Beansie bites the bullet: the Montreal angle

It was exactly 85 years ago today that Herman "Beansie" Rosenthal -- a New York gambling-house owner who decided to blow the whistle on the crooked cops he felt had double-crossed him -- was shot dead in Times Square (then a sleazy area known as the Tenderloin). His assailants staged an incompetent getaway in a leased taxicab (getaway cars were a novelty back in 1912), and no-good NYPD cop Charles Becker -- who wanted Rosenthal dead for ratting him out to the DA -- was eventually convicted and sent to the electric chair for masterminding the hit.

Talk about organized crime nowadays and people think of Sporanos-style Italian hoods, Vietnamese grow-op masterminds, or motorcycle brotherhoods.

But the North American brand of organized crime you know and love had its roots in the brawling 19th-century Irish gangs of New York. By the early 20th century, Jewish and Italian immigrants fought for and won a thick slice of the crime pie. Cops willing to look the other way for a price made things smooth and profitable. Here's a nugget of historical crime with a Montreal footnote:

In his book, The Execution of Officer Becker, author Stanley Cohen argued that this hit and its aftermath actually launched organized crime as we know it today.

So what's the Montreal angle? Well, Beansie Rosenthal was well known in Montreal circles. During the two years before he was shot dead outside the Metropole Hotel, Rosenthal had been working on a scheme to bribe Quebec officials and set up a gambling operation in Montreal. Here's the original story from the Quebec Chronicle:

ROSENTHAL KNOWN IN MONTREAL
Man killed in New York wanted gambling privileges in Montreal

Montreal, July 16 -- The dramatic killing of Herman Rosenthal in New York, at an early hour this morning, is of interest to Canadians, particularly in view of the fact that within the past two years he made an effort to establish a gambling syndicate in this city. The nom-de-plume under which he worked was that of "Beansy" Rosenthal. Rosenthal, upon his arrival in Montreal, started to [tell] several local gambelers that he controlled a large portion of the "game" in New York.

Rosenthal suggested that he could bring here a half million dollars with which to control the authorities if it were necessary, and he suggested the purchase of a residence on Sherbrooke Street East at a cost of a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, including the fittings and furniture.
Rosenthal then made overtures for the purchase of the controlling interest in a well-known amusement concern, on condition that gambling privileges would be secured, and he hinted if they would do the same thing in Montreal as in New York, he was willing to pay $100,000 to know who could control the police. That his efforts were fruitless is quite apparent.