1935 News: Dutch Schultz's Racial Insult to Bumpy Johnson — 8 Men Dead in a Week

Video Description

HARLEM, NEW YORK - The Cotton Club was packed Monday night, September 16th, 1935—over 200 patrons filling the tables, the stage show in full swing, the illegal whiskey flowing freely, the wealthy white downtown crowd mixing with gangsters and politicians and celebrities in the kind of scene that made the Cotton Club simultaneously the most glamorous and most dangerous nightclub in New York. The music was loud, the conversation was louder, and nobody was paying particular attention to the table near the back where Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson sat alone, nursing a bourbon and watching the show with the quiet intensity that characterized everything Johnson did. Nobody noticed, that is, until Dutch Schultz stood up from his reserved table near the stage, his face flushed red from expensive whiskey and from the rage that had been building in him all evening, and began walking—no, stomping—across the club toward where Johnson sat, his bodyguards scrambling to follow him, other patrons turning to watch because Schultz's body language made it clear something dramatic was about to happen.