Gamblers & Gangsters - Arnold, Ann

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Résumé :
A gripping account of rampant crime in Fort Worth, Texas, during the 1930s, through the 1950s, with hoodlums, gamblers, murderers, dopers, pimps, and lawmen on the take. The author recounts the days when Fort Worth was as wide open as Las Vegas with gambling and crime that rivaled New York and Chicago with mob hits, exploding cars, and late-night police raids. The personalities were larger than life, some went on to fame in other parts of the country such as Las Vegas gambling pioneer Benny Binion. While others met an early demise such as Herbert The Cat Noble. Jacksboro Highway resembled The Strip in Las Vegas with casinos and night clubs that served as the epicenter for illegal activity, and the money and the blood flowed, while the law turned a blind eye to the mayhem. Ann Arnold gives a detailed account of almost two dozen gangland slayings and spills the beans, naming names of those indicted, complete with the final report of a special grand jury that ended the era.

Biographie:
Ann Arnold served for thirty-one years in the Fort Worth Independent School District. For fifteen years, she was a history teacher, then eight years as a psychologist/social worker, and then supervisor of 138 mental health workers as program director for the Home-School Coordinator/Counselor Department. Ann wrote five handbooks for the department. Since retirement, she has written, Psycho Biography of World War II Leaders, which received first place in Creative Writing, non-fiction, by the Oklahoma Writer's Federation. She received a bachelor of arts cum laude from Texas Wesleyan College and later did graduate studies at the University of North Texas, TCU, TWU, and Texas Tech. She received the Twentieth-Century Award from the Texas Retired Teachers Association and was cited by the Texas Wesleyan School of Science and Humanities as one of twenty outstanding women graduates of the past century. She also received the Lions International Achievement in Education Award presented by the Eastside Lions Club. A long-time resident of Fort Worth, she and her husband have two sons and three grandchildren.