Villains, Scoundrels, and Rogues

by Paul Martin

3. “Hustle: Con Jargon,” BBC, April 2007, http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/hustle/con_jargon.shtml (accessed November 5, 2011). See also Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, pp. 288–89; “‘Yellow Kid’ out again, but the Law Is Waiting,” Chicago Tribune, May 15, 1942, p. 2; and “Yellow Kid Says He’d Do It Again,” Chicago Tribune, June 24, 1974, p. 7.

  4. Brannon, “The Wiles of the Yellow Kid,” p. B5. See also “‘Yellow Kid’ out again, but the Law Is Waiting,” p. 2.

  5. Brannon, “The Wiles of the Yellow Kid,” p. B5. See also “Hustle: Con Jargon”; Patricia Leeds, “Yellow Kid Is Active—But Honest—at 91,” Chicago Tribune, June 30, 1966, p. B10; Thomas Streissguth, Hoaxers & Hustlers (Minneapolis: Oliver Press, 1994), pp. 50, 57–58; Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, pp. 22–30, 268, 293; and “Yellow Kid Says He’d Do It Again,” p. 7.

  6. Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, pp. 3–4.

  7. “Hustle: Con Jargon.” See also Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, pp. 18–20; “The Yellow Kid [comic strip],” Ohio State University Libraries, http://cartoons.osu.edu/yellowkid/index.htm (accessed November 3, 2011), and “‘Yellow Kid,’ Master Swindler Who Made Millions, Dies at 100,” Chicago Tribune, February 27, 1976, p. 3.

  8. Streissguth, Hoaxers & Hustlers, p. 58. See also Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, p. 42.

  9. Brannon, “The Wiles of the Yellow Kid,” p. B5. See also “Hustle: Con Jargon,” and Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, pp. 62–67.

  10. “Yellow Kid, 90, Has New Pitch,” Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1965, p. A1.

  11. Brannon, “Wiles of the Yellow Kid,” pp. B5, 14. See also Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, pp. 162–65.

  12. Brannon, “The Wiles of the Yellow Kid,” pp. B5, 14. See also Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, pp. 165–73.

  13. McNamara, Justice Story, pp. 196–97. See also Streissguth, Hoaxers & Hustlers, pp. 59–61, and Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, pp. 78–83, 100–104.

  14. Brannon, “Wiles of the Yellow Kid,” p. B14. See also Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, pp. 87–91, 119–26, 201–203, 283–84.

  15. Brannon, “Wiles of the Yellow Kid,” p. B5. See also McNamara, Justice Story, p. 198, and Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, pp. 292, 295.

  16. Streissguth, Hoaxers & Hustlers, p. 67. See also Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, pp. 196, 288, 290; “‘Yellow Kid,’ Master Swindler Who Made Millions, Dies at 100,” p. 3; and “Yellow Kid, 90, Has New Pitch,” p. A1.

  17. Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, pp. 198, 288.

  18. “Weil Loses His Sangfroid as Accuser Glares,” p. 9. See also “Weil’s Record,” Chicago Tribune, October 26, 1918, p. 15, and “Yellow Kid Weil Wins Probation, but May Lose It,” Chicago Tribune, Sept 19, 1925, p. 4.

  19. McNamara, Justice Story, p. 197. See also “‘Yellow Kid,’ Master Swindler Who Made Millions, Dies at 100,” p. 3; and Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, p. 295.

  20. Brannon, “Wiles of the Yellow Kid,” pp. B5, 23. See also “Mr. Weil Voices a Yearning for Public Esteem,” Chicago Tribune, February 27, 1930, p. 2; Streissguth, Hoaxers & Hustlers, pp. 69–70; Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, pp. 268, 291; and “‘Yellow Kid,’ Master Swindler Who Made Millions, Dies at 100,” p. 3.

  21. Weil and Brannon, “Yellow Kid” Weil, p. 21.

  22. Brannon, “Wiles of the Yellow Kid,” p. B23. See also Patricia Leeds, “Crime Doesn’t Pay Enough—Yellow Kid,” Chicago Tribune, June 30, 1963, p. D24; “The Yellow Kid Goes to Court without Fear,” Chicago Tribune, December 1, 1946, p. 39; and “Yellow Kid Says He’d Do It Again,” p. 7.

  23. “‘Yellow Kid,’ Master Swindler Who Made Millions, Dies at 100,” p. 3.

  24. “Yellow Kid, 90, Has New Pitch,” p. A1.

  CHAPTER 17. YOU BET YOUR LIFE—ALVIN THOMAS

  1. Kevin Cook, “Golf’s Greatest Hustler,” Golf Magazine, January 2011, pp. 70–74. See also Kevin Cook, Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything (New York: W. W. Norton, 2011), pp. 1–2; Barry Horn, “He Could Sure Do the Hustle,” Dallas Morning News, August 26, 2001, http://howtobeattheodds.com/SportsDay.html (accessed February 25, 2012); Dave Kindred, “The Myths of Titanic,” Golf Digest, May 1996, p. 132; Carlton Stowers, The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson: A Good Ole Boy Who Became a World Super Star Gambler and Hustler (Burnet, TX: Eakin Press, 1982), pp. 105, 144–47, 164–65, 231; and A. C. Thomas with Edwin Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” Sports Illustrated, October 9, 1972, pp. 96–112.

  2. Tom Buckley, “Runyon Legend Makes a ‘Guys and Dolls’ Tale,” New York Times, October 4, 1980, p. 27. See also Cook, Titanic Thompson, pp. 1–2, 78; Horn, “He Could Sure Do the Hustle”; Kindred, “Myths of Titanic”; and Stowers, Unsinkable Titanic Thompson, pp. 106–107, 194–95.

  3. Stowers, Unsinkable Titanic Thompson, p. 3. See also, Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” pp. 98, 112.

  4. Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” p. 98.

  5. Cook, Titanic Thompson, pp. 14–18. See also Kindred, “Myths of Titanic”; Stowers, Unsinkable Titanic Thompson, pp. 50–52; and Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” pp. 98–99.

  6. Kindred, “Myths of Titanic.” See also Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” p. 100.

  7. Cook, Titanic Thompson, pp. 2–3. See also Horn, “He Could Sure Do the Hustle”; Kindred, “Myths of Titanic”; and Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” p. 100.

  8. Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” p. 100.

  9. Cook, Titanic Thompson, pp. 58–60, 71, 138–39. See also Kindred, “Myths of Titanic”; Stowers, Unsinkable Titanic Thompson, pp. 82–83, 86–87, 184–86; and Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” pp. 98, 102.

  10. Horn, “He Could Sure Do the Hustle.” See also Kindred, “Myths of Titanic,” and Stowers, Unsinkable Titanic Thompson, p. 212.

  11. Cook, Titanic Thompson, p. 117. See also Stowers, Unsinkable Titanic Thompson, pp. 15–16, and Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” pp. 111–12.

  12. Cook, Titanic Thompson, p. 117. See also “Gamblers Testify to Rothstein Loss in Big Poker Game,” New York Times, November 22, 1929, p. 1; Horn, “He Could Sure Do the Hustle”; Kindred, “Myths of Titanic”; “Rothstein Estate Wins $12,700 Suit,” New York Times, December 31, 1929, p. 10; Stowers, Unsinkable Titanic Thompson, pp. 16, 34; and Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” p. 112.

  13. Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” p. 97.

  14. Cook, Titanic Thompson, pp. 145–46. See also Horn, “He Could Sure Do the Hustle”; Stowers, Unsinkable Titanic Thompson, pp. 128–31; and Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” p. 106.

  15. Cook, Titanic Thompson, pp. 67–69. See also Stowers, Unsinkable Titanic Thompson, pp. 93–95, and Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” p. 102.

  16. Cook, Titanic Thompson, pp. 70, 82, 151. See also Tom LeCompte, “The 18-Hole Hustle,” American Heritage, August/September 2005, http://www.americanheritage.com/content/18-hole-hustle (accessed February 25, 2012), and Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” pp. 106, 111.

  17. Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” p. 112.

  18. Cook, “Golf’s Greatest Hustler,” pp. 72–73. See also Cook, Titanic Thompson, pp. 82–83, 151–52; Horn, “He Could Sure Do the Hustle”; LeCompte, “18-Hole Hustle”; and Stowers, Unsinkable Titanic Thompson, p. 225.

  19. Cook, “Golf’s Greatest Hustler,” p. 72. See also Cook, Titanic Thompson, p. 151.

  20. Cook, “Golf’s Greatest Hustler,” p. 70. See also Cook, Titanic Thompson, p. 151.

  21. Cook, “Golf’s Greatest Hustler,” p. 72. See also Cook, Titanic Thompson, pp. 87–88, 150–51, and Horn, “He Could Sure Do the Hustle.”

  22. Kindred, “Myths of Titanic.”

  23. Thomas with Shrake, “Soundings from Titanic,” p. 97.

  24. Kindred, “Myths of Titanic.”


  CHAPTER 18. KEEPER OF THE IMMACULATE SPERM—CHARLES DAVENPORT

  1. “Eugenics: Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Virginia, Eugenics & Buck v. Bell,” Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia Health System, 2004, http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/eugenics/index.cfm (accessed September 15, 2011). See also Stephen Jay Gould, “Carrie Buck’s Daughter,” Natural History, July 1984, pp. 14–18.

  2. Edwin Black, “The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics,” George Mason University’s History News Network, November 25, 2003, http://hnn.us/articles/1796.html (accessed August 30, 2011). See also Vince Carducci, “Heart of Darkness,” PopMatters.com, September 17, 2003, www.waragainsttheweak.com/offSiteArchive/popmatters(accessed August 12, 2011); “Eugenics: Three Generations, No Imbeciles”; and Gould, “Carrie Buck’s Daughter,” pp. 14–18.

  3. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also “Eugenics: Three Generations, No Imbeciles”; Gould, “Carrie Buck’s Daughter,” pp. 14–18; Daniel J. Kevles, “Eugenics,” American National Biography Online, The Oxford Companion to United States History, 2001, http://www.anb.org/articles/cush/e0491.html (accessed August 30, 2011); and Tony Platt, “The Frightening Agenda of the American Eugenics Movement,” George Mason University’s History News Network, July 7, 2003, http://hnn.us/articles/1551.html (accessed August 30, 2011).

  4. “Eugenics: Three Generations, No Imbeciles.” See also Gould, “Carrie Buck’s Daughter,” pp. 14–18.

  5. “Eugenics: Three Generations, No Imbeciles.” See also Gould, “Carrie Buck’s Daughter,” pp. 14–18.

  6. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also “Eugenics: Three Generations, No Imbeciles,” and Gould, “Carrie Buck’s Daughter,” pp. 14–18.

  7. Edwin Black, War against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003), p. 32. See also Carducci, “Heart of Darkness”; “Dr. C. B. Davenport, a Noted Geneticist,” New York Times, February 19, 1944, p. 13; Stephen S. Hall, “Genetics and Genetic Engineering,” American National Biography Online, The Oxford Companion to United States History, 2001, http://www.anb.org/articles/cush/e0601.html (accessed August 30, 2011); and Kevles, “Eugenics.”

  8. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also Black, War against the Weak, pp. 258–60, and Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement (Brookline, MA: Facing History and Ourselves, 2002), pp. 245–47, http://www.traces.org/Teachers/Chapter_8_TheNaziConnection.pdf (accessed August 30, 2011).

  9. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also “Dr. C. B. Davenport, a Noted Geneticist,” p. 13; Hall, “Genetics and Genetic Engineering”; Oscar Riddle, Biographical Memoir of Charles Benedict Davenport, 1866–1944 (Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, 1949), pp. 82–83; and “Topic: International Eugenics,” Dolan DNA Learning Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/topics_fs.pl?theme=25&search=&matches= (accessed August 30, 2011).

  10. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also Gould, “Carrie Buck’s Daughter,” pp. 14–18; Kevles, “Eugenics”; Platt, “Frightening Agenda of the American Eugenics Movement”; and Jan A. Witkowski and John R. Inglis, eds., Davenport’s Dream: 21st Century Reflections on Heredity and Eugenics (Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2008) p. 10.

  11. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also Carducci, “Heart of Darkness,” and “Eugenics: Three Generations, No Imbeciles.”

  12. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also Carducci, “Heart of Darkness”; Daniel J. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), p. 59; and Jonathan Peter Spiro, Defending the Master Race: Conservation, Eugenics, and the Legacy of Madison Grant (Burlington, VT: University of Vermont Press, 2009), p. 181.

  13. Carducci, “Heart of Darkness.” See also Witkowski and Inglis, Davenport’s Dream, p. 7.

  14. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also Hall, “Genetics and Genetic Engineering”; Kevles, “Eugenics”; Kevles, In the Name of Eugenic, p. 59; and Platt, “Frightening Agenda of the American Eugenics Movement.”

  15. Riddle, Biographical Memoir of Charles Benedict Davenport, pp. 84–85.

  16. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also “Eugenics: Three Generations, No Imbeciles”; Gould, “Carrie Buck’s Daughter,” pp. 14–18; and “Topic: International Eugenics.”

  17. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also “Eugenics: Three Generations, No Imbeciles.”

  18. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also Platt, “Frightening Agenda of the American Eugenics Movement.”

  19. C. B. Davenport and Morris Steggerda, Race Crossing in Jamaica (Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1929), pp. 468–77.

  20. Davenport and Steggerda, Race Crossing in Jamaica, pp. 468, 475, 477.

  21. Davenport and Steggerda, Race Crossing in Jamaica, p. 469.

  22. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also Black, War against the Weak, pp. 258–60; “Eugenics: Three Generations, No Imbeciles”; Gould, “Carrie Buck’s Daughter,” pp. 14–18; and “Topic: International Eugenics.”

  23. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also Black, War against the Weak, p. 259; Carducci, “Heart of Darkness”; and “Eugenics: Three Generations, No Imbeciles.”

  24. Black, “Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.” See also Black, War against the Weak, p. 258, and Charles Benedict Davenport, Heredity in Relation to Eugenics (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1911), p. 267.

  25. Black, War against the Weak, pp. 344, 414. See also Carducci, “Heart of Darkness”; Stefan Kühl, The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 68–69; and Race and Membership in American History, pp. 251–53.

  26. Rich Remsburg, “Found in the Archives: America’s Unsettling Early Eugenics Movement, The Picture Show, NPR, June 1, 2001, www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2011/06/01/136849387/found-in-the-archives-americas-unsettling-early-eugenics-movement (accessed June 3, 2011).

  27. Kevles, “Eugenics.” See also Race and Membership in American History, p. 285.

  28. Hall, “Genetics and Genetic Engineering.” See also Kevles, “Eugenics.”

  CHAPTER 19. THE SILKEN VOICE OF TREACHERY—MILDRED GILLARS

  1. “Axis Sally (Mildred Gillars)—Home Sweet Home 18-05-1943 [radio broadcast],” YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4INW7fgSqXQ (accessed January 27, 2012). See also Richard Lucas, “Axis Sally: The Americans behind That Alluring Voice,” HistoryNet.com, November 23, 2009, http://www.historynet.com/axis-sally.htm/1 (accessed November 23, 2011), and Richard Lucas, Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi Germany (Havertown, PA: Casemate Publishers, 2010), p. 73.

  2. Lucas, Axis Sally, p. 74. See also Anna Mac’as, “Gillars, Mildred Elizabeth,” American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/07/07-00518.html (accessed November 22, 2011), and “Treason: Big Role,” Time, February 7, 1949, p. 15.

  3. “Axis Sally (Mildred Gillars)—Home Sweet Home.” See also “‘Axis Sally’ Voice Heard in Playback,” New York Times, January 28, 1949, p. 18; Howard L. Dutkin, “Love for Mystic Professor Led Her to ‘Destiny,’ Sally Says,” Washington Post, February 25, 1949, p. 10; Lucas, Axis Sally, p. 78; and “Treason: Big Role,” p. 15.

  4. “Axis Sally (Mildred Gillars)—Home Sweet Home.” See also “‘Axis Sally’ Voice Heard in Playback,” p. 18, and Lucas, Axis Sally, p. 77.

  5. “Axis Sally (Mildred Gillars)—Home Sweet Home.” See also Lucas, “Axis Sally: The Americans behind That Alluring Voice”; Mac’as, “Gillars, Mildred Elizabeth”; “Tricked by ‘Sally,’ War Captive Says,” New York Times, February 1
6, 1949, p. 15; “2 More Ex-GI’s Tell of ‘Axis Sally’ Ruse,” New York Times, February 8, 1949, p. 5; and Nathaniel Weyl, Treason: The Story of Disloyalty and Betrayal in American History (Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press, 1950), pp. 380–81.

  6. Lucas, Axis Sally, pp. 12–13, 15–17.

  7. Ibid., pp. 5–11. See also Weyl, Treason, pp. 377–78.

  8. Weyl, Treason, p. 378.

  9. “‘Axis Sally’ Denies She Betrayed U.S.,” New York Times, February 24, 1949, p. 5. See also Lucas, “Axis Sally: The Americans behind That Alluring Voice”; Mac’as, “Gillars, Mildred Elizabeth”; “Treason: True to the Red, White & Blue,” Time, March 7, 1949, p. 27; and Weyl, Treason, p. 379.

  10. “‘Axis Sally’ Denies She Betrayed U.S.,” p. 5. See also Lucas, “Axis Sally: The Americans behind That Alluring Voice,” and Lucas, Axis Sally, pp. 69, 192.

  11. “‘Axis Sally’ Portrayed as Dupe of Former Teacher at Hunter,” New York Times, January 26, 1949, p. 16. See also Susan Heller Anderson, “Mildred Gillars, 87, of Nazi Radio, Axis Sally to an Allied Audience,” New York Times, July 2, 1988, http://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/02/obituaries/midred-gillars-87-of-nazi-radio-axis-sally-to-an-allied-audience.html (accessed January 26, 2012); Mac’as, “Gillars, Mildred Elizabeth,” and Weyl, Treason, p. 379.

  12. Dutkin, “Love for Mystic Professor,” p. 1. See also “Washington AKA One Minute News [film clip],” British Pathé, 1949, http://www.britishpathe.com/video/washington-aka-one-minute-news-1 (accessed January 27, 2012); “Treason: True to the Red, White & Blue,” p. 27; and Weyl, Treason, p. 380.

  13. “Axis Sally (Mildred Gillars)—Home Sweet Home.” See also Lucas, Axis Sally, p. 78.

  14. Lucas, Axis Sally, pp. 263–64.

  15. Ibid., p. 265.

  16. Ibid., pp. 178–79.

  17. “Treason: Big Role,” p. 15.

  18. “‘Axis Sally’ Trial Hears Her Ex-Boss,” New York Times, February 1, 1949, p. 5. See also “Germans Identify ‘Axis Sally’s’ Voice,” New York Times, January 27, 1949, p. 6.

  19. “Ex-PW Discloses ‘Axis Sally’ Ruse,” New York Times, February 4, 1949, p. 10. See also “2 More Ex-GI’s Tell of ‘Axis Sally’ Ruse,” p. 5.