Is the legendary treasure of Dutch Schultz buried in upstate New York?

Cash, coins and Jewelry in a large chest

Cash, coins and jewelry

Dutch Schultz in a suit and tie smoking a cigarette

Dutch Schultz

CASE DETAILS

Dutch Schultz was an infamous crime boss in New York’s underworld. While on his deathbed in 1935, Schultz rambled incoherently about a $7 million dollar fortune he had buried in upstate New York. Today, Dutch Schultz’s treasure is said to be worth more than $50 million dollars.

A funeral procession where a group of men are carrying to casket of Dutch Schultz

Schultz took the secret to his grave

It all started when Prohibition was passed in 1919. Gangsters like “Lucky” Luciano, Al Capone, and Dutch Schultz made millions illegally manufacturing and distributing bootleg liquor.

Dutch Schultz was something of a criminal prodigy. Born Arthur Flegenheimer, in 1902, he was already a force to be reckoned with by the time he was 25.

Jack French was a Special Agent for the FBI:

“Dutch Schultz was a very successful and widespread bootlegger, owned a string of speakeasies and then quickly branched out into narcotics, the numbers racket and the protection racket. Schultz was an extremely dangerous gangster. He was reported to have had 136 people killed and that’s over a criminal career of less than ten years.”

An early style automobile with its headlights on facing to men digging a hole in the woods

Is the treasure buried in upstate New York?

At the end of the roaring 1920s, Dutch Schultz’s criminal empire was making more than $20 million dollars a year. But like Al Capone before him, Schultz was highly vulnerable to the newly enacted federal income tax law. When he was indicted by a Grand Jury for income tax evasion, Schultz immediately took steps to protect his money.

Thomas Terry is an author of several books on buried treasure:

“At the time, Dutch Schultz was facing a long prison sentence and he decided that he needed a nest egg to fall back on in case he was sent to prison. So he had his top lieutenants clean out his safety deposit boxes and gather together whatever cash they could from his available bank accounts.”

At a hideaway in Connecticut, Dutch and his henchmen, including “Lulu” Rosencrantz, and a man named Marty Krompier, rendezvoused. They packed bundles of thousand dollar bills, negotiable Liberty Bonds, gold coins, diamonds, and other gems into a steel plated strongbox. Dutch Schultz had the only key.

That night, Dutch and “Lulu” traveled to Phoenicia, New York, a town Dutch knew from his bootlegging days. Dutch swore “Lulu” to secrecy and then supposedly marked the site by carving an “X” into the trunk of a nearby tree. But “Lulu” couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He told his friend Marty Krompier where the treasure was buried. Some say “Lulu” even drew a map for Marty.

Rumors of the secret treasure filtered through New York. But Dutch had other problems. Manhattan D.A. Thomas E. Dewey was determined to further his political career by destroying Dutch Schultz and his illegal empire.

With the pressure building, Schultz finally surrendered to authorities in Albany, New York. His first trial ended with a hung jury. At his second trial, he was acquitted of all charges for “lack of evidence”. Some suspected jury tampering.

After the acquittal, Dutch Schultz moved his headquarters to a tavern he owned in Newark, New Jersey, called The Palace Chop House. Determined to regain control of his empire, Schultz went on a bloody killing spree. According to former FBI Special Agent Jack French, that angered the powerful New York Crime Syndicate:

“The syndicate was a confederation of… New York City mobsters who controlled virtually all the crime in the Manhattan area. And they were very afraid that he was bringing additional heat upon them with these killings.”

The Syndicate took measures to turn down the heat. On the night of October 23, 1935, Schultz headed for the men’s room of The Palace Chop House. There he was met by two Syndicate hitmen, who proceeded to open fire on Dutch and his henchman.

Dutch Schultz died at 8:35 pm on October 24, 1935, almost 22 hours after he had been shot. He was just 33 years old. His bodyguard, “Lulu” Rosencrantz, had died hours earlier. That left only one man who knew where the treasure was buried … Marty Krompier. But according to Thomas Terry, Krompier never recovered Dutch’s treasure:

“On the night of the Chop House murders two henchmen caught up with Marty at a barber shop in New York City, gunned him down and took the map. Krompier survived the attack but he was never able to locate the treasure without the map… I personally believe the treasure of Dutch Schultz was buried and there’s a good possibility that it still exists today.”

Perhaps Dutch Schultz’s treasure is still buried somewhere in upstate New York. If so, someone who finds a tree with an “X” carved in it just might hit the jackpot.


Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season six with Robert Stack and in season two with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

 

49 Comments

  1. Calvin

    Wisdom over power

    Reply

  2. Calvin

    Breaking codes does this!

    Reply

  3. Bren

    Has anyone ever interviewed any of the families of the police who interviewed Dutch when he was dying? Were any of their lives changed by a life altering event? If they took notes and made the map listed I would think they’d have taken it within a few days. It would be a shame to waste time looking especially if it’s gone. It is a nice area though.

    Reply

  4. Glenn

    Krompier recovered – he did not die!

    Reply

  5. Willnotsay

    Its been found and im sorry to inform you all on this. My family owned a chop shop in manhattan for the mob that “friend” that received the map was in fact killed. the map stolen from him was stolen by my great uncle and his partner in which they found it and returned it to my great grandfather who now lives in an estate in upstate NY.

    Reply

    • Unsolved Mysteries Post author

      Intriguing! Please email us more information at unsolved@unsolved.com

      Reply

    • andrewc

      Got any old pontiac parts from the manhattan “chop shop” kicking around the estate/asylum Willy? U sure the the Palace Chop House tavern wasn’t in Newark NJ.it was said they served steaks bloody back on Oct.23,1935 Schultz was almost cut in half by a Thompson submachine gun triggered by Charles “bug” Workman, while washing his hands in a bathroom

      So lets recap, if the treasures been found send a photo of a $500. and $1000. note to Unsolved make sure the series numbers are legible The Feds say none of the legal tender’s been banked, each uncirculated Cleveland is now worth up to $13,500. and McKinley is worth between $2400.-$9,000. bucks on Ebay kiddo

      PS A $10,000. (K) dollar bill “Chase” is worth up too $500K all still legal tender!! I read somewhere there was (100) stack in the strong box too…. good old “Dixie” Davis contributed

      Reply

    • Marcel

      Blödsinn

      Reply

    • IceCold

      I believe you by the way u explained how it was found but the bonds in the box are government bonds even if your relative has them he should speak up so everyone knows. And so our government can have them back of course there’s a reward probably for finding it.

      Reply

    • Lisa

      Booooooo

      Reply

    • Paulette mcclure

      So did they find the treasure they had the map please tell me I am a seeker of truth

      Reply

  6. Alberto Pibiri

    @Sam Peppiatt .
    Nice intuition about the X for the Hudler Cemetery.
    Question is to identify the era of the old woman maybe one generation or two generation from Dutch Shultz age so if he was 33 on 1935 I assume she must be already old at that time. Little creepy but worth to try especially as Shultz said “mama is the best bet”.

    Reply

  7. Alberto Pibiri

    @ Sam Peppiatt
    I have been to the Hudler Cemetery. Old people there are over there but how old?
    Should be at the same era of shultz or little older any idea?

    Reply

  8. Peter Talbot

    I don’t believe a word of this. There is no way that Arthur let Lulu or Abbadabba or anyone else touch the strongbox, nor any way that he would have hidden it so far from his new home outside Newark once he got out of Albany. He was a roofer: carrying 75 pounds on his back was no problem for the Dutchman. He would have kept it close, and I suspect he hid it where his buddies were brewing beer at the Hauck (Doelger) brewery in Harrison, NJ, which burned down in 1951. The brewery had an enormous series of tunnels for cooling real beer during Prohibition that were not sealed up until after the fire. Some of these cellars were uncovered during the building of the I 280 roadway in 1956. The Harrison Middle School is on top of the site now. The whole upstate map thing has to be a canard. If the hoard still exists, it’s under twenty feet of roadway within walking distance of the old Palace Chop House. In 1920’s the area just east of Bridge Street was illegal beer making heaven for the New York area. The location was near the first street corner, the old home of the Paddy McGuigan Boxing Arena (the Bucket of Blood).

    Reply

  9. Anonymous

    You are all wrong, I have a good idea where it is based on other items I found in an area. When I was young . Will get to it as soon as I recover more from a stroke. Will never tell when I dig it up. Feds will claim it for shultes back taxes

    Reply

  10. Darrel

    Paper money perhaps wouldn’t survive but there was suppose to be jewels, diamonds and gold coins too…

    Reply

    • Mick

      It was sealed inside a metal strong box that was plated with steel. Even then, the box wouldn’t rust since there was no air underground.

      Reply

  11. Edward Uberto

    lu

    My mother had told me a story , How she was Adopted . LuLu s real name ( Bernard )Rosencrantz, (sister) Adel Rosencrantz , Mothers Real Grand mother . when I heard this story as a teen , I was Researching ….It was never recovered ……. if it was found , were is the evidence ? some item would have turned up . I Believe it to be out there still . it will be found ! I don’t doubt that .

    Reply

    • Andrewc

      Well the prize isn’t north of town checked 2 miles of over grown trackage, river bank and the ruins of the baseball bat factory “the mountains are full of ash trees” also checked all the old broken river crossings last fall
      I’m with you Ed found an old travelers road map”1930″ has me focused on the garage where dutch had his fleet of beer trucks serviced…..

      Reply

  12. AndrewC

    Hey MTV I’m sick of hearing about that graveyard on RT 40 seems like a great place to search with the motel next door you might as well check the Lutheran Church yard a mile up the road maybe you can catch a vision of your magazine’s title and all the newspaper articles too!
    Went through a sleeve of batteries “metal detector” on the wrong side of the river last year, just for the fresh air and fishing
    I’m pretty sure that box went back in the car on the way home from Dewey’s grand jury in syracuse ny
    The Getman’s and J Conway wrote nice books about the first burial site in a rose garden in Fairfield Ct.and they published a hand drawn map and image of the strong box in a hole somedody from Virginia had psychic visions about, only problem is the box was too small and it was never found 15 feet away from anything…..
    I’m going to spend a few more weeks on the ground this year pops, wish me luck the only folks I’m telling are Unsolved I found out where Schultz & Lulu stopped for dinner that night “digging on a full stomach really sucks”
    P.S.the old bullit proof car is on display in a reno casino has a bunch of puck marks on it, the roaring 30’s in new york and chicago were as dangerous as the middle east is today…..still think the next owner of dutch’s car was the winner, takes alot of money to build a casino, hey look it up!

    Reply

  13. MTV

    It has been found!
    I have always wanted to find this and it was reported to have jewels, gold and cash in it. I was disappointed to find it had been found. It was found where it stated and the difference was the road had been moved over from where it had been at the time it was buried. There was an article about it being found in a magazine in the late 60/s or early 80’s..
    They showed a picture of the hole with the identifying marks of the box that was identified, My sister-in-law hid Dutch under a different name and as a result always wished I had found it. Now I am too old however, I still enjoy reading about lost treasure..

    Reply

  14. thomas curtiss

    you may be correct jay ,perhaps with a future trial in Albany he’d need to be close to his cash. dutch had many interests in the Albany area. doing research I’ve learned the gangsters of that era did many things in code,so why not a map? what fascinates me is that Lucky Luciano had a huge interest in dutch’s money and if it was ever found he would have known but his cronies looked for it till Lucky’s dying day. that’s why I feel it’s still out there somewhere.

    Reply

  15. Chanita

    Coins Money And Jewley That’s Pretty Rare For Something To Be Left For Maybe For A Million Years!

    Reply

  16. Andrewc

    I’m very sure with the termoil in Dutchs life after his not guilty verdict and 14 months of seclusion in Fairfield CT. the first item on the list of things to do before celebrating would be grabbing the loot out of the ground along a nine mile stretch of hard road 7 hours away on the trip home!!
    Can’t find a lot of info about the Schultz car left in front of the chop house, that told the gunman Dutch was having dinner, who had the car last?..Don’t think the cops towed his armored car Dutchs driver was from Harlem sure wasn’t sreached by his widow first she was broke for many years after 1935 maybe the man with the car keys, who has the car that should be everyones target X
    the contents of the rather small strong box made in 1933 contained loose diamonds gold coins and jewelry from a robbery done in the 1928 along with $1000 notes bonds

    Reply

  17. Woodman

    Well…your almost there..I’m bound by promise to not spend by certain date..but will say that whoever brought the bootleg hiding places to light may have been onto something..we weren’t even in the business..just small time..but a promise is a promise..only proof is a ring and flask with initials and old money…

    Reply

  18. Eric W Bohannon

    I get it is now under a parking lot, a Bisness has a kind of hard time for business, kind of out of the way, in one case a relator is showing the property, like a office, for rent, but rented now but not moved in, cramped parking, this is all one case, roumers that stuff was buried under the black top, I see a real deep hole, I see a hole like a T, sort of, I think it is NY, hope this helps

    Reply

  19. stan

    Why haven’t you answered the question. Are you his child? So shapiro never killed him. … hmmm

    Reply

  20. Stefan krompier

    Marty krompier was not killed, he was my father . I was born in 1942. He was a great dad who worked hard all his life to support our family.

    Reply

    • kassie

      are you really his child?

      Reply

      • Stefan Krompier

        Yes, I am still going at 80 as six days from today.

        After the chop house killings and the attempted murder of my father, according to my mother Katherine’s Clark Krompier former Zigfeld Girl, she and my father went into cognito until a deal could be worked out with the “italians” that allowed my father to continue his life without fear of another attempt on his life.
        According to my mother the deal centered arround my father leaving the rackets. There was no mention of the buried treasure.
        To support his family, my dad had l left school after the 8th grade, took on a litney of meanial jobs at minimum wage or close to it. My mom had asked my dad about the buried treasure. He replied, do you think we would be living like this if I knew where that money is.

        Reply

        • Wendy

          HI Stefan,
          I believe I am relative of yours, probably, you and I are second or third cousins not sure about that. Your Grandmother was my Tanta (Rose Krompier) and She was related to my Grandmother Rose Hass Jacobs. My Mom Celia, brought me to meet your Uncle Jules Krompier when he lived in Miami Beach. I guess my Mom lost contact with your family and we never new what happened to anyone.

          Reply

  21. Sam Peppiatt

    .I’ll get it right yet. The location of the treasure on the map was shown as a “CROSS”, not an ‘X’, and not on a tree. A cross on a map always means a grave, or grave yard, or both. Therefore the treasure must be at Hedler; it can’t be any where else. What better way to mark it? All they had to do was remember the old woman’s name. Which again, was conveniently left off the map. San Peppiatt Please just try it ,okay?

    Reply

  22. SaM Peppiatt

    Correction; it was Gurrah Jake that went digging for it, not Marty K.

    Reply

  23. Sam Peppiatt

    I suggest that the ‘X’ on the map indicated a grave at the back of Hudler Cemetery near Esopus creek. It was the grave of an old woman. Twice Marty Krompier bragged about going up to the Catskills and dig up “grandma”! In fact he went up there, but her name, the name on the grave stone, was left off the map. That’s why he couldn’t find it. The gold with the Iron Box weighed 1,800 lbs.!! For this reason they would need an access road leading to the creek. This was provided by Hudler Cemetery, which is the all important 4.3 miles from Phoenicia. Only a gangster would think of it! They were in a cemetery quite often.

    How difficult could it be? Check with a metal detector near the grave of an old woman at the back of the Hudler Cemetery close to the drive way; QED.
    Sam Peppiatt

    Reply

    • andrewc

      The strong box was made by an iron worker Tommy Kiehle before april of 1933 it was 3’x2’x18″ deep so it would fit in the trunk of Dutch’s bullet proof car. The box had six 3/8″rod handles with three hinges that held a 1/8″plate lid and one hasp w/eye, all items where welded on, then painted with brown rustoilium, along with a large brass padlock with only one key! Max weight full with 5000-7000 $1000 dollar notes, silver, gold, jewlry tops out at 75lbs here’s the real problem, idiots from the city with their soft hands and trigger fingers arn’t going to drag the dang thing into the woods and bury it! The black choauffer is, after 85 years in the ground only mold and pulp will be left of the stash even if wrapped up in an oil skin SEEPAGE SUCKS!
      Transcripts and interviews of several folks living on rt 28 and in town back in the late 50’s said they wouldn’t waste anytime looking near the creeks,river, tracks or the roads, because of the horrible flooding in the area from the 36′ & 55′ hurricanes Hey enjoy skin diving in the reservoir!!!!
      Firm believer of “their always some one smarter than you” and “we all have the same thoughts just at different times”……don’t believe me look it up

      Reply

    • andrewc

      The strong box was made by an iron worker Tommy Kiehle before april of 1933 it was 3’x2’x18″ deep so it would fit in the trunk of Dutch’s bullet proof car. The box had six 3/8″rod handles with three hinges that held a 1/8″plate lid and one hasp w/eye, all items where welded on, then painted, along with a large brass padlock with only one key! Max weight full with 5000-7000 $1000 dollar notes, silver, gold, jewelry tops out at 75lbs here’s the real problem, idiots from the city with their soft hands and trigger fingers arn’t going to drag the dang thing into the woods and bury it! The black choauffer is, after 85 years in the ground only mold and pulp will be left of the stash, even if wrapped up in an oil skin, “sorry no heffty bags back then” SEEPAGE SUCKS!
      Transcripts and interviews of several folks living on rt 23 and in town back in the late 50’s said they wouldn’t waste anytime looking near the creeks, river, tracks or the roads, because of the horrible flooding in the area from the 36′ & 55′ hurricanes, both events dropped over 12″s of rain each bay for a week the 36′ storm blew down all the pine trees on long island! Hey enjoy skin diving in the reservoir!!!!
      Firm believer of “their always some one smarter than you” and “we all have the same thoughts just at different times”……don’t believe me look it up! this stories working on its third generation the strong box was first buried in a garden in Fairfield CT., then dug up and moved by a paranoid mobster, he knew and trusted a group of brewers in Phoenicia area from the bootlegging days

      Reply

  24. johnathin rose

    i have lookd at all the faks and i beleve the missing peace of the puzel to the trezer
    of dush sholt in the trans scrips tipet on dush sholts death bed and rekordid by the fbi
    frather i have not ben able to git those tran skrips i have ben stone wald at every
    tern bot that i beleve

    Reply

    • Jonathan Rose

      How could you look at all the “FAKS” when you can’t even SPELL it? There’s no way you read all that because of the all the words you’ve mangled in your comments makes you functionally illiterate. Since you can’t spell your own first name

      Reply

    • Andrew C

      Try the library? Look into the microfiche 35′ NY. CT. news papers ran pages of the 24hours of ramblings I got very little from the Time Harold record/ new york times except a couple cool days off in the Air Con!, Sann and Burroughs (The last words of Dutch Schultz) “Seaver Books” 1975 Maybe take out a book on spelling JR.?

      Reply

  25. jake shapiro

    This is the ghost of Jake Shapiro…I’m the one who shot and killed Marty Krompier. I’m the one who took the map. I found and relocated the Dutch schultz fortune. There will be clues apon the original treasure site on where I put the metal case of all that riches. There’s your sign.

    Reply

  26. grahamclayton

    Krompier was shot by Jake Shapiro, who grabbed the map and travelled to upstate NY to find the treasure. He couldn’t understand the directions, and two days later was arrested in a diner in Kingston for Krompier’s murder. The map was not in his possession when he was arrested, and has never been seen since.

    Reply

  27. brian

    In theory Dutch had such a great empire that putting his treasure in the Phoenicia area there’s no evidence that puts Dutch in Phoenicia New York on the day that people are claiming he buried it there. I think Dutch used Phoenicia as a desguise to go through it on his way to a specific place he had picked out that is in one of his hideing places buried or placed beneath something so it was excessible to get to instead of buried. Who would bury a treasure when it can be hid where no one can find it? I don’t see it being buried I think he hid it in one of his hideing places he had from bootlegging.

    Reply

  28. Ross

    I think he and Lulu hid it either where they rode daily in Fairfield, CT — perhaps in a subbasement of the house on Campbell that was built in 1935 not far from the stables and on the path they rode.

    Alternatively, I think they in a tunnel under his secret residence in a Yonkers suburb where he had a brewery. The tunnel led from his home (now a co-ed dorm) and a historic tavern across the street.

    I think there is no support for a Catskills theory – once the chronological evidence from May 1935 is threaded.

    Earlier that Spring, I think it was in a hole in the garden of a nice lady in Norwalk, CT. He was staying there with his gilrfriend until he was discovered by the press. (The woman in recent years found the hole).

    Then he had the case on the top floor of the Bridgeport Hotel — where the US Attorney in Northern District of New York was allowing him to stay.

    Then he and Lulu hid it — one night they left the hotel out the back way at 11 p.m…. maybe to play cards with some ladies present. … Or maybe to hide the loot.

    Or maybe they hid it when they drove from Bridgeport to Syracuse, NY for his income tax evasion trial. They took a day longer than necessary to get here.

    I have scanned all the historical evidence that shows their day-to-day itinerary — and haven’t left anything out.

    I don’t think there is any support for a Catskills theory — that was where they frequented a couple years prior.

    But I appreciate people can disagree and the Catskills area certainly is beautiful to visit. And I encourage the fun adventure.

    Dutch Schultz in Fairfield County, Connecticut in 1935 : his horses, his hiding places, and his missing millions | Ross Getman and Grace Getman
    http://www.blurb.com/search/site_search?search=Dutch+Schultz+missing+millions

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