Game of 21 Leads to Murder
1953-1955 When sheriff’s deputies responded to a 10:45 p.m. call from Dixie’s Log Cabin* on January 11, 1953, they found a man, injured and lying in the parking lot there. He was Raymond “Bud” Dutcher,…
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1953-1955 When sheriff’s deputies responded to a 10:45 p.m. call from Dixie’s Log Cabin* on January 11, 1953, they found a man, injured and lying in the parking lot there. He was Raymond “Bud” Dutcher,…
1924-1995 A Miami, Florida businessman and convicted felon, involved with at least one Nevada casino in the 1960s, later got special consideration from President Richard M. Nixon. Gambling History Calvin Kovens bought The Sierra Tahoe…
1933-1972 It was a typical Tuesday at the First National, and only, bank in the small Spring Valley, Minnesota community, population about 2,000, until gunmen burst through the doors and ordered everyone to lie on…
1955-1985 Their behavior at several Las Vegas casinos got them noticed. Then the dominoes fell. Two men showed wads of C notes at the craps tables, tried to exchange some of them for casino bills…
1935-1939 The reach of Reno, Nevada’s Mobsters into gambling during their heyday allegedly extended to a small Oregon hideaway for California’s rich and famous: Currier’s Village. William “Bill/Curly” Graham and James “Jim/Cinch” McKay are said…
This is the second of a series of posts related to and leading up to the release on Dec. 6 of A Bold Gamble at Lake Tahoe: Crime and Corruption in a Casino’s Evolution by…
Allen Smiley “was one of the most powerful gangsters in [California],” wrote author Gerald Horne in Class Struggle in Hollywood, 1930-1950. He was Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel’s partner and best friend and subsequently, Johnny Rosselli’s* right-hand…
1937-1981 An innocent man was placed in law enforcement’s crosshairs in late 1930s Los Angeles for a heinous crime … the frame-up stuck. Caught Unawares While strolling on Southern California’s Redondo Beach Strand, or boardwalk,…
1934-1938 While doing time at Alcatraz, Alphonse “Scarface” Capone, infamous Chicago organized crime boss heavily involved in gambling, played the banjo and mandola (a large mandolin) in the prison band, The Rock Islanders, a rotating…
1967 The month following closure of its on-site Bullpen casino, the Nevada State Prison sold the brass coins that inmates had used for decades (since 1932) for wagering and as currency. Sets, containing one coin…
An unpleasant, self-described “big gun,” Elmer “Bones” F. Remmer (1898-1963) was “once one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s flashiest and most successful gambling czars,” having owned numerous clubs in which he offered illegal games of…
1953 Theodore “Ted” Donaldson, 31, bought six slot machines from Joe Larango of Pyramid Securities Inc., a company with the devices in several Reno, Nevada locations, including the Oak Room casino. Donaldson paid the $1,825 cost…
1955 In a longstanding tradition, Missouri State Penitentiary inmates were allowed, on New Year’s Day, to gamble with their prison savings while playing dice and card games with each other. The warden, however, rescinded the privilege after…
1943-1949 Two acquaintances were having a drink at a Reno casino bar — Miles T. Ellis, 47, a tourist, and Anthony Swiderski, 52, a local chef in the Northern Nevada town. At an opportune moment,…
1940-1943 The Barn Club casino’s existence during World War II was rocky and, therefore, cut short. It began in December 1940, when Jack Fugitt, an entertainment machine business owner, and Walter Oswald, assumed the lease…