916 Main Historic Structure Assessment

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916 Main Street Hartronft Associates, pc Historic Structure Assessment October 10, 2023 A photograph of the table accompanied an article explaining how the batteries and wires were used and how someone would have been able to control the dice used in the games. "The pushing of [the] button sent a jolt of electricity into one of two electromagnetic plates, causing such a magnetic field to be set up that the dice in the game, painted in the proper places with a metallic paint, did flip-flops, and came up in the right combination to make the `right' man winner." The same day (02-08-1953), the front page of the Rocky Mountain News had an even larger headline saying "SECOND SMALDONE CROOKED GAMBLING TRAP DISCOVERED / Coast Suckers Taken for $35,000." The following photo and caption about the rigged table found at the Bug Dust are from the article: This is the croaked barbuil table found In a A pool cue and a hand show the other end Louisville pool half yesterday on whleh a pair of the chisel mark, (2). Wires to control the tat.. West Coast gamblers rele"(ealy dropped $35,000 came in through a hole In the floor. They pas, to the Smaldone brothers a few weeks ago. How through a hallow icg (3) to the table. Wir,.. It worked in favor of the game'. operators Is were hooked 1. the concealed metal plate in ti., showp by arrows and numbers. Arrow No. 3 table. Die, used in the tomes had metauic spur points to the chiseled lodge of the table. About painted on them. Whenelectric current pas. two inches of the ledge were chiseled dff so P 'reach the plate a magnetic current was set u;.,, metal plate could be hidden under the slate lop, causing the dice fa act In favor of the house. —Rocky Mountain New+ a'- 2.0.8 Rocky Mountain News - 1953 In the 2007 conversation with the Museum staff about his operation of the Bug Dust Pool Hall, John Madonna alluded to organized crime having been active in Louisville, but he did not speak about the evidence of the Smaldones having rigged the table. The May 21, 1953 Denver Post included a transcript of testimony by James Alfred Foster, who was testified in connection with the first rigged barbuit table at the pool hall on North Federal that was discovered just before the one at the Bug Dust. Foster stated that he was asked to help move the rigged table on North Federal before the raid. He testified that one of the men later accused of building the rigged table for the Smaldones told him, "'We made $1 million with that joint at Louisville, and didn't get caught."' Closing of the Bug Dust & Opening of Joe's Soft Drinks A few weeks later, the Louisville Times (The Louisville Times February 19, 1953 — Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection) reported that John Madonna had sold the Bug Dust Pool Hall to Joe Colacci. This brought to an end the legal efforts to shut it down for a year. John Madonna is listed in Louisville directories as then working as a construction worker during the remainder of the 1950s. Page 13 of 51