I paid Argo $9 and missed all five shots. The Dixie Mafias territory stretched all over the South, from Georgia to Oklahoma. While planning for a San Antonio, Texas, state fair, Wade Shows carnival owner Frank Zaitshik stated that it costs him $100,000 to hire off-duty police officers. Some of the cash generated from Franks games should easily cover the overtime pay for carny-cops and perhaps some gratuity items such as free corn-dogs and Winnie the Pooh bears. As a retired police officer, I continued to expose and help curb what I found to be a free-wheeling crime anomaly, by publishing several investigative accounts, including two books: Carnival Games: The Perfect Crimes (2010) and Carnival Games: $10,000,000,000 Hoodwink Racket (2012). The cruise line giant Carnival Corporation and its Princess subsidiary have agreed to pay a criminal penalty of $20 million for environmental violations such as They primarily operated in Biloxi, Mississippi, but the groups reach soon stretched from Atlanta, Georgia to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Rossen Reports: Are carnival games cheating you-and your kids?" WebThe HBO series "Carnivle" centered around a traveling carnival in the American Southwest during the 1930s. We take pride in what we do. Carnival midways are the only venues in the United States where local police departments allow carnival lots to be free crime zones for illegal gambling, larceny, and fraud. According to law enforcement sources, the outdoor amusement industry is at least a $10 billion-per-year business in North America, mostly a cash-based trade. So this is a fair one to assume. (This practice, one would presume, should already be standard police procedure and routine.). State legislators said carnival companies have exaggerated costs to kill bills. For 15 years, his city has required carnival companies to submit employees' names--since a 10-year-old boy was sexually molested by a carnival worker who had just been released from prison for a similar offense. NBC News; NBC News.com Today show 7/13/2012 (and also aired on Dateline 8/19/12). Few cities have ordinances that require background checks. Step right on up! Playing ignorant to his many crooked games including Razzle, Gregory, with feigned dismay and with an award-winning performance on camera, stated his intent to fire his swindlers. This particular con links fraud and gambling together with a smooth-talking con artist (agent) who bedazzles his mark, and wins every time. Police officers patrolling midways are evidently being paid in whole or in part with carnival money in the form of contracts from the carnival company or carnival sponsor. The various suspect games on NAMEs midway, vividly depicted in Biloxi and Indianapolis, are featured in Jeff Rossens and Sandra Thomass 2012 expos. The mark will often return and become heavily invested, as the doubling effect will drain his bank account before reaching the goal line. After the mob apparently ordered a hit on the judge, Sherry and his wife were murdered in their Mississippi home in 1987. My dad built his own candy apple stand when he was in college and stayed in the business for over 30 years. Lists about the strange, fascinating, and horrifying history of circuses and carnivals in America and around the world. Carnival midways are the only venues in the United States where local For a carnival owner or manager to deny responsibility is like saying I didnt run you over, my car did! When it comes to interviews, carnival owners and managers will act outraged while feigning ignorance about the rigged game and its perpetrator. These small carnys get seedier every year. Yes, they are scraping by and yes they are poor, but labor ready hires anyone who is there to work at 6am in the morning . There were hundreds of victims. This is an ideal way for owners to feel they bought and own the loyalty of cops on their midways. Instead, the Dixie Mafia was a rag-tag band of crooks who were willing to do just about any crime if there was money involved. There must be collaboration among governmental agencies regarding the identification, tracking, and documenting of these interstate businessmen along with recognizing the moral and social ills associated with the intentions of most to take criminal financial advantage of children. They dont! From 1995 to 2002, Gregory and his wife, Vonna Jo Gregory, contributed heavily to politicians in national elections. The sheriffs revenge story was later depicted in the 1973 film Walking Tall. I quickly learned that the carnival in question donated $1,000 to the police department and some officers didnt want to upset the carnival workers and chance losing that gift. It is quite common for illegal carnival operators to pay off police and public officials in order to operate, says Riedthaler in the Corruption of Officials section of his police training seminar called Carnival Games Gambling and Frauds.. Pop two balloons and get your pick of any prize! Good ol Uncle Cecil. They collected roughly $12,000, although the victims may have underreported the theft to avoid tax troubles. No way. Frank has carnival contracts there as well. Bill Colgin/Getty ImagesThe Dixie Mafias territory stretched all over the South, from Georgia to Oklahoma. Repeat for nine months. Gaffed and chance-based games travel to thousands of carnival lots and fairs each year, raking in billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains with virtual impunity. Human flotsam. The British form of fairground cant is called "polari". So while carnival talk did not entice people, it did help the carnies to ensure that the customers never knew about the shady back-end of things, Winter says. At a recent federal corruption trial, federal investigators testified that Lovett took bribes from a carnival owner during a nine-year period of carnival events from 2004 to 2013 to protect illegal carnival games including a classic old carnival game known as Razzle Dazzle. It is estimated that Lovett, while chief, took bribe installments which amounted to $75,000. This impeded rebound, giving the impression of an easy win as the grifters demo balls never bounce out. As for the OP, I second WhyNot. I read every article, book, and case law I could find relating to these games. Carnivals are ubiquitous in the Garden State, but an aura of mystery swirls around the people who stage the phantasmagoric spectacles that light up empty fields According to information from a Dearborn police officer, in confidence, the police department security hired to patrol Dearborns Arab International Festival is annually awarded a $10,000 contract by festival sponsor, American Arab Chamber of Commerce, to pay overtime for the services of off-duty police officers who patrol the four-day event. He finally got his settlement, and actually gave my Mom and Dad some money for their trouble. Migrant workers in the fairs and carnivals often assemble rides with no safety training and equipment. OK, you GOTTA give us details! By the 1980s, many top members of the Dixie Mafia had found themselves in prison. She was clearly astonished and interested in securing this elliptical type of rim for a demonstration during her Today feature. A worker with a criminal background sexually assaulted three children at Downers Grove Heritage Fest two years ago, according to DuPage County records. In 2004, four off-duty cops in New Orleans were implicated, with one of them federally indicted, for a charge related to conspiracy to protect and profit from a Razzle business during the carnival season. That could be anybody. [citation needed] Most carnies no longer use cant, but some owners/operators and "old-timers" ("half yarders") still use some of the classic terms. These are people that the term transient doesnt even begin to touch. Not one ball went through any of the 12 stingy rims. Its not a gig where they ask too many questions about your personal or employment history or your plans for the future. The old classic carnivals with geeks & shows of dubious morality etc. Cries for a state law started after a convicted sex offender working as a carnival worker raped and drugged a 15-year-old girl at the Illinois State Fair in 2001. Are the officers who wear NAME shirts really policing officers or just bouncers with the job of protecting games and ridding the midway of sore losers?. Pre-teens are allowed to play a classic gambling game called Crazy Ball at most festivals and fairs. Getty ImagesBuford Pusser supposedly took out several members of the Dixie Mafia to avenge his wifes death. Justice on Fire is OConnors detailed account of the terrible explosion that led to the firefighters deaths and the terrible injustice that followed. Several scout-cars responded and one bully-type sergeant threatened to arrest me. Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled. In my research spanning the last 17 years, I estimate that about 75 percent of carnival games on todays traveling midways are gambling, frauds, or a combination of both; up from law enforcements earlier estimate of 50 percent. Cops taking the bribes are also in violation of RICO and similar state statutes. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. Step right up to the king of all carnival rip-offs, Razzle Dazzle, which searches for and destroys its prey. Learn all about Carnival Worker educational requirements, degrees, majors, certifications, online courses, and top colleges that will help you advance in Carnival Worker career. Testimony was that Roach paid Lovett for protection from police while Roach cheated customers through such games as Razzle Dazzle also known as Razzle, which gave players no chance to win. Lovett was also fined $50,000. After a fruitful investigation, Thomas phoned to say that many of the games appeared to be rigged, based on results. ", In this CBS News Online, July 12, 2011, video. For the youthful victim, rebound energy forced her ball out of the empty tub each time because the angle of the tub is always set up to cause failure in this scam. [3] As words are assimilated into the culture at large, they lose their function and are replaced by more obscure or insular terms. Do a little googling on carnies and carnival workers and youll find thats a common assessment. It was a crime spree that spanned four generations and crossed multiple states from Texas to Oregon, beginning in the early 1920s with ancestors who were Risky Rides: Carnival Workers' Grueling Hours May Threaten Safety. They live on the road throughout the summerand fall, setting up and tearing down rides, or hosting games to bilk people out of their money (unless you know the secrets to beating their tricks). In 2014, a Razzle victim wrote to me about being fleeced for $7,000 at a festival in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The flatty allowed this gentleman to leave and return with money retrieved from an ATM several times. The life is really like a frat house on wheels:rampant [use of illicit substances]abounds. When the victims got in touch, Nix duped them into sending the mob large sums of money to pay for his legal defense. Before long, other Dixie Mafia inmates got involved in the scam, placing more fake photos in gay publications and coming up with tall tales about why they needed more money before they could leave jail (or wherever else they claimed to be). Its only nickel and dime! I hope this article will be an epiphany to naysayers, that this blind uninformed acceptability, enabled by politics and the absence of enforcement, will one day be a big deal. In 2000, just prior to leaving office, President Clinton pardoned the Gregorys. NAME actually had company shirts available for their carny-cops, stating SECURITY., While working the security detail on that NAME midway, are the Joliet cops supposed to protect and serve carnival-goers, or just the carnies? It usually takes zero years Willie Lovett was the longtime chief of police of the Savannah Chatham, Georgia, Metro Police Department. Young teens are the now the focus at carnival festivals. Go to work at 6 am;go to bed at 2 am the next day. It is only through undercover surveillance, search warrants, raids, arrests, Freedom of Information Act requests, and prosecutions by trained law enforcement agents that carnival owners and their representatives will get the message to start following local, state, and federal laws. Authorities initially speculated that the gang members had killed McDaniel because they were afraid that he was an informant, but others suspected that he was actually taken out by Pusser. The long hours of travel, erection (no pun intended, as I cant even imaging a Carny getting a hard-on with all the Meth in thier system) and tear-down of the carnival are custom-made for Meth abuse and Nut-jobs. A prime example is the Chief Willie Lovett case. East coast or west? Twenty-four others, mostly women and children, had stayed behind at the campsite. How many kids want to go to a sideshow these days? The objective of the Razzle agent is to. Along with other costs, in most cases, a contracted carnival owner pays the contract fee, (around $1million), in advance of a long-running state fair. Its a mix. As such, yeah, they do sometimes attract the less than savory folks. Gaffed and chance-based games travel to thousands of carnival lots and fairs each year, raking in billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains with virtual impunity. WebWhile the vast majority of carnival workers are responsible and helpful, a few have been caught engaging in criminal activity. 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