Blood Aces

Blood Aces PDF Author: Doug J. Swanson
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143127586
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
A rip-roaring saga of murder, money, and the making of Las Vegas They say in Vegas you can’t understand the town unless you understand Benny Binion—mob boss, casino owner, and creator of the World Series of Poker. Beginning as a Texas horse trader, Binion built a gambling empire in Depression-era Dallas. When the law chased him out of town, he loaded up suitcases with cash and headed for Vegas. The place would never be the same. Dramatic as any gangster movie, Blood Aces draws readers into the colorful world of notorious mobsters like Clyde Barrow and Bugsy Siegel. Given access to previously classified government documents, biographer Doug J. Swanson provides the definitive account of a great American antihero, a man whose rise from thugdom to prominence and power is unmatched in the history of American criminal justice.

Blood Aces

Blood Aces PDF Author: Doug J. Swanson
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143127586
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Get Book Here

Book Description
A rip-roaring saga of murder, money, and the making of Las Vegas They say in Vegas you can’t understand the town unless you understand Benny Binion—mob boss, casino owner, and creator of the World Series of Poker. Beginning as a Texas horse trader, Binion built a gambling empire in Depression-era Dallas. When the law chased him out of town, he loaded up suitcases with cash and headed for Vegas. The place would never be the same. Dramatic as any gangster movie, Blood Aces draws readers into the colorful world of notorious mobsters like Clyde Barrow and Bugsy Siegel. Given access to previously classified government documents, biographer Doug J. Swanson provides the definitive account of a great American antihero, a man whose rise from thugdom to prominence and power is unmatched in the history of American criminal justice.

I'll Do My Own Damn Killin'

I'll Do My Own Damn Killin' PDF Author: Gary Sleeper
Publisher: Barricade Books
ISBN: 9781569804667
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In the early days, before he founded the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas and became the patron saint of the World Series of Poker, cowboy Benny Binion was a horse trader, a bootlegger, and the "boss gambler" of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. This book traces Binion's rise to power in the Dallas underworld during World War II. By 1946, more than two dozen "casinos" operated illegally in downtown Dallas in hotel suites, and Benny Binion owned at least half of them. The cowboy's only true rival for gambling supremacy in Texas was his former partner, Herbert Noble. For the first time ever, Gary Sleeper reveals the intricacies of the bloody feud between Binion and Noble, and their brutal war for control of Dallas and Fort Worth. Included are details of the thirteen attempts on Noble's life, the tragic murder of his wife, and Noble's bizarre plot to gain revenge by bombing Las Vegas from a private airplane.

Old Riot, New Ranger

Old Riot, New Ranger PDF Author: Bob Alexander
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 1574417401
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 545

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Book Description
Award-winning author Bob Alexander presents a biography of 20th-century Ranger Captain Jack Dean, who holds the distinction of being one of only five men to serve in both the Officer’s Corps of the Rangers and also as a President-appointed United States Marshal. Jack Dean’s service in Texas Ranger history occurred at a time when the institution was undergoing a philosophical revamping and restructuring, all hastened by America’s Civil Rights Movement, landmark decisions handed down by the United States Supreme Court, zooming advances in forensic technology, and focused efforts designed to diversify and professionalize the Rangers. His job choice caused him to circulate in the duplicitous underworld of dishonesty and criminality where twisted self-interest overrode compliance with societal norms. His biography is packed with true-crime calamities: double murders, single murders, negligent homicides, suicides, jailbreaks, manhunts, armed robberies and home invasions, kidnappings, public corruption, sexual assaults, illicit gambling, car-theft rings, dope smuggling, and arms trafficking.

Gamblers & Gangsters

Gamblers & Gangsters PDF Author: Ann Arnold
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781571682505
Category : Criminals
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
From the earliest days of the cattle drives through town, Fort Worth embraced, if not with open arms, then certainly with an open palm, the profit and excitement of illegal entertainment.

Ghosts at the Table

Ghosts at the Table PDF Author: Des Wilson
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0786732059
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Destined to become “the new poker classic, a must-read” (Mike Sexton, top poker player and promoter), Ghosts at the Table is the game's first definitive history. With verve and wit, internationally renowned poker personality Des Wilson traces poker's Wild West origins in Deadwood, South Dakota-where “Wild” Bill Hickok was said to have been shot holding aces and eights-to the annual World Series of Poker and amazing high-stakes games of modern-day Las Vegas. It's a story full of unforgettable characters-riverboat gamblers, Texas rounders, roadside hucksters, and living legends-who have helped make poker the world's most popular game.

Dallas Tough: Historic Tales of Grit, Audacity and Defiance

Dallas Tough: Historic Tales of Grit, Audacity and Defiance PDF Author: Josh Foreman and Ryan Starrett
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467146080
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
The history of Dallas is speckled with the lean, the determined and the obstinately opinionated--fighters who brought the city up out of the prairie. Ride with Nicholas Sparks, who christened the soil with his blood, and stand with Henry Ervay, the mayor who challenged one of the most powerful governors Texas has known. Bonnie Parker shot her way to infamy, while Corinne Maddox solved her stalker problem with two pocket guns. Herbert Noble pushed his luck to the breaking point. Jacob Rubenstein avenged his fallen idol. Accompany Josh Foreman and Ryan Starrett into a largely forgotten Dallas, where citizenship was a matter of gumption.

The Glen Rose Moonshine Raid

The Glen Rose Moonshine Raid PDF Author: Martin Brown
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439662606
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
With hills studded with whiskey stills and cisterns brimming over with beer, Glen Rose operated in concerted defiance of one of Prohibition's chief champions, Governor Pat Neff. In 1923, Neff dispatched Texas Rangers and undercover agents to do the job of the unwilling local law enforcement. More than fifty men were arrested, including the sheriff and the county prosecutor. Outraged, the town's most prominent citizens stalked the Rangers and their agents, assassinating the primary operative in an ambush and further escalating the affair. Author Martin Brown follows the frenzy of the raid and its aftermath.

Top O' Hill Terrace

Top O' Hill Terrace PDF Author: Vickie Bryant
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738585277
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
If the saga of Top O' Hill Casino becoming Arlington Baptist College were written as fiction, readers would dismiss it as improbable and impossible. The story of a tearoom evolving into the gambling hot spot of North Central Texas that was then acquired by a fiery gospel preacher, who foretold its transformation into a Baptist seminary and ultimately an accredited Bible college, is stranger than fiction yet absolutely true. The rich and famous enjoyed rubbing shoulders with the mysterious and notoriously infamous, and if large amounts of money were involved, so much the better. Stir in fabulous racehorses, flashy stage and screen stars, singers, dancers, well-known bandleaders and bands, and the tale becomes enthralling.

The Ranger Ideal Volume 3

The Ranger Ideal Volume 3 PDF Author: Darren L. Ivey
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 157441853X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 865

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Book Description
Established in Waco in 1968, the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum honors the iconic Texas Rangers, a service that has existed, in one form or another, since 1823. Thirty-one individuals—whose lives span more than two centuries—have been enshrined in the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. They have become legendary symbols of Texas and the American West. In The Ranger Ideal Volume 3, Darren L. Ivey presents capsule biographies of the twelve inductees who served Texas in the twentieth century. In the first portion of the book, Ivey describes the careers of the “Big Four” Ranger captains—Will L. Wright, Frank Hamer, Tom R. Hickman, and Manuel “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas—as well as those of Charles E. Miller and Marvin “Red” Burton. Ivey then moves into the mid-century and discusses Robert A. Crowder, John J. Klevenhagen, Clinton T. Peoples, and James E. Riddles. Ivey concludes with Bobby Paul Doherty and Stanley K. Guffey, both of whom gave their lives in the line of duty. Using primary records and reliable secondary sources, and rejecting apocryphal tales, The Ranger Ideal presents the true stories of these intrepid men who enforced the law with gallantry, grit, and guns. This Volume 3 is the finale in a three-volume series covering all of the Texas Rangers inducted in the Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco, Texas.

Texas Rangers

Texas Rangers PDF Author: Bob Alexander
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 157441691X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 673

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Book Description
Authors Bob Alexander and Donaly E. Brice grappled with several issues when deciding how to relate a general history of the Texas Rangers. Should emphasis be placed on their frontier defense against Indians, or focus more on their role as guardians of the peace and statewide law enforcers? What about the tumultuous Mexican Revolution period, 1910-1920? And how to deal with myths and legends such as One Riot, One Ranger? Texas Rangers: Lives, Legend, and Legacy is the authors’ answer to these questions, a one-volume history of the Texas Rangers. The authors begin with the earliest Rangers in the pre-Republic years in 1823 and take the story up through the Republic, Mexican War, and Civil War. Then, with the advent of the Frontier Battalion, the authors focus in detail on each company A through F, relating what was happening within each company concurrently. Thereafter, Alexander and Brice tell the famous episodes of the Rangers that forged their legend, and bring the story up through the twentieth century to the present day in the final chapters.