Frank Erickson

Frank Erickson (1896 – March 2, 1968) was born in New York City to parents of Swedish and Irish descent. After the death of his father, he grew up in an orphanage. Frank Erickson was Arnold Rothstein's right-hand man and New York's largest bookmaker during the 1930s and 40s. Eventually, Erickson became very well known among bookmakers nationwide for handling "lay-off" bets. With Chicago's Moses Annenberg, Erickson developed a country wide wire service, making possible for the first time nationwide synchronized betting. Erickson never saw any of these profits because soon after, bookmaking became illegal and the government took over. In Robert Lacey's book on Meyer Lanksy, Erickson was named "the largest book maker on the East Coast, if not in all America." Additionally, it is a little-known fact that many of Erickson's profits went to charity. Along with many other ventures, he was a major contributor to the construction of a children's hospital in NYC. He allegedly had connections with the mob. He died on March 2, 1968, from cardiac arrest while undergoing surgery on a bleeding ulcer.