J. Richard Davis (1905 – December 30, 1969), also known as Dixie Davis, was the lawyer for mobster
Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz (born Arthur Simon Flegenheimer; August 6, 1901October 24, 1935) was an American mobster based in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. He made his fortune in organized crime-related activities, including bootlegging and the n ...
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Biography
Davis was born in New York City in 1905 and grew up in Tannersville, New York, after his father, a tailor named Davidowitz, relocated the family to the Catskills
The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined a ...
. Davis attended Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...
Law School and was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1927. He served a clerkship, and then started his firm in New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
specializing in defending mobsters.
Many of Davis' clients were African-Americans involved in the numbers game in Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
. In 1932, he decided that he could take control and brought in Dutch Schultz as an enforcer, only to lose control to Schultz.
With the murder of Schultz in 1935, Davis took over his numbers racket. On July 14, 1937, a grand jury indicted Davis for racketeering. In exchange for cooperation, Davis was sentenced to one year in prison and disbarred.[
On December 30, 1969, Dixie Davis died of a heart attack in his home in Bel-Air, California after a break-in.]["Ex-Gang Lawyer Told of Theft, Dies," ''Los Angeles Times'', December 31, 1969.] Two masked gunmen had bound his wife and grandson and had stolen jewels, furs, and cash. Davis fell unconscious after he and his son learned of the robbery.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Dixie
1905 births
1969 deaths
Syracuse University College of Law alumni
20th-century American lawyers