12/30/2015
Some Underground Bases Listed by State
[Editor's Note: Phil Schneider used to work for the government and was involved in the construction of Deep Underground Military Bases (DUMB bases). In talks given in 1995, he said that there were 129 active deep military bases in America and two more under construction, He confirmed (at that ime) that there existed a minimum of two underground bases in each state. Phil also mentioned that there were more than 1,450 DUMB bases worldwide. In 2001, Stewart Swerdlow reported in his Los Angeles talk that there were 133 active DUMB bases in America. Phil also revealed that 62 of those 129 DUMB bases were being used as housing facilities for various alien groups that the governemnt had made treaties and agreements with. The rest were being used by humans (military & civilians) for biological, chemical, and mind control development. Phil mentioned in his last lecture in Seattle, Washington (Sep 24, 1995) that he was publishing a book that would expose these government secrets and identify the location of every underground base in America, as he felt the American public were entitled to know what theor government was doing with their money and keeping secret from them. When Phil was found murdered in Oregon in early January, 1996, all of his records, alien artifacts, journals, book manuscript, etc. were missing
By Don Croft
http://educate-yourself.org/dc/undergroundbaseslisted08feb04.shtml
Feb. 8, 2004
I got this anonymously today in email. It's obviously the result of a whole lot of groundwork, so to speak, by a lot of people, perhaps including Constitutional Unorganized Militia members in various states. This is quite timely, perhaps, as the new Earthpipes show some promise for neutralizing the predatory aspects of these facilities cheaply and efficiently. We normally locate underground bases by the smog fields that they produce above ground. This happens because nuclear generators produce dense deadly orgone radiation (DOR) which forms smog by positive-charged ionization. Smog is nothing but filth in colloidal suspension in the atmosphere. The various colors of smog are determined by what kind of filth is available ;-)
It's our feeling that the bases are being built as hidey-holes for this regime, which has effectively lost its psychological stranglehold on the world populace by now and is retreating. It would be unwise to allow them to just wait us out and take another swipe at humanity later on and we know that neither predators nor their arcane weaponry can function well within a strong orgone field, even underground, and slave labor is no doubt essential to running these facilities, so intense orgone will incite them to do what you and I are doing: claiming our birthright of individual freedom and responsibility.
The earthpipes are still in the experimental stage, but Carol and I intend to test them on the main U/G base near Dulce, NM, next month and meanwhile our network is testing them on U/G bases closer to our homes and pooling the empirical data. For example, Carol, Laozu Kelly and I planted six Earthpipes on the base near Joseph, Oregon a couple of weeks ago and Kelly and McGinty are perhaps on their way there to check the results today. Both of those fellows are energy sensitives who are reasonably unbiased, so their observations are very useful.
The Earthpipes may promise to be an excellent alternative for underground targets to the 3oz Towerbusters and the 12oz Holy Handgrenades because a much smaller amount of orgonite can get a much more dramatic result underground, thanks to the use of the copper pipe. It's similar to the way a cloudbuster can draw in DOR from the atmosphere for many miles around and it may be another step toward what Dr. Grebbenikov was able to achieve with resonant chambers alone (antigravity flight and time/space manipulation). The trend in spiritually-resonant science it to do more and more with less and less. I don't think we'll be like the dolphins in this lifetime but I do believe that they're the living standard for us in 3D.
Having finally busted the underground base complex around Fallon, Nevada, last summer with Dodeca Richard, we'll have a good test bed for busting a similar-sized major underground facility. It took several visits by several people to entirely do that complex and we used about 30 gallons of orgonite before every trace of DOR was absent from the atmosphere. I expect we could have done the entire thing in a day or two with a couple of gallons or less of orgonite if it were used in the form of Earthpipes, but we'll soon see if my hunch pans out.
~Don Croft
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Underground Bases listed by State
ARIZONA
1. Fort Huachuca. 31°50' N 1100 19'48" W, saucer base below, intelligence training above, mind-control incl. too.
2. Gates Pass Base
3. Gila Mountain Area, south of Interstate 8 and approx. 30 east of Yuma, AZ. 290 N 116ºW. DUM base.
4. Grand Wash Cliffs, on western edge of the cliffs at the head of Grapevine Wash. Must be reached via hwy 93 and then unpaved roads. DUM base. Page 303 ...
5. Green Valley
6. Hualapai Mountains, east side of the mountain range, about 35 mi. SE of Kingman, AZ
7. Rincon Mtn., north side of Rincon Mtn
8. Mt. Lemmon
9. Page
10. Safford, near Safford
11. Santa Catalina Mountains - base
ARKANSAS
12. In the vicinity of Hardy and Cherokee Village. 360 19' N 9°29'W W. Installation purpose not known.
13. Pine Bluff, Ark. area. 34° 13.4' N 92º01.0'W to 34º30' N 92° 30'W. saucer base.
CALIFORNIA
14. 29 Palms Marine Base, Identified on military map as airspace area R-2501 N. Saucer base southeast of Ludlow. This is a U.S. alien research/ diagnostic facility and UFO base.
15. China Lake, mind control and weapons research
16. Darwin, CA, 4 miles dues west of Darwin
17. Deep Springs, CA, 37°22' N 117º 59.3' W. saucer base
18. Fort Irwin, CA, 35°20'N 116°8'W W. saucer base
19. Edwards Air Force Base, in the area where Diamond Cr. & the so. fork of the Yuba meet, there are 3 underground UFO bases. 34°8' N 117° 48' W
20. George Air Force Base, CA - saucer base
21. Helendale, Lockhead Underground Facility, 34º44.7' N 1170 18.5' W. Technology for secret projects. There are 3 saucer bases here.
22. Los Angeles, On Hwy 14 towards Edwards A.F.B. after Palmdale, one turns off and after taking several streets to 170th street, north on 170th St. to the Rosamond-1 70th intersection, the second and lower and better maintained dirt road will take you west, and if you take a right going north at the power lines and up to the hilltop you will see the top of an underground NORTHOP facility; Technology for the elite's secret projects. This area was very active in the 1970s. Northrop's facility is near the Tehachapi Mtns. It has been reported to go down 42 levels. It is heavily involved with electronics and hi-tech aerospace research.
23. Mt. Shasta
24. Kern River, CA the hollowed out mountain next to the hydroelectric facility at the Kern River Project near Bakersfield- reported saucer base
25. Napa Valley- located at Oakville Grade north of Napa, CA. Tunnels also connect the wineries north of Napa, used for white slavery and mind-control. Has a saucer base.
26. Norton Air Force Base- saucer base
27. Quincy, CA, 39° 56.2' N 120° 56.5' W. saucer base
28. Near Palmdale (if one takes Palmdale Blvd. til 240th St. and goes to Ave R-8. One the eastern limit of Ave. R-8 is McDonnell-Douglas's facility called the Uano Facility. One can see it better from the Three Sisters Hills to the south of the facility. Strange shaped disks raise out of the ground on pylons. These attached disks glow and change color. It is involved in hi-tech aerospace technology.
29. Presidio, CA - A FEMA/DOD site for Region IX's regional office
30. San Bernardino, CO, 34º 50' N to 34° 16' N
31. Santa Barbara County - placed in the thick diatomite strata
32. Santa Rosa, 38º 26.4' N 122º 42.9' W, FEMA, Regional center for west coast, what FEMA is doing is mostly kept secret. This is listed as a Communications Antenna Field, but is doing much more.
33. Sierra Nevada Mountains, CA - very deep military base
34. Tehachapi Ranch- 4 saucer bases, Tecachapi Canyon has a new underground base which was finished in Sept. '95. This is the "Unholy 6" base of the Orions. 35° 20' 118° 40'
35. Trona, CA, 35° 45.5' N 1 77º22.6' W --several miles northwest of Trona, directly under Argus Peak. This DUM sits on China Lake's NWC's land, and may have been built in the '60s.
COLORADO
36. Alamosa, 37° 28.1' N 105°52.2'W W- reported saucer base
37. Book Cliffs, CO, 39° 40' N 108º 0' W near Rifle, CO
38. Boulder, CO--The headquarters for EMC, a type of electra-magnetic mind control that is being broadcast to modify the thinking of Americans, and to control slaves.
39. Colorado Springs, NORAD --Canada & U.S., & FEMA, hundreds of people on staff, contains at least 4.5 cubic miles of underground caverns and forty five underground steel buildings. Many underground chambers are as large as 50, x 100 '. This complex tracks thousands of satellites, missiles, submarines, and UFOs. NORAD also controls many Monarch slaves who have ALEX, JANUS, ALEXUS endtime callback programming. NORAD installation has 1278 miles of road underground.
40. Fort Collins- base for Gray aliens
41. Grand Mesa- Orion saucer base
42. Montrore Co.--north of Paradox, in Paradox Valley. The site in Paradox Valley can be reached via Hwy. 90 via Nucla. Page 304 ...
CONNECTICUT
43. North west Connecticut
FLORIDA
44. Massive base- reported saucer base
45. Eglin AFB, 30º 40' N 86° 50' W- Orion saucer base since 1978
GEORGIA
46. Atlanta, GA --FEMA regional center, which is appropriately placed since Atlanta is to become a capital within the NWO redrawing of boundaries. Atlanta is believed to have several underground installations in its area, one to the north at Kennesaw Mtn., Marietta, GA connected to Dobbins AFB and one to the south of Atlanta at Forest Park.
47. Thomasville, 30° 50.2' N 83°58.9' W, FEMA, regional center, they train groups in Search and Destroy missions for when Martial Law is imposed. This is SW Georgia in area of tunnels.
IDAHO
48. Lower Goose Lake area in the general area of Oakley, ID.--Wackenhut of the Illuminati run a "model prison" for the NWO. The worst of the federal prisoners are placed in this underground prison which has 7,100 cells which are filled with about 2,700 federal inmates. A track runs through the middle of the eerie underground facility. Food and showers are on the tracks, and the men are allowed showers once a week. The minimum of lighting is used and the men are beaten senseless if they talk at all. It sits 500' underground.
49. South central Idaho--under the Snake River lava flows between Twin Falls and Idaho Falls.
INDIANA
50. Bedford & Lawrence Co. area--continued activity in large old mines indicates a possible government use of the large old quarries.
KANSAS
51. Atchison, KS--the DIPEF underground facility, which the govt. would run in an emergency. AT & T maintains an underground facility at Fairview, KS.
52. Kinsley--an underground UFO base
MARYLAND
53. Camp David--just north of the camp is an underground facility important to the intelligence agencies.
54. below Ft. Meade, of the National Security Agency, 10 acres of the most sophisticated supercomputers that can be built, very large complex, massive surveillance of all the world's communications, including all transmissions in the U.S. & world of telephones, telegraph, telex, fax, radio, TV and microwave transmissions.
55. Olney, actually the facility is between Olney and Laytonsville, on Riggs Rd. off of Rt. 108. Another underground facility may also exist in the area, FEMA & possibly NSA, the facility may be 10 levels deep, purpose unknown.
56. Suitland, MD- Classified archives of U.S. Govt. stored here in underground levels. Vaults have extensive amounts of documents which are not indexed. Restricted access with a coded security card. High level intelligence groups operate in the area also.
MASSACHUSETTS
57. Maynard, 42° 26.0' N 71° 27.0' W FEMA, regional center, Wackenhut is here too.
MICHIGAN
58. Battle Creek, 42° 19.3' N 85° 10.9' W FEMA, regional center, activity secret (not validated)
59. Gwinn, Ml, 46° 16.8'N 87° 26.5' W, near Gwinn is a large underground base which is a key base for sending signals. An AFB is also nearby. Under Lake Superior is an alien base with roads 5,000' deep.
MISSOURI
60. 12 miles south of Lebanon, 36° 02.8' N 115° 24.3' W, near the newly created town of Twin Bridges-reported saucer base
61. In the Bat/Dry/Dead Man/ Howell cluster of caves- reported saucer base
62. St. Francis Mountains, MO (between St. Louis & New Madrid)
NEBRASKA
63. North-central Nebraska
64. Red Willow Co. near McCook, NE
NEVADA
65. Blue Diamond, 36° 02.8'N 115°24.3 W -reported saucer base
66-68. Groom Lake, also known as Dreamland, Area 51, The Area, the Spot, Red Square, Sally Corridor, Watertown Strip. 1150 50'N 37°20W. Run by the NWO along with demonic beings, the CIA is there and Wackenhut Security. Two large underground facilities close to but separate from Groom Lake but controlled by the demonic beings are Papoose Range and Cockeyed Ridge (S-4) underground bases. Purpose is the testing of various UFOs and other secret aircraft like the Aurora and Stealth. Also biological work is done, including the biological raising of small greys. Many levels have been built t these three complexes, and a 7 mile long run way (which is actually 39 miles) Page 305 ... has been built over Groom Lake, a dry lake. There is an S-2, an S-4, an S-6, and an S-66 underground installations. S-66 is the most secret and it has 29 levels and is 11, 300' deep.
69. Quartzite Mountain SE of Tonopah, 37° 31 'N 116° 20' W- reported saucer base
70. Tonopah, Airforce, CIA? & ??, deals with secret aircraft
NEW HAMPSHIRE
71-73. There may be as many as three underground installations in New Hampshire's hills (according to reports).
NEW JERSEY
74. Picatinny Arsenal, 4o° 38'N 74° 32' W- saucer base, 1/4 cubic mile large & very deep underground.
NEW MEXICO
The state of New Mexico and Colorado have been used for the construction of a series of underground bases. (All the rest of the states have too.) The Primary Underground facilities in New Mexico consist of: 3 enormous underground bases in
The Dulce, NM area (an area I spent several days investigating in 1993).
The White Sands--Alamogordo Area which has 3 underground bases. Datil and Pie Town which have two more underground bases. (Carlsbad Cavern which had underground activity, which is reported discontinued, and another base to east of Carlsbad.).
The Los Alamos area underground facility . the Taos area underground facility
The New Mexico area has basically four underground system out.
One goes to the Four Corners area and then to Groom Lake (Area 51).
One goes north toward Delta, CO and Colorado Springs.
The Taos facilities goes north approximately along Interstate 25 and eventually ties in NORAD.
The southern bases connect to Texas and Mexico.
The Los Alamos facility dates at least back to 1940. One can only imagine what has been built with 1/2 century of labor on this underground system. Visitors to the deeper levels report humans kept in glass cylinders, plus many other strange things. I have had the opportunity to debrief some people who have been in the lower reaches of some of these facilities. There are special badges, special uniforms, tube elevators etc. which for lack of time I will not describe. .
75. Angel Peak- reported saucer base . Carlsbad Cavern area (now destroyed), 32° 25.0'N 1040 14.0W -old relics of saucer base left .
76-78. Dulce, N.M., 36º 56.0'N 106°59.8'W,--South of Dulce, in the area of the Jicarilla Indian Reservation, another facility is east of the Dulce facility a number of miles. This is run directly by Illuminati w/ Army and Airforce help, CIA also conduct experiments at the center; the size of the installation is hugh requiring small shuttle trains and has seven levels according to witnesses. Serves as a UFO base, biological experiments, production center for small-grey drones. Wackenhut provides some of the security on the ground.
79. Kirtland AFB, NM, Sandia National Lab
80. Manzano Mtn, near Albuquerque, known as the Kirtland Munitions Storage Complex, Airforce, 3,000-acre base within the Kirtland AFB/Sandia National Labs complex, guarded by 4 lethal rings of fences, use unknown, suspected UFO base. A new 285,000-sq. ft. bunker is being built near Manzano Base.
81. Pie Town, 34° 17.9'N 1 108°08.7'W, in area near Pie Town, UFO Base.
82. Sandia Mountains NE of Albuquerque -reported saucer base
83. to the north of Taos Pueblo
84. White Sands, 32°22.8'N 106°28.8'W, major hub for research, tied in with Dulce & NORAD, HO for NASA /military shuttle flights, radiation research ctr. and mind control.
NEW YORK
85. Adirondack Mountains (near Elizabethtown)
86. New York Metro area
87. Plattsburgh (near Canada and St. Albans) AFB, 49°40'N 73°33 W- two saucer bases in this area.
OKLAHOMA
88. Ada, 34°46.4' N 96°40.7W W, underground saucer base, this base does uman cloning, and it is FEMA's most sensitive base.
89. Ashland Naval Ammunition Depot, 34°45.9'N 96° 04.3'W,- reported saucer base
OREGON
90. Bull Run, north side of Bull Run Reservoir area near Mt. Hood, and very close to Larch Mtn. and south of Benson St. Park of the Columbia Gorge.
91. Coos Bay area has had three separate but coordinating underground facilities built for UFOs. The facility farthest east, about 20 miles inland in the wilderness near Hwy 42, has been shut down. It is now an old abandoned facility well camouflaged. The coast facility is probably still operational.
92. Klamath Falls, OR--since Sept. '95 this has been a base for a number of NWO groups including the Air National Guard, FEMA, CIA, FBI, Spetznaz, and Page 306 ...
MOSAP training base. An underground concentration camp exists here.
PENNSYLVANIA
93. Blue Ridge Summit, near Ft. Ritchie, known as 'Raven Rock" or "Site R", Army, major electronic nerve center, 650 ft. below surface with about 350 staff and over a 716 acre area. possibly connected via tunnel to Camp David. The NOD installation is involved with psychic (demonic) and satellite control over slaves. This underground complex is to allow the government of the United States to escape a nuclear attack. The enormous complex radiates under Wash. D.C. and connects with many other sites. The tunnel system is used to move some of the mind-control sex slaves. The walls and ceilings of the tunnels are ceramic tile with fluorescent lighting recessed into the ceilings.
TEXAS
94. Ft. Hood, TX, 31° 15'N 97° 48' W, home of some Delta Mind-Controlled soldiers and a reported saucer base.
95. Denton, TX, 33° 13.2'N 97° 08.2'W - FEMA, regional center, activity secret
96. Red River Arsenal, TX- reported saucer base
VIRGINIA
97. Bluemont, Mount Weather base, Federal Preparedness Agency & FEMA, small-city underground, top-secret, staff of several hundred, does secret work for FEMA and contains a complete secret government with the various agencies and cabinet-level ranking administrators that keep their positions for several administrations and help run the United States.
98. Culpepper, 380 28.5 N 77°59.8'W, about 2 miles east of Culpepper off of Rt. 3, called Mount Pony, Illuminati--Fed. reserve, 140,000 sq. ft.,
includes a facility for the storage for corpses, monitors all major financial transactions in the U.S. by means of the "Fed Wire", a modern electronic system.
99. Pentagon, Arlington, VA-
100. Warrington Training Ctr. --two sites: one on Rt. 802 and the other on Bear Wallow Road, on Viewtree Mountain. One is Station A the other Station B. Army & ??, purpose unknown
WASHINGTON
101. Bothell, 47°45.7'N 122°12.2w W, FEMA, regional center, activity unknown
WASHINGTON, D.C.
102. WHITE HOUSE, 38°53.5'N 77°02.0'W--The secret NOD underground installation which is connected to the intelligence groups like NSA and the CIA as well as many other nefarious groups lays under the White House with tunnels connecting this NOD installation with the House of the Temple. The Supreme council of the 33° of the Scottish Rite's House of the Temple has a 14' x 25' room in it with 13 chairs where the Illuminati's Grand Druid Council meet. The NOD Deep Underground Installation has numerous levels to it. One eye- witness, went to level 17 (via an elevator) and stated that he believes that deeper levels exist.
WEST VIRGINIA
103. Sugar Grove, the Navy's Strategic Intelligence Services microwave communications. There base here.
104. White Sulphur Springs, under the Greenbriar Hotel, a mini-city large enough for 800 people equipped with its own crematorium, if there are any other purposes otherthan listening to U.S. microwave communication it is unknown by this author.
UTAH.
In Utah, the Kennecott Copper Company has been connected to the Illuminati and the KKK. These connections have been exposed in other writings by this author. Kennecott's mine (reported to be owned by the World Bank) in the Salt Lake City area is serviced by Union Pacific, which is reported connected to the Mormon Church. The mine is receiving a heavy volume of big trucks after 11 p.m., for instance, in a normal night over 6 dozen large trucks with 2 trailors each rolling into the mine. In other words, it appears that the heavy train & tractor trailor activity indicates something besides mining.
© Copyright 2002-2004 Educate-Yourself.org All Rights Reserved.
8/30/2015
Jackboro HiWay 2 Hell
Related (Topics):
Gambling in Fort Worth
Jacksboro Highway’s days of gambling and saloons
by Sean Chaffin
• Legendary poker player Doyle Brunson played and partied on Jacksboro Highway.
• See the online exclusive interview HERE.
Fort Worth gambler Edell Evans pays a gambling fine to Deputy Sheriff Jim Floyd. Evan's lawyer Jack Ray stands in the center watching in 1955.
Known gambler/mobster Benny Binion had a lot of control in Fort Worth before turning his attention to his casino in Vegas.
Investigating officers look over the remains after a planted bomb killed gambler Herbert Noble in 1951. This incident was one of many gangster-style murders that took place and kick-started law enforcement officials to do something about the gambling operations on Jacksboro Highway.
Gambler Elmer Sharp exits after being questioned by police regarding a car bomb that killed Nelson Harris and his pregnant wife.
Police Chief Hightower and Sheriff Wright examine a gun that had been buried in a shallow grave with gambler Edell Evans near Lake Worth.
The scene is a dark room in the 1950s off Jacksboro Highway, a six- to seven-mile road running from downtown Fort Worth to Lake Worth featuring a mélange of saloons, back-room gambling halls and any type of vice your brain might be able to imagine. Smoke billows in the air and poker legend Doyle Brunson is at the poker table mixing in bets and bluffs. The action is big and “No Limit Ace-to-Five” is the chosen game for the night.
At the table for five days straight, Brunson has only gotten up from his spot for a bite to eat and visits to the men’s room. Big money was at hand and, apparently, the money was too good to leave. Constantly nursing a cup of coffee and a cigarette to stay awake, Brunson found himself locked in battle in what he would later describe as the “longest poker session of my life.” A man named Virgil had also been seated at the table, taking pills, drinking and smoking to stay awake.
An employee of a slaughterhouse, Virgil came out ahead of Brunson in a key hand, Brunson writes in his book The Godfather of Poker. Brunson, who would go on to win 10 World Series of Poker championship bracelets (the biggest trophy in professional poker) and be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, acknowledged his opponent’s win. Virgil then grabbed his bottle of whiskey, tilted it back and gulped down a shot. It would be his last. While reaching to scoop in his pot, the man dropped dead on the table.
“That’s when I found out how cold-blooded poker players can be,” Brunson writes. “All of us had known Virgil and played with him many times. After the paramedics took him away, the game resumed and we played another 24 hours.”
Brunson’s tale is one of many of the famed strip of roadway. In the 1950s, if you were interested in gambling, drinking, cutting loose on a dance floor, and just raising some hell in general, Jacksboro Highway was the place to be.
A Wild West Town
A good roll of the dice or deal of the cards could always be found in Fort Worth in the late 19th century. Hell’s Half Acre, as the city’s red light district was known, encompassed several blocks around today’s Tarrant County Convention Center. Booze, prostitution and gambling were mainstays – and lawmen chose to look the other way rather than upset a key economic engine for the city. Cowpokes who drove their cattle through the city knew that a stopover for a night could include dancing women (and a woman for the night at the right price), drinks and some gambling, followed by a much-needed bath after hitting the trail. Fisticuffs and murder were also common in the Half Acre, where gun-toting cowboys and heavy drinking often created a combustible combination.
“Fort Worth was a wide-open town in the 1870s. It was lively. Rowdiness and respectability lived side by side. Plenty of people were both, rough, tough and respectable,” read a 1949 article about the area in the Fort Worth Press. “A knifing was as ordinary as a parking ticket today.”
And eventually the good times would come to an end, thanks to stricter police enforcement and religious campaigns warning against the vice occurring in the Half Acre in the years preceding World War I. But the gambling, booze, prostitution and wild times would find a new home in the 1940s and 1950s – Jacksboro Highway, Fort Worth’s version of Bourbon Street that would definitely live up to the legacy left by Hell’s Half Acre.
From military men to plant workers to degenerate gamblers, Jacksboro Highway’s few miles of roadway (officially known as Texas Highway 199) stretching away from Fort Worth toward Azle, Jacksboro, Wichita Falls and Amarillo attracted a unique cast of characters out for a good time. With gambling officially illegal in Texas, Thunder Road, as the stretch of highway became known, was one of the few places in the state one could plunk down a few dollars on black or red at the roulette wheel or roll the bones at the dice table. The state may have banned gambling, but a little bit of Fort Worth’s Wild West mentality continued.
The Clubs, Gambling and Poker
A lifelong poker player and son of a club owner, Richard Davis, grew up in this atmosphere. The 76-year-old grew up in Fort Worth and now lives in Haltom City. His mother, Inez Mortenson, ran the famous Inez 50/50 Club, a small club at the intersection of Jacksboro Highway and Roberts Cut Off Road. Mortenson, who passed away a few years ago at 87, was as interesting a character as the patrons who frequented her club – allegedly named for the odds of someone leaving in one piece after a night out on the neon-soaked highway (although she said it had to do with how she treated customers: 50 percent of giving them full drinks and honest change and 50 percent making them feel welcome.
Mortenson was married 11 times, her first marriage at 15. Davis says his mother married a man at age 21 who was deeply involved in the club business in the area. She began picking up the business from her husband, and the 50/50 became popular for “drinking, dancing and good fellowship,” as her son puts it. Through the years, Mortenson brought home many crazy tales of life on Thunder Road. She said Willie Nelson frequently performed at some of the clubs that she ran through the years. While she may have been petite, Davis says that his mother had no problem getting aggressive with an unruly customer.
“She was just trying to make a living,” Davis says of her career as a club operator. “She was 4-foot, 11-inches and 150 pounds but not afraid of the devil himself. My mother put in a lot of hours on the Jacksboro Highway.”
As the son of a club owner, Davis had access to many of the clubs along the highway. One of those that always intrigued him was the Chateau Club, an upscale club with a long drive and private gate at the entrance. More like a classy Vegas casino than a back-room gambling joint, Davis says it was popular with Fort Worth’s upper crust, with private rooms for gambling and a steakhouse known for its excellent cuisine.
“It was where all the local celebrities would gather for a night out,” he says. “It was first class.”
An average night might feature a Cowtown power couple dressed to the nines out for some cocktails, fine dining, dancing and, of course, gambling. Beyond the security measures of a private gate, the Chateau reportedly had a tunnel for patrons to make their exits in case of a raid by law enforcement. Gambling equipment could also quickly be hidden in compartments in the walls. It was that type of thoroughness that helped many underground gambling joints survive the occasional law enforcement raid – that and payoffs to easily swayed squad officers, according to Ann Arnold, author of Gamblers and Gangsters, which uncovers the dramatic history of Jacksboro Highway.
Catering to customers of a more elite social status, the Skyliner Ballroom was a favorite for many. The place is remembered as one of the wildest clubs in the area and opened in the 1930s as the largest dance hall in the city. With a white stucco façade, the building featured a dance floor of 2,500 square feet surrounded by blue carpet. Fine wine was served to patrons seated on rose-colored couches and chairs. A visual highlight was the mural of the Fort Worth skyline near the entrance as was a 14-piece orchestra that played as Fort Worthians danced the night away. Louis Armstrong was among the celebrities who played at the fabled club.
While the Chateau may have attracted some of Fort Worth’s finest, numerous clubs catered to everyone from military members on leave to Fort Worth residents who had an itch to gamble and were simply looking for a night out. The Rocket Club proved a popular North Fort Worth club to drink beer and listen to rock n’ roll. The club’s sign remains a lasting reminder of the highway’s heyday and still stands at the location at 2130 Jacksboro Highway, now a muffler and welding shop. The exterior of the white building now offers up notes on service specials rather than beer specials, but the sign sitting atop the entrance features the words “Rocket” surrounded by an outline of a flying disc with a star on the right edge. The sign now faces a used car lot across the street. Decades ago, the futuristic red and blue neon beckoned revelers from across the Metroplex. Other popular clubs included the Magic Lounge, Massey’s, the Black Sands and numerous others.
Many would argue that the best gambling action was at the 2222 (Four Deuces) or 3939 clubs. Other establishments along the highway may have offered gambling and poker, but these two clubs were the center of the Jacksboro Highway gambling scene offering everything from horse wagering to craps.
The Four Deuces was the idea of W.C. “Pappy” Kirkwood. Built in 1932 on a hill at 2222 Jacksboro Highway (hence the club’s name), the Spanish-style home featured top-notch steaks, booze and free cigars for those gambling at the tables. On a given night, several hundred thousand dollars might change hands at the blackjack, craps, roulette and poker tables. Regular folks were welcome as were big names ranging from actor Gene Autry to House Speaker Sam Rayburn, who didn’t gamble but joined Pappy once a year at the Four Deuces for drinks.
“Everybody in this part of the world knew the Four Deuces was a gambling joint. Including the cops,” Pappy’s son Pat Kirkwood told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1991.
One can imagine there were numerous stories of wins, losses, and everything in between. One night in the Four Deuces’ heyday, Pat Kirkwood told the newspaper that a high roller came to the joint in a brand new 1946 Cadillac and hit it big at the craps tables. The mysterious gambler left with Pappy owing him a cool $100,000, which he promised to pay the following day. When the player arrived the next morning, he sauntered to the dice table and offered a heads-up battle. Pappy accepted, and things did not quite go as the gambler expected.
“Pop won back all his money, all the cash the guy had in his pocket and all the credits he’d given him,” Pat Kirkwood told the newspaper. “I drove the guy down to his hotel and dropped him off, then drove his new Caddy back to the club. Pop won that too.”
For poker players, the Jacksboro Highway no doubt was an occasional stop on the Southern circuit – the name given to cities traveled by Texas poker players looking for a poker game with a good game, high stakes and hopefully several suckers at the table. Along with Brunson, legendary players (and Texans) included “Amarillo Slim” Preston (World Series of Poker champion, Poker Hall of Fame), Bob Hooks (WSOP runner-up), Bill Smith (WSOP champion, Poker Hall of Fame) and Bryan “Sailor” Roberts (WSOP champion, Poker Hall of Fame).
As these men were traveling from game to game, Jacksboro Highway would be an occasional stop for many including those looking for the latest game to hit the scene – Texas Hold ‘Em. Author James McManus notes that Texas was obviously the birthplace of the poker game that has become the most popular form in America. An expert on the history of the game and author of Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker, McManus notes that Texas Hold ‘Em grew out of the back rooms in Texas.
“Poker began in New Orleans around 1805 and aboard the riverboats moving up and down the Mississippi from that new American port,” McManus said in an interview. “The history of Texas Hold ‘Em naturally begins in Texas about a hundred years later.”
And for poker rounders (the name given players who traveled “around” looking for a game) like Brunson in the 1950s, Jacksboro Highway always proved to be ready for a game – Texas Hold ‘Em included. For years, Richard Davis set up poker games in the area and recalls playing many of the “old timers” as they made their way to north Fort Worth. Jacksboro Highway may not have been the hotbed of poker that the rest of the city was, but if there was a high-stakes game on any given day, rounders like Brunson would be there – all looking to leave with a pocket full of cash.
Murders and Mobsters
With its underground casinos, houses of ill repute, dancing girls, and clubs with bootleg liquor, Jacksboro Highway naturally attracted the type of “businessmen” who were more than happy to skirt the law, skim cash off the top and deal with their competitors by any means necessary.
It would take much more space than is allotted here to detail all the characters that made Thunder Road their stomping grounds, but a few names stand out. Tiffin Hall moved to the city from Missouri in 1920 and owned several establishments throughout Fort Worth, including many on Jacksboro Highway. Quiet and impeccably dressed, Hall owned the Mexican Inn, which served tacos and enchiladas on the first floor – and gambling on the second. Throughout his lifetime, Hall had his hands in numerous gambling operations throughout the Metroplex, notes Gary Sleeper, author of I’ll Do My Own Damn Killin’: Benny Binion, Herbert Noble, and the Texas Gambling War. Binion ran underground casinos throughout the Metroplex (and reportedly owned a piece of some Thunder Road establishments) before heading to Las Vegas to found the Horseshoe Casino and later the World Series of Poker.
“Hall never denied his gambling background but never admitted to being a big-time gambling operator,” Sleeper writes. “Between 1922 and 1955, he was arrested 16 times, eight of those for gambling. But it was not until 1951 that Hall was identified as a major Fort Worth gambler – some said the kingpin – and an associate of Benny Binion. Even then, Hall would deny any connection with Binion or other Dallas gamblers.”
A rodeo performer as a young man, George Wilderspin was another “businessman” who found his way to Thunder Road. He sold cattle to Binion. He later ran gambling at the East Side Club in Haltom City and had his hand in other clubs before running afoul of the law. He later got out of the business and continued to raise and sell cattle.
Leroy “Tincy” Eggleston and Nelson Harris were also major operators on the highway. Harris started his life in crime as a deliveryman for the Green Dragon narcotics syndicate and became a bouncer for some joints on Jacksboro Highway after serving two years in federal prison. He also ran a prostitution racket and a club out of his own house, according to Sleeper. Considered “one of Fort Worth’s toughest and most versatile criminals,” Eggleston ran joints on Thunder Road, and throughout his lifetime was charged, indicted or convicted for murder, gambling, assault, hijacking, robbery and burglary.
From 1940-1960, author Ann Arnold notes that 16 gangland-style murders went unsolved. One of the most noted murders would eventually lead to the wide-open gambling, bootlegging and general hell-raising that made Jacksboro Highway notorious.
The End of the Road
Up until Nov. 22, 1950, most people in Fort Worth paid little attention to the dancing, the liquor, the gambling, the prostitution, or even the mob that flourished on Jacksboro Highway. Then, Nelson Harris and his family were blown up while sitting in the family car. Photos from the time show a grisly scene as a crowd gathers around. The doors are blown off, and the blood-covered canopy of the convertible is blown over the rear of the car.
“The explosion, audible for blocks in all directions, roared inside the two-door 1950 coach parked beside the Harris’ duplex apartment at 3105 Wingate as the couple started for a drive at 9:15 a.m.
Amazingly, no one ever stood trial for the murder, but that gang-style murder kick-started law enforcement officials to do something about the mob that ran gambling operations not only on the Jacksboro Highway, but also throughout Fort Worth. On March 31, 1951, a Tarrant County grand jury released the names of numerous people indicted for gambling violations, including Tiffin Hall, George Wilderspin and Pappy Kirkwood. Some would serve jail time, others would not, but the gambling would come to a stop in the ensuing years. Befitting Thunder Road’s reputation, Tincy Eggleston was left off the list but met his own untimely death. Police believe Eggleston attempted an extortion plot for $5,000 and was scheduled to pick up his money on Aug. 25, 1955. The tables turned on the lifelong criminal. His body was later discovered by police in an abandoned well behind an unoccupied home outside the city limits. A bullet hole was found in the back of his head.
The indictments and news of the violence related to the “businessmen” of the Jacksboro Highway definitely had a negative effect. Gambling dried up in the next decade. Many may have known those who were running the gambling scene but, like the police, had previously looked the other way. Even poker legend Doyle Brunson accepted who ran the card games and played in them (on what he called Bloodthirsty Highway) but eventually chose to gamble in other parts of the state.
“I knew the kind of people they were and what they were capable of doing, but as long as you kept on the straight and narrow with them, you’d be accepted. And you’d stay out of trouble,” he says of playing poker in the highway joints in the 1950s in The Godfather of Poker. “The money they won or stole, or whatever they did to get it, they brought to the poker games. I was there to win that money, and they were there to win mine. That’s poker. We were much better players than our crooked cohorts, and we regularly relieved them of their ill-gotten gains. Then they’d go steal more money, come scurrying back, and we’d break them again.”
Gambling in Fort Worth
Jacksboro Highway’s days of gambling and saloons
by Sean Chaffin
• Legendary poker player Doyle Brunson played and partied on Jacksboro Highway.
• See the online exclusive interview HERE.
Fort Worth gambler Edell Evans pays a gambling fine to Deputy Sheriff Jim Floyd. Evan's lawyer Jack Ray stands in the center watching in 1955.
Known gambler/mobster Benny Binion had a lot of control in Fort Worth before turning his attention to his casino in Vegas.
Investigating officers look over the remains after a planted bomb killed gambler Herbert Noble in 1951. This incident was one of many gangster-style murders that took place and kick-started law enforcement officials to do something about the gambling operations on Jacksboro Highway.
Gambler Elmer Sharp exits after being questioned by police regarding a car bomb that killed Nelson Harris and his pregnant wife.
Police Chief Hightower and Sheriff Wright examine a gun that had been buried in a shallow grave with gambler Edell Evans near Lake Worth.
The scene is a dark room in the 1950s off Jacksboro Highway, a six- to seven-mile road running from downtown Fort Worth to Lake Worth featuring a mélange of saloons, back-room gambling halls and any type of vice your brain might be able to imagine. Smoke billows in the air and poker legend Doyle Brunson is at the poker table mixing in bets and bluffs. The action is big and “No Limit Ace-to-Five” is the chosen game for the night.
At the table for five days straight, Brunson has only gotten up from his spot for a bite to eat and visits to the men’s room. Big money was at hand and, apparently, the money was too good to leave. Constantly nursing a cup of coffee and a cigarette to stay awake, Brunson found himself locked in battle in what he would later describe as the “longest poker session of my life.” A man named Virgil had also been seated at the table, taking pills, drinking and smoking to stay awake.
An employee of a slaughterhouse, Virgil came out ahead of Brunson in a key hand, Brunson writes in his book The Godfather of Poker. Brunson, who would go on to win 10 World Series of Poker championship bracelets (the biggest trophy in professional poker) and be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, acknowledged his opponent’s win. Virgil then grabbed his bottle of whiskey, tilted it back and gulped down a shot. It would be his last. While reaching to scoop in his pot, the man dropped dead on the table.
“That’s when I found out how cold-blooded poker players can be,” Brunson writes. “All of us had known Virgil and played with him many times. After the paramedics took him away, the game resumed and we played another 24 hours.”
Brunson’s tale is one of many of the famed strip of roadway. In the 1950s, if you were interested in gambling, drinking, cutting loose on a dance floor, and just raising some hell in general, Jacksboro Highway was the place to be.
A Wild West Town
A good roll of the dice or deal of the cards could always be found in Fort Worth in the late 19th century. Hell’s Half Acre, as the city’s red light district was known, encompassed several blocks around today’s Tarrant County Convention Center. Booze, prostitution and gambling were mainstays – and lawmen chose to look the other way rather than upset a key economic engine for the city. Cowpokes who drove their cattle through the city knew that a stopover for a night could include dancing women (and a woman for the night at the right price), drinks and some gambling, followed by a much-needed bath after hitting the trail. Fisticuffs and murder were also common in the Half Acre, where gun-toting cowboys and heavy drinking often created a combustible combination.
“Fort Worth was a wide-open town in the 1870s. It was lively. Rowdiness and respectability lived side by side. Plenty of people were both, rough, tough and respectable,” read a 1949 article about the area in the Fort Worth Press. “A knifing was as ordinary as a parking ticket today.”
And eventually the good times would come to an end, thanks to stricter police enforcement and religious campaigns warning against the vice occurring in the Half Acre in the years preceding World War I. But the gambling, booze, prostitution and wild times would find a new home in the 1940s and 1950s – Jacksboro Highway, Fort Worth’s version of Bourbon Street that would definitely live up to the legacy left by Hell’s Half Acre.
From military men to plant workers to degenerate gamblers, Jacksboro Highway’s few miles of roadway (officially known as Texas Highway 199) stretching away from Fort Worth toward Azle, Jacksboro, Wichita Falls and Amarillo attracted a unique cast of characters out for a good time. With gambling officially illegal in Texas, Thunder Road, as the stretch of highway became known, was one of the few places in the state one could plunk down a few dollars on black or red at the roulette wheel or roll the bones at the dice table. The state may have banned gambling, but a little bit of Fort Worth’s Wild West mentality continued.
The Clubs, Gambling and Poker
A lifelong poker player and son of a club owner, Richard Davis, grew up in this atmosphere. The 76-year-old grew up in Fort Worth and now lives in Haltom City. His mother, Inez Mortenson, ran the famous Inez 50/50 Club, a small club at the intersection of Jacksboro Highway and Roberts Cut Off Road. Mortenson, who passed away a few years ago at 87, was as interesting a character as the patrons who frequented her club – allegedly named for the odds of someone leaving in one piece after a night out on the neon-soaked highway (although she said it had to do with how she treated customers: 50 percent of giving them full drinks and honest change and 50 percent making them feel welcome.
Mortenson was married 11 times, her first marriage at 15. Davis says his mother married a man at age 21 who was deeply involved in the club business in the area. She began picking up the business from her husband, and the 50/50 became popular for “drinking, dancing and good fellowship,” as her son puts it. Through the years, Mortenson brought home many crazy tales of life on Thunder Road. She said Willie Nelson frequently performed at some of the clubs that she ran through the years. While she may have been petite, Davis says that his mother had no problem getting aggressive with an unruly customer.
“She was just trying to make a living,” Davis says of her career as a club operator. “She was 4-foot, 11-inches and 150 pounds but not afraid of the devil himself. My mother put in a lot of hours on the Jacksboro Highway.”
As the son of a club owner, Davis had access to many of the clubs along the highway. One of those that always intrigued him was the Chateau Club, an upscale club with a long drive and private gate at the entrance. More like a classy Vegas casino than a back-room gambling joint, Davis says it was popular with Fort Worth’s upper crust, with private rooms for gambling and a steakhouse known for its excellent cuisine.
“It was where all the local celebrities would gather for a night out,” he says. “It was first class.”
An average night might feature a Cowtown power couple dressed to the nines out for some cocktails, fine dining, dancing and, of course, gambling. Beyond the security measures of a private gate, the Chateau reportedly had a tunnel for patrons to make their exits in case of a raid by law enforcement. Gambling equipment could also quickly be hidden in compartments in the walls. It was that type of thoroughness that helped many underground gambling joints survive the occasional law enforcement raid – that and payoffs to easily swayed squad officers, according to Ann Arnold, author of Gamblers and Gangsters, which uncovers the dramatic history of Jacksboro Highway.
Catering to customers of a more elite social status, the Skyliner Ballroom was a favorite for many. The place is remembered as one of the wildest clubs in the area and opened in the 1930s as the largest dance hall in the city. With a white stucco façade, the building featured a dance floor of 2,500 square feet surrounded by blue carpet. Fine wine was served to patrons seated on rose-colored couches and chairs. A visual highlight was the mural of the Fort Worth skyline near the entrance as was a 14-piece orchestra that played as Fort Worthians danced the night away. Louis Armstrong was among the celebrities who played at the fabled club.
While the Chateau may have attracted some of Fort Worth’s finest, numerous clubs catered to everyone from military members on leave to Fort Worth residents who had an itch to gamble and were simply looking for a night out. The Rocket Club proved a popular North Fort Worth club to drink beer and listen to rock n’ roll. The club’s sign remains a lasting reminder of the highway’s heyday and still stands at the location at 2130 Jacksboro Highway, now a muffler and welding shop. The exterior of the white building now offers up notes on service specials rather than beer specials, but the sign sitting atop the entrance features the words “Rocket” surrounded by an outline of a flying disc with a star on the right edge. The sign now faces a used car lot across the street. Decades ago, the futuristic red and blue neon beckoned revelers from across the Metroplex. Other popular clubs included the Magic Lounge, Massey’s, the Black Sands and numerous others.
Many would argue that the best gambling action was at the 2222 (Four Deuces) or 3939 clubs. Other establishments along the highway may have offered gambling and poker, but these two clubs were the center of the Jacksboro Highway gambling scene offering everything from horse wagering to craps.
The Four Deuces was the idea of W.C. “Pappy” Kirkwood. Built in 1932 on a hill at 2222 Jacksboro Highway (hence the club’s name), the Spanish-style home featured top-notch steaks, booze and free cigars for those gambling at the tables. On a given night, several hundred thousand dollars might change hands at the blackjack, craps, roulette and poker tables. Regular folks were welcome as were big names ranging from actor Gene Autry to House Speaker Sam Rayburn, who didn’t gamble but joined Pappy once a year at the Four Deuces for drinks.
“Everybody in this part of the world knew the Four Deuces was a gambling joint. Including the cops,” Pappy’s son Pat Kirkwood told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1991.
One can imagine there were numerous stories of wins, losses, and everything in between. One night in the Four Deuces’ heyday, Pat Kirkwood told the newspaper that a high roller came to the joint in a brand new 1946 Cadillac and hit it big at the craps tables. The mysterious gambler left with Pappy owing him a cool $100,000, which he promised to pay the following day. When the player arrived the next morning, he sauntered to the dice table and offered a heads-up battle. Pappy accepted, and things did not quite go as the gambler expected.
“Pop won back all his money, all the cash the guy had in his pocket and all the credits he’d given him,” Pat Kirkwood told the newspaper. “I drove the guy down to his hotel and dropped him off, then drove his new Caddy back to the club. Pop won that too.”
For poker players, the Jacksboro Highway no doubt was an occasional stop on the Southern circuit – the name given to cities traveled by Texas poker players looking for a poker game with a good game, high stakes and hopefully several suckers at the table. Along with Brunson, legendary players (and Texans) included “Amarillo Slim” Preston (World Series of Poker champion, Poker Hall of Fame), Bob Hooks (WSOP runner-up), Bill Smith (WSOP champion, Poker Hall of Fame) and Bryan “Sailor” Roberts (WSOP champion, Poker Hall of Fame).
As these men were traveling from game to game, Jacksboro Highway would be an occasional stop for many including those looking for the latest game to hit the scene – Texas Hold ‘Em. Author James McManus notes that Texas was obviously the birthplace of the poker game that has become the most popular form in America. An expert on the history of the game and author of Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker, McManus notes that Texas Hold ‘Em grew out of the back rooms in Texas.
“Poker began in New Orleans around 1805 and aboard the riverboats moving up and down the Mississippi from that new American port,” McManus said in an interview. “The history of Texas Hold ‘Em naturally begins in Texas about a hundred years later.”
And for poker rounders (the name given players who traveled “around” looking for a game) like Brunson in the 1950s, Jacksboro Highway always proved to be ready for a game – Texas Hold ‘Em included. For years, Richard Davis set up poker games in the area and recalls playing many of the “old timers” as they made their way to north Fort Worth. Jacksboro Highway may not have been the hotbed of poker that the rest of the city was, but if there was a high-stakes game on any given day, rounders like Brunson would be there – all looking to leave with a pocket full of cash.
Murders and Mobsters
With its underground casinos, houses of ill repute, dancing girls, and clubs with bootleg liquor, Jacksboro Highway naturally attracted the type of “businessmen” who were more than happy to skirt the law, skim cash off the top and deal with their competitors by any means necessary.
It would take much more space than is allotted here to detail all the characters that made Thunder Road their stomping grounds, but a few names stand out. Tiffin Hall moved to the city from Missouri in 1920 and owned several establishments throughout Fort Worth, including many on Jacksboro Highway. Quiet and impeccably dressed, Hall owned the Mexican Inn, which served tacos and enchiladas on the first floor – and gambling on the second. Throughout his lifetime, Hall had his hands in numerous gambling operations throughout the Metroplex, notes Gary Sleeper, author of I’ll Do My Own Damn Killin’: Benny Binion, Herbert Noble, and the Texas Gambling War. Binion ran underground casinos throughout the Metroplex (and reportedly owned a piece of some Thunder Road establishments) before heading to Las Vegas to found the Horseshoe Casino and later the World Series of Poker.
“Hall never denied his gambling background but never admitted to being a big-time gambling operator,” Sleeper writes. “Between 1922 and 1955, he was arrested 16 times, eight of those for gambling. But it was not until 1951 that Hall was identified as a major Fort Worth gambler – some said the kingpin – and an associate of Benny Binion. Even then, Hall would deny any connection with Binion or other Dallas gamblers.”
A rodeo performer as a young man, George Wilderspin was another “businessman” who found his way to Thunder Road. He sold cattle to Binion. He later ran gambling at the East Side Club in Haltom City and had his hand in other clubs before running afoul of the law. He later got out of the business and continued to raise and sell cattle.
Leroy “Tincy” Eggleston and Nelson Harris were also major operators on the highway. Harris started his life in crime as a deliveryman for the Green Dragon narcotics syndicate and became a bouncer for some joints on Jacksboro Highway after serving two years in federal prison. He also ran a prostitution racket and a club out of his own house, according to Sleeper. Considered “one of Fort Worth’s toughest and most versatile criminals,” Eggleston ran joints on Thunder Road, and throughout his lifetime was charged, indicted or convicted for murder, gambling, assault, hijacking, robbery and burglary.
From 1940-1960, author Ann Arnold notes that 16 gangland-style murders went unsolved. One of the most noted murders would eventually lead to the wide-open gambling, bootlegging and general hell-raising that made Jacksboro Highway notorious.
The End of the Road
Up until Nov. 22, 1950, most people in Fort Worth paid little attention to the dancing, the liquor, the gambling, the prostitution, or even the mob that flourished on Jacksboro Highway. Then, Nelson Harris and his family were blown up while sitting in the family car. Photos from the time show a grisly scene as a crowd gathers around. The doors are blown off, and the blood-covered canopy of the convertible is blown over the rear of the car.
“The explosion, audible for blocks in all directions, roared inside the two-door 1950 coach parked beside the Harris’ duplex apartment at 3105 Wingate as the couple started for a drive at 9:15 a.m.
Amazingly, no one ever stood trial for the murder, but that gang-style murder kick-started law enforcement officials to do something about the mob that ran gambling operations not only on the Jacksboro Highway, but also throughout Fort Worth. On March 31, 1951, a Tarrant County grand jury released the names of numerous people indicted for gambling violations, including Tiffin Hall, George Wilderspin and Pappy Kirkwood. Some would serve jail time, others would not, but the gambling would come to a stop in the ensuing years. Befitting Thunder Road’s reputation, Tincy Eggleston was left off the list but met his own untimely death. Police believe Eggleston attempted an extortion plot for $5,000 and was scheduled to pick up his money on Aug. 25, 1955. The tables turned on the lifelong criminal. His body was later discovered by police in an abandoned well behind an unoccupied home outside the city limits. A bullet hole was found in the back of his head.
The indictments and news of the violence related to the “businessmen” of the Jacksboro Highway definitely had a negative effect. Gambling dried up in the next decade. Many may have known those who were running the gambling scene but, like the police, had previously looked the other way. Even poker legend Doyle Brunson accepted who ran the card games and played in them (on what he called Bloodthirsty Highway) but eventually chose to gamble in other parts of the state.
“I knew the kind of people they were and what they were capable of doing, but as long as you kept on the straight and narrow with them, you’d be accepted. And you’d stay out of trouble,” he says of playing poker in the highway joints in the 1950s in The Godfather of Poker. “The money they won or stole, or whatever they did to get it, they brought to the poker games. I was there to win that money, and they were there to win mine. That’s poker. We were much better players than our crooked cohorts, and we regularly relieved them of their ill-gotten gains. Then they’d go steal more money, come scurrying back, and we’d break them again.”
