Louis Rothkopf
American businessman and criminal
Louis Rothkopf, also known as Louis Rhody, Lou Rody or John Zarumba (October 11, 1902 – July 17, 1956), was an American businessman and career criminal. He was a bootlegger in Cleveland, Ohio, during Prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s. He was an investor in casinos in Las Vegas, and racetracks in Ohio and Kentucky in the 1940s and 1950s.
Early life
Rothkopf was born on October 11, 1902, in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended three years of high school, and married Blanche Morgan in 1929. The couple had no children. He was known as "Uncle Louie" among showgirls.
Career
As a bootlegger, Rothkopf traveled widely, and supervised alcohol production for the "Cleveland Four," also known as the Cleveland Syndicate. Rothkopf is credited with the "erection and operation of the largest illegal distilleries ever found in the United States."
He maintained a suite in Cleveland's Hollenden Hotel with his associates. In the early 1930s, Rothkopf was a partner in the Prospect Advertising Co., a front for a gambling operation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Louis Rothkopf” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.