"Casper Holstein" (December 7,1876-April 5,1944)

Was a prominent New York mobster involved in the Harlem "numbers

rackets"during the Harlem Renaissance.He along with his occasional rivial Stephanie St.Clair,was responsible for bringing back illegal gambling to the neighborhood after an eight-year absence following the conviction of Peter H.Matthews in 1915.He became known as the Bolito King."Born of of mixed African and Danish descent in St.Croix,Danish descent in St.Croix,Danish West Indies,Casper moved to New York City with his mama in 1894.His daddy was a landed person of color who was in turn the son of a Danish officer in the Danish West Indies militia.Attending high school in Brooklyn,he enlisted U.S.Navy following his graduation.During World war I,he was able to visit his birthplace while stationed in what had bcome the United States Virgin Islands.After the war,he worked as a janitor and doorman in Manhattan eventually becoming a messenger,and head messenger,for a commodities brokerage on Wall Street.During this time,he began to became familiar with the stock market and began studying the system and numbers.Casper was eventually able to devise a lottery system based on these principles.Previously under and before Peter the number was set by a system in which a set of digits 0-9 were drawn out at random out at random and posted in a club house.This however allowed for the organizer to cut loses by fixing the outcome.It also created limitations on disseminating the winning number out to the gamblers.There were unrelated statistical numbers published by the newspapers which Casper found could be used by an organizer instead.At various times the US Customs Receipts,New York Stock Exchange daily share volume and leading horse race primutuel betting handle have been all been used to set the daily number.This change permitted a large number of gamblers to play the same game and with reduced fear of fixing.As the prohibition began Casper's lottery system proved popular and Casper became known as as the "Bolita King,"going on to an estimated $ million from his lotteries.In 1932,Dixie Davis,the court house attorney who provided service for the runners for for many of the numbers operators,decided that he could make more money if he were to take over as central organizer,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.Rather than accept a back seat Dixie,decided to he wanted the central role.One by one various numbers operators were picked up by Dutch and told they would have to deal with him.Most complied he was resisted by Madame St.Clair & Bumpy Johnson.Casper saw himself as having a political mission which would be underminded by violence and dropped out of overseeing street collection.He continued as a wholesale lay off gambler for several years but was arrested in 1937.Casper was was a major donor towards,charitable purposes such as building dormitories at African American colleges,as well as financing many of the neighborhood's artist,writers,and poets during the Harlem Renaissance.Casper bought the mortgage on the New York hall of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and allowed it to continue to be used as an African American fuction hall when the Marcus Garvey organization collapsed.He also help establish a Baptist school in Liberia and established a hurricane relief fund for his native Virgin Islands.Casper was a regular contributor of articles to the NAACP newspaper Crisis.By the end of the 1920s,Casper had become a dominant figure among Harlem's numerous policy operators.Both he and Stephanie St. Clair claimed to have invited the way that "numbers games"choose the winning number,both claims long been in dispute and he was generous with his wealth.According to The New York Times,Casper was "Harlem's favorite hero,"because of his wealth,Casper sporting proclivities and his philanthropies among his community.In 1928,he was kipnapped by five white men who demanded a ransom of $ 30,000.Casper was released three days later,insisting that no ransom was paid.The incident was never explained.When casper died he was broke.He died at the home of a friend,there is no mention of family in the obituary in the New York Times.