The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-02-16
OWENS, FAMOUS
GAMBLER, DEAD
Card Sharp and Master
Mind Spent Summer
in BrattlebOrO
KNOWN TO POLICE
OF MANY CITIES
Could Stack Cards Any Way He Wished
and Made Many Rich Hauls on Trans
atlantic Liners Fell Down Stairs
i'm Havana-Lived but Few Hours.

w. J. ("Doc") Owens, card-sharp.
transatlantic gambler, and master
mind" well known to the police of many
cities, is dead. He fell downstairs in the
Hotel Almendares, Havana, on Jan. IA
and died few hours later. He was
familiar figure in Brattleboro about 20
years ago when he spent one summer at
the Brooks House.
Owens passed out of the limelight
about 1906 when the steamship compau-
les barred him on the ground that he
fieeced passengers. But Doc" had
reaped a harvest while the rcaping was
good, and when he unwillingly lost his
sea legs, he piled his trade in the vicin-
ity Of Times Square, cheating the cheat
ers'' and trimming the lucky ones for
professional gamblers. Doc" knew
cards. The hand is quicker than the
eye, and his fingers were like lightning.
The report got around that he had
taken 100000 from William Thaw in a
card game on one of his trips. Both
Thaw and Owens denied this. but the
steamship companies, after many COM
plants, closed their gangways to the
thickset man, slightly above medium
height, with black hair. a face slightly
p0Ck-nafheu, eyes IuaI stared lntlulf,-
ingly. and a large. thick-lipped mouth
dropping at the corners. The fact that
Owens was so well known did much to
throw his workmanship into relief. He
became a marked man. Travellers watched
for him.
One of the conspicuous episodes that
brought Ovens and other gamblers into
disrepute was the loss of S1.500 by the
young Earl of Rosslyn on his way from
New York to England on the old Gu
harder Etruria. He was accosted by
three .well-to-do Americans They
played cards, soon acquired the earIs
ready cash. and then one of them had
the tcmerity to sue him for $50 check,
given as part payment of the gambling
debt Two attorneys were the plaint-
iffs, but Doc" Owens was believed to be
behind the suit Rosslyn won the case
because there had been no consideration
for the check.
About the same time DOC" Owens
had his fight to prevent his picture from
finding a place in the Rogues' Gallery.
He alleged that there was no reason why
ii should become part of the record, and
would greatly injure his reputation.
Judge Leventritt decided. however, that
no one could object to having his picture
ut police headquarters provided 1t was
not used fer other than official purposes.
In the following years the name of
doc" Owens was coupled with the story
of quarrel over cards that nearly ended
/ in tragedy. Another passenger on the
Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse, G. y, Par
tens, was reported to have lost S1,J0O
at cards. He publicly accused the man
with whom he was playing. In a rage
the gambler seized partens and would
Z have thrown him over the rail had not
dcckhandS intervened.
( Owens stayed abroad" so long that
! in 1915 when he wanted to return to
this country the state department ruled
that he had lost his citizenship. So
. Owens lived in London and supplied the
Z backing for a fashionable Piccadilly mil
/ linery shop. He left a fair-sized estate
/ in England and his personal property in
/ Havana is said to be considerable.
While in New York Owens chung out
! in different gambling houses until a Gus
I toner had an unusual run of luck. II
/ the lucky one were under suspicion OF
cheating. Docs" services would be called
in. and upon him would fall the duty
of getting the money hack. According
to his intimates. Doe could handle
cards better than any man living. lie
could stack cards any way he wished
and detection was impossible