Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Gambler and the Bug Boy: 1939 Los Angeles and the Untold Story of a Horse Racing Fix

The Gambler and the Bug Boy: 1939 Los Angeles and the Untold Story of a Horse Racing Fix

Christgau, John

Paperback

RacingRegional: WestTrue Crime

Publisher Price: $23.95

ISBN10: 0803271700
ISBN13: 9780803271708
Publisher: Univ Of Nebraska Pr
Published: Nov 1 2013
Pages: 280
Weight: 0.75
Height: 0.70 Width: 5.20 Depth: 8.30
Language: English
Scandal on the Turf! the Los Angeles Times proclaimed. It was October 1940, a mere few months after Seabiscuit had won the Santa Anita Derby, and now this bombshell: Six Jockeys Admit Horse Races Fixed. The Gambler and the Bug Boy recounts this dark chapter in horse racing history. At its center is Bernard Big Mooney, a flashy L.A. bookmaker who began his seedy career by threatening young jockeys with death if they didn't pull their horses. His unwilling partner is Albert Siler, a callow, eighteen-year-old apprentice rider (a so-called bug boy) from eastern Oregon. John Christgau tells how Big Mooney manipulated this promising rider and how Siler tried to escape the gambler's criminal grip without ruining his career. Christgau's book gives all the harrowing details of the unraveling plot and the botched court case that followed which riveted the attention of the nation. Told in full for the first time, this story brings to light a little-known but important horse racing scandal.

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