Casper Holstein

Casper Holstein was born on St. Croix in 1876 and moved to New York when he was 12. (Beet sugar in Europe totally devastated the sugar cane economies in the West Indies and as a result, there was an exodus out of the Caribbean. Others like Edward Blyden, Stokley Carmicheal, Claude McKay and Marcus Garvey migrated during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s making substantial contributions to Pan-Africanism and the Harlem Renaissance.) He was schooled and joined the military upon graduation. He returned to the Virgin Islands on the USS Saratoga under naval rule just after the U.S. purchase. He was honorably discharged and worked for the Christy’s, learning stock trading from Mr. Christy, a wall street broker. He later used those same techniques to refine a popular betting scheme called bolito. Before long he was a millionaire, owning several night clubs and properties around New York, Canada and the Virgin Islands. Now, this is just setting the stage for what he was really born to do philanthropy and advocacy.
Casper Holstein supported many benevolent societies, sent food clothing and supplies to the V.I., paid rent, bought food and gifts for the Harlem poor, paid college tuitions and saved organizations. Now, his benevolence turned to action as he started to advocate for Virgin Islanders to become U.S. citizens. You see citizenship was not automatically bestowed upon us, we had to fight for it. Casper Holstien, some of his societies, students and allies in the Virgin Islands came together and formed the Virgin Islands Congressional Council and over the course of 10 years they aggressively engaged in an awareness campaign. The congressional council addressed Congress many times to have their concerns heard. Holstein’s financial backing and the student writers kept weekly articles about the Virgin Islands in the news. Finally, in 1936 Congress bestowed citizenship upon its’ territory the United States Virgin Islands. By Then Casper had become such a well know figure in the criminal underworld and in the press that his empire came to the attention of the notorious “Dutch” Schultz who had him kidnapped for several days and then released without harm. In exchange for his life Casper Holstein had to relinquish his bolito kingdom to Dutch Schultz who then ran it into the ground in several years. Casper still tried to be a humanitarian but never accumulated as much wealth as before. He died practically penniless being cared for by friends whom he had cared for in his golden days.
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