The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-03-18
THEY FIXED THE WHEEL.
How Red Leary's Gang Took $4,000
at Roulstts.

: Long Branch, \. J.. Feb. 27-To beat a
( gambling house by undetermined schemes
is an almost impossible thing. All the
/ iuportant gambling establishments in
this part of the country employ men to
/ o ok out for such attempts, and the num-
/ Der of times when faro cards have been
( fixed, - COgged hazard dice substituted
roulette wheels ''corxed, D." or any similar
games played successfully by gamblers
against tine house can lie counted on
/ the fingers of one hand. The gambler of
to-day must depend on his luck to come
out ahead of the cards, the dice or the
wheel
One of the few schemes, and perhaps
the most successful ever perpetrated on
gambling house in this part of the coun-
try, was worked in Phil Days place at
! Long Branch, known as Monte Carlo. Jr
by gang of crooks. headed by Rel
| Leary, since killed on Sixth avenue by a
brick which companion of his tossed in
the air, and by big Frank Mccoy, the
oank roboer. The game was roulette
and, although the affair occurred nearly
| ten years ago, no account of it ever was
made public, and even the chief loser.
the late Charles Woerrishoffer, a we'll
known banker of this city. never knew Of
the crooked work that lost him 50, 600
within three hours.
When Leary, Mccoy and three others,
one of whom is a well known bunco man
arrived at Long Branch one day las5
summer report got abroad thai they
were going to make an organized attempt
at rObblng the safe in Monte Carlo, Jr.
Every night five guards slept in the
gambling house with loaded shot guns at
their heads, but they might have spared
themselves the trouble. The five crooks
would come over in the afternoon, lounge
a hff
would play. but not heavily, and gener-
ally lose They always played roulette
There came night, however, when they
stopped losing, and won enough to make
up all their losses ten times over. On the
afternoon previous Phil. DAILY had no.
ticed Mccoy and one of the others taking
| a great interest in the roulette wheel,
and said to Major Crump whose
duty it was to look the tables over and
see that everything was right before play
began:
Those fellows are up to something. I
think they're going to thy and plug up
some of the numbers in the roulette wheel
and then play the adjoining numbers
Look out that the wheel isn't corked"
Crump examined the wheel with par
ticular care that evening, but found
nothing wrong. Mccoy and Leary didn't
come around, but two of their pals did
and they began playing heavily. About
the same time Mr.. Woerrishoffer, who
was constant customer, came in and sat
down on the other side of the wheel Cd
posite the two crooks.
i think I'm going to win tonight" he
SAID to Frank Snyder, who was crOupier
on his side. Give me 81 600 worth of
chips. III play and 13"
He began by putting $50 on each of the
numbers and watched his coin disappear
without winning. His 81 900 had gone
IN little more than no time and neither o
nor - had turned up
They IL turn up pretty soon" he said,
as he bought his second thousand dollars
count IN chips. "Thirty-ive to one, when
l hit it, will soon square me'
But his second thousand went the way
of the first without either number turn
ing up. Still he persisted, insisting that
the luck would soon come his way hard
Meanwhile the crooks on the other side of
the wheel were playing heavily on Nos. S
and II, on the first twelve, which pays
two to one, and on the middle column,
which pays the same; and they were
winning on all with remarkable persist
ency as steadily as Woerrishoffer, at the
other end, was losing. After his fifth
thousand had gone and his mum bers had
not shown up once, Banker Woerrishoffer
said to Snyder:
well, Frank, there's no luck for me to-
night; I've lost 5000 on 6 and 19 and
that's enough for one evening. This isn't
their night on; I'll try EN- again to-mor-
row."
THE luck is at the other end" replied
Synder. Those fellows on the other end
are hitting US hard"
The two crooks played on, and still
they won. Each played the limit every
time on the middle column and the first
twelve and $40 at every turn of the
wheel on numbers s and II, and so re-
markable was their luck that other
smaller calibre players began to follow
them with i'll result to the bank When
finally Major" Crump, who was spin
ming the wheel called the last turn, the
two men were about $4,000 apiece ahead.
They and the rest of the Mccoy Leary
gang left Long Branch on sthe following
day. When the wheel stopped Snyder
leaned over to Crump and whispered:
Neither nor 13 has turned up once
tonight. There's something wrong with
the wheel"
Can't be" returned Crump. Il locke d
1t over carefully before the game be-
gan I'll swear there isn't cork in the
wheel"
We'll, let's look it over" suggested
Snyder, and the two began to examine
the wheel. Their investigation failed to
discover any number 6 or 10 on the
wheel 1uey Ifled again and found two
number SIS and two lis Over number g
square of very fine tissue, the exact
counterpart of number s, had been set
IN, and In like manner II had been sub
stltuted for Is. Besides doubling the
two numbers, this put one extra chance
in the first -, and two chances in the
middle column. Crump turned to Sny-
der:
Now I get onto why those fellows
pounded the same numbers right
through" he said "They must have
fixed the wheel this afternoon. It's as
pretty piece of work as I've ever seen.
but I'LL never go again here"
DAILY himself was summoned to examine
the wheel. He declared that not even the
best trained eye could have detected the
counterfeit, and told his two employees to
say nothing about it to any one, lest it
should hurt the reputation of the bank
50 well did they keep their secret, that,
when NoerrtshOIer died some time later
he was still in ignorance Of the reason
that the wheel ran so persistently against
him on the night that he had the remark
able lll-luck of choosing for play the only
two nun oers not on the wheel
Killed by Real Unloaded Gun.
he D.