Poker History: Remembering Johnny Moss

[Johnny Hughes]

The current issue of Bluff Magazine has an article on Johnny Moss similar to the Poker History series I have been posting here.

Remembering Johnny Moss

by Johnny Hughes

The first time I met Johnny Moss was in Longview, Texas in 1959. On our five hundred mile drive from Lubbock to Longview, Curly Green taught me about gambling with his stories about Johnny Moss and Pat Renfro, who had been partners when they were only 21 years old, back in 1928. In his Cadillac, Curly had a high-powered rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, a .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol, and the .38 caliber revolver that he always carried inside gambling joints. Johnny Moss and Curly had known each other for many years in Dallas. Both men wore the baggy, pleated, dark-colored slacks that would help disguise the barking iron they always carried. Being robbed or arrested was commonplace. In fact, Pat, Curly, and Johnny had just been robbed in a large poker game in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The robbers were real pros out of Kansas City. They had machine guns and teargas. Curly ran into the bathroom and hid most of his bankroll and his doorknob-sized diamond ring. The robbers told him to come out or they would shoot through the door. As soon as Curly came out, the main masked bandit asked him, “Curly, where’s that ring?”.

The robbers made the men line up and searched them. Then they announced that they were going to search again and anyone holding out would be pistol-whipped. Pat said, “Hey, you missed a little dab,” pointing to four hundred-dollar bills in his shirt pocket....

http://www.bluffmagazine.com/magazine/preview.asp

Johnny Hughes

[Daliman]

[ QUOTE ]
The current issue of Bluff Magazine has an article on Johnny Moss similar to the Poker History series I have been posting here.

Remembering Johnny Moss

by Johnny Hughes

The first time I met Johnny Moss was in Longview, Texas in 1959. On our five hundred mile drive from Lubbock to Longview, Curly Green taught me about gambling with his stories about Johnny Moss and Pat Renfro, who had been partners when they were only 21 years old, back in 1928. In his Cadillac, Curly had a high-powered rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, a .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol, and the .38 caliber revolver that he always carried inside gambling joints. Johnny Moss and Curly had known each other for many years in Dallas. Both men wore the baggy, pleated, dark-colored slacks that would help disguise the barking iron they always carried. Being robbed or arrested was commonplace. In fact, Pat, Curly, and Johnny had just been robbed in a large poker game in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The robbers were real pros out of Kansas City. They had machine guns and teargas. Curly ran into the bathroom and hid most of his bankroll and his doorknob-sized diamond ring. The robbers told him to come out or they would shoot through the door. As soon as Curly came out, the main masked bandit asked him, “Curly, where’s that ring?”.

The robbers made the men line up and searched them. Then they announced that they were going to search again and anyone holding out would be pistol-whipped. Pat said, “Hey, you missed a little dab,” pointing to four hundred-dollar bills in his shirt pocket....

http://www.bluffmagazine.com/magazine/preview.asp

Johnny Hughes

[/ QUOTE ]
Borderline?

[Hume]

Recycling?

Once Ace and Pat Renfro were down near Corpus when some real professional robbers out of Kansas City took down a really big game. They had shot guns and tear gas and the lookout decided to open the door. Ace hid his huge diamond ring in the bathroom towel dispenser and locked himself in the bathroom. The heisters yelled for him to come on out and "bring that sparkler." After they searched every one, they lined them up and announced they were going to search them again and if they found any hidden money, somebody was getting pistol whipped. Pat Renfro pointed at $300 in his shirt pocket and said, "You missed a little dab." This was long ago and they both said they were pleased to be doing business with real professional robbers because no one got hurt.

http://www.pokerpages.com/articles/p...y-hughes06.htm

[NT!]

lol

[Ralph Wiggum]

great story [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[SuperUberBob]

[ QUOTE ]
Recycling?

Once Ace and Pat Renfro were down near Corpus when some real professional robbers out of Kansas City took down a really big game. They had shot guns and tear gas and the lookout decided to open the door. Ace hid his huge diamond ring in the bathroom towel dispenser and locked himself in the bathroom. The heisters yelled for him to come on out and "bring that sparkler." After they searched every one, they lined them up and announced they were going to search them again and if they found any hidden money, somebody was getting pistol whipped. Pat Renfro pointed at $300 in his shirt pocket and said, "You missed a little dab." This was long ago and they both said they were pleased to be doing business with real professional robbers because no one got hurt.

http://www.pokerpages.com/articles/p...y-hughes06.htm

[/ QUOTE ]

lol pwn

[Wetdog]

[ QUOTE ]
Recycling?

Once Ace and Pat Renfro were down near Corpus when some real professional robbers out of Kansas City took down a really big game. They had shot guns and tear gas and the lookout decided to open the door. Ace hid his huge diamond ring in the bathroom towel dispenser and locked himself in the bathroom. The heisters yelled for him to come on out and "bring that sparkler." After they searched every one, they lined them up and announced they were going to search them again and if they found any hidden money, somebody was getting pistol whipped. Pat Renfro pointed at $300 in his shirt pocket and said, "You missed a little dab." This was long ago and they both said they were pleased to be doing business with real professional robbers because no one got hurt.

http://www.pokerpages.com/articles/p...y-hughes06.htm

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, recycling, so what? If you didn't see it there, you saw it here.

Good stuff, Johnny.

[Tornado69]

Johnny, you used to post on thepokerforum right ?

[StepBangin]

[ QUOTE ]
lol pwn

[/ QUOTE ]

How? Its the same story by the same author.

[458 Lott]

[ QUOTE ]
The current issue of Bluff Magazine has an article on Johnny Moss similar to the Poker History series I have been posting here.

Remembering Johnny Moss

by Johnny Hughes

The first time I met Johnny Moss was in Longview, Texas in 1959. On our five hundred mile drive from Lubbock to Longview, Curly Green taught me about gambling with his stories about Johnny Moss and Pat Renfro, who had been partners when they were only 21 years old, back in 1928. In his Cadillac, Curly had a high-powered rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, a .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol, and the .38 caliber revolver that he always carried inside gambling joints. Johnny Moss and Curly had known each other for many years in Dallas. Both men wore the baggy, pleated, dark-colored slacks that would help disguise the barking iron they always carried. Being robbed or arrested was commonplace. In fact, Pat, Curly, and Johnny had just been robbed in a large poker game in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The robbers were real pros out of Kansas City. They had machine guns and teargas. Curly ran into the bathroom and hid most of his bankroll and his doorknob-sized diamond ring. The robbers told him to come out or they would shoot through the door. As soon as Curly came out, the main masked bandit asked him, “Curly, where’s that ring?”.

The robbers made the men line up and searched them. Then they announced that they were going to search again and anyone holding out would be pistol-whipped. Pat said, “Hey, you missed a little dab,” pointing to four hundred-dollar bills in his shirt pocket....

http://www.bluffmagazine.com/magazine/preview.asp

Johnny Hughes

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know about some this stuff. Having spent all my life in Texas and having heard a lot of BS in my time about the Kennedy assasination and a lot of stories about the road gamblers and whiskey runners and outlaw types. The "barking iron" thing is just a little too much, sounds like something out of a paperback western novel or a Marty Robbins song. A lot of us have always carried here in Texas and still do, have never referred to or known anyone to refer to their piece as "barking iron".

The 1960s was as far from the old west as it is today. You can still find plenty of backroom games to get into, and you can still get your brains blown out or robbed.

A few questions I have to ask about the above story, is how does anyone know that the robbers were from Kansas City? And how did they know Curly by name? And how did they know about his ring? And how did they know up in Kansas City that this game was gonna happen in South Texas on this particular day?

Couldn't the robbers have been from Texas and had machine guns and tear gas? The Newton Boys were from South Texas and were as pro as any robbers ever were, and always had access to tear gas and machine guns way before this alleged incident occurred?

Why Kansas City? Maybe that gives the people hearing the story the impression of Thompson guns and Al Capone gangster types and makes for a better story maybe? Kind of overkill if you ask me. A couple broke country boys wearing ski masks and a couple shotguns maybe?

I know you teach, or used to teach up at Texas Tech and you tell a fair story. But, you tell a lot of stories that were told to you, and they may have been stretched a bit over the years. We both know that old Texas saying "Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story". The above story should have been titled "Riding With Curly Green".