Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-11-21
Jimmy La Fontoine Dies at 81;
Gambler Here for Half Century
Continued From First Page.

enue agents put the bite on Jim
my for more than 100000, he
paid up but told a friend that it
broke him.
That was the time La Fontaine
had his only serious brush with
the law. The late Elmer Trey,
whose income tax sleuthing put
AL Capone away, confronted the
gambler with all the evidence.
In the privacy of his Office, La
|, Fontaine wept. He pleaded guilty
to tax evasion. was sentenced to
; nine months, but served only So
days In Ellicott City Jail because
of illness. ....s
Forced Out of Virginia
Except for earlier, even more
oolorful days in Virginia, when a
racket busting Commonwealth
Attorney forced La Fontaine out
of the State. his conflicts with the
police were Of a cat-and-ndouse
complex. with the cat somewhat
suspect of apathy.
The history of La Fontaine's
Prince Georges County resort ran
a cycle of brazen and open opera
ton, followed by period of public
Indignation, then a dramatic but
fruitless police raid.
Perhaps a paddock would go on
and, for some time, all was dark
behind the tall fences guarding
"Jimmy's Place." more formally
known as the Maryland Athletic
Club. Perhaps a campaigning pub
lie servant would announce: This
time, Jimmy is out for good"
But in a matter of months, the
word would go out-"Jimmy's OPP
Grating" And thus he almost al
ways appeared to be. except during
grand jury sessions and at election
time aud when the nearby race
: tracks were running.
> Not until two and half years
ago, when La Fontaine quietly
closed shop for good, was the
Maryland Athletic Club officially
out of business.
Brushes With Underworld.
To him La Fontaine's brushes
with the underworld probably
were more serious than his tiffs
with the law. His kind of money
, made him vulnerable to all sorts,
. from yegg to gunman. Threatsson
, his life were commonplace--he
turned that department over J to
q bodyguard.
One story had it that Philadel-
phia mobsters went to Jimmy's
to play and decided to stay, push
. ing Jimmy out of his own counting
= house. But that one was denied.
Through it all, through the gas
light era into the atomic age,
Jimmy played it like Hollywood's
most impeccable gentleman gam
bier.
He dressed extensively but not
damboyantly. A little man OF
about S feet, 8 inches and 40
pounds, his handsome face was
topped by a heavy crop of hair,
snow white in latter years. He
was courtly as a Southern colonel,
never ruffled. ever courteous.
Many Tales of Charities.
The mans charities were
fabulous, too often told not to
be true. The stories are myriad
of the fearful wives Of unlucky
patrons who went to La Fontaine
because the mortgage was due or
the baby was coming. He had
the same rule for all:
II he believed their stories, they
got their money back. But with
the proviso that the husband
never show his face again at the
gambling house.
His reputation was such that
Federal Judge w. Calvin Chestnut
of Baltimore. who sentenced
! La Fontaine for income tax eva
. sion, said that, except for his
/. Illegal enterprises, the gamblers
! character was exemplary"
{ Crandall Mackey. prominent
Arlington County attorney and
the former commemorative attor-
ney who busted La Fontaine in
Virginia, recalled the gambler as
"a fine fellow, the only one who
promised he would quit in Virginia
and lived up to it,"
Charles E. Ford, Washington at
torney, who was at the bedside
when La Fontaine died, knew him
for Is years in kind Of father
son relationship.
1.-THE two best men I ever had
In my life were my own father
and Jim," he said
Bought Estate in eos.
La Fontaine had been plying his
trade for more than 80 years be-
fore he bought the fine old Rieves
estate at Bladensburg road and
Eastern avenue in the early eos.
He had started on shoe-string
at jackson City, as the little COM
munity on the Virginia side OF
Long Highway Bridge was called.
Later he made a circuit OF the
Maryland and Eastern race
tracks, legally booking bets,
and laying aside enough to buy
the Reeves estate, family burial
ground and all.
Oficially, it became the Mary
land Athletic Club, but the rela-
tionship between that title and
"Jimmy's Place" ended with La