The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1912-08-29
ONCE POLICY RING
NOW DOWN And OUT


Locked in SAIL and sentenced
10 pay . s1o0 fine and TO give a
$500 bond for good behavior for
Twelve months, Buck Spotswood,
known 20 the local police as the
King OF the Underworld, must
serve sixty days before his friends
VIII know him again.
Spotswood, though giving his
age rs hfty-thrcc years old. Is, ac-
corsiing 20 the police, at least ten
years Older. He is small and
rather insignificant looking negro,
but he is known through the en-
tire State and in ncighbOring
States as well.
As gambler, a policy player,
an operator OF diSorderly houses
and "bliud tigers SpOtsvvOOC's
rccord i'm Virginia is unequaIed BY
the combined records of any other
half dozen men, the police de-
clare, and though he has been
arrested numerous times he has
managed i'm most cases to elude
the law and walk out of court
acquitted.
He is now Imprisoned for running
n blind tiger" He was taken by
surprise yesterday by Officers Hill and
Akcrs, who caught him with the
goods, and a half bushel measure Of
sealed bottles Of rye and corn whiskey
was exhibited in Police Court this
morning.
Spotswood, as many of the older
residents Of the city may remember,
owned the famous Possum-La dance
hall in Sweet Home Alley, which is
between Seventeenth and Eighteenth
and Broad and Marshall Streets
In this resort, until it was broken
up by the police, women Of the street.
ex-conVicts, pickpockets and thugs
used 10 congregate nightly for mer-
n L in
that numerous summing parties
were organized ia the more re-
spectacle parts of the city to visit
Possum-Da Hall.
Many of the most daring robberies
perpetrated in the city were planned
in Possum-I.a Hall, the police saw.
and If the walls OF the little back
rooms could tell what they know it
is not doubted that several dark MUIR
der mysteries, as yet unsolved, would
be explained.
In days agone Spotswood kept
house with very handsome octo-
room, who was known in Sweet Home
Alley as Mrs. Spotswood. The man
iaVished money upon her and liter
ally covered her with cheap jewelry.
The woman suddenly disappeared
and her Whereabouts has since been a
mystery. Spotswood may know, but
Spotswood with his clam-like reti-
cense has not told, and the matter has
long ago been dropped by inquiring
friends.
Not only did Spotswood operate
dens in Richmond. but in other Vir-
ginia cities. where his description and
record may be found on the police
books.
He was finally forced to close his
houses in Richmond and because he
probably could not trust his mana
gers elsewhere with his basis of OBJ
erations broken up, the negro turned
good and professed religion.
His spiritual uplift seems to have
worn itself out in a short time how
ever, for after being good" a year
or so he returned to the ways of in
EQUITY and began TO dispense vile and
dangerous whislxey to his friends and
associates.
For sometime the police have been
on his trail, waiting to catch him
with the goods. This has now been
zone, and the police believe that when
the negro gets out Of Jail he will no
longer continue his illegal practices,
hut VIII enter some old folks home
and spend the declining years of his
life in philosophic contemplation of
the wickedness OF the world.