Stephanie St. Clair

Stephanie St. Clair

Stephanie St. Clair (1886–1969) was a gang leader who ran numerous criminal enterprises in Harlem, New York in the early part of the 20th century. St. Clair resisted the interests of the Mafia for several years after Prohibition ended; she continued to be an independent operator and never came under Mafia control.

Early life

Many scholars believe St. Clair was born of mixed French and African descent on Martinique but another theory states that she was from Guadalupe Island, a small island off the coast of Mexico. She immigrated to the United States via Marseille in 1912 and ten years later took $10,000 of her own money and set up a numbers bank in Harlem. She became known throughout Manhattan as Queenie, but Harlem residents referred to her as Madame St. Clair. She became affiliated with the 40 Thieves gang but eventually branched off on her own and ran one of the leading numbers games in the city.

Police corruption

She complained to local authorities about harassment by the NYPD, and when they paid no heed she ran advertisements in Harlem newspapers, accusing senior police officers of corruption. The police responded by arresting her on a trumped-up charge, and in response she testified to the Seabury Commission about the kickbacks she had paid them. The Commission subsequently fired more than a dozen police officers.

Mafia involvement

After the end of Prohibition, Jewish and Italian-American crime families saw a decrease in profits and decided to move in on the Harlem gambling scene. Bronx-based mob boss Dutch Schultz was the first to move in, beating and killing numbers operators who would not pay him protection.

St. Clair and her chief enforcer Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson refused to pay protection to Schultz despite the amount of violence and intimidation by police they faced. Eventually Bumpy Johnson, her former enforcer, negotiated with Lucky Luciano and Lucky took over Schultz' spots with a percentage going to Bumpy. The Italians then had to go to Bumpy first if they had any problems in Harlem. That's when the legend of Bumpy Johnson began. The book Harlem Godfather: The Rap on my Husband, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson by Bumpy's wife, Mayme Johnson and Karen E. Quinones Miller provides a factual account of this.

Luciano realized that the struggle with the Five Families was hurting their business so Schultz was assassinated in 1935 on the orders of The Commission, St. Clair sent a telegram to his hospital bed as the gangster lay dying. It read, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap." The incident made headlines across the nation.

By the 1940s, "Bumpy" Johnson had become the reigning king in Harlem while St. Clair became less and less involved in the numbers game. She died quietly and still rich in Harlem in 1969.

Cinematic and Theatrical Portrayals

References

  1. ↑ A story from the street where she lived - The Boston Globe
  2. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4043372/

External links

Preceded by
Peter H. Matthews		 Policy racket in New York City
circa 1923–1932 		Succeeded by
Dutch Schultz