Gangster Dutch Schultz's Life Dutch Schultz is one of the best known New York mobsters of the prohibition era. After dropping out of school in the fourth grade and turning to a life of crime, Schultz started with pick-pocketing and petty theft, moved up to bootlegging and smuggling, and eventually left his mark in bloody gang wars. Schultz was considered, even among gangsters, “totally evil.” Dutch Schultz ran speakeasies, “importing” liquor from Canada and creating his own beer, which tasted terrible, though he had an obvious following. He changed his name to Dutch Schultz from Arthur Flegenheimer while serving his first prison sentence. At the age of e