The Last Words Of Dutch Schultz

Figuring Out What Dutch Schultz Actually Said Before He Died

This is one of those historical topics that sounds straightforward but falls apart the moment you try to pin it down. The Last Words Of Dutch Schultz is a subject that generates more speculation than evidence, and anyone telling you they know for certain what he said right before he walked into that Newark restaurant on October 23, 1935 is either making something up or repeating an unverified anecdote. Dutch Schultz was shot dead by four gunmen inside the Paradise Restaurant in Newark. He survived the initial volley long enough to be transported to University Hospital, where he lingered for roughly fourteen hours before being pronounced dead. That gap between the shooting and the official death declaration is why the "last words" question exists at all. If he'd died instantly, the whole mystery disappears. The most cited version comes from a man named Paul "The Waiter" Tuza, who supposedly was with Schultz that afternoon and claimed Schultz said something along the lines of "I'm going to get out of this." Another account, attributed to various reporters who were at the hospital, says Schultz repeated "Tell my boys I did everything I could" or variations of it as his condition deteriorated. Some versions have him asking for water. Some say he was unconscious for most of those fourteen hours.

The problem is none of this is documented in real time. There's no recording. No contemporaneous police transcript. The hospital staff at University Hospital in 1935 Newark weren't keeping detailed records of gangster patients' final statements, and even if they were, those records don't exist in any public archive I've been able to locate.

Why the Version You've Heard Is Probably Wrong

Here's the thing that people researching this get wrong: they treat the most famous quote as if it's verified. It isn't. The "I'm going to get out of this" line comes from later newspaper stories and oral histories collected decades after the fact. By the time anyone was writing it down seriously, the people who actually knew what happened were either dead, in prison, or had every incentive to embellish their version for a book deal or a movie. I spent probably six months tracking down primary sources on this a few years back because I was researching something related. What I found was essentially three separate narratives that all claim to be the true account but contradict each other on key details. The Wikipedia page on Dutch Schultz mentions the last words question but honestly doesn't resolve it, which tells you everything you need to know about how solid the evidence is. The most reliable contemporary source I found was a dispatch from the Newark Evening News dated October 24, 1935. It mentions that Schultz was conscious when first treated and spoke to nurses, but it doesn't quote him directly. That's it. That's the primary source. Everything else is secondhand or thirdhand at best.

What Actually Happened That Afternoon

Schultz had been summoned to a meeting arranged by a man named Frankie Costello. The meeting was set up through someone Schultz trusted, and it was a trap. He walked into the restaurant around 2:40 PM on a Wednesday. Four men with submachine guns opened fire. Two bullets hit him in the abdomen. He fell but didn't go down immediately, which is consistent with eyewitness reports and explains why he lived long enough to be taken to the hospital. The fourteen-hour window between the shooting and death is where all the legend-building happens. Every hour he survived gave someone the chance to claim they heard him say something significant. The longer he lingered, the more opportunities for stories to multiply and mutate. By November 1935, you already had at least five different versions floating around New York newspapers alone.

How to Approach This If You're Actually Researching It

Stop looking for the definitive last words. They don't exist in any verifiable form. Instead, look at what the question reveals about how we process the deaths of notorious figures. Schultz was one of the most prominent gangsters of the Prohibition era. His death marked the end of an era for organized crime in New York. People wanted closure. They wanted a poignant final statement. So they created one, or they attributed one to whoever happened to be telling the story at the time. If you want the most academically sound source, search the New York Times archives for October 23 through November 1, 1935. The coverage from that week is extensive and careful — they weren't printing unverified quotes the way modern outlets would. You'll find hospital bulletins, police statements, and witness interviews that predate the legend-building by months or years. The reality is that The Last Words Of Dutch Schultz, as a specific recoverable fact, probably can't be recovered. What we have are competing claims from people who may or may not have been there, recorded by people who may or may not have been accurate, about a man who was dying and possibly not fully conscious for most of that time. The most honest answer is that we don't know, and we probably never will.