21] Speaker 3: He was taking the steamer back and forth.
[8:24] Speaker 2: There's that luxurious environment on the Transatlantic miners a.
[8:28] Speaker 3: Lot of gamblers. We just take it back and forth.
[8:30] Speaker 2: Yeah, and we've seen it on you know, we've talked
[8:32] Speaker 2: about it before. We got these like violently wealthy travelers.
[8:36] Speaker 2: They're looking for entertainment characters. Yeah, he Nicky rolls up.
[8:41] Speaker 2: He's this sophisticated gentleman. He's fluent in multiple languages, he
[8:45] Speaker 2: knows all the high society etiquette. Excellent smart guy, you know.
[8:49] Speaker 2: Observed he was able to just seamlessly integrate into the
[8:53] Speaker 2: social circles of his targets. And I think that there
[8:56] Speaker 2: was maybe a part of the people that kind of
[8:58] Speaker 2: liked the possibility of a gentleman thief in their midst.
[9:01] Speaker 3: It's like you've stepped into a movie.
[9:03] Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're they're thinking, like they're not going to
[9:06] Speaker 2: get taken for all their worth.
[9:07] Speaker 3: Yeah, he's not gonna pull a gun.
[9:08] Speaker 2: And they're thinking it's probably not going to happen to me.
[9:10] Speaker 2: It happened to.
[9:11] Speaker 3: Another cast sucker at the table.
[9:13] Speaker 2: Oh, the intrigue, that's the entertainment. So his main cons
[9:19] Speaker 2: were high stakes card games, especially bridge and poker, and
[9:23] Speaker 2: he would rig the games. Sometimes he had accomplices with him,
[9:27] Speaker 2: who would you know, pose his fellow passengers and like
[9:30] Speaker 2: so NICKI would always come out on top. No one's
[9:32] Speaker 2: the wiser. He's just a darn good car player by jove.
[9:36] Speaker 5: So.
[9:37] Speaker 2: But he had other scams. He was known for seducing
[9:40] Speaker 2: wealthy women like widows and debutantes, were his specialty, exactly
[9:46] Speaker 2: the mother Maiden Crone. He would feign romantic interest and
[9:51] Speaker 2: like gain their trust and affection, defraud them of their wealth.
[9:54] Speaker 2: Classic his charm sophistication made him really effective, like it,
[10:00] Speaker 2: and he would He's got this whole trail of just
[10:03] Speaker 2: like devastated victims behind him. But what does he carries, NIKKII.
[10:08] Speaker 2: He didn't just run these on ocean liners. He pulled
[10:10] Speaker 2: cons in European casinos like London, Paris, Monte Carlo, like
[10:15] Speaker 2: ooh la law, the fashion, the exits. Can you imagine
[10:19] Speaker 2: this is between nineteen oh nine and nineteen twelve.
[10:21] Speaker 3: It's a good year's run, right for a world world.
[10:24] Speaker 2: In those times he got arrested a bunch of times,
[10:27] Speaker 2: but was never convicted. So his first documented arrest in
[10:31] Speaker 2: Europe was in nineteen oh nine.
[10:32] Speaker 4: Can you iagine just for a second, robbing the wealthy
[10:35] Speaker 4: in the last days of empire?
[10:38] Speaker 2: In the Bella puck and jazz.
[10:39] Speaker 3: Exists, so there's like still some good music.
[10:42] Speaker 2: It's fantastic in the fashion sit god. So he's nineteen
[10:47] Speaker 2: oh nine Monte Carlo, right, he's calling himself jewels, aren't
[10:52] Speaker 2: He gets arrested for swindling you know other gamblers, gets
[10:56] Speaker 2: released without formal charges. Next year, he's calling himself Arnold.
[11:01] Speaker 2: He gets pinched in London. He was doing con games,
[11:05] Speaker 2: you know, confidence games, a lot of forged checks and securities,
[11:10] Speaker 2: which seemed to be We've talked before about these kind
[11:12] Speaker 2: of things happening in London at that time. Yes, once again,
[11:15] Speaker 2: no conviction. Nineteen twelve, he gets busted in Paris. He
[11:20] Speaker 2: was calling himself Nicholas Arnoldstein then and he got questioned,
[11:24] Speaker 2: but they didn't have enough evidence, so they had to
[11:26] Speaker 2: love her. And then another thing happened in nineteen twelve,
[11:29] Speaker 2: something magical. He met a woman, Yes, Fanny Bryce whoa yeah,
[11:35] Speaker 2: Fanny Bryce, trailblazer, comedian, singer, actress, radio star. She spanned vaudeville, Broadway, film, radio,
[11:43] Speaker 2: ever life. Yeah. Known for her zany humor emotional depth
[11:47] Speaker 2: at the same time, and she was like an icon
[11:50] Speaker 2: of Jewish American entertainment and an inspiration for later female
[11:54] Speaker 2: performers dons. Yes, yeah, So. She was born in eighteen ninety.
[11:58] Speaker 3: One, wreck lined to Ethel Murmay yes one.
[12:00] Speaker 2: Hundred percent as Fania Borok in New York City. She
[12:06] Speaker 2: was raised in Brooklyn, grew up in a working class household.
[12:10] Speaker 2: She left school in her teens, and then she changed
[12:13] Speaker 2: her name to Fanny Brice early on in her career
[12:16] Speaker 2: to sound more American and appealing to mainstream audiences. You
[12:19] Speaker 2: can remember it exactly. So when she was only sixteen
[12:24] Speaker 2: years old, she started singing in burlesque houses in vaudeville shows.
[12:28] Speaker 2: Nineteen ten she joined Zigfield Folly, Oh, Heck, Yeah Yeah, which,
[12:32] Speaker 2: as you know, lavish theatrical review, and that made her
[12:36] Speaker 2: a household name. So she's super talented. She could do
[12:39] Speaker 2: comedy parody. She also did these really heartbreaking torch songs.
[12:44] Speaker 2: My Man was a tragic ballad that became her signature song.
[12:49] Speaker 2: Second Hand Rose was a comic song that reflected her
[12:53] Speaker 2: working classroots. So she played this like funny self depreciating
[12:58] Speaker 2: Jewish woman, and a lot of her stuff challenged beauty
[13:01] Speaker 2: standards and high society because she would do like these
[13:04] Speaker 2: ugly duckling routines alongside all these really gorgeous, glamorous chorus
[13:09] Speaker 2: girls and the follies. Of course, audiences loved her, you know,
[13:12] Speaker 2: so relatable. In the nineteen thirties, she reinvented herself again
[13:17] Speaker 2: on the radio as baby Snooks. Yes, this bratty but
[13:20] Speaker 2: lovable child character. So the Baby Snooks Show became a
[13:24] Speaker 2: national hit ran from the late nineteen thirties until when
[13:27] Speaker 2: she died in nineteen fifty one. I should say that
[13:30] Speaker 2: I often refer to my dogs as baby snooks when
[13:33] Speaker 2: I'm telling them how precious they are, a thing I
[13:36] Speaker 2: realized I picked up from my grandma, who would call
[13:39] Speaker 2: the family dogs baby snooks when they did something dinging,
[13:42] Speaker 2: a little annoying, but cute. So when I was reading
[13:45] Speaker 2: about this, I was like, Babe, I just was saying
[13:47] Speaker 2: to the dogs and the baby that comes from Yeah.
[13:50] Speaker 2: So Nicki met Fanny and they fell in love.
[13:53] Speaker 3: Oh I love it.
[13:55] Speaker 2: In fact, that song my man she wrote about Nicky
[13:58] Speaker 2: What Yeah. NICKI told her he was a professional gambler
[14:02] Speaker 2: the night she met him. She later told her biographer
[14:04] Speaker 2: she thought, did I get born? Like this was new life?
[14:09] Speaker 3: She's like, I'm show folks, I don't care that you're
[14:11] Speaker 3: a gambler.
[14:11] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. They met in nineteen twelve. They didn't reconnect
[14:15] Speaker 2: again until nineteen fifteen, and that's when they got together
[14:18] Speaker 2: officially and she moved in with him in New York.
[14:22] Speaker 2: He at that point had a reputation as a charming
[14:24] Speaker 2: gambler con artist. But like he's eleven years older than
[14:28] Speaker 2: she was. Okay, super cultured and confident. He had this
[14:32] Speaker 2: like European flair.
[14:33] Speaker 3: Yeah, very much, a sophistic hit exactly. He portrayed that
[14:37] Speaker 3: intelligent too.
[14:38] Speaker 2: He made it look like he came from an aristocratic background. Yeah,
[14:41] Speaker 2: super super intelligent.
[14:43] Speaker 4: This is the era of where you could gitimately meet
[14:45] Speaker 4: counts and dukes and yes, viceroys or whatnot.
[14:48] Speaker 2: And she people kind of warned her and she just
[14:50] Speaker 2: was ignoring that. She once reportedly said, quote, he may
[14:54] Speaker 2: be a crook, but he's the only man I've ever loved.
[14:57] Speaker 2: So you know, we can't forget about the crook part though,
[15:01] Speaker 2: that's still going on. So nineteen fifteen is the start
[15:04] Speaker 2: of their relationship. Nikki gets busted. Oh no, he'd been
[15:07] Speaker 2: involved in a wire tapping scheme to facilitate stock fraud
[15:12] Speaker 2: and at the time he was associated with the Gondorf Gang.
[15:16] Speaker 2: And if that sounds familiar, it's because they were portrayed
[15:18] Speaker 2: in the movie The Sting.
[15:19] Speaker 3: So, yeah, you've been talking about we need to do
[15:21] Speaker 3: an episode.
[15:22] Speaker 2: Yeah, So Charlie Gondorf was originally from New York, but
[15:25] Speaker 2: in the twenties was working as a bartender in Atlantic
[15:27] Speaker 2: City and that was his con playground. So he and
[15:31] Speaker 2: his brother Fred, they were kings of the cons there.
[15:34] Speaker 2: They specialized in wire frauds. At the time, University of Louisville,
[15:39] Speaker 2: Kentucky linguistics professor David Maher he wrote a book called
[15:42] Speaker 2: The American Confidence Man, which was later republished as The
[15:45] Speaker 2: Big Con. And it's mainly about kind of the language
[15:49] Speaker 2: and lexicon of it all. So in it he wrote
[15:53] Speaker 2: before yeah, quote, training and experience are of course important,
[15:57] Speaker 2: but without grift, since they count for little. As can
[16:01] Speaker 2: be seen from the Gondorf family, two of the brothers,
[16:04] Speaker 2: Charlie and Fred, were rated at the top of their profession,
[16:07] Speaker 2: while brother George, who worked under the very best tutelage,
[16:10] Speaker 2: never succeeded. George was always a blank as a grifter,
[16:13] Speaker 2: said a former roper. For Charlie, his brothers were tops,
[16:16] Speaker 2: but he just didn't have the grifting sense. So we
[16:19] Speaker 2: see this of you've got to have all the elements
[16:21] Speaker 2: coming together.
[16:22] Speaker 4: You got to know people just straight up. You got
[16:25] Speaker 4: to be charming so people like you, but also can
[16:27] Speaker 4: forget you and yeah, and just convinced its hard line
[16:30] Speaker 4: to walk with a lot of people.
[16:31] Speaker 2: It really is. As an aside, when Gondorf was in
[16:34] Speaker 2: Atlantic City, Nuckie Johnson was in charge.
[16:37] Speaker 3: Yeah you're bo.
[16:37] Speaker 2: I know you've been watching Boardwalk Empire with the Nucky
[16:40] Speaker 2: Thompson character. If I could get a kick out of that, Yeah,
[16:43] Speaker 2: for your recommendation, great show. So the Gondorf gang, they
[16:47] Speaker 2: had all these swindling activities and the scheme that Nicki
[16:51] Speaker 2: got wrapped up in was you know, this wiretapping to
[16:54] Speaker 2: get confidential information to exploit and manipulate stock transactions. So
[16:59] Speaker 2: Nicki gets tried, convicted, and then sentenced to serve three
[17:02] Speaker 2: years in sing sing And during his incarceration, though, Fanny
[17:08] Speaker 2: Brice visited him regularly like she was yeah, so ride
[17:13] Speaker 2: or I that she was able to secure him a
[17:15] Speaker 2: pardon a year before his release.
[17:17] Speaker 3: Whoa she leveraged her fame to him.
[17:19] Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, remember, folks, there are two justice systems in
[17:22] Speaker 2: this country, one for the haves, one for the have not.
[17:25] Speaker 2: So she had and so did he.
[17:27] Speaker 3: So he got justice exactly what we call it what.
[17:30] Speaker 2: We call it. On that note, let's take a break
[17:33] Speaker 2: and when we return more crime.
[17:55] Speaker 3: Zarin Elizabeth. Sorry, I was holding my breath the whole time.
[17:59] Speaker 2: I was good.
[17:59] Speaker 3: Thank you.
[18:00] Speaker 2: That was really impressive. How are the ads?
[18:03] Speaker 3: I didn't hear.
[18:06] Speaker 2: There were a lot. Do you remember Carrie Greenthal, Mickey Earnstein.
[18:10] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, they had the one he abandoned. Well,
[18:13] Speaker 2: he abandoned her without divorcing her. Oh this left right. Yeah.
[18:18] Speaker 2: So nineteen eighteen, she showed back up and she sued
[18:23] Speaker 2: Fanny Bryce for alienation of affection. Ooh, she wanted She
[18:28] Speaker 2: wanted one hundred thousand dollars in damages for causing Nicki
[18:32] Speaker 2: to desert her. So there's this really great wire story
[18:35] Speaker 2: in the San Francisco Chronicle August fourth, nineteen eighteen. The
[18:38] Speaker 2: headline actress is sued for one hundred thousand dollars balm okay.
[18:45] Speaker 2: So it talks about the suit, but it includes this gem.
[18:49] Speaker 2: In the same year, Miss Bryce, which really was only
[18:51] Speaker 2: her stage name, was plaintiff in a divorce suit against
[18:54] Speaker 2: Frank White, owner of the Mohawk Hotel in Senactadee, New York.
[18:58] Speaker 2: She explained at the time she married White quote to
[19:01] Speaker 2: kill time. What Fanny Bryce married her first husband killed
[19:06] Speaker 2: time showbiz baby.
[19:07] Speaker 3: Yeah, I was bored, he was.
[19:08] Speaker 2: There whatever, you know. So anyway, wife number one divorces Niki.
[19:15] Speaker 2: Nikki's elated because now he can legally marry Fanny Bryce.
[19:19] Speaker 2: Nineteen nineteen, they had a kid, Francis, and something else
[19:23] Speaker 2: happened in nineteen nineteen. What happened Nikki came up with
[19:25] Speaker 2: a plan.
[19:26] Speaker 3: What was his plan?
[19:27] Speaker 2: Well, he figured out that he could stage a series
[19:30] Speaker 2: of robberies targeting Wall Street messengers. The messengers were carrying
[19:34] Speaker 2: something very valuable, liberty bonds. Oh so these are war
[19:40] Speaker 2: bonds sold to support our efforts in World War one
[19:43] Speaker 2: w W one, the Great War. So buying the bonds
[19:47] Speaker 2: was seen as an act of patriotism, and it was
[19:49] Speaker 2: also the first time a lot of Americans understood or
[19:51] Speaker 2: had involvement in, you know, financial securities.
[19:55] Speaker 3: Interesting.
[19:55] Speaker 2: So the liberty bond campaign was not an easy one.
[19:58] Speaker 2: The initial one was Captain five billion aggregate issued at
[20:02] Speaker 2: thirty years at three point five percent interest, and that
[20:05] Speaker 2: was redeemable by the government after fifteen years. So it's
[20:08] Speaker 2: like large scale, right. It pulled in two billion dollars
[20:13] Speaker 2: with five point five million people purchasing bonds, mostly like
[20:17] Speaker 2: large scale trades, major investors, so it's a lot of money.
[20:21] Speaker 2: But the problem was that the notes were trading consistently
[20:24] Speaker 2: below par. So the FEDS and the Stock Exchange they
[20:27] Speaker 2: started accusing these traders who went below par of being
[20:29] Speaker 2: German sympathizers not patriots.
[20:33] Speaker 3: Why sport They.
[20:36] Speaker 2: Some said the bonds weren't selling like they should because
[20:38] Speaker 2: the rich thought it would make them look like they
[20:40] Speaker 2: were tax dodging.
[20:42] Speaker 7: Since I get it, yeah, they has ever mattered, that's
[20:49] Speaker 7: you know, oh god.
[20:52] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[20:53] Speaker 2: So the government decided, okay, we're going to also log
[20:56] Speaker 2: go after individual citizen investors instead of the large volume.
[21:01] Speaker 2: So they went hard on selling the bonds to the public.
[21:03] Speaker 2: And they needed to raise money for the war, but
[21:06] Speaker 2: also they needed to keep inflation down and this is
[21:09] Speaker 2: how you do it. So they tapped into arts and
[21:11] Speaker 2: entertainment to get the message out. They were posters and rallies,
[21:15] Speaker 2: and like some of the celebrities who participated in Liberty
[21:18] Speaker 2: bond rallies, Al Jolson, Ethel Barrymore, Fatty Arbuckle, Mary Pickford,
[21:23] Speaker 2: Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin. Oh yeah, these are the big names.
[21:27] Speaker 2: I don't know if Fanny Brice promoted them for World
[21:30] Speaker 2: War One, but she did for World War Two, which
[21:33] Speaker 2: you'll find out is kind of funny.
[21:34] Speaker 3: So world fun No, I get it, Well.
[21:38] Speaker 2: Why not, so, Nikki. He figured he could intercept these
[21:42] Speaker 2: couriers and make off with the bonds totaling like five
[21:46] Speaker 2: million dollars.
[21:46] Speaker 3: He wants to go like full Hans Gruber. But on
[21:48] Speaker 3: the delivery.
[21:49] Speaker 2: Guys, Yes, exactly, bonds there, that's like ninety three million dollars.
[21:55] Speaker 2: That's exactly five million.
[21:57] Speaker 3: That's a good amount.
[21:58] Speaker 2: Nicky planned this thing to the end. Agree Like, he
[22:00] Speaker 2: saw that the messengers were often unaccompanied, easy targets for
[22:05] Speaker 2: the boys, candy from a baby. He saw that a
[22:07] Speaker 2: lot of the messengers could be pulled into the fold
[22:10] Speaker 2: and become part of this.
[22:11] Speaker 3: Oh but he's other work guys.
[22:15] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we'll be like, we'll cut you in on this.
[22:18] Speaker 2: But you got to be able to move the bonds.
[22:20] Speaker 2: You can't just like turn around resell them because there's
[22:22] Speaker 2: far too many.
[22:22] Speaker 3: Yeah, they're not worth anything if you can't move.
[22:24] Speaker 2: Yeah, so you need a fence, someone in a laundrum,
[22:26] Speaker 2: and that would take a network far larger and deeper
[22:29] Speaker 2: into the underworld than Nicky had, but he had a
[22:32] Speaker 2: plan for that too, Zaren close eyes. Yeah, I want
[22:38] Speaker 2: you to picture it. It's a late summer day in
[22:41] Speaker 2: nineteen nineteen. You are sitting in your office at forty
[22:44] Speaker 2: five West fifty seventh Street in Midtown Manhattan. You're meeting
[22:49] Speaker 2: some chums later for some cards and a bite to eat,
[22:51] Speaker 2: but for now you're tending to some paperwork and taking
[22:54] Speaker 2: a couple of meetings. You've got a guy coming in
[22:56] Speaker 2: soon right about now actually, who says he has a
[22:59] Speaker 2: business problem position for you. He comes with recommendations. People
[23:03] Speaker 2: vouch for him, so you'll at least hear him out.
[23:06] Speaker 2: You have a major project in the works, but you
[23:08] Speaker 2: figure if the offer looks good, you can move forward
[23:10] Speaker 2: on another one too. There's a knock at the door.
[23:13] Speaker 2: In walks a man in a sharp suit carrying an
[23:16] Speaker 2: impeccable Borselino hat. He's smooth debonair. He introduces himself. I'm
[23:22] Speaker 2: nicki Earnstein, he tells you. You stand and shake his hand,
[23:26] Speaker 2: offers him some coffee. He politely declines and takes a
[23:29] Speaker 2: seat across from your desk. You pour yourself some coffee
[23:32] Speaker 2: in a delicate china cup, splash a little cream and
[23:35] Speaker 2: take a seat at your desk and stir the breue
[23:37] Speaker 2: gently with a dematas spoon. Tell me what I can
[23:40] Speaker 2: do for you, mister Earnstein, you say. He tells you
[23:43] Speaker 2: all about his plan with the Liberty bonds, every minute detail,
[23:46] Speaker 2: all potential pitfalls in their avoidances. He runs down his
[23:50] Speaker 2: crew and their strengths. Aren't you married to Fanny Bryce,
[23:53] Speaker 2: you ask him. He tells you he is. She's a
[23:56] Speaker 2: lovely goal. You tell him, Oh, you don't know the
[23:59] Speaker 2: half of it. He smiles, and you're really taken with
[24:02] Speaker 2: his sincerity. It's obvious he really does love her. Many
[24:06] Speaker 2: men would be intimidated to be with a woman that successful.
[24:09] Speaker 2: They'd be weak or maybe try to exploit her. You've
[24:12] Speaker 2: met Fanny Brice in passing. She's not one to be exploited.
[24:15] Speaker 2: So Nicki's true devotion to his bride is admirable. It
[24:19] Speaker 2: increases your estimation of him. So what do you propose,
[24:23] Speaker 2: you asked Nicki. He tells you he'd like for you
[24:26] Speaker 2: to arrange to launder the bonds. He says he knows
[24:29] Speaker 2: you have the fences necessary. He just needs you to
[24:31] Speaker 2: make the connection for him. You'd get a cut and
[24:34] Speaker 2: wouldn't have to do anything with the operation, be totally
[24:37] Speaker 2: separated from it, never to be associated with it. You
[24:41] Speaker 2: and he haggle a little on the percentages, but you
[24:43] Speaker 2: see that this is easy money for you to make.
[24:45] Speaker 2: You refirm to one of your guys, take a cut,
[24:48] Speaker 2: go back to focusing on your big project. You agree
[24:51] Speaker 2: to the terms and tell Nikki that your guys will
[24:54] Speaker 2: be in touch. That'll get everything rolling. He stands as
[24:58] Speaker 2: to you and you shake hands. He looks down at
[25:00] Speaker 2: your desk at the copy of the Chicago Tribune, open
[25:03] Speaker 2: to the front of the sports section with a big
[25:05] Speaker 2: headline about the White Sox and their victory yesterday. Thank
[25:09] Speaker 2: you again, mister Rothstein, he tells you. Then he turns
[25:12] Speaker 2: and walks out the door. Yes, so, Nikki Earnstein had
[25:18] Speaker 2: visited none other than Arnold the Rothstein. Yeah, in search
[25:23] Speaker 2: of a connection to money launderers for the liberty bonds. Zarin,
[25:26] Speaker 2: I have now made you another of your criminal heroes.
[25:29] Speaker 3: Are you too good to me?
[25:30] Speaker 8: I am?
[25:31] Speaker 3: I wish you had heroes and I can return the favor.
[25:34] Speaker 2: So that fall of nineteen nineteen, a series of stick
[25:38] Speaker 2: ups on Wall Street wiped out five million dollars in
[25:41] Speaker 2: liberty bonds. And these weren't real stick ups though they're rigged,
[25:45] Speaker 2: because most of the time they actually were able to
[25:47] Speaker 2: get the messengers in on it. The messengers had been
[25:50] Speaker 2: stealing these things here and there since they were initially issued.
[25:54] Speaker 2: This was just on a huge scale, and the messengers
[25:56] Speaker 2: had covered they could say I've been robbed. Earnstein and
[25:59] Speaker 2: his crew passed the bonds along to the fence that
[26:02] Speaker 2: was organized by Arnold Rothstein and.
[26:06] Speaker 3: This, but I guess it's guaranteed money.
[26:08] Speaker 2: Guaranteed money, and he thought yeah, and he thought all
[26:13] Speaker 2: these things out. He was so careful. So the bonds
[26:16] Speaker 2: aren't exactly traceable, but there are a lot of moving
[26:19] Speaker 2: parts and a lot of peripheral crew members, so pretty
[26:23] Speaker 2: soon the Feds were on the case. Don't forget all
[26:26] Speaker 2: as all of this is going on. Rothstein's embroiled in
[26:29] Speaker 2: the nineteen nineteen World series Scam.
[26:31] Speaker 4: Yeah, he's got problems, got a lot going on, Judge Kennison,
[26:34] Speaker 4: mountain Land is coming.
[26:35] Speaker 2: From him exactly. So I won't go into the details
[26:38] Speaker 2: on that, since I think you should do an episode
[26:40] Speaker 2: about it. But why haven't I ever I don't know,
[26:45] Speaker 2: but let's just say there's a lot of heat. Rothstein
[26:47] Speaker 2: didn't need this. I will say though, that he was
[26:50] Speaker 2: never officially connected to the Liberty Bonds sets, at least
[26:54] Speaker 2: during his lifetime. Oh so, law enforcement they started picking
[26:58] Speaker 2: up members of the crew one by one, and these
[27:01] Speaker 2: are big dogs, like lawyers and stuff like that. This
[27:03] Speaker 2: is a high level operation. Nicki wasn't about to get pinched,
[27:07] Speaker 2: so he went into hiding. And for the most part,
[27:09] Speaker 2: it looks like he bounced around between Pittsburgh, Cleveland, various
[27:12] Speaker 2: Canadian cities. But like you know, it was getting too hot.
[27:16] Speaker 4: He didn't He didn't choose to go back to like
[27:18] Speaker 4: London or Paris. Like he's like, I'll go to Pittsburgh. Yeah, exactly, Pittsburgh.
[27:23] Speaker 2: Why not? So on May fifteenth, nineteen twenty, Nicki arrived
[27:27] Speaker 2: in New York on the nine am train from Pittsburgh.
[27:30] Speaker 2: He was driven up to ninetieth Street, where he picked
[27:32] Speaker 2: up Fanny Brice and his lawyer, William Fallon, who also
[27:36] Speaker 2: happened to be Arnold Rothstein's lawyer. Then they drove down
[27:39] Speaker 2: Fifth Avenue, passed through long lines of policemen who were
[27:43] Speaker 2: gathered for a parade and the car swung past Union Square.
[27:48] Speaker 2: Nicky tipped his hat to police officials that were gathered
[27:51] Speaker 2: on the grand stand that was set up so that
[27:54] Speaker 2: they could watch this parade. Sure, Nicky's like one of
[27:56] Speaker 2: the most wanted fugitives at this point.
[27:58] Speaker 3: Yeah, and he's like tip and his cap to the
[28:00] Speaker 3: the captains of them.
[28:01] Speaker 2: They drove the car twice around the courthouse.
[28:03] Speaker 3: Case anyone missed him.
[28:04] Speaker 2: Well, people still aren't recognizing them, right until the Clerk
[28:08] Speaker 2: of Courts finally sees them. News spreads rapidly that oh
[28:11] Speaker 2: my god, Nicki Earnstein's here. This large crowd gathers. Nicky
[28:14] Speaker 2: and Fanny get out of the car pose for photographs.
[28:18] Speaker 2: Then he and Fanny strolled into the DA's office and
[28:21] Speaker 2: he surrendered. Nicki refused to make any statement to the press.
[28:25] Speaker 2: I'll talk tomorrow, he said. Fanny said, I'm the happiest
[28:28] Speaker 2: woman in the world, and then stood their striking poses.
[28:32] Speaker 2: So Nicki was like, I said, he's one of the
[28:34] Speaker 2: most wanted fugitives in North America. At this point, authorities
[28:38] Speaker 2: had been tailing Fanny Brice, like searching her home. They
[28:42] Speaker 2: monitored all her activities, and eventually the Manhattan District attorney
[28:47] Speaker 2: offered Nicki a deal. If you surrender, we'll give you
[28:50] Speaker 2: a reduced sentence upon conviction. Wow, they said. His bail
[28:53] Speaker 2: at seventy five thousand dollars.
[28:55] Speaker 4: By the way, I'm picturing this as like Elliott, young
[28:57] Speaker 4: Elliott Gould and young Barber STREISSH that's good.
[29:01] Speaker 2: I love it. I love this movie. So the trial
[29:04] Speaker 2: they moved it to Washington, d c. Where federal charges
[29:07] Speaker 2: carried a maximum two year sentence as opposed to the
[29:10] Speaker 2: harsher penalties under New York State. Despite the defense's efforts,
[29:15] Speaker 2: Arnstein's convicted of conspiracy to sell stolen securities. He gets
[29:18] Speaker 2: two years. On May sixteenth, nineteen twenty four, he started
[29:22] Speaker 2: serving his sentence at Leavenworth Federal Penitential. Fanny was supportive.
[29:28] Speaker 2: She visited him regularly. She was a ride or di remember,
[29:32] Speaker 2: and she'd had their second kid. Between his surrender and
[29:35] Speaker 2: when he actually had to ship off to prison. On
[29:38] Speaker 2: December twenty second, nineteen twenty five, NICKI got out a
[29:42] Speaker 2: little early, so time off for good behavior after eighteen
[29:45] Speaker 2: months of shoveling coal and ashes in the prison power plant.
[29:49] Speaker 2: Oh is that horrible? That's rough?
[29:51] Speaker 3: On that air you're breathing.
[29:52] Speaker 2: Yeah. So the headline in the Buffalo Courier read Nicki Arnstein,
[29:57] Speaker 2: given freedom is Christmas gift. Fanny Bryce believes in Santa Claus. Okay,
[30:04] Speaker 2: So he was supposed to get charged with defrauding a
[30:06] Speaker 2: guy in New Jersey out of eighty grand in a
[30:08] Speaker 2: horse race scheme like the moment he set foot outside
[30:11] Speaker 2: the prison. But those charges were dropped and that caused
[30:15] Speaker 2: all this uproar in the press. Let's stop here to
[30:18] Speaker 2: celebrate his release.
[30:19] Speaker 3: I'm rooting for these crazy kids.
[30:20] Speaker 2: I maybe listen to some ads, just see what happens.
[30:23] Speaker 2: Just keep it loose. Back in a flash, Nicki Arnstein,
[30:47] Speaker 2: Aaron Burnett, Arnold Rothstein. So Nicki fresh out of Leavenworth,
[30:54] Speaker 2: married to superstar Fanny Brice, two kids. Life is just
[30:59] Speaker 2: swimming along for the couple, but not for long. So
[31:03] Speaker 2: they were together for another two years after he got out,
[31:05] Speaker 2: but then Fanny filed for divorce in nineteen twenty. So well,
[31:09] Speaker 2: she'd caught him with another woman at a hotel in Chicago.
[31:13] Speaker 2: According to the Brooklyn Times Union newspaper quote, it was
[31:17] Speaker 2: Fanny Bryce's remodeled nose which awed her husband Nikki Earnstein
[31:21] Speaker 2: and induced him to turn to other women, she alleged
[31:25] Speaker 2: in filing for divorce. What the illustrious actress does not
[31:29] Speaker 2: regret the employment of plastic surgery, however, and she said
[31:32] Speaker 2: today because it quote improved my looks so much. Then
[31:37] Speaker 2: the article goes on, I know you're stun I am.
[31:40] Speaker 3: I'm trying. I'm like new nose, lose husband.
[31:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, the article goes on, quote, I still love him,
[31:45] Speaker 2: Miss Bryce explained, but my new nose caused him to
[31:48] Speaker 2: develop an inferiority complex. He used to be able to
[31:53] Speaker 2: joke about my features. When my face was altered, he said,
[31:55] Speaker 2: I wasn't his fanny. It was a case of plastic
[31:58] Speaker 2: surgery coming between us. So she's saying that when she
[32:01] Speaker 2: got her nose done, Yeah, he lost interest because other women.
[32:06] Speaker 3: She became too hot and wasn't his fanny.
[32:08] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[32:08] Speaker 3: Funny face, Fanny, funny face fanny. Yeah, dude, World War.
[32:12] Speaker 4: One, the plastic surgery that comes out of fixing those
[32:15] Speaker 4: guys getting blown to bits. I didn't realize like how
[32:18] Speaker 4: quickly you know it became an issue. Always think of
[32:21] Speaker 4: it as like more like something that happens in the
[32:22] Speaker 4: thirties but in the twenties when there when pop culture
[32:25] Speaker 4: blows up, that's when it would explode.
[32:28] Speaker 6: And then so that's wild, right, Yeah, that's crazy blaming
[32:31] Speaker 6: your divorce on your plastic surgery.
[32:33] Speaker 3: Knows that you.
[32:34] Speaker 2: Got you what she thinks is an improvement. She likes
[32:39] Speaker 2: him and it drives him away.
[32:42] Speaker 3: And then she doesn't blame him for cheating. She blames
[32:44] Speaker 3: the nose.
[32:44] Speaker 2: Nos, but she doesn't regret it. Yeah, it's a very strange.
[32:50] Speaker 3: Would have been a stronger claim.
[32:51] Speaker 2: I would go with that. You know what's wilder? That
[32:53] Speaker 2: is the this exchange in court, the judge asked her
[32:56] Speaker 2: how she planned to support her two kids without a
[32:58] Speaker 2: husband and the new nose and the new nose. He's like,
[33:01] Speaker 2: how how are you a single mother going to support
[33:05] Speaker 2: these kids? She's like, I work, is what she said.
[33:08] Speaker 2: And then quote, what is your business or profession? He asked.
[33:11] Speaker 2: So I think he's a little out of touch because
[33:13] Speaker 2: Fanny's taken aback. So all she says is actress. She's
[33:17] Speaker 2: singing like, don't you know who I am?
[33:18] Speaker 3: Yeah?
[33:19] Speaker 2: He's like, I don't know what the nose I don't know.
[33:20] Speaker 3: I don't recommend He.
[33:22] Speaker 2: Says, how long have you been engaged in this profession
[33:26] Speaker 2: and he's asking one of the biggest celebrities at the time.
[33:30] Speaker 2: She said, oh, judge, about twenty years. And then he said,
[33:34] Speaker 2: do you contemplate any trouble getting engagements? So she said,
[33:38] Speaker 2: who can tell the fickle public?
[33:40] Speaker 7: You know?
[33:41] Speaker 2: And she says it laughing, but apparently she was holding
[33:44] Speaker 2: back tears. The whole thing was just too much. I
[33:46] Speaker 2: love that the judge didn't care that her husband was
[33:49] Speaker 2: a convicted felon with no job.
[33:51] Speaker 3: Totally right, But how is she going to be how are.
[33:53] Speaker 2: You going to do it?
[33:54] Speaker 3: Yeah?
[33:54] Speaker 2: Fantastic. So remember how I said that the liberty bonds
[33:57] Speaker 2: thing didn't come back on Rothstein while he was alive. Well,
[34:01] Speaker 2: the brain went to the Great Beyond rather violently in
[34:04] Speaker 2: nineteen twenty eight, very quickly. Guess it may have nineteen.
[34:07] Speaker 3: Couldn't even make it to the Wall Street crash. One
[34:09] Speaker 3: of the people who had.
[34:11] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly so. May of nineteen twenty nine, Eugene McGhee,
[34:17] Speaker 2: who was a disbarred lawyer. He got charged with criminally
[34:20] Speaker 2: receiving those stolen liberty bonds. This is the offense. He
[34:24] Speaker 2: testified that the bonds were given to him by Arnold Rothstein,
[34:27] Speaker 2: whom so McGhee and this guy James Osborne, who was
[34:32] Speaker 2: the nephew of a former DA. They were on trial
[34:35] Speaker 2: in connection with the bonds at like one hundred and
[34:38] Speaker 2: forty thousand dollars worth of them stolen from a messenger
[34:41] Speaker 2: from this brokerage firm, Taylor, Bates and Company. So the
[34:45] Speaker 2: messenger got tried for the theft and was acquitted because
[34:48] Speaker 2: they realized like, no, he was, he was he was
[34:50] Speaker 2: a victim of a stick up. Lawyers for the brokers
[34:54] Speaker 2: asked Nikki Earnstein for help in their search for the
[34:57] Speaker 2: bonds the messenger that they sent to f and him
[35:01] Speaker 2: talked with Fanny Brice and she sent her lawyer McGee
[35:04] Speaker 2: to see what they wanted with Nicky, and McGee's like, yeah,
[35:07] Speaker 2: I can get you help you get the bonds back,
[35:09] Speaker 2: and then he sends his associate Osborne to go get him.
[35:12] Speaker 2: So Osborne gets a sixteen thousand dollars reward that he
[35:16] Speaker 2: turned over to McGhee, and he got five hundred dollars
[35:19] Speaker 2: for his part in this whole thing. The broker's lawyers,
[35:22] Speaker 2: after paying the reward, put the whole matter before the DA.
[35:26] Speaker 2: Osborne and McGee are indicted. So Fanny took the stand. Yeah,
[35:30] Speaker 2: she showed up with her current husband, Billy Rose, a songwriter.
[35:33] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah. So she said that she sent McGee
[35:36] Speaker 2: to the broker's lawyer on the instruction of Nicky, who
[35:39] Speaker 2: she had called by long distance to Chicago to say,
[35:42] Speaker 2: you know, lawyers are looking for you. I mean it
[35:45] Speaker 2: just gets all, you know, complicated of who owes who money.
[35:48] Speaker 3: Is she loyal and.
[35:49] Speaker 4: Tries to protect Nikki at this point or is she
[35:51] Speaker 4: kind of like a hurt and wants to just get
[35:53] Speaker 4: clear of the matter.
[35:54] Speaker 3: She just says what she knows.
[35:55] Speaker 2: She just says what she knows. Yeah, she's not really
[35:57] Speaker 2: turning it up to kind of get.
[35:58] Speaker 3: Him Busted's not doing that.
[36:00] Speaker 2: But yeah, a few days so McGee, he's on the stand, right,
[36:04] Speaker 2: he says. Quote. A few days later, I went to
[36:06] Speaker 2: see Arnold Rothstein and asked him if he would try
[36:09] Speaker 2: to locate the securities. He replied he wouldn't touch the
[36:12] Speaker 2: business for a million dollars. He said the matter was
[36:15] Speaker 2: sure to come before the district attorney, and he said
[36:17] Speaker 2: he could see what he would do. A few days later,
[36:20] Speaker 2: he told me he thought he had a line on
[36:21] Speaker 2: the securities, So poor Rostin. So McGhee said that Rostein
[36:26] Speaker 2: finally let him know that he'd bought the bonds back.
[36:30] Speaker 2: McGee got them from Rothstein, gave him to Osmore and
[36:32] Speaker 2: blah blah blah goes back and forth. So had Rothstein
[36:35] Speaker 2: been alive, this would have been a very sticky bad situation.
[36:39] Speaker 3: Oh yeah, the country.
[36:41] Speaker 2: But I also believe that if he'd still been alive,
[36:44] Speaker 2: these guys wouldn't have said a word. That's what my
[36:46] Speaker 2: thought is, Yeah, that they're only talking.
[36:49] Speaker 3: Because because he's yeah, you can pin it all on him.
[36:51] Speaker 2: So yeah, and around this time.
[36:52] Speaker 3: Right now to make him the mastermind.
[36:54] Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. And he's the big bad in all of
[36:57] Speaker 2: these stories, like he hovered over as the big bath.
[37:02] Speaker 2: It's really interesting to see that that thread in all
[37:05] Speaker 2: the newspaper pieces. So what's Nikki up to right now?
[37:09] Speaker 2: God knows what. So he pops up in the papers,
[37:12] Speaker 2: but it's pretty much for always not being charged in
[37:15] Speaker 2: connection with some crime like all of his associates would be.
[37:18] Speaker 2: But he was throw his name into every piece. And
[37:23] Speaker 2: I'm not sure if he was like good at getting
[37:25] Speaker 2: out of jams or if he wasn't running with that
[37:28] Speaker 2: crowd anymore. Things changed in nineteen thirty. That's when it
[37:33] Speaker 2: came out that the year before, in nineteen twenty nine,
[37:35] Speaker 2: he had remarried. The Brooklyn Daily Times ran a story
[37:39] Speaker 2: proclaiming Nikki Earnstein, who combines all the tender arts of
[37:43] Speaker 2: love with the more practical art of winning huge stakes
[37:47] Speaker 2: in Transatlantic liner crooked poker games, has been married to
[37:52] Speaker 2: a two million dollar heiress since last fall, it was
[37:55] Speaker 2: reported today, Arenstein, one time husband of Fanny Brice, the
[37:59] Speaker 2: Broadway stage favorite, married Missus Isabelle McCullough, formerly the wife
[38:04] Speaker 2: of a Chicago promoter, in Quebec on August eighteenth, according
[38:08] Speaker 2: to The Daily News. At the time, the News said
[38:12] Speaker 2: he paid more than one thousand dollars to suppress reports
[38:15] Speaker 2: of the marriage. Now comes the word that the smiling
[38:18] Speaker 2: Nicky is married to Missus McCullough, whose father left her
[38:22] Speaker 2: two million dollars. They had met again in Florida, where
[38:25] Speaker 2: Nicky learned that Missus McCullough had divorced her husband, The
[38:29] Speaker 2: Coupler living in the exclusive Sutton Place district where Anne
[38:32] Speaker 2: Morgan and the Vanderbilts make their homes.
[38:35] Speaker 3: Okay, So he's still finessing widows.
[38:37] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and he upgraded his circumstances. He took his
[38:40] Speaker 2: old skills.
[38:41] Speaker 3: Yeah he still got it.
[38:43] Speaker 2: You know you don't he don't forget how.
[38:45] Speaker 6: To ride a bike apparently not so backwards Penny Farthing
[38:50] Speaker 6: all during the thirties, like he tried to straighten up
[38:53] Speaker 6: and fly right. Okay, So he's got money now, why
[38:56] Speaker 6: he looked for legitimate work, Like he dried his hand
[38:59] Speaker 6: at advertising in Manhattan.
[39:01] Speaker 2: He tried to run an air conditioning business in La Okay,
[39:05] Speaker 2: but like you know, it's the depression.
[39:07] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not the time, not the time.
[39:09] Speaker 2: And he's like he's married to an heiress and they
[39:11] Speaker 2: live in a mansion in Pasadena. Like a man's got
[39:14] Speaker 2: to have something to do.
[39:15] Speaker 3: All day, right, he gets bored.
[39:16] Speaker 2: So then in nineteen thirty nine a movie came out,
[39:20] Speaker 2: Rose of Washington Square.
[39:22] Speaker 3: Never heard of it, me neither.
[39:23] Speaker 2: It starred Alice Fay. Oh I love her, Tyrone Power,
[39:27] Speaker 2: I know him and al Jolson.
[39:29] Speaker 3: Okay, no, nothing against that.
[39:32] Speaker 4: I know there's all that the blackface, but yeah, he's
[39:35] Speaker 4: a back of an entertainer, I'll get So.
[39:36] Speaker 2: It takes place nineteen twenties New York City, and it's
[39:40] Speaker 2: the story of a singer named Rose Sergeant and her
[39:43] Speaker 2: rocky relationship with a con artist named Barton DeWitt Clinton, Oh,
[39:47] Speaker 2: and his criming threatens her success in the Zigfield Follies. Yeah,
[39:52] Speaker 2: does that sound familiar?
[39:53] Speaker 3: Totally?
[39:54] Speaker 2: So Rose. Also, Rose of Washington Square was one of
[39:57] Speaker 2: Fanny Bryce's signature songs.
[39:59] Speaker 3: Okay, so it's just Fanny Bryson.
[40:01] Speaker 2: Yeah, Nicky's story livid, livid, he sued twentieth Century Fox.
[40:08] Speaker 2: He said it was a violation of his right of privacy.
[40:11] Speaker 2: He wanted four hundred thousand dollars in damages. And he's like, yeah,
[40:15] Speaker 2: you know what, I have been convicted of crimes. I've
[40:17] Speaker 2: done two stints in prison. But at that point, he said,
[40:21] Speaker 2: he was leading quote an exemplary, honorable and righteous life,
[40:26] Speaker 2: remarried and established a home. And so he said that
[40:29] Speaker 2: with the production and the release of the movie, that
[40:32] Speaker 2: memories had been revived in the public mind and now
[40:34] Speaker 2: he didn't have the like quiet, secluded life that he
[40:37] Speaker 2: had really carefully crafted. He said it wasn't just that
[40:41] Speaker 2: the movie was based on his life, but then it
[40:43] Speaker 2: went out of its way to make him look like
[40:45] Speaker 2: quote a thief, a coward, a weekly, a confidence man,
[40:48] Speaker 2: and a swindler, and besides depicts him as a faithless
[40:51] Speaker 2: and deceitful husband, which I mean, yeah, I mean.
[40:55] Speaker 4: I think he just didn't like the portrayal, but maybe not.
[40:58] Speaker 4: The details are the problem. He was like, I did
[41:00] Speaker 4: all that stuff. That's not how I.
[41:01] Speaker 2: Did tyrone powers.
[41:03] Speaker 3: I did not harrow the whole time.
[41:06] Speaker 2: So he wanted one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for
[41:08] Speaker 2: violation of the right suprivacy, one hundred and fifty thousand
[41:11] Speaker 2: for libel, and one hundred thousand for use of material
[41:15] Speaker 2: from his life without permission.
[41:16] Speaker 4: Ten thousand dollars for the constant, sweaty face performance of
[41:19] Speaker 4: tyrone power.
[41:21] Speaker 2: He also he also wanted an injunction to prevent the
[41:25] Speaker 2: further showing of the picture. He wanted an accounting to
[41:28] Speaker 2: figure out how much he was entitled to to recover profits.
[41:32] Speaker 3: Oh, he's smart, he knows Hollywood accounting. You've got to
[41:34] Speaker 3: break open.
[41:35] Speaker 2: All that right, this huge suit he settled out of
[41:37] Speaker 2: court for twenty five thousand dollars.
[41:39] Speaker 3: Wow, he's like the job. Yeah.
[41:42] Speaker 2: So Fanny Brice, as I mentioned, she passed away in
[41:44] Speaker 2: nineteen fifty one, just Shy a sixty years old. She'd
[41:46] Speaker 2: been living in Holby Hills, LA. So they're not too
[41:49] Speaker 2: far from each other. Rows of Washington Square wasn't Nicky's
[41:53] Speaker 2: only depiction on the silver screen really. In nineteen sixty four,
[41:57] Speaker 2: the stage musical Funny Girl open non Broadway and it
[42:01] Speaker 2: was produced by Fanny and Nikki's son in law, Ray Stark.
[42:05] Speaker 2: He was married to their daughter Francis, so their other kid, William,
[42:08] Speaker 2: He went on to become this really well regarded abstract painter.
[42:11] Speaker 2: So anyway, Funny chirst ray Stark. Initially he set up
[42:16] Speaker 2: an authorized biography of Fanny Brice. She had recorded for
[42:20] Speaker 2: him all these anecdotes and stories that are like wow,
[42:23] Speaker 2: and it was written up, but she didn't like the
[42:25] Speaker 2: end result, so Stark he had to kill the project.
[42:28] Speaker 2: That cost him a ton of money. And then he
[42:31] Speaker 2: went through eleven different screenwriters. That's how it goes, trying
[42:35] Speaker 2: to find someone who could produce a screenplay that would
[42:37] Speaker 2: work for everyone involved.
[42:38] Speaker 3: Where is the magic?
[42:39] Speaker 2: Yes, So they finally landed on one that worked. Columbia
[42:43] Speaker 2: Pictures offered him four hundred thousand dollars plus a percentage
[42:46] Speaker 2: of the gross for the script that's huge.
[42:48] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[42:49] Speaker 2: But then Mary Martin, actress, singer, Rogers and hammerste news.
[42:54] Speaker 2: She suggested it could be done as a musical on
[42:57] Speaker 2: the stage, not a movie. So Stark goes to famous
[43:01] Speaker 2: composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim to compose the score. Someheim
[43:06] Speaker 2: apparently said, I don't want to do the Life of
[43:09] Speaker 2: Fanny Bryce with Mary Martin. She's not Jewish. You need
[43:12] Speaker 2: someone ethnic for the part. True, so Martin dipped out.
[43:16] Speaker 2: There was a lot of back and forth. Anne Bancroft
[43:18] Speaker 2: was attached to it for a while and that didn't
[43:20] Speaker 2: work out. They were going to go with Edie Gourmet,
[43:23] Speaker 2: but she wouldn't do it. She would involving. She would
[43:27] Speaker 2: only do it if Steve Lawrence was kind for real.
[43:32] Speaker 2: She was not.
[43:33] Speaker 3: She was like, I won't do Steve. Steve's got to
[43:35] Speaker 3: be nicky Steve.
[43:36] Speaker 2: They said, okay, absolutely not, And they tried Carol Burnette
[43:42] Speaker 2: and she said, I'd love to do it, but what
[43:44] Speaker 2: you need is a Jewish girl.
[43:45] Speaker 3: I'm not Jewish.
[43:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, So finally they called in the big guns. Before
[43:49] Speaker 2: she was the big Guns, Barbara Streish girl boom so
[43:54] Speaker 2: In the musical, Nicky is found guilty of embezzlement. He's
[43:58] Speaker 2: never been married to anyone but Fanny, and he serves
[44:01] Speaker 2: only one prison sentence.
[44:02] Speaker 3: You No, they simplified the ner.
[44:03] Speaker 2: Yeah, but play is a huge success and then it
[44:06] Speaker 2: gets made into a movie in nineteen sixty eight with
[44:08] Speaker 2: Babs and then Omar Shariff as Nicky.
[44:10] Speaker 6: Wow.
[44:11] Speaker 2: You we will never know what Nicky thought about being
[44:15] Speaker 2: played by Omar Shariff. I would say it's a flattering honor.
[44:18] Speaker 3: Yeah, I would tell.
[44:19] Speaker 2: Because Nicky passed away October second, nineteen sixty five in
[44:22] Speaker 2: La Buried under the name Jules Arnold. Yeah, So'sariah's choice,
[44:28] Speaker 2: I'm assuming, Yeah, his choice. What's your ridiculous takeaway?
[44:31] Speaker 3: Wow?
[44:32] Speaker 4: So this was somewhat responsible for barbar streith And becoming
[44:35] Speaker 4: a film star. Yes, I love that there's a direct
[44:38] Speaker 4: Fanny Bryce to Barbara Streisand.
[44:40] Speaker 2: Line funny girl.
[44:41] Speaker 3: Yeah, but I mean like that that she could propel
[44:44] Speaker 3: barbar Streisand's success after like, you know, how far?
[44:47] Speaker 2: How about a direct line from Arnold Rothstein to Barbara
[44:51] Speaker 2: streisand Rothstein to Omar Sharif.
[44:54] Speaker 3: Yes, there's the there's a lot of direct lines in
[44:56] Speaker 3: this one. We're connecting threadsdays. Normally I never can.
[45:00] Speaker 2: Nickle plated penny farthing to Steven's. Sometimes I can do
[45:04] Speaker 2: this all day. So good at this.
[45:07] Speaker 3: What's your ridiculous take away, Elizabeth?
[45:09] Speaker 2: That I was so tickled to have stumbled upon something
[45:13] Speaker 2: that had all the things you love.
[45:15] Speaker 3: I dude down to the nickel plated farthing.
[45:17] Speaker 2: And I like that I got to tell you instead
[45:20] Speaker 2: of you telling me, so thank you. You know what.
[45:24] Speaker 2: I think we need those as a talkback, David.
[45:27] Speaker 3: Yeah, oh my god, I.
[45:36] Speaker 2: Went gee.
[45:41] Speaker 8: Dark Becka here, happy to report that I had a
[45:44] Speaker 8: week of light baca when I was beach camping in Malibu.
[45:48] Speaker 8: I still like being on the dark side, though, because
[45:51] Speaker 8: I think our dark sums are just angry about all
[45:54] Speaker 8: the bad stuff that's happening around us right now, and
[45:57] Speaker 8: I think we should be angry belong with dark Becca
[46:00] Speaker 8: and dark Elizabeth Zaren Producer Dave interns always for you.
[46:07] Speaker 8: How do I get mind to stop anxiety peeing in
[46:09] Speaker 8: the corner?
[46:13] Speaker 7: Yeah?
[46:13] Speaker 2: Right, Intern, Anxiety p is like an ocean violation. They
[46:19] Speaker 2: are all sorts of problems and there's only so much
[46:23] Speaker 2: nature's miracle you can buy before you wind up on
[46:25] Speaker 2: a watch list. That's it for today. You can find
[46:29] Speaker 2: us online at ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also Ridiculous
[46:33] Speaker 2: Crime on Blue Sky on Instagram, check us out on
[46:36] Speaker 2: YouTube a Ridiculous Crime pod, and then email us Ridiculous
[46:41] Speaker 2: Crime at gmail dot com. Most importantly, leave us a
[46:44] Speaker 2: talkback on the iHeart app reach out. Ridiculous Crime is
[46:52] Speaker 2: hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnette, produced and edited
[46:56] Speaker 2: by funny Boy Dave Kusten, starring Anale Rutgers. Judith. Research
[47:01] Speaker 2: is by best actress in a musical, Marissa Brown. The
[47:04] Speaker 2: theme song is by Burgled Messenger Boys Thomas Lee and
[47:07] Speaker 2: Travis Stutton. Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred
[47:11] Speaker 2: guests Haron, makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers
[47:16] Speaker 2: are the Leggiest Gals in the Zigfield Follies, Ben Bollen
[47:20] Speaker 2: and No.
[47:21] Speaker 5: Browndous Crime Say It One More Timequious Crime.
[47:33] Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
[47:37] Speaker 1: my Heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
[47:40] Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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