CARD TRICKS IN COURT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20898, 13 June 1931, Page 5 (Supplement)

CARD TRICKS IN COURT.

.*■ EXPOSURE BY BENCH. MAGISTRATE WHO KNEW. A New York magistrate, Mr. Mogilesky, sitting in the West Side Court in New York recently, solemnly shuffled a pack of cards. Ho placed them face down on the bench and touched tha top one. " This," he said, "is the queen of hearts. Ho turned it over. It was the queen of hearts. "And this," the magistrate continued, "is the three of clubs." He turned the second one over, and, sui'ely enough, there it was. Court attendants stared and twelve chauffeurs and labourers lined up against the bar of the court gasped. The magistrate then handed down an opinion. "No magic," he said. " Just a ' crooked ' deck. I can read the back of every card. You men have been swindled." A dice-table was also dragged into the court, and underneath it was a maze of wires. There was also a pair of dice, each,with one of its six sides magnetised. The cards, the table, and the dice had been seized in a raid at two o'clock in the morning on a room over a garasjn The twelve chauffeurs and labourers, customers of the place, were called as witnesses against the proprietor of the garage. The latter denied that he had anything to do with the gambling establishment. Constable W. J. McCaffrey saw a man emerge from the garage muttering, "They never let you win in that dump." He determined to investigate. He found no difficulty in gaining admittance to the upper room, where he saw the card and dice games in progress. One look at the dice was enough for McCaffrey. He noticed the magnetised side of each dice gleaming. He lifted the edge of the table and saw the button, so he turned out all the customers, and arrested the proprietor of the garage. The chief complaining witnesses were Victor Martin, an oiler, who said he lost £4O at cards and £3O at dice in one night, and Karl Ivatzenstein, a garage owner, who said he dropped £7O the same night at dico. Mr. Mogilesky was formerly an assistant prosecuting attorney, and gained a wide knowledge of the schemes used by crooked gamblers. Ho recognised the marked deck as soon as it was laid on his bench.