Customer Reviews

Gamblers & Gangsters: Fort Worth's Jacksboro Highway in the 1940s & 1950s

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dr Arnold does an excellent job of taking hold of a sizable hunk of Fort Worth history and recording it in a very readable fashion. A number of pictures are also included to help visualize the antics of early Fort Worth residents (and visitors).

this is a very interesting book especially for those of us who live in fort worth texas. all kinds of neat facts about one of our most popular highways. all about the gangsters and gamblers. ann arnold did a fantastic job on writing it.

Hard to put down. I knew most of the streets and address mentioned. Born in '37, a lot of this took place during my formative years. There were big headlines when ever they found a gangster's body in an old water well. Front page when the gambler and his pregnant wife were blown up in their car early one morn.
Jacksboro Highway was rather notorious in my youth. My uncle had an auto repair shop on it. It got so bad, he sold out in the '40's and moved to Lubbock Texas. The west side of Fort Worth had numerous houses and buildings that were or had been gambling places.
In 1957, I rented a home on Washburn St. a few blocks from Will Roger's Colosseum. I asked the landlord why there were so many glass paned doors down both sides of the middle of the house. He said, during the 30's it had been used for gambling. The doors were to let many of them get away during a raid.
My late father had always suspected that the police and especially the sheriff were paid off in those days. He would have relished seeing it in print.
Mentioned the book to a friend that had once managed a private club on Jacksburo highway. He got so interested, he got out his old copy of the book and reread it :-)
BTW, A lot of the beer joints and vending companies in Fort Worth are still owned (under the table) by organized crime.

I love anything regarding real-life gangsters and I could not put this book down. I live in Dallas, Texas and this was especially interesting since it covered the adjoining cities near and along the Jacksboro Highway. Those guys were brutal and could have run with Al Capone easily. I loaned my book to a friend and if I don't get it back soon, I'll buy another just in case. So glad this book was recommended to me by a nice friend who likes to gamble.

Got here within a few days after ordering it, which was surprising, cause I ordered it a few weeks before Christmas. I figured there might be more of a delay. It came in perfect condition. I would definitely do business with this seller again

We enjoyed this book because we remembered hearing about alot of this in the 60's and remember seeing where it all took place. We had borrowed the book and left it on an airplane, so then we had to buy one to return to the person we borrowed it from.

From looking at other books on this area for the twenties and thirties, this rings true. And it's well done.

I loved this book. My new novel, Texas Poker Wisdom, has stories about Benny Binion on the gambling wars of Dallas and Ft. Worth. I knew Benny Binion. The world that Ms. Archer describes so very well might come as a surprise to your ordinary folks. This is one fantastic read. Everyone will enjoy it. I write about gambling and am working on an article about Benny Binion's great promotions. One promotion from this book was to have a sign on a pet burro that said follow me to this Mexican restaurant/crap game. They would let the burro loose in a different part of Ft. Worth each day. It would walk on home, a moving sign.
I promise you that you will love this book.
Johnny HughesTexas Poker Wisdom

Since some of my family members were mentioned I was disppointed the author did not double check all of her facts. Other than that it is a good book.