Illegal Gambling In The 1920s
- Illegal Gambling In The 1920s Lingo
- Illegal Gambling In The 1920s History
- Illegal Gambling In The 1920s Lingo
Between 1927 and 1967, Hot Springs operated the largest illegal gambling racket in the country. In the 1930s, over a million baths a year were given and Hot Springs became America’s first resort. The Southern Club in Hot Springs, Arkansas was often frequented by gangsters in the 1920s. While gambling and prostitution thrived in the Northern Kentucky region prior to 1920, particularly during the Civil War, as prostitutes and gambling halls serviced the soldiers stationed in Cincinnati, the influence of organized crime in the area caused gambling to flourish in the 1920s and into the 1930s. Despite the fact that the island country had prohibited gambling in the 1920s, the current government, The United Bahamian Party, dished out a license to financier Wallace Groves’ Bahama’s Amusements Limited for operating an unlimited number of casinos there.
Al Capone, head of organized crime in Chicago in the 1920s and involved in everything from illegal gambling to murder, was ultimately brought down by a 1931 conviction for income-tax evasion. History of British Gambling Laws Early Gambling Law. In the very earliest days it was the Bible that was used to discourage people from betting, cited as a sin, having a punt could easily land you a spot in hell. Of course this didn't really work and having a bet among friends became common place in European culture.
(Buron Fitts - the sort of DA Mickey Spillane would write about)
I guess every large metropolitan area has its fair share of historic corruption and Los Angeles is no different. If you live in Los Angeles you may hear the name Clifford Clinton from time to time and be reminded of Clifton's Cafeteria, something of a legendary landmark and famous for it's credo of 'pay what you can' during the depression years.
Illegal Gambling In The 1920s Lingo
But Clinton was also something of a firebrand muckraker in the 1930's which seems to have gone unnoticed over time. Clinton was adamantly opposed to the corrupt political machine that ran Los Angeles in the 1920's and had woven itself into the fabric of L.A. - Clinton hosted a daily radio show, heard on KFAC from the late 1930's to 1940's and spent his fifteen allotted minutes digging up dirt and exposing corruption within the city four times a day.
Clifford Clinton: “ In one of our visits to persons whose help we thought would assist in the exposure of vice and the racket payoff system in Los Angeles, we stepped into a well laid trap. A Dictatophone that was set out to find our exact intentions. When those intentions were discovered, Los Angeles was soon to learn once more, that those who profited by the millions annually as a result of protected law violations in Los Angeles would not stop at murder to protect those illicit profits”.
It certainly didn't endear him to the power structure that was Los Angeles at the time. In fact, he was the intended victim of a house bombing in 1937, carried out by the LAPD who were in the pocket of the Mayor, Frank Shaw who would later be thrown out of office on his own set of corruption charges.
This broadcast, from August 13, 1940 takes aim at District Attorney Buron Fitts, who was part of the Shaw machine. Since it was an election year, Clinton was supporting Reform candidate John Dockweiler (yes Angelenos, the namesake of that beach near El Segundo), who Fitts was actively smearing as a draft dodger during World War 1 (remember, when they say 'The World War' they mean the first one as the second one hadn't started yet). Dockweiler's brother takes part in an interview with Clinton to answer the smears and take his own shots at the DA.
Buron Fitts would lose the election and Frank Shaw had already been thrown out in 1938. But Los Angeles was by no means done with corruption.
Just in case you were wondering . . .
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Home > Dissertations and Theses > Theses and Dissertations > 1242
University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations
Title
Author
Date of Award
12-17-2010
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
History
Department
History
Major Professor
Millett, Allan R.
Second Advisor
Dupont, Robert L.
Illegal Gambling In The 1920s History
Third Advisor
Mizell-Nelson, Michael
Abstract
This thesis examines illegal gambling in New Orleans and surrounding parishes in the 1920s. It will focus on a series of raids mounted by the Louisiana National Guard to end illegal gambling in both St. Bernard and Jefferson Parishes in August and November of 1928 and again in February of 1929. Corrupt leadership and public toleration allowed gambling houses in both St. Bernard and Jefferson parishes to operate openly for nearly an entire decade. Pressure from economic, religious and civic organizations within the city of New Orleans forced newly elected Governor Huey P. Long to take swift action in the fight to end gambling in Jefferson and St. Bernard Parishes.
Recommended Citation
Appel, Edward John Jr., 'The Free State of New Orleans': Local Law Enforcement and Illegal Gambling in the 1920s' (2010). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 1242.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1242
