The Italian mob wasn't much afraid of Benny. They were seriously considering whacking him but he went to jail for tax evasion. They didn't like the way redneck mobsters operated. They didn't like that high profile fued between Benny and Noble "The Cat' that went on for years. It started out as a turf war in Dallas. But it go personal real quick. They called Noble the Cat because he had survived nine hits. You know, a cat with nine lives. Noble's wife got killed checking the mailbox. It blew up in her face. They caught the Cat loading a bomb into an airplane. He was gonna drop it on Benny's house on Bonanza Road.

So how did the fued wind up. Well, Noble didn't survive the tenth hit....and Benny lived to a ripe old age.

Slick grew up in Chicago just down the street from where Tony Spilotro grew up. He went to Vegas in the mid-sixties. Now, let's see.... since Slick was there for 30 years I think there is probably a good chance that they were in Vegas at the same time. And....they were old buddies....old crime partners....So I think there is a good chance that Slick knew alot about Spilotro's dealings in Vegas.

Ray, I've only been in Gambling since 92. But it's not just poker with me. I don't care where the money comes from. It's also video poker, advantage slots, sports betting (middles, steam bets, scalps, I don't handicap the athletes, I handicap the books)

I met Jerry Allen in Laughlin around 2000. He wanted me to teach him advantage slots to which I obliged. He told me he knew you well. He says you are the tightest Omaha 8 player god ever invented. He told me you once warned a player sitting next to you that he was exposing his hole cards to you....to which the guy replied "So what? You never play a hand." LOL
Good luck

Mickey

I'm sure that's that case. Its just that given the timeline you provided, when "Slick" was in his teens, Spilotro was about 8. Pretty creepy if you ask me. No wonder they called him the "ant."

Mickey Crimm says, "The Italian mob wasn't much afraid of Benny."

The story Sand told me was the the Mob.."some of the boys from Illinois"..thought it was their town. Benny brought "a bunch of hop heads from the Jacksboro Highway" to sleep in the casino and be ready twenty-four hours a day with their barking iron.

That's part of the origin of the million dollars on display with no locks on the door. Anybody strong enough to steal it was invited to try. They were upset with his long feud with Cat Noble. A bunch of people tried to kill Cat, thus his nine lives name. Benny was bigger in Dallas/Ft. Worth and other Texas towns than he was in Vegas at first. Later, Benny and the Mob boys came to an agreement and worked together.

When Benny was like 83 or so (could look it up), his son Jack threw him a big birthday party at UNLV. Willie Nelson played. Steve Wynn, Benny's protege was the M.C. There were two big chairs only on the stage for the guest of honor, Benny, and his pal Moe Dalitz, long term mob boss and his pal. Benny was the mob, both in Texas and Vegas. I first saw Benny in 1960. His friends were all outlaws and Binion's was a meeting place.

Another story I heard, but wonder about, was that Benny told the Mafia guys he would send those "hop heads" into Little Italy to kill their relatives during Christmas week if anybody started a war. Don't know if this is true.

Johnny Hughes

vnh mickey, wp.

Also, thread is now very interesting, keep it coming JH and Mickey.

I read this. Then..............



I remembered reading this at BTP.

http://www.bet-the-pot.com/forum/vie...ht=doyle#70553

Am sure there is an explanation. Like that, I am a liar, and stupid, and a stalker, etc. etc. Flame away lil' buckaroos!

I played some in the big game in Odessa run by Pinkie. I do not know if Doyle was there or not. I have met and briefly interviewed Doyle, but I do not think I have ever played poker with him.

Lott is a guy that has always called me a liar, researched me, posted on varied web sites, fits every textbook profile of a stalker, and is in violation of the Texas stalker laws. If I thought he had any money and he had a real name, I might sue him. Keep on hiding. He has been obsessed with me during a time that I wrote many articles and a book. He always focuses on Doyle and the term "barking iron" which sets him off. That is the reason I use it. It is a really old, 200 plus years, term. Any time I wish to write my memories and the old stories I have heard, the thread must turn into talk of Lott. In a few minutes he will order the thread closed. I have made several mistakes in my writing. I have had old friends point out a memory flaw after fifty years. It happens. He is the major hater of all time. Must be hard being so negative and down and searching hard, hard for an error, and jumping on it like a pit bull with lipstick.

I should not have written I played with Doyle. I played heads up with Jack Straus, Bill Smith, world champs I played with Annie Duke, Johnny Moss..across three decades, Fossilman, Doc Ramsey, Paul Harvey, Sailor Roberts, Bobby Hoff, Amarillo Slim a lot, but probably not with Doyle.

Impossible. DUCY?

Good catch. FWIW, I agree with your theory 100%. (Its funny because years ago, I was going to make a gimmick account just like what JH does ... even registered the name "Texas Road Gambler" but I saw that JH beat me to it. I was going to riff on the stuff that appeard in T.J.'s poker books, and then, or course Doyle's. However, J.H.'s design was much more ambitous than mine, and it appears he was close enough to gather some decent sources. Anyway, I always found it interesting that one could parlay their life as a crossroader into being a college professor (one that never met Buddy Holly, yet managed to play poker with him in High School!). Of course, if you look up J.H.'s website, there is really nothing there in the way of a biography and if you notice, it was registered in 1999. Now, how many old "cross roaders" were in on the ground floor of blogging, etc. in 1999? Not too many. Good gimmick, he's a modern "Mark Twain."

Anyway, as for my imagined gimmick account, I was just going to make my character tell absurd stories with over-the-top Texas lingo, and ... oh, nevermind.)

*** By the way, if someone challenged me to prove my identity (or authenticity ... whatever) I could do it in minutes. Why does J.H. drag this on for months and years? Why the mystery? From the storys told, half of the Southwest should be coming out of the woodwork to collaborate the bona fides of J.H. How about some students of his at the "college?" I am sure they would know of his internet posting, etc.

Oh, I haven't done any searching. I just have a good memory. A real good one. If I wanted to dig, am sure I could find a lot more. I don't have the time.

Lott...I do thank you, as my biggest fan, for finding that thread! I had forgot all about it. I cut and pasted it into a document, and then cut and pasted other articles off the front page because Bet the Pot sleeps with Jimmy Hoffa. I need to keep my own writings for future reference. Again, thank you Lott, Texas home boy, and fan stalker. Have you ever seen the movie Misery?

After I posted an answer, Oski posted in the mean time. Love it. My writing is hard on thick-headed people and meant to be.

Scroll back up and get Oski, and me.

There's more. I had a few to post, but I was on vacation. Well, once I got back, I forgot about it. It will come back to me. I know there's a few J.H. posts out there all whomperjawed.

Just to be clear, the actual stories and writing are a seperate issue. Lott is questioning your identity. Like when Mr. Peterman bought Kramer's stories. He turned them into the book and appropriated the stories. That didn't change the essence of the story, it just changed the charater invovled.

Why should I prove anything to you? Who ever heard of you or your soul mate, Lott?

LOL. Funny. By the way, I had a character on this site called Brown Thumb. He WAS based on a real person that I knew. In fact, he was a friend of mine. All I did was take his stories and unique way of playing poker while stoned to the bejeezus and turn him into a character. The stories were embellished for effect, but I was taking poetic license. Funny thing is, that many people had played poker with Brown Thumb, so they did not really question his authenticity.

Here, nobody in your stories can collaborate your involvement in such. Again, that is a seperate issue. Personally, to me, it makes no difference. The story is the story, some are good, some are bad ... and a few of yours have a coherent point!

To be clear, I never raised my belief regarding your authenticity, because it just didn't matter. However, Lott came out and voiced his. I happen to think he is right and because so, he should not be subject to ridicule or scorn. So, your number is up, why make such a fuss? You really shouldn't be attacking someone (Lott) for being correct.

Keep on trucking brother.

*** Also, it never really bothered me that the main point of your character here was to drum up interest in your website and books. That's no big deal. However, I can see that it did lead you to interject your stories into threads that had no connection to the point (using that term loosely) that your story was trying to make. I guess that's fine too, you were merely trying too hard.

No big deal.

By the way, J.H., most of your stories involve a number of colorful (and not so colorful) poker players of the past. Just by doing casual reading, I have heard of most of these guys. Therefore, when you brought up "so and so" I had ususally heard of that guy. That is no surprise, the road gamblers did just that ... travel around and play cards. They sat around and talked about all the stuff they saw in prior towns, guys they played with, crazy stuff, right? So, you had a whole population of people who had common knowledge of people in far away places, some names big, small, obscure, notorious. That makes sense.

For example, when you first came around here, Ray Zee asked you a few questions. After a substantial break in time, you posted all this stuff about the people in question, etc. Ray took that at face value because what you said matched up. No surprise given the information out there on all of these players and people in this relatively limited group. ... So,

How come your name never comes up unless its in one of your own stories?

You can sue me if you want. LOL The courts are full of cases where someone got their little feelings hurt. Doesn't mean they win. And, I am breaking no laws that are in the Texas statutes. Stalking is vague, but not that vague. I am no where near you and have never met you (thank god). And I'm not Kathy Bates, and you aren't James Caan. You are an old man that tells tall tales, and I am a middle aged man that knows when I am being BSed. That is all.

As far as I know, I am not even breaking any rules on 2+2. If I am, am sure the mods will let me know. You really should be more thick skinned if you hung out with all those outlaws you claim you did. Or, did you just hold the horses? LOL

The last time Lott attacked me, a Lubbock Police officer who posts regularly on here came on to say he knew me, had played poker with me, and was one of the officers who arrived on the scene when my dear friend Iron Drawers Shaw was murdered. His partner shot the killer who survived and in the pen. I wrote about that and he found it accurate and factual.

doublebubble is the poster name of the Lubbock Police officer. Why not PM him or go back and read his post. Any of you may PM him.

oski, your whole claim to fame it that you think I said I did not know Buddy Holly. Find that. I never said that. Lott, look me up in TexasMonthly.com archives. They interviewed me in the mag about the music biz and there are a couple of poker articles I wrote.

Remember when this thread was not about Oski and Lott, but about Benny Binion at the end, and methods of collusion?

So Oski, this Tom Thump character, what do you think Lott will think of him? Lott, tell us again about going to the World Series to meet Big Name Players. "Yes, I know Doyle.." he said.

I could care less if Double Bubble is the chief of police in Lubbock Tx., and cousins with the mayor. I am exercising my freedom of speech to shed light on your BS. That is all. If I am breaking the rules here. Am sure I will be reprimanded or banned. You don't like it? Call Ghostbusters! Or better yet, call a terrorist group on me like you did that Richard kid. Maybe if you Google, you can find Al-Qaeda's phone number and have them behead me on the court house lawn in Lubbock. LOL

I am not sure that you get my point. As simple as I can put it, "Johnny Hughes" may or may not be you; it may be your pen name. Also, I have no doubt that you play poker and have done so with a number of players over the years. Where we differ is that I believe you sponged up all these stories floating around and interjected yourself and turned these stories into first-person accounts.

As I said before, its no big deal. Believe me, when I was doing a character as limited as Brown Thumb, it was very difficult to keep factual integrity between the stories, characters, etc. Its tough.

Why don't you just post some materials from some of your college courses? How about letting us know which college you taught at for 20 years. The references in magazines of various repute do not sway me in the least.

As for Doublebubble, I have read the post in question. Again, I don't doubt that you play cards in your hometown. Also, your website has been up for nearly 10 years. Your account was registered here long before you started posting. If your goal was to publicise your stories for your website and book, it makes sense to have a shill account in place.

But, no need to go there. A college professor of 20 years should have no trouble proving his identity (I guess you were in the music biz too? Were you a roadie for ZZTop? Were the beards your idea?)

You make it sound like Johnny's bragging. He's not. If you played poker 30 or 40 years ago, you knew these guys. A lot of weird stuff used to happen. It still does.

FWIW, I'd rather have a root canal than spend five minutes with a coked-up Sailor Roberts. Saying I played with him is the same as saying I was too stupid to find anything better to do.

jmo

Well, I guess you invited me to try to look you up. I don't know why its necessary. I mean you should be able to prove yourself pretty easily:

Well, "you" were mentioned in a story as claiming to be the "Director of the Petroleum Land Management Department" at Texas Tech. Well, TT doesn't have such a Department. Also, your name does not appear within the TT archives on its website, except for one reference as a "collected reference" in the library.

What do you want me to do, Johnny? Really, I don't really care if you are "you." I just don't think you should attack Lott because it appears he is right.

Mack: Point taken. However, all of that was a runup to my main point which I have put in bold, above. The "bragging, etc." is not relevant, I was just saying that all these guys knew other guys, and I heard about them from other sources. Well, "Johnny Hughes" never comes up, unless its in one of his own stories.

No wonder I never heard the slang "barking iron" in Texas. It's not Texas! Found this in Wiki. JH quotes a lot of Wiki, so it must be true! Right?

New York City!!!!! LOL