Lewis Rosenstiel

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Person.png Lewis RosenstielRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(mobster, businessman, sexual blackmailer)
Lewis Rosenstiel.png
BornJuly 21, 1891
Cincinnati, Ohio
DiedJanuary 21, 1976 (Age 84)
Miami Beach, Florida
NationalityUS
ReligionJudaism
Spouse • Dorothy Heller
• Leonore Cohn
• Louise Rosenstiel
• Susan Kaufman
• Blanka Wdowiak
RelativesClare Bronfman
Gangster, businessman, philanthropist and sexual blackmailer.

Lewis "Lew" Solon Rosenstiel was a gangster, businessman, philanthropist[1][2], and sexual blackmailer.

Rosenstiel got his start working at his uncle’s distillery in Kentucky before Prohibition. Officially, Rosenstiel is said to have built his company and wealth after Prohibition. However, he was clearly involved in bootlegging operations and was even indicted for bootlegging in 1929, though he evaded conviction.

Once the law banning alcohol was in force, Rosenstiel created the Schenley Products Company, which would later become one of the largest liquor companies in North America.[3]

In 1933, when Prohibition ended, Schenley Distillers Company was formed as a publicly owned company. (The name was changed to Schenley Industries in 1949.) Schenley became one of the largest liquor companies in the United States.

Winston Churchill

Though he was a high school drop-out and not particularly well-connected socially at the time, Rosenstiel happened to have a “chance” meeting with Winston Churchill in 1922 while on vacation in the French Riviera. According to the New York Times, Churchill “advised him [Rosenstiel] to prepare for the return of liquor sales in the United States.” Rosenstiel somehow managed to secure the funding of the elite and respected Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers to finance his purchase of shuttered distilleries.[4]

Sexual blackmail

Rosenstiel’s fourth wife, Susan Kaufman, testified under oath that Lewis hosted extravagant parties that included “boy prostitutes” that her husband had hired “for the enjoyment” of certain guests, which included important government officials and prominent figures in America’s criminal underworld.[5]

Further reading

Whitney Webb wrote an expose of Rosenstiel


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References


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