Evening star., 1922-07-23

reputation in a nearby large
city was robbed Of 100000
in Florida by means of fraudulent
race track betting. The newspapers
carried an Item at the time Of the
swindle without details Of the trick
or the names Of the rogues. Since
then nothing has been heard of the
affair.
Through confidential sources the
writer has just learned the details
of this operation. the Same kind of
trick that has been perpetrated re-
peatedly during the short season at
the Florida resorts. At least a dozen
prosperous men were mulcted OF
sums ranging from $4,000 upward,
and the gang which got the money
operated openly.
The persons who furnished the in
formation for this article were. in a
sense, connected with the criminals
and have absolute knowledge of the
facts. They estimate that at least
$500, 900 changed hands as a result
Of these crooked bets. The game
played by the rogues was nothing
more than a modernization of the
old wire-tapping racket.
A T the beinning of the Florida sea-
son two confidence men, whose
names are we'll known in the under
world, went down to one of the most
prominent resort towns there and
established themselves in two separate
and extensive hotels. They were ac-
companied by three women. One of
these played the part Of the first con-
fidence mans wife and lived with him
at the bigger Of the two hotels, where
the second woman also lived, alone
and most decorously. She is an un-
usually pretty girl. not more than
twenty-five years old. we'll hammered,
well dressed and athletic. The Sec
ond trickster and the third woman
lived at the other hotel, also as man
and wife.
Both the couples and the single girl
managed to procure guest cards to the
best country club of the neighborhood.
A third man. who acted as the scout
and information getter Of the organize
ton, remained in the north, but made
several brief visits to Florida and held
secret conferences with his pals there.
Early in February this scout went south
with the information that a certain
wealthy gentleman residing not far from
New York was about to make a trip to
Florida and that he was inclined to
gamble and might prove a desirable
sucker. This individual had engaged
rooms at the hotel where the first "con"
man, his so-called wife and the single
girl were stopping.
For the purpose of telling the story
clearly it is expedient to assign names
to the various participants in this
swindle since their actual names can
not be used. shall call the wealthy
dupe Arthur, the first confidence man
White, the second man Black and the
single girl Miss Blue.
For such readers as may be interested
in the technique of confidence gaming
it is also necessary to go into the ge-
nealogy Of the wire-tapping swindle
briefly. This game originated in the
middle west about 1885, when several
willy gentlemen conceived the idea of
tapping the telegraph wlre over which
the racing returns were sent from a CEN
trail bureau in Chicago to the poolrooms
in St Louis. Kansas City, Omaha, Den
yer, and other centers They cut in on
the wire and intercepted the results of
the races as they were sent. Immediate
communication was made by telephone
to a confederate waiting near the pool
room, who was instructed to bet on the
horse which had already won. After
allowing time for the bet to be laid the
tricksters forwarded the results to the
poolrooms and collected their winnings.
After few killings had been made in
this fashion the poolroom owners and
the telegraph companies smelled a rat
and took steps to make overlapping i'm
possible. The swindle had, however, be-
come notorious and struck fire in the
Imagination Of the country, fact which
certain other swindlers capitalized.
A BOUT twenty years ago the wire
tappers began extensive opera
tions in New York under the leader
ship of the celebrated Gondorf broth
ers. The game had now been altered
to suit conditions and no wire was
tapped. Instead the sucker was dou-
to use the common under
world term. He was made to believe
hof Nc hot q
already run, whose results had been
held up by means Of the tapped wire,
or, in a later development, that the
race was fixed. At this period. or a
little later. the Gondorf brothers op-
Grated several poolrooms about New
York city, fitting them up as exclu-
sive clubs and admitting only their
Some of these lairs were running at
the same time, so that the gang might
move from one to the other at mo-
ment's notice when things got too
hot
The manner Of operating the swim
die was interesting. Local gamblers
and others on the fringe of the felo-
NOUS world, in every smaller city
across the country, were informed OF
the layout in New York and encour-
aged to send word when they had q
good prospect, some local banker or
other rich man who was inclined to
be too greedy and known to take an
interest in racing and other sporting
events. When local sharper locat-
1A n
the New York gang and a steerer
was sent out to the small town.
where he passed himself off as rich
sporting man and was shortly intro
duced to the victim by the local