Morris Roisner:

St. Paul Prohibition Gangster / Bootlegger / Kidnapper

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Morris Roisner (1889-1952) was a notorious Twin Cities Prohibition Era bootlegger, kidnapper, and gangster who served three years at Leavenworth Prison for income tax evasion.

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St. Paul and Minneapolis were almost in the same league as Chicago in terms of corruption and crime – John Dillinger, Alvin Karpis, Ma Barker, Baby Face Nelson were all part of the Twin Cities crime-and-corruption scene.  “St. Paul in the late 1920s and early 1930s was known as a ‘crooks’ haven’ — a place for gangsters, bank robbers, and bootleggers from all over the Midwest to run their operations or to hide from the FBI.”  

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Morris Roisner was a business partner of Louis Gleckman, who (in cooperation with the St. Paul police), ran a huge bootlegging and slot machine operation, with yearly profits of over $1 million. 

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After his release from Leavenworth, Roisner joined a company that sold Wurlitzer juke boxes (and never reported the income...). In 1941, Wurlitzer presented Roisner with a custom 10k gold-filled Elgin money clip, embossed with the Wurlitzer logo; Morris Roisner’s was beautifully engraved for his own personal use.