It Really Happened

Mobster-Gambler Frank Frost Leaves Crime Trail in Chicago, Los Angeles, Reno

1906-1967 Frank “Frankie” Frost (1898-1967) spent about two decades working in Reno’s gambling scene and had close relationships with those in power locally, including gambler-Mobsters William “Bill/Curly” Graham and James “Jim/Cinch” McKay and banker and…

"Bugsy's" Death Affects Granting of Nevada Gambling Licenses

1947 “The Flamingo Hotel, one of the nation’s most elaborate establishments, was [Benjamin] Siegel’s baby and was set to be the operating headquarters for his syndicate which embarked on a program to control gambling in…

10 Intriguing Facts About Gambling Legend Meyer Lansky

Meyer Lansky, né Maier Suchowljansky (1902-1983), just may be the U.S. icon of 20th century gambling, illegal and legal. After being instrumental in creating the National Crime Syndicate, an amalgam of Italian-American Mafia and Jewish-American…

True Crime Book Set in Late 1940s' California and Nevada

Hi Subscribers, I’m excited to tell you I just released another book, The Ends. It’s in the true crime genre but does contain some gambling. Here’s a brief synopsis: Shortly after World War II, two 20-something…

Suspects in 1968 Bombing Death of Barney's Club Co-Owner Deceased

1968 On Aug. 27, 1968, a dynamite bomb rigged under his Cadillac’s floorboard caused the violent death of Richard “Dick” Louis Chartrand, 42, a co-owner of the Barney’s Club and South Tahoe Nugget casinos in…

The World's Cleverest, Most Successful Card Cheating Apparatus

1888 It was the “very finest … the world has ever seen … a masterpiece,” wrote John Nevil Maskelyne in his 1894 book, Sharps and Flats: A Complete Revelation of the Secrets of Cheating at…

Yesterday and Today: Collecting on Gambling Debts in Nevada

1864-1983 While being plied with endless, free whisky highballs,* Hamilton Buck played roulette for hours at the Texas gambling-saloon** in Goldfield, Nevada. Then, in 1908, the northwestern mining town was nearing the end of its…

Midwestern Casino Worker Leads Double Life

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…

Murder on a Gambling Ship on the High Seas

1932 “There are no dull moments on the Rose Isle,” the invitation to prospective customers for dinner and dancing on the Southern California gambling ship read. Apparently, the excitement also included murder. The Crime And…

Gambler Adds Device to Get Roulette, Craps Defined as Slot Machines

1937 After Florida legalized slot machines in 1935, casino operator Myrton “Mert” Wertheimer, 53, devised a way to also get craps and roulette, unlawful at the time, allowed under the new rule. (Previously, only dog…

3 Brothers Build Legacy in 20th Century U.S. Gambling

1907-1958 Wertheimer was their name. Three of these four Michigan-born brothers became full-fledged, successful gambling operators in the first half of the 1900s, their reach spanning five states: Michigan, Ohio, Florida, California and Nevada. “As…

Was Reno City Councilman Crooked?

1923-1945 Reno, Nevada’s Third Ward city councilman during the 1920s and 1930s was “owned by” the local Mobsters, acted in their interests and protected them, contended Harold S. Smith, Jr., Harolds Club co-owner, in his…