The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-10-21
FINDS ONLY EQUAL
IN MAYBRAY'S GANG
Estimate of Money Gathered
in by Gamblers on Worlds
Series Is Two Million.

How much did they get? On an in
vestment Of not to exceed $4,000 the
fixers Of the last worlds series are
believed to have cleaned up IN the
neighborhood of a million dollars.
One estimate places the amount 1t
two million dollars, according 10
statement by Damon Runyon, a New
York writer who continues;
1t may be that the aggregate OF
bets on the White Sox all over the
country reached that figure, but 1t
is not likely that the fixers got the
money.
There is little doubt, however. that
on the investment the gambler hung
up new get-rich- quick record.
The only sure thing operations In
the world of sport Of recent years
that probably beat their mark came
to an end when the Maybray mob
was gathered up out West.
The Maybray mob handled fake
foot races. phoney prize fights,
crooked horse races and wrestling
matches. 1t probably never dealt to
any extent in baseball only because
it never thought of it.
However, the Maybray mob had to
have a big working capital. Its jobs
generally started with a considera-
Bile investment. John c. Maybray,
an Omoha man, was said to be the
| brains Of the crowd which had an
organization covering most OF the
West.
The Maybray mode of operation
was simple. The sucker was made
to believe that he was skinning an
other sucker on a fake foot race,
horse race or a fixed prize fight, and
was himself "skun."
At least 80 men are known 20 have
been mixed up in the workings Of
the Maybray mob, which was called
THE Big Store" A little bladder
| full of blood in the mouth of the
one of the fighters, wrestlers or
jockeys, bitten into at the proper
moment, was the means employed to
make it look as If the plans had sud
denly gone astray.
! The Maybrays would locate a rich
sucker prospect and angle for him
for months. He was carefully built
up" by spending money on him and
around him. Then he was eventually
double-cross when he thought he
was crossing someone else, just as
the White Sox ball players were
| doubled.
The most desperate enterprise ever
| engaged in by the Maybrays never
equaled in daring the deal to throw
a worlds series, an event almost ma
tional in importance and interest.
The newspapers of America alone
spent at least a million dollars in
reporting what has now turned out
to be a consummate fraud. Another
million or more was spent by the
people who went to see the worlds
series.
Some people marvel that enough
betting men could be found by the
! gamblers to make their investment
in the players profitable. AS a mat
ter OF fact, baseball for the past ten
years has been the subject Of almost
as much betting as horse racing,
One man in New York made a
single bet OF $4,000 on the White
Sox last fall. Prominent horsemen,
theatrical magnates and stock bro
kers have time and again backed
their judgment on baseball into five
figures. according to printed reports
which were never denied.
They were in the habit OF making
these wagers solely on their own
opinions of the probable outcome of
a game, or series, the same as they
might bet on a stock.
In small handbooks. and between
individuals, thousands Of dollars were
wagered on ball games daily all over
the country. In the old days, the
gamblers used to make their bets
openly in the grand stands at the
ball yards, but this public specula-
ton has been largely wiped out BY
the club owners.
However, while setting after the
little gambler, and barring him from
ball yards, the club owners have
overlooked the big fellow I, Is next
to impossible, of course, to stop men
from betting on baseball on the out
side, but prominent gamblers who
are known To bet heavily on the
games have been admitted to the
vards fOp years