These days, if you hear a poker crime story, it has marked cards, unpaid loans, or conspiracies involving professional basketball coaches.
But before the 1950s, a poker crime story could easily have a few shots fired. Other scams are more similar to the stories you’ve heard recently. Players get invited to a game where everyone’s in on the con, or people skim money from businesses to fund their high-stakes habits.
We’ve collected seven poker stories spanning 1925 to the 1950s, each with the flavor of the times.
Poker Conmen Target Passengers on Steamships & Trains
- Date: Early 1925
- Place: The steamship Ruth Alexander
It's 1925, Prohibition is in full swing, and The Great Gatsby is going to be published this year. Our story takes place on the Ruth Alexander, a coastal passenger liner running from San Diego to Seattle. It was the kind of floating hotel where travelers with cash would have been targets for swindlers and conmen in those days.
Our victim boarded at Los Angeles and reached his stateroom when a friendly fellow passenger struck up a chat and invited him for drinks. At some point, they began a game of cards.
Four hands were played:
- The first two hands used matchsticks as stakes
- The third hand was won by the victim, who collected $50 to $75
- The fourth hand cost the victim everything: $75 cash, $230 in traveler's checks, and a $203 personal check, for a total of $503.
- $503 in 1925 is equivalent to about $9,700 in today’s money.
Since he wasn’t a conman himself, the victim could not explain how he'd been fleeced, but was fairly sure he had been. And, he was almost certainly correct.
One week before the Ruth Alexander con, an officer had been called into a train car. The lawman was told by a passenger that he’d lost $87 after being invited to a poker game and getting tricked. One of the plaintiffs from the Ruth Alexander case was there.
Six months before, on the Harvard steamship, the same poker game con had happened. As you can guess, one of the plaintiffs from the Ruth Alexander case was there.
Three men were charged with federal larceny for the Ruth Alexander incident, which they appealed unsuccessfully.
Case Document: Paine v. United States, 7 F. 2d 263
An All-Night Poker Game, a Razor, a Revolver, and a Death Sentence
- Date: September 8, 1935
- Place: California
It's 1935, and dust storms are chasing farmers off the Plains. Fermin Moreno and his friends are part of that world. They were illiterate farm laborers who worked the fields together and slept under the same roof.
On the evening of September 7, the Supreme Court says, several of them "drew up their chairs in an effort to tempt the fickle goddess of luck." What a way to describe a poker game.
Wine flowed, the cards moved, and the game was friendly for five hours. Then, at 3 AM, a dispute broke out over a poker hand.
Here’s Fermin Moreno's story:
- A player called him “a vile name” repeatedly
- The player then stood up and threatened his life
- Moreno went to another room and got his gun
- He then returned to the room and tried to leave
- The threatening player approached him, hand in his pocket, saying, "It is time to kill you anyway."
- They struggled. Moreno fired twice, and the player died.
Two other witnesses backed up this version at the trial, and a razor was found in the deceased’s pocket. But in the preliminary-hearing, they had both said there was no quarrel between Moreno and the other player. They both claimed this was because of being drunk during the first testimony.
The jury convicted Moreno of first-degree murder and sentenced him to hang. But the California Supreme Court took the middle path and reduced the conviction to second-degree murder, sparing his life.
The evidence was too unclear to confirm any premeditation for a first-degree murder, and also too unclear to confirm self-defense.
Case Document: People v. Moreno, 6 Cal. 2d 480
While you're reading, you could be multi-tabling freerolls for real money prizes without paying a cent.
Check out our Freerolls section, because we've already located some of the best events on trusted poker sites. Pay nothing to enter your freerolls after signing up, then go for real money prizes. It's all upside.
LA Superintendent of Street Maintenance Loses Job Because of Poker
- Date: Late 1939
- Place: Los Angeles, California
It's late 1939, and the Great Depression is finally easing. Germany has just invaded Poland to start WWII in Europe, and The Wizard of Oz is playing in cinemas. Los Angeles is in a boom time, building fast. Serious construction contracts are being signed, bringing serious opportunities for skimming and bribery.
Mosier Meyer rose from chainman in 1914 all the way to Superintendent of Street Maintenance at $475/month (about $10,900/month today). That’s an extremely high salary at the time, but his role also brought the power to award lucrative contracts with the city.
In 1939, the Board of Public Works accused him of taking bribes from private contractors doing business with the city. They pointed to $15,000 in mystery cash deposits over three years (about $355,000 today).
Meyer explained it away:
- He explained he'd won $1,500 in a single pot (~$36,000 today)
- He carried around $5,000 in poker I.O.U.s in his pocket
- He had played poker with private contractors, likely for high stakes.
- He estimated $12,000 in winnings "in the last three years playing poker."
It worked. The poker defense created enough doubt, and the bribery charges were "neither proven nor disproven."
But the commission then used the poker against him.
In their eyes, a public-works official who "habitually engaged in gambling for high stakes" wasn't "fit and suitable" for the job. Meyer may have beaten the bribery allegations, but he then lost his job, even after an appeal.
Case Document: Meyer v. Board of Public Works, 51 Cal. App. 2d 456
Cheating Accusation, Knocked-Out Teeth, and Shots Through a Door
- Date: April 2, 1941
- Place: Woodland, California
It's April 1941, and America was months away from Pearl Harbor, still officially at peace. In this period of time, small-town California nightlife meant taverns, back-room card games, and plenty of whisky.
Quinton Lain owned the Del Mar Bar in Woodland. It's impossible to find an image of this bar, but this picture of Main Street gives you an idea of the setting.
On evening at 6:30, James Bailey walked into his poolroom, and Lain suggested rounding up a stud poker game at the tavern. Bailey borrowed a $100 bill from his wife on the way out.
Four men played stud poker in the kitchen behind the bar until 1:45 AM. The drinks were flowing the whole time, and Lain was especially intoxicated.
Here’s the incident breakdown:
- Bailey stood up to leave, having won about $65.
- Lain suddenly accused him of cheating in the game and ordered him to put the money on the bar.
- Another player, Jungbluth, punched Bailey, knocking teeth out of his mouth.
- Bailey, probably bleeding and scared, put $115 on the bar.
- Lain asked Bailey where his $100 bill was and began choking him when Bailey ran for the door.
- Other players heard Bailey call for help and tried to come into the room
- Lain grabbed a gun, ordered them to back off, and fired three shots through the door. One player, Dutcher, took bullets in both legs.
Lain's defense was a classic move for gambling cases at the time. He'd lost money in an illegal game, and forcibly reclaiming gambling losses isn't robbery. This is a real doctrine in California law (People v. Rosen).
The only problem was that Lain had been trying to get far more than his losses from Bailey. Lain and his crew had lost maybe $35 total, but they demanded all of Bailey's money, plus the $100 in his shoe. The "cheating" story looked like an excuse to fleece another man.
Lain got a second-degree robbery conviction, plus an assault conviction for shooting Dutcher through the door.
Case Document: People v. Lain, 57 Cal. App. 2d 123
Drunk, Drugged, and a Murderous Over $4.25 Payout Dispute
- Date: Late 1943
- Place: Solano County, California
It's 1943, and America is at war. Young men are shipping out to fight, but not James Wilson Daniel. He’s 29 and had been rejected for military service because of syphilis. He was also a heavy drinker who'd been knocking back a quart of whisky a day for a year and a half.
The day before this incident, a doctor prescribed Benzedrine sulphate to kick the habit. Daniel took three that afternoon on top of double shots of whisky all day.
At about 11 PM, Daniel visited the Rex Cafe in Solano County, a place that hosted card games.
Here's what happened that night at the Rex Cafe:
- Daniel joined a poker game for about twenty minutes and won $4.25. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s about $82 in today’s money.
- He collected his winnings from cashier Bert McCloud and left.
- Minutes later, he came back, telling McCloud he hadn't been paid the full value of his chips.
- McCloud: "Go home, son, go to sleep, you come back tomorrow, you feel better.”
- Daniel said, "You win," and left again.
- Refused more whisky at another bar. The bartender described him as “drunk, glassy-eyed and sort of dazed.”
- Daniel tried to sell his gun to the bartender, but was turned down
- He then walked back to the Rex and found McCloud at a poker table playing a hand.
- He leaned in about the money again, but McCloud told him that he’d been paid everything.
- Daniel stepped back and fired a single shot, which ended up in McCloud’s vertebrae.
It was clearly a murder, but the bullet’s path saved Daniel from a life behind bars.
The autopsy surgeon testified that the bullet traveled upward and backward through McCloud's body, entering below the hip. Since McCloud was seated and Daniel was standing, that path was physically impossible unless the shot ricocheted off something first.
If Daniel had actually aimed to kill, he'd have hit a vital spot. Combined with the heavy drinking, the sixteen-times-prescribed Benzedrine dose, and no prior acquaintance or motive beyond a $4.25 dispute, the life sentence was reduced to second-degree murder.
Case Document: People v. Daniel, 65 Cal. App. 2d 622'
$20,000 Skimmed From a Business for a Poker Habit
- Date: 1947 to October 1949
- Place: Louisville, Kentucky
It's post-war America in 1949, and Louisville is humming. Businessmen like Louis Shatz are running cash-heavy operations with an accountant handling the ledgers.
Shatz's bookkeeper was a lady named Nora Catherine Breen, with his business since 1940. She left on October 7, 1949. Twenty days later, an audit showed roughly $30,000 in cash had vanished over the years. Immediately, Louis Shatz sued Nora and her fidelity-bond insurer.
Breen's defense was simple: the boss had taken the cash. She testified there were other account books Shatz hadn't produced, and anything else that was out of place was due to his messy business style.
The jury believed her, but Shatz had an ace up his sleeve that the trial judge wouldn't let him use. A man named Hash was ready to testify.
Here's what the jury never got to hear:
- From 1947 until Breen quit in 1949, Hash played poker with her every week, sometimes twice a week.
- She won maybe one or two times. In every other session, she lost.
- Her losses were $100 to $300 per game ($1,400 to $3,200 in today’s money)
- Hash claimed she’d lost over $20,000 from 1947 to 1949
$20,000 in 1949 is worth around $270,000 today. A bookkeeper's salary wasn't going anywhere near that.
The trial court called it irrelevant and shut it down. The Court of Appeals disagreed because this testimony showed motive and means. To most people, these poker games and losses fully line up with the thousands of dollars Shatz lost.
The civil case got sent back for a retrial. We don't know if Shatz ever recovered his money. Perhaps he accepted the losses and didn’t want to go back to court.
Case Document: Shatz v. American Surety Company of New York, 295 SW 2d 809
A $12,000 Poker Loss, or Was it a Robbery?
- Date: Mid-1950s
- Place: Hazard, Kentucky
It's mid-1950s America, and Elvis was breaking out while the Cold War cooled down. Hazard, Kentucky, was a rough Appalachian coal town where drinking and cards mixed easily.
John M. Lewis rolled into town on business, carrying $12,000 cash and $700 in checks (about $158,000 today). He met a former acquaintance and sat down to a poker game against Clay Bowling and three others. Lewis drank all afternoon and throughout the game, which ran until roughly 4:30 the next morning.
How did the game go?
It depends on who you believe:
- Lewis's Version of the Events: He'd been winning, cleaning out Bowling and his buddies. When the game ended, the four men jumped him and took everything except a silver dollar.
- Bowling's Version of the Events: Lewis just lost it all at the table, fair and square. According to him, there was no robbery, just a losing player.
But shortly after Lewis called the police, Bowling was arrested with $8,100 in cash on him. It was looking like Lewis’s story might be the truth.
The jury believed Lewis. Bowling got two years. But the Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed it, because the prosecutor had gone off the rails in the closing argument, referencing unrelated convictions, misquoting the defendant, and making other mistakes. The case was sent back for a retrial. What happened next isn't reported.
Case Document: Bowling v. Commonwealth, 279 SW 2d 23
