Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime
Typed Federal Bureau of Investigation memorandum for the Director dated October 25, 1935, Re: Dutch Schultz, signed E. A. Tamm, with the serial 23-2130-234, from the FBI Vault, Dutch Schultz Part 03, page 4
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FBI memorandum for the Director: "Dutch" Schultz (October 25, 1935)

A one-page memorandum of October 25, 1935, signed by E. A. Tamm, recording the New York Special Agent in Charge's theory about the shooting of Dutch Schultz. It is the Bureau's record of an opinion, and it names no suspect. The page is stored here.

Date
1935-10-25
Kind
case-file
Source
FBI Records: The Vault
Retrieved
2026-10-12
Rights
A record of the Federal Bureau of Investigation released under FOIA. A work of the United States government, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The stored page is the Vault's scan of page 4 of Part 03.

Page 4 of Part 03 of the Vault’s file on Arthur Flegenheimer (Dutch Schultz) is a one-page memorandum on Federal Bureau of Investigation letterhead, dated October 25, 1935, headed “Time - 9:10 A.M.” and “Memorandum for the Director,” with the subject line “Re: “Dutch” Schultz.” It is signed by E. A. Tamm and stamped with the serial 23-2130-234 and October 28, 1935. It was read from the page image. The typed surname is spelled both “Schultz” and “Schults” on the page.

Tamm writes that during a telephone conversation the Special Agent in Charge of the New York office, Mr. Whitley, commented on “the death of “Dutch” Schultz as a result of his being shot by gangsters.” Whitley’s “theory of this matter, which theory he believes is concurred in by the New York Police,” was that “some of the big-shot gangsters up there decided it was about time for Schultz to step out of the picture,” that the others “just wanted to gain control of those rackets which he has built up,” and that “they just wanted to get rid of him.”

This is the Bureau’s record of one agent’s opinion, given by telephone two days after the shooting. It names no suspect and does not treat the killing as a federal case. The FBI’s own later statement of where and when the shooting took place is on its Palace Chop House artifact page. The same Part 03 also holds a November 9, 1935 letter from the New York office about photographs and records of persons whose names are redacted, and a November 8, 1935 memorandum whose redactions make its subject unreadable.

itemFBI memorandum for the Director: "Dutch Schultz inquiries" (November 14, 1935)A one-page memorandum of November 14, 1935, signed by E. A. Tamm, telling the New York office that inquiries into leads in the Schultz matter "should be held in abeyance" until a named agent could take charge. The page is stored here.itemFBI memorandum: information on "the murder of Dutch Schultz in Newark" (April 25, 1940)A heavily redacted memorandum of April 25, 1940 from G. F. Bickley to E. A. Tamm recording a caller's information about the Newark killing of Dutch Schultz, and stating that "primarily the Bureau was not investigating this case." The page is stored here.itemBrick from the Palace Chop House, Newark, New Jersey, 23 October 1935 (FBI artifact)FBI photograph of a brick salvaged from the Palace Chop House in Newark, where Arthur Flegenheimer, known as Dutch Schultz, and four associates were shot on the night of 23 October 1935.itemFBI Vault: Arthur Flegenheimer (Dutch Schultz), Part 01First of five parts of the FBI's file 23-2130 on Arthur Flegenheimer. The scans are poor; the clearest page is a July 1935 letter to J. Edgar Hoover about the jury at Flegenheimer's trial "now being held at Malone, N.Y." That page is stored here.