Product Description
This item is a vintage 5" X 10", black and white press photo of gangster Frank Erickson. The photo was published in the San Luis Obispo, California Telegram Tribune Newspaper and was not available for retail sale. The back of the photo has original editor's marking plus the stamp from The Tribune Telegram Library April 29, 1950. Frank Erickson (1896 – March 2, 1968) was an American mobster and bookmaker, known for his association with businessman, gambler and racketeer, Arnold Rothstein. Frank Erickson was Arnold Rothstein's right-hand man and New York's largest bookmaker during the 1930s and 40s. Eventually, Erickson became very well known among bookmakers nationwide for handling "lay-off" bets. With Chicago's Moses Annenberg, Erickson developed a country wide wire service, making possible for the first time nationwide synchronized betting. Erickson never saw any of these profits because soon after, bookmaking became illegal and the government took over. In Robert Lacey's book on Meyer Lanksy, Erickson was named "the largest book maker on the East Coast, if not in all America." Additionally, it is a little-known fact that many of Erickson's profits went to charity. Along with many other ventures, he was a major contributor to the construction of a children's hospital in NYC. He allegedly had connections with the mob. The photo has been autographed on the front by Frank Erickson with a fountain pen in blue................BOTH PHOTO AND AUTOGRAPH ARE IN EXCELLENT CONDITION.
