I'll Do My Own Damn Killin'

I'll Do My Own Damn Killin'
Author: Gary Sleeper
Publisher: Barricade Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781569804667

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.

Blood Aces

Blood Aces
Author: Doug J. Swanson
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2015-07-28
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0143127586

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.

Old Riot, New Ranger

Old Riot, New Ranger
Author: Bob Alexander
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2018-07-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1574417401

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.

Ghosts at the Table

Ghosts at the Table
Author: Des Wilson
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2009-03-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786732059

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.

Gamblers & Gangsters

Gamblers & Gangsters
Author: Ann Arnold
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1998
Genre: Criminals
ISBN: 9781571682505

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.

The Glen Rose Moonshine Raid

The Glen Rose Moonshine Raid
Author: Martin Brown
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2017-09-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1439662606

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.

Dallas Tough: Historic Tales of Grit, Audacity and Defiance

Dallas Tough: Historic Tales of Grit, Audacity and Defiance
Author: Josh Foreman and Ryan Starrett
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2021
Genre: History
ISBN: 1467146080

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.

Texas Rangers

Texas Rangers
Author: Bob Alexander
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Total Pages: 673
Release: 2017-07-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 157441691X

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.

Top O' Hill Terrace

Top O' Hill Terrace
Author: Vickie Bryant
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780738585277

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.

Some Men Need Killing

Some Men Need Killing
Author: Art Marsicano
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2008-12-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1440109141

A brilliant young man, Anthony Martino learned the ways of violence and Italian criminals early in life. Always deeply loving with friends and family and brutal with enemies, Martino hates his enemies with a white hot passion. In his part of the world, justice can be found only with a gun, knife, or a bomb. When Martino is asked to give a presentation about organized crime to a college class in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, he is happy to accept. A former professor, Tony enjoys provoking thoughts and emotions in students. The same day he receives the professors request, he receives an e-mail message from a member of New York City's most powerful crime family requesting to see him. He also accepts this invitation. When Ernie Valadi, Martinos nemesis from high school, taunts him and accuses him of being a con man, Martino challenges him to a fight. Will this fight be any different from their past entanglements? To what extent will Martino extract his revenge? A deeply religious man, will Martino be forgiven for his sins? Is he correct in his assumption that Some Men Need Killing?