Bookies’ Bookies Not So Good With Numbers

California, Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Tax Evasion, Flamingo (Las Vegas, NV), Gambling: Bookmaking, Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Internal Revenue Service, Hy Goldbaum, It Really Happened, Las Vegas--Nevada, McNeil Island Corrections Center (WA), Stardust (Las Vegas, NV), West Hollywood--CaliforniaLeave a comment

1945-1955 In the late 1940s, three bookies — or commissioners, as they preferred to be called — operated on California’s Sunset Strip in West Hollywood under the name, Golden News Service. Hy Goldbaum, George Capri and Edward Cooke, all in their late 40s or early 50s at the time, specialized in assuming large bets that…

Animals Run Roadside Zoos

Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Cheating / Fleecing, Ernest Dennison, Gambling, Gambling Laws / Regulations, Games / Races: Chuck-a-luck, It Really Happened, NevadaLeave a comment

1940s A spate of “roadside zoos” opened along various Nevada highways, typically in rural areas, during the late 1940s. The owners were hustlers who lured unsuspecting tourists onto their grounds with the promise of seeing exotic birds, reptiles and/or wild animals then swindled them out of money via games of chance. The ruse often involved…