Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: You can't have a season about confidence artists and their
Speaker 2: games without talking about one of the classics, the shell game.
Speaker 2: It's been called a lot of things over the years,
Speaker 2: and during the time and place we're going to visit
Speaker 2: in this episode, we'll be calling it thimblerigg. Though it's
Speaker 2: often portrayed as a gambling game, it's actually a confidence
Speaker 2: trick used to perpetrate fraud. It is a long popular
Speaker 2: game among confidence artists, some who became famous for using
Speaker 2: this shortcun on many many marks. Sophie Smith, for instance,
Speaker 2: was a renowned thimble rigger. William Lucky Bill Florington was
Speaker 2: as well, and so was doctor Samuel Bennett, the confidence
Speaker 2: artist in this episode's hot seat Welcome to Criminalia. I'm
Speaker 2: Maria Tremarky.
Speaker 1: And I'm Holly Frye. Samuel Bennett was one of the
Speaker 1: best known so called thimble artists, perhaps ever, depending on
Speaker 1: who you ask, and he made a fortune playing the
Speaker 1: game on steamboats along the Mississippi and Red Rivers in
Speaker 1: the United States in the nineteenth century. Samuel was one
Speaker 1: of thirteen children born in January of seventeen ninety one
Speaker 1: in New Hampshire to Thomas and Sarah Bennett. We unsurprisingly
Speaker 1: have very little detail about his childhood, but we do
Speaker 1: know that before he turned confidence man, and actually during
Speaker 1: his confidence career as well, he did legitimate work. He
Speaker 1: worked as a fur trader, a merchant, and as a
Speaker 1: tavern keeper. You surely noticed Maria referred to him as
Speaker 1: doctor Samuel Bennett. The thing about that is he was
Speaker 1: never actually a real doctor. He had no training whatsoever,
Speaker 1: but he either tired or self styled the honorific title
Speaker 1: at some point early in his adulthood. In eighteen twelve, Samuel,
Speaker 1: at that point in his early twenties, became a father.
Speaker 1: He and a woman named Comfort Batchelder had a daughter
Speaker 1: named Mary Dole Silly Bennett and nicknamed Bammy in Chichester,
Speaker 1: New Hampshire. Mary herself has a big life story of
Speaker 1: her own. She's known as having been a shrewd business
Speaker 1: entrepreneur and is known as the mother of Shreveport, Louisiana.
Speaker 1: Although Samuel and his daughter had what seems to have
Speaker 1: been a pretty good relationship, when her father died, the
Speaker 1: rest of the Bennett sued to have Mary removed from
Speaker 1: his will. If you're wondering what the problem was, Samuel
Speaker 1: and Comfort never got married, which meant that Mary was
Speaker 1: born in a non marital union. At the time, she
Speaker 1: would have been called an illegitimate child, and for that reason,
Speaker 1: Samuel's family wanted to disallow her inheritance. Samuel's family actually
Speaker 1: won their suit.
Speaker 2: So let's go back to Samuel's life, not his death.
Speaker 2: He may have spent the first twenty two years of
Speaker 2: his life in New Hampshire, but Samuel was from Shreveport, Louisiana.
Speaker 2: If you get what we mean, he spent most of
Speaker 2: his adult life there and had a significant impact on
Speaker 2: the growth of the city. In fact, he and several
Speaker 2: other Bennett family members, including his daughter Mary, all played
Speaker 2: roles in the history of Shreveport over many decades before
Speaker 2: landing there, though, Samuel first moved from New Hampshire to Alabama,
Speaker 2: where he became a landowner and enslaver. And for perspective
Speaker 2: on the historical timeline, this was still a few decades
Speaker 2: before the American Civil War would begin. Small local papers
Speaker 2: occasionally wrote little stories about him, and it didn't take
Speaker 2: long for them to report on the details of his
Speaker 2: growing side gig his com career. To quote the press,
Speaker 2: Bennett played checkers unusually well, and I truly liked to
Speaker 2: play that game. Bennett considered it a wilful waste of
Speaker 2: time to play only for the sake of the game,
Speaker 2: and would not play except for a stake of not
Speaker 2: less than ten dollars a game.
Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty three, give or take a year, Samuel
Speaker 1: and his brother William found themselves back in New Hampshire,
Speaker 1: and while there, William fell in love with his niece Mary.
Speaker 1: By today's standards, that's problematic. Despite Samuel's concerns about the pairing,
Speaker 1: the two did marry and moved to Shreveport. The Caddo
Speaker 1: people called the area home before the arrival of Europeans,
Speaker 1: and William and Mary Bennett were among the earliest white
Speaker 1: inhabitants in the region. They set up post along the
Speaker 1: river and also made money through warehouses they owned on
Speaker 1: Cross Bayou. The Bennetts provided food and supplies to travelers
Speaker 1: who were making their way west into Texas. The family
Speaker 1: also operated a ferry to carry travelers across the Red River.
Speaker 1: Many many early settlers came through this region on their
Speaker 1: Way to the American West. By eighteen fifty, more than
Speaker 1: two hundred wagons per week passed through.
Speaker 2: The area to be near his daughter, brother and eventual grandchildren.
Speaker 2: Samuel too relocated to Shreveport. According to the Weekly Shreveport Times,
Speaker 2: quote he was engaged in mercantile and farming pursuits, owning
Speaker 2: the valuable body of Richland opposite the city, and for
Speaker 2: a short while ran a private bank here. He may
Speaker 2: have been involved in legit pursuits upon his arrival in Shreveport,
Speaker 2: but Samuel was already pretty well known throughout the American South,
Speaker 2: especially in cities in Alabama and Georgia, as a great
Speaker 2: trick man a corn artist. The Weekly Shreveport Times began
Speaker 2: to catch on and began to report that he quote
Speaker 2: had the distinguished honor of either inventing or reviving the
Speaker 2: game known as thimblerig, which has been calculated to capture
Speaker 2: the ung Way. They continued, quote a recital of his
Speaker 2: many sharp practices would fill a volume.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a break here for a word
Speaker 1: from our sponsors. When we return, we'll talk about what
Speaker 1: the game known as thimble rig is and how it's played.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, to criminalia. Shell game swindles are still in
Speaker 2: vogue among con artists today around the world. But let's
Speaker 2: talk about how thimble rig was played in the nineteenth century.
Speaker 1: The definition of a thimble rigger ever since the game's
Speaker 1: popularity in the eighteen hundreds, has been one who manipulates
Speaker 1: or controls, generally in deceptive or dishonest ways. The game itself,
Speaker 1: thimblerig is related to another game called cups and balls.
Speaker 1: That's a magic trick that's performed as entertainment. It's not
Speaker 1: anything to do with gambling or anything scammy. It's also
Speaker 1: pretty much the same swindle as three card Monty, just
Speaker 1: the substitute for the cards. Some will tell you it's
Speaker 1: a game of skill and not a swindle. Some people
Speaker 1: will tell you it's all just an illusion. So let's
Speaker 1: talk about how it's played.
Speaker 2: You'd actually probably recognize it if you saw it. It
Speaker 2: can be identified by its three small overturned containers and
Speaker 2: a small object for hiding. Over the years, the containers
Speaker 2: have been everything from fimbles to walnut shells to bottle caps,
Speaker 2: and the small object is usually a small ball, pebble, bead, button,
Speaker 2: You get the picture. There are descriptions of the game
Speaker 2: from the early eighteen hundreds, and though there have been
Speaker 2: slight changes over the decades, it's generally run like this.
Speaker 2: For simplicity, we're going to use thimbles and balls as
Speaker 2: our object examples, as that would have been common in
Speaker 2: nineteenth century thimblerig. It begins with the operator and this
Speaker 2: is the con artist inverting the three thimbles on a
Speaker 2: surface such as a mat or a table. A single
Speaker 2: ball is placed under one of those three inverted thimbles,
Speaker 2: and then then here's where they get you. The thimblerig
Speaker 2: scam works because of an illusion. The secret is a
Speaker 2: second ball. This involves an element of sleight of hand
Speaker 2: to pull off the swindle. The secret ball is placed
Speaker 2: under a second of the three thimbles, and the original
Speaker 2: ball is removed from play palmed by the operator. The
Speaker 2: operator quickly shuffles the containers with the replacement ball under them,
Speaker 2: while the better otherwise known as the mark, and spectators
Speaker 2: unwittingly look on. In his book Suckers Progress, An Informal
Speaker 2: History of Gambling in America from the Colonies to Canfield,
Speaker 2: Herbert Asbury describes the slow height of hand like this
Speaker 2: quote ten times out of ten, unless the bet was
Speaker 2: a come on, the object is between two of the
Speaker 2: thimble rigger's fingers or has been shifted by a confederate
Speaker 2: during the excitement of the betting. Now the action moves
Speaker 2: to the better. The better then chooses which container the
Speaker 2: object is under, and the odds here are super good
Speaker 2: that they do not choose correctly. In addition to this
Speaker 2: light of hand part of this scam, thimble artists often
Speaker 2: also had shills, who were people they paid to help them.
Speaker 2: Spectators watching shills win the game was often the boost
Speaker 2: they needed to try that game themselves.
Speaker 1: Samuel's variation was usually played with three thimbles and a tiny,
Speaker 1: rolled up paper ball. He claimed that he had played
Speaker 1: this game since he was just a kid, true or not.
Speaker 1: As an adult, he was so proficient at it that
Speaker 1: he was given the nicknames the King of Thimbles and
Speaker 1: the Napoleon of thimble Riggers. He was so good at
Speaker 1: the swindle that in the early eighteen forties, in part
Speaker 1: because of him, several states passed laws that specifically prohibited
Speaker 1: this game. Sometimes he's even credited with inventing the thimble
Speaker 1: rig but for certain he did not. He may have
Speaker 1: popularized it during his lifetime, we will absolutely give him that.
Speaker 1: But people were playing this game or running this con
Speaker 1: dating back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and of
Speaker 1: course the magic trick even predates that. In Great Britain
Speaker 1: in the early nineteenth century, it got the name thimble
Speaker 1: rig from the words thimble the original containers used in
Speaker 1: the game, and rig that's the obsolete term for trick.
Speaker 1: You have rigged the game.
Speaker 2: This swindle was very popular throughout the nineteenth century, and
Speaker 2: games were often set up in or around carnivals and
Speaker 2: other large events. Games of chance also became popular on
Speaker 2: America's new steamboats. In eighteen thirty six, historian and writer
Speaker 2: Benjamin Drake, a writer of popular sketches for newspapers at
Speaker 2: the time, introduced his audience to a new character, a
Speaker 2: riverboat gambler of sorts, what he called an American rascal,
Speaker 2: who rode steamboats up and down the Mississippi to take
Speaker 2: advantage of unsuspecting passengers with various rigged games of chance.
Speaker 2: These men, he wrote, quote, dress with taste and elegance,
Speaker 2: carry gold chronometers in their pockets, and swear with the
Speaker 2: most genteel precision. These men were in fact a real thing,
Speaker 2: and our Samuel Bennett, based out of Shreveport, was one
Speaker 2: of them.
Speaker 1: So we're going to take a break here for a
Speaker 1: word from our sponsors. But when we return we will
Speaker 1: talk about the rise and fall of steamboats in America
Speaker 1: and what that meant for riverboat gamblers like Samuel Bennett.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about what happened when
Speaker 2: gamblers and con artists got on board those steamboats.
Speaker 1: So we need to talk about riverboats for a minute.
Speaker 1: In the early eighteen hundreds in the United States, this
Speaker 1: is of course before rail travel. Transportation was limited. Mostly
Speaker 1: you could go by horse and wagon, ox cart, mule train.
Speaker 1: In the nineteenth century, rivers became the nation's kind of
Speaker 1: unofficial highway system for both traders and travelers. New steam
Speaker 1: powered boats could move upstream nearly as fast as downstream,
Speaker 1: and could travel at what were astonishing speeds for the time,
Speaker 1: as fast as five miles per hour or that's about
Speaker 1: eight kilometers per hour. The Mississippi River flows through ten states,
Speaker 1: and that river has long played a vital role in
Speaker 1: American expansion. In the eighteen hundreds, the river carried just
Speaker 1: about every trade good you might imagine from the time
Speaker 1: first from the Great Lakes and the Missouri River region,
Speaker 1: agricultural staples like corn and wheat from the Midwest, a
Speaker 1: swell as cotton, sugar, and tobacco from the plantations of
Speaker 1: the South. Because of its dominance and significance, the Mississippi
Speaker 1: has often been called the lifeblood of American industry and commerce.
Speaker 2: So we can probably point a finger at Samuel Clemons,
Speaker 2: also known as the legendary author Mark Twain, for the
Speaker 2: romanticized Americana image of paddlewheel steam riverboats floating down the
Speaker 2: Mississippi River. In his memoir, which was called Life on
Speaker 2: the Mississippi, he wrote of his days as a steamboat
Speaker 2: pilot in the years before the American Civil War. Twain
Speaker 2: described the Mississippi River towns as quote comely clean, well built,
Speaker 2: and pleasing to the eye and cheering to the spirit.
Speaker 2: The Mississippi Valley is as a dreamland, nothing worldly about it,
Speaker 2: nothing to hang a fret or worry upon. And he
Speaker 2: described the riverboats as full of passengers playing card games
Speaker 2: and enjoying live music and dancing, all true stuff. He
Speaker 2: also wrote of gamblers and thieves, cheating travelers, out of
Speaker 2: a bunch of money. Also true, and our subject today,
Speaker 2: Samuel Bennett wasn't there for that live music or that dancing.
Speaker 2: He was there for that bunch of money.
Speaker 1: While that five miles per hour was an astounding riverboat
Speaker 1: speed for its time, it was still five miles per hour.
Speaker 1: That meant that passengers weren't going anywhere especially fast. So
Speaker 1: to pass the time, people began to enjoy various entertainments
Speaker 1: on board, and with that need for diversion, it was
Speaker 1: kind of as if the steamboats had hung out a
Speaker 1: welcome sign for professional gamblers and swindlers to come aboard,
Speaker 1: and they did go aboard, probably for a few reasons.
Speaker 1: It was easy to keep a low profile when traveling
Speaker 1: on the river. Plus there were likely plenty of passengers
Speaker 1: on board who were gullible in the ways of games
Speaker 1: of chance, especially when those games are rigged. And also
Speaker 1: it was in part just due to the law certain
Speaker 1: states prohibited gambling, but that only applied on land. Twain
Speaker 1: once described the riverboat gamblers as quote, rough repulsive fellows.
Speaker 1: He wrote of their presence on the river as quote
Speaker 1: I could not help seeing them with some frequency, for
Speaker 1: they gambled in an upper deck stateroom every day and night,
Speaker 1: and in my promenades I often had glimpses of them
Speaker 1: through their door, which stood a little ajar to let
Speaker 1: out the surplus tobacco, smoke, and profanity. They were an
Speaker 1: evil and hateful presence, but I had to put up
Speaker 1: with it. Of course.
Speaker 2: Samuel Bennett's name had become so tightly linked to the
Speaker 2: game of thimble rig that curious passengers on the riverboats
Speaker 2: he frequented began and to approach him and ask for demonstrations. First,
Speaker 2: he quite modestly feigned reluctance to do so. No no,
Speaker 2: but thank you for the interest. Pressed a second time, well,
Speaker 2: doctor Bennett would be happy to show off, and, considering
Speaker 2: the passengers knew who he was when they approached him,
Speaker 2: he would ironically walk away with pocketfuls of cash he'd
Speaker 2: fleeced from them during his demonstration. In eighteen fifty seven,
Speaker 2: gambler turned con exposer Jonathan Green described in his book
Speaker 2: Gambling Exposed a quote merchant from Philadelphia, who, though a
Speaker 2: very intelligent man and a shrewd businessman, was far above
Speaker 2: intrigue and unwittingly lost over sixteen hundred dollars to gamblers
Speaker 2: on the Mississippi to that point. Riverboat confidence man Canada,
Speaker 2: Bill Jones was once quoted saying suckers had no business
Speaker 2: with money, a sentiment said perhaps by every con artist
Speaker 2: we've talked about so far this season.
Speaker 1: I would imagine, as you might imagine, riverboat gambling wasn't
Speaker 1: without potential violence and other crime. Historians report people taking
Speaker 1: the law into their own hands to punish accused cheaters, thieves,
Speaker 1: and other criminals while floating on the river. In eighteen
Speaker 1: thirty five, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, for example, five gamblers were
Speaker 1: lynched after other passengers discovered them cheating at cards. Gambling
Speaker 1: on a riverboat on the Mississippi, which was mainly unregulated
Speaker 1: waters skirted local laws.
Speaker 2: The era of the steamboat began its rise in popularity
Speaker 2: and prominence at the same time as the popularity and
Speaker 2: prominence of card games, in particular poker. But card games
Speaker 2: were really having a moment. By the eighteen thirties, more
Speaker 2: than twelve hundred steamboats for carrying passengers and products around
Speaker 2: America's waterways, and men like Bennett were eager to run
Speaker 2: rigged games on all of them, and by all of them.
Speaker 2: I mean all of the boats and all of the people.
Speaker 2: Some of the earliest tales of poker games date to
Speaker 2: this time period. Many accounts describe all kinds of games
Speaker 2: played on decks, in parlors, bars, and in private rooms
Speaker 2: aboard those riverboats on the Mississippi, the Ohio, and other
Speaker 2: waterways around the country. After the American Civil War, the
Speaker 2: railroad system grew rapidly. The first transcontinental line was completed
Speaker 2: in Running in eighteen sixty nine. Travelers and of course
Speaker 2: the cheats who followed them, began riding the rails, which
Speaker 2: was now the fastest method of travel during the final
Speaker 2: decades of the nineteenth century. By nineteen oh four, some
Speaker 2: states began to soften their gambling laws, luring people from
Speaker 2: the river back ashore. It's also the same year the
Speaker 2: first legitimate riverboat casino, called the City of Traverse set
Speaker 2: sail on Lake Michigan, and that's generally accepted by modern
Speaker 2: historians as the start of riverboat gambling as an organized
Speaker 2: commercial operation. Iowa went on to become the first state
Speaker 2: to legalize riverboat gambling, but that didn't happen until nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty nine.
Speaker 1: But that railroad expansion happened after Samuel's death. In his life,
Speaker 1: he was both a legitimate businessman with an unmistakable influence
Speaker 1: on the growth of Shreveport, Louisiana, and a man who
Speaker 1: got really rich running confidence tricks on the passengers of
Speaker 1: American riverboats. He died on September twenty first, eighteen fifty three,
Speaker 1: in Shreveport. Aptly written by Twain about life on the
Speaker 1: river and it seems like it might apply to Samuel
Speaker 1: now and then we had a hope that if we
Speaker 1: lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you got to go pirate sometimes. So what kind
Speaker 2: of a drink would you bring to this occasion?
Speaker 1: It?
Speaker 2: Right, we're on riverbod. This is Newfound territory.
Speaker 1: Yes, but this is one of those ones that I
Speaker 1: knew the second I looked at this what I wanted
Speaker 1: to do excellent. So this is a drink that we're
Speaker 1: just gonna call the thimble rig. And of course all
Speaker 1: this talk of thimbles made me have to make a shot,
Speaker 1: which we don't do very often.
Speaker 2: I think have we done one?
Speaker 1: Perhaps one? Maybe two? May so I wanted to make
Speaker 1: a shot in reference to the cups or thimbles. But
Speaker 1: I also wanted something that's very Louisiana. So I wanted
Speaker 1: to do a drink that's very popular in Louisiana, and
Speaker 1: there are several, but the one I focused on was
Speaker 1: a sidecar. Okay, but in this case, it's a shot
Speaker 1: version of a side car that also can transform into
Speaker 1: something new as a cocktail, just as Samuel kind of
Speaker 1: transitioned from role to role in his life. From legitimate
Speaker 1: business too not so much. Yes, so this is a
Speaker 1: very easy shot to make. You are just gonna pour
Speaker 1: an ounce and a half of cognac and a half
Speaker 1: ounce of lemon cello into your shaker with ice. You're
Speaker 1: gonna shake. I add this is an optional a splash
Speaker 1: of vanilla syrup or simple syrup. It just takes the
Speaker 1: bite out of it and it makes it a little
Speaker 1: smoother to drink. So you'll shake that all with ice,
Speaker 1: strain it into a pre chilled shot glass, and you're
Speaker 1: ready to go. This is where I mentioned it is
Speaker 1: perfectly okay to sip a shot. You do not have
Speaker 1: to down it all at once. If anyone tells you
Speaker 1: you have to, there being a jerk. But the other
Speaker 1: thing is that this is also a thing that you
Speaker 1: can make into a proper cocktail that will be something
Speaker 1: different from a sidecar but unique on a own. So
Speaker 1: you can take this shaken up magic, pour it into
Speaker 1: a glass with rocks, and then top it with ginger ale,
Speaker 1: and it becomes this incredibly simpable drink, like just the
Speaker 1: easiest drink on earth to drink.
Speaker 2: A very bright drink to have too. Like as spring starts,
Speaker 2: I start thinking this has citrusy flavors in it.
Speaker 1: The citrus is light. The cognac is really driving the
Speaker 1: flavor profile because there's so much more of it. It's
Speaker 1: one part of the lemon cello to three parts of
Speaker 1: the cognac. A nice, really full bodied but yet not
Speaker 1: heavy drink once you add ginger ale to it. I
Speaker 1: loved it. The mocktail is involves a couple extra steps,
Speaker 1: nothing crazy, but to make a version of a substitute
Speaker 1: for cognac. Here, we're going to actually start with a
Speaker 1: very light version of syrup, similar to a simple but
Speaker 1: not quite I boiled two cups of water with a
Speaker 1: quarter cup of molasses. Oh okay, and let that just
Speaker 1: all simmer a little bit and get incorporated. And then
Speaker 1: I dropped a tea bag of English breakfast in there,
Speaker 1: and I let that steep for a little while, and
Speaker 1: then I pulled the tea bag out. That way you
Speaker 1: have that little bit of sweetness that cognac can often have,
Speaker 1: but it's not overwhelming. The flavor of the English breakfast
Speaker 1: gives that sweetness a little more, a little more of
Speaker 1: a layered flavor. It's not just like, oh, that tastes
Speaker 1: like a little bit like molasses. It's the I can't
Speaker 1: realize there's something else, but it's also not too terrific.
Speaker 1: That's how you make your substitute for cognac in this version,
Speaker 1: in lieu of lemon cello, you can use a lemon syrup.
Speaker 1: You can't find a lemon syrup. Simple syrup, one cup
Speaker 1: of water, one cup of sugar, some cut up lemons.
Speaker 1: Let that simmer for a little bit, and then you
Speaker 1: strain it off and you're good doo, and then you
Speaker 1: can do everything else the same. So that is the
Speaker 1: thimble rig, a drink that I think might carry me
Speaker 1: through spring this year because it's easy to make. It
Speaker 1: tastes really different and unique, but not in a way
Speaker 1: that's especially as salted. Nothing is nothing. There are no
Speaker 1: heavy flavors about it once you've made it into a cocktail,
Speaker 1: and I quite enjoyed it for that reason. The shot
Speaker 1: is also great. But if you don't want that much
Speaker 1: concentrated ABV in your mouth, and you just back it
Speaker 1: off with a little bit of jigger ale, and you're golden,
Speaker 1: both literally and figuratively. As we sip our magical cocktails,
Speaker 1: we're going to enjoy this one. We would like to
Speaker 1: make sure we thank you for spending this time with us.
Speaker 1: We will be right back here again next week with
Speaker 1: another tail of a scoundrel who might want to take
Speaker 1: your money and a yummy, delicious drink. Criminalia is a
Speaker 1: production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.