The Botito King (Based on the life of Casper Holstein Father of the Numbers Lottery)

“The Bolito King 103,582 words” is a fictional account based on the life of Casper Holstein, millionaire, philanthropist, and father of the Harlem numbers racket. His policy game was established a good ten years before Madam Queen or Bumpy Johnson while his financial and humanitarian contributions to the Harlem Renaissance and the Virgin Islands have been lost in obscurity. I have inserted a sample clipping that I used for a reference and below is a mini-synopsis of my manuscript. I hope you find his story interesting because it has haunted me for many months.



Synopsis Of Material Covered

Casper Holstein was born December 7, 1876, in Christiansted, St. Croix, then the Danish West Indies, now the US Virgin Islands. He came to the states as a teenager, serving in the Navy, working as a bellhop, as well as working for a wealthy Jewish family. When they lost their money, Holstein supported them, even paying for their funerals. He also owned a gambling establishment called the Turf Club, and was active in black fraternal organizations and the New York Virgin Islands Association. Holstein entered serious gambling after WWI when he devised a new system for determining the daily winning number. The stock clearing houses released a daily total that was published in the newspapers. In Holstein’s system, the winner was certain digits of that number, a number truly random and unable to be fixed. For those who bet, the odds were 999 to 1, just enough to make enough numbers hit to keep hope alive. Holstein was active in public life, contributing generously to worthwhile causes. He supported the Vincent Sanitorium, the nationalist Garvey Movement, and it was he who provided prizes for Opportunity magazine’s literary awards – which discovered and recognized much of Harlem’s young talent. On September 23, 1928, Casper Holstein was kidnapped, allegedly by gangster Arthur Fleggenheimer “Dutch Schultz”. Holstein finally retired from the Harlem’s numbers racket after a one-year stint in prison in 1937 and it was eventually taken over by the mob. Holstein had enough money to continue working in real estate and mortgages. When he died on April 5, 1944, more 2,000 people attended his funeral at Harlem’s Memorial Baptist Church. A scholarship at the University of the Virgin Islands and a housing development in St. Croix are named in memory of “The Bolito King”.








RICH NEGRO SEIZED FOR $50,000 RANSOM: Casper Holstein Captured by Four White Men in Harlem Early Friday Morning. THREE SUSPECTS TAKEN Money Demanded by Telephone --Victim Well Known in Sporting Circles.

New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Sep 23, 1928. pg. 1, 1 pgs



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