Betting Booze and Brothels

by Laura OToole, Wanda Landrey (Editor)

By the turn of the twentieth century, Beaumont, Texas had acquired a reputation as a rough place. Situated in the oil-soaked chaos of Spindletop, Jefferson County was a hotbed of vice. For decades, gambling and prostitution thrived as elected officials either looked the other way or took money to keep quiet. That is, until 1960 when a swashbuckling young state legislator blew into town and spearheaded an intensive investigation into the rampant vice and governmental corruption that supported it. And, at a time when such things were virtually unheard of, he and his committee played it out on live television. When the dust finally cleared, the local governments of Jefferson County were turned inside out.

250 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[Michael Gillespie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-researched and well-crafted informal and somewhat idealized history of vice (gambling, prostitution, the illicit drug and alcohol trade) and official corruption in Southeast Texas, Betting, Booze and Brothels pulls back the curtains on the "wide-open" era of the boomtown Oil Patch in Jefferson County, Texas.

I found it interesting to compare and contrast post-War Athens, TN and post-War Beaumont, TX. In the former, returning veterans effectively challenged an utterly corrupt political and law enforcement mob/administration in 1946. In the latter, my hometown, returning WWII veterans assumed control of an existing corrupt political and law enforcement criminal organization and grew it for almost 20 years without opposition until a local newspaper reporter wrote about the corruption and state government in the form of the Texas House of Representatives Investigating Committee stepped in. Even then, after arrests, televised hearings, and scandal in 1960 that drew national attention, curbing the vice and corruption was a struggle that continued for years. The most notorious brothel owner in the county, "Miss Rita" Ainsworth, owned the Shamrock Hotel and later the Dixie Hotel, where she regularly hosted parties for local businessmen and law enforcement administrators from from near and far.

The county sheriff, former state police officer Charley Meyer, returned decorated from three years of grueling combat duty in the Pacific theater to champion a remarkably popular and very lucrative scheme he called "selective enforcement" of the law in Jefferson County. In 1960 state law enforcement investigators found what their report referred to as "the oldest, largest, and best organized vice operation in Texas." In later years, corruption and insider dealing in real estate persisted and hollowed out the once thriving city center of the county seat. Beaumont has never fully recovered.

[Dawn Ireland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've lived in Texas for 5 decades and never knew about Beaumont! The book was well done, and I loved seeing the pictures all throughout the book.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this history of how the partnership between law enforcement and criminals met its downfall in the early 60's in the Beaumont, Texas area where I grew up. I had no idea of this whole event which was a national scandal in 1960. It's hard to believe much of this story, except that it was on the front page of the newspapers and on the local television stations. And yet, I would guess 99% of the people under 50 living there today have any knowledge of it. The book is a mix of research and anecdotal recollections by the people involved and their acquaintances. The tales told by witnesses make up the best parts of the book, especially the stories about the well-known madames of the brothels.