CARD SHARPERS ON LINERS

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 115, 18 May 1925, Page 5

CARD SHARPERS ON LINERS

THREE SENT TO GAOL. THE SECOND ACE OF DIAMONDS. Five, years' hard labour for card cheatiiig'nn I lie lii-.li seas was imposed at Nan Francisco last month on tlirce gamblers who, according to testimony introduced by the .Public Prosecutor, recently transferred their operations from Atlantic to Pacific liners.

The three prisoners, .Jeremiah Paine, Norman McLeod, and Charles Steel, made v spectacular defence, their trial lasting more than a fortnight.

It was alleged that they lured Mr. -I. A. Rolfs, a rich Chicago manufacturer, and another dupe into a game of poker. Mr- Rolfs had a remarkable run of luck. He won until the prisoners, in professional parlance, "cold packed" him. Even then the cheats were for the lime foiled by the unexpected luck of the second dupe.

At length Mr. Rolfs discarded the ace of diamonds to draw for a fourth kind, lie bet fill) on a quartet of kings, only to encounter a royal Hush, which included the king and ace of diamonds, held hy one of the three professional gamblers. The spectators testified that another ace of diamonds was found in the discard.

The gamblers protested that they were men of independent means travelling for pleasure, and that the ace of diamonds was introduced by Mr. Rolfs, apparently without any motive.