Image: Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nSchultz\u2019s unyielding desire for total control of the numbers racket resulted in over 40 deaths, and by 1935, the FBI had branded him \u201cPublic Enemy Number One.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a hugely successful Black racketeer – and a woman at that – St. Clair was at the top of his target list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking On Public Enemy Number One<\/h2>\n\n\n\n The Numbers Queen wasn\u2019t about to go down without a fight and did everything in her power to stop Schultz and his gang from infiltrating her racket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She made a point of highlighting how Schultz\u2019s actions were heavily racially motivated and encouraged her peers to stop engaging with businesses (both legal and illegal) that weren\u2019t black-owned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
St. Clair spread this message every way she could, from full-page newspaper campaigns encouraging Harlemites to \u201cBuy Black\u201d to violently destroying storefronts associated with white racketeers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her own words, taking on Schultz and his mob of thugs cost St. Clair \u201c820 days in jail plus three-quarters of a million dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, these actions caught the attention of the man himself, and in 1935 Schultz ordered a hit on St. Clair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fearing for her life, the Numbers Queen was forced into hiding and handed her business over to her bodyguard-in-chief, Bumpy Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\nImage: Smithsonian Magazine<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFortunately, her days in exile were numbered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other prominent racketeers – namely the Italian mafia boss and \u201cchairman\u201d of New York\u2019s Five Families, Charlie \u201cLucky\u201d Luciano – decided to put an end to Schultz\u2019s reign of terror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Schultz ordered an unauthorized hit on District Attorney Thomas Dewey, Luciano turned the tables and ordered the hit squad \u201cMurder, Inc.\u201d to assassinate Schultz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hit took place on October 23, 1935, while Dutch and his associates were dining at the Palace Chop House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dutch lived for almost an entire day after being shot – long enough for St. Clair to retreat from hiding and send him a telegraph that read, \u201cAs ye sow, so shall ye reap.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Post-Racket Life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n After handing over her numbers empire to Johnson, St. Clair took a step back from the gambling scene. Yet, her run-ins with the law only seemed to increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had always been a staunch civil rights activist, and in 1936 she married fellow activist and \u201csoapbox speaker\u201d Sufi Abdul Hamid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, their relationship was doomed from the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\nImage: Smithsonian Magazine<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nDubbed the \u201cBlack Hitler,\u201d Hamid was an anti-Semite and an Islamic-Buddhist cult leader whose skewed morality conflicted with other prominent activists of the era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He ended up spending a huge chunk of St. Clair\u2019s wealth and cheating on her with a young fortune teller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unsurprisingly, the Numbers Queen didn\u2019t take kindly to his infidelities, and in 1938 she shot Hamid during a fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though she didn\u2019t kill him, St. Clair was sentenced to up to 10 years at the New York State Prison for Women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Little is known about Stephanie St. Clair\u2019s life after her release from prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She stopped taking out ads in the paper, only resurfacing in print in a 1960 New York Post <\/em>article. Mayme Hatcher, the wife of Bumpy Johnson, claimed she retired to a mansion in Long Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBoth accounts specify that she had transgressed from an illegal numbers racketeer to a legitimate businesswoman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How Did St. Clair Die?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n Stephanie St. Clair died in New York the same way she arrived – shrouded in mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite a life spent dominating the underground gambling scene and becoming an advocate for civil rights, no report was made of her death in any of the local newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Far from the dramatic and violent deaths of her male mobster contemporaries, St. Clair passed away peacefully in 1969 in Central Islip, New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Legacy Of Stephanie St. Clair<\/h2>\n\n\n\n Almost her entire criminal career was spent living in 409 Edgecombe Avenue, an apartment complex that housed Harlem\u2019s Black elite.<\/p>\n\n\n\nImage: LPC\/Elisa Urbanelli via nyc.gov<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFrom civil rights activists like W.E.B. Du Bois to painters like Aaron Douglas and playwrights like Katherine Butler Jones, her neighbors were at the forefront of the fight for civil rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rather than hide from the law, Stephanie St. Clair chose to step into the spotlight and use her wealth to uplift her fellow Harlemites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With no fear of the dangerous repercussions her stoicism could have, St. Clair battled corruption from men both above and below the law – and looked fabulous while doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her refusal to back down to \u201cPublic Enemy Number One\u201d Dutch Schultz not only protected her own racket from collapsing but also those of other Black racketeers who were subject to his violent quest for domination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While keeping her racket afloat inflated her own wealth, it also provided countless jobs for Black men and women and allowed her to invest in legitimate Black-run businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, she took on the NYPD head-to-head and won. Alongside testifying against corrupt police officers, her regular ads in the Amsterdam News <\/em>helped to educate her peers on their legal and voting rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\nInstead of indulging in destructive behavior like her male mobster counterparts, St. Clair spent her life trying to uplift her fellow Harlemites and using violence only as a means to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stephanie St. Clair has appeared as a side character in The Cotton Club <\/em>(1984) and Hoodlum <\/em>(1997).<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe was also the focus of a 2014 episode of Celebrity Crime Files<\/em>. As of yet, no programs or movies focus entirely on her story.<\/p>\n\n\n\nImage: Rejected Princesses<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nHowever, that is soon set to change. Two new projects are in the works that will focus on the life and times of Stephanie St. Clair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One is a series called Queenie<\/em>, a BET Studios production set to begin filming soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe other is from HBO, who has announced a film about St. Clair adapted from a book by Shirley Stewart, The World of Stephanie St. Clair<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cQueenie,\u201d \u201cMadam Queen,\u201d \u201cMadam St. Clair,\u201d \u201cQueen of the Policy Rackets\u201d – whichever of the many nicknames you know her …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":34269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,15],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Stephanie St. Clair Biography \u2013 How The Numbers Racket Worked<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n