On The Coat Tales of a Gambler
My traveling for the year (2008) ended with me back in Robstown. It’s always good to have a visit with family and old friends. While I was there, I snooped around, trying to dig up any leads on Scarpone or illegal gamble. Although I am sure that there is still some kind of gambling going on back home, I was unable to unearth any confirmation of the fact. All the old guys that I used to know back in those days are gone. Either they have moved away or moved on to a hotter game… ha ha. I did try to find out some old stories, but I had to be careful with whom I spoke with and what I asked. I came up empty again for any new stories of Scarpone. But here is something I recalled while I was there this Christmas.
In my days growing up in Robstown, the holidays were a busy time for friends and family gatherings. Lots of good cheer, tasty food, and friendly poker games. Seems like the “gambler” in folks surfaces during the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Being back at Christmas time reminded me of a story for you, a time Scarpone almost hooked up with the Atlanta mob. First, let me give you a little background.
The end of the year always brought on friendly gambling. There were always the usual card and dice games at the old farmhouse out of town, and the backroom games held at the roadhouses. But during the holidays, there were a lot of home games in conjunction with the Christmas parties and New Year’s Eve. Every weekend after Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve, someone in Robstown would be hosting a party that would always break out into some sort of gambling game. These games would range from penny anti, just for fun, to some with a bit more serious money. As for Scarpone, he kept to the dens of iniquity. He rarely made an appearance at the holiday parties, if he did go to one, he’d never entered a game of poker, cloaking his true identity. There was no need to expose his gambler’s persona to the wholesome citizens of Robstown. For all they knew, John Ladrón was a traveling investment broker from up north.
The holidays are a wonderful memory for me. It was a time when folks gathered and celebrated with an abundance of delicious food and of course bootleg whiskey. The parties all pretty much followed a similar format. The women would eventually congregate in the living room from the kitchen while the men migrated to a back room, garage, or barn for smoking, drinking, usually a game of friendly poker. It was a grand time to be a kid growing up in the south. Folks were generous, and the spirit of the season celebrated like nothing you see today. After World War II the fifties were a romantic time in America, and it’s held only in the memories of those of us still around to talk about it. There was a sense of hope and innocence. I am fairly sure it can never be repeated.
Considering the holiday parties induced open gambling in Robstown, Scarpone recognized that it would be smart of him not to be doing any business in town, so he took time off to give the Robstown mugs a break and to drink from other wells.
Scarpone came to see me about a special out of town trip. He had an old friend, a marine, Vincent Denton, who was also from Montgomery. I was still working as a fireman at the time, and I could finagle a couple of extra days off. That was the beauty of the job. I worked four days on with three days off. There was always someone willing to pick up extra work or cover a shift or two for a buddy. This was true especially during hunting season. Scarpone wanted to be out of town for five days. It was one time that he covered my wages for the time off plus all the expenses.
The expenses on this particular trip included a stay in Phenix City, Alabama. Phenix City is just across the Chattahoochee River from Columbus, Georgia. Fort Benning Army base is located in Columbus. With a concentration of men with money and not much else to do, Phenix City had a fair share of pleasure houses tucked away for the boys on leave. Scarpone would plan his gambling trips to Columbus to coincide with payday on the base. However, on this trip to Phenix City, gambling was not the motivation.
Scarpone was a womanizer. I have told you the stories of his passion for young women and all his young wives. Vincent wanted to go whoring with Scarpone in Phenix City. Vincent was a big shot contractor in Montgomery. Vincent and Scarpone had known one another for several years going back to their time as marines. A few years after the war, Scarpone gave Vincent money to help his construction business. Instead of paying back Scarpone for the loan, Vincent worked out a profit-sharing deal for Scarpone to have a piece of Vincent’s business.
I never did know what Scarpone’s net worth was, but he was never short of cash. It was not unusual for Scarpone to have twenty to thirty thousand dollars in cash with him. In those days, that kind of money could buy a house and new car and still have a chunk left over. Scarpone had little to no interest in whore houses. It just was not his thing. Hell, he kept five one-hundred-dollar bills in his suit coat vest pocket just for any pretty girl that he wanted to meet. A hundred bucks to pretty girl in those days was understood, especially the ones that hung out around the gambling. Scarpone was just honoring his buddy by agreeing to a night in Phenix City. I think I was between marriages at the time.
We left Robstown in the morning and drove to Montgomery by noon. We picked up Vincent at his office. Vincent’s office was in one of the downtown office buildings that his company built. We were invited into a posh suite with a huge walnut desk in front of full-length windows with a view of the city. Large leather armchairs adorned the front side of the desk where Vincent directed us to sit and have a drink before going to lunch. Vincent had an ornate walnut bar completely stocked with every kind of liquor. An etched mirror, centered in the back of the bar, framed in carved walnut, and proudly displaying Vincent’s company logo “Denton Construction.” We enjoyed excellent bourbon as Vincent pointed out some of the buildings his company erected in Montgomery. After the drink, Vincent took us to lunch.
I have to admit, being just a country boy, anytime that I was with Scarpone I was always treated respectfully. I was hardly dressed for the downtown experience nevertheless; you’d have thought I was Vincent’s next big corporate client that day. Lunch started off with a bottle of champagne, Oysters Rockefeller, and shrimp cocktail. Scarpone limited me to two glasses of champagne, reminding me that I still had to drive him and Vincent to the special plans in Phenix City.
On the Coat Tales of a gambler continues in
Episode 21 – Home for the Holidays Part II