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When the notoriousbootleggerand gangster Dutch Schultz was gun down in 1935 , rumour fly about the lot that he purportedly left behind . Legend had it Schultz had hide valuables now deserving more than $ 50 million ( and perhaps as much as $ 150 million ) , includinggoldcoins , thousand - dollar bills , diamonds and uncashed World War I Liberty Bonds , all stuffed into a deedbox and forget somewhere in the wild of upstate New York .
But the beingness of this treasure was never proven , and its emplacement — if it ever existed — is a long - bear mystery .
A 1902 eagle-head coin that was found in the woods in rural New York. The mobster Dutch Schultz allegedly buried gold coins and other treasure somewhere in the region, prior to his death in 1935.
Almost a 100 later , Schultz ’s mythical cache of riches has yet to be discovered . But dictated gem seekers are certain that it ’s out there — and they ’re still looking . In the PBS show " mystery of the Dead : Gangster ’s Gold , " which premiered Nov. 18 , three teams set out to correct the 85 - class - old puzzle , cover down long - hidden tunnels and hideouts and hoping that artificial satellite mapping and priming coat - penetrate radar will go them to the buried loot .
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Born Arthur Flegenheimer to German - Jewish parents in 1902 , Schultz began a career of lawbreaking when he was still a male child in the Bronx . He eventually earned a report as an exceptionally vicious criminal mastermind , using extreme fury to enforce illicit operations such as bootlegging , extortion and illegal drawing that extend throughout New York and New Jersey , harmonize to PBS .
Archival photo of Dutch Schultz, dubbed “Beer Baron of the Bronx” during Prohibition.
When Prohibition buy the farm into effect in 1920 , Schultz speedily recognized it as a moneymaking chance . He appropriate control of the Bronx ’s illegal beer supplying , running it with an iron clenched fist , said Nate Hendley , a diarist and generator of " Dutch Schultz : The Brazen Beer Baron of the Bronx " ( Fiver Rivers Publishing , 2011 ) . Schultz ’s programme was simple : menace and intimidate every speakeasy owner in the borough into buy only from him — or they would brook the consequence .
One ghastly story described Schultz and his collaborator abduct a saloonkeeper who was loth to do stage business with them . They hung the man by his thumbs , torture him , then covered his face with material that had been dipped ingonorrheasores , Hendley told Live Science .
" After he was ransomed and released , he go blind from the contagion , " Hendley say . " That sent a hard message to saloonkeepers to buy from Dutch . "
Schultz later branched out into restaurant racketeering — extorting protection money from restaurant owners and workers — and muscle in on the number racket , or illegal lotteries , in Harlem . At one point he was glance over in approximately $ 12 million to $ 14 million per yr from the drawing alone , Hendley say .
" Factor in inflation and it ’s worth over 10 multiplication that today , " Hendley said . " He was making a raft of money , even by illegitimate gangster standards . By all estimates , he was one of the flush gangsters in New York at the clip . "
“My collection of papers”
Most of Schultz ’s crime imperium was centre around New York City . However , he also expend a fate of prison term in upstate New York , minding his breweries and visiting rural communities to pass around bribe and cultivate good will when he was on trial for tax escape , according to Hendley .
After Schultz attempt to vote out a federal prosecutor — disregard other powerful mobsters ' warnings to back off — mobster contender set up for Schultz ’s murder , and a hit man shot him in a restaurant in Newark , New Jersey , on Oct. 23 , 1935 . Rumors of Schultz ’s missing treasure began circulating almost immediately after his demise , because neither Schultz ’s usual - legal philosophy wife nor anyone in his house step forward to claim ownership of the huge hazard he must have amassed from his criminal activities .
Schultz would likely have avoided cant and stashed his ill - gotten loot in places where it could n’t be traced or tax , and Schultz ’s lawyer Dixie Davis claimed to have understand " a big lockbox full of money , bonds and coins , " tot that Schultz address about burying the moolah so that the politics would never get it , Hendley said . But Davis ' claims about the lockbox were never verified .
" It ’s a mystery as to where his money went , " Hendley said .
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Still more rumors about the allegedly buried treasure arose from Schultz ’s deathbed ravings , delivered to Newark law while he was cuff to a infirmary bed , delirious with a febrility of 106 arcdegree Fahrenheit ( 41 degrees Celsius ) and dose with morphine . A amanuensis carefully show Schultz ’s " statements " from the gangster ’s bedside in the hours before his death ; Schultz mentioned " my aggregation of papers " and said that he had been blast " over a million , five million dollar mark , " agree to a transcript published on Oct. 26 , 1935 , byThe New York Times .
But Schultz also gnarl flow of stark folderal , let in , " Get you onion up , and we will throw up the truce flag " and " No payrolls . No walls . No coupons . " As he grew washy , his harangue became less and less transparent . Before Schultz lose consciousness for the last time , he forebode out , " French - Canadian edible bean soup , " the Times reported .
" You could take bits and pieces of it and say he might be giving out clew , but he was die , " Hendley said . " I ca n’t make any sense of it at all — but who knows ? "
" Secrets of the Dead : Gangster ’s Gold " premieres Nov. 18 at 10 p.m. on PBS ( check local listings),pbs.org / secretsand the PBS Video app .
Originally published on Live Science .
