Bob Gans

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Bob Gans
"Slot machines highly remunerative" – Los Angeles Daily News, March 24, 1952
Born
Robert Joseph Gans

(1887-10-27)October 27, 1887
New York, New York, U.S.
DiedSeptember 17, 1959(1959-09-17) (aged 71)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Robert Joseph "Bob" Gans was the "slot-machine king" of the Los Angeles underworld in the 1920s and 1930s, and later a philanthropist and civic leader who ran the board of Mt. Sinai Hospital, now Cedars-Sinai, for many years. The IRS estimated Gans and his brothers had profited roughly US$20,000,000 (equivalent to $364,780,876 in 2023) from their slot-machine business by the end of the 1920s.

Early career[edit]

Gans was born in New York where "the name Gans was huge in New York tobacconist circles."[1][2] Gans started his career as an employee of his two brothers, Jonas Joseph "Joe" Gans (1875–1926)[3] and Charles J. Gans (1880–1961),[4][5] who by the turn of the 20th century had "a pair of cigar shops on Spring Street" operating under the business name J. J. Gans & Bro.[1] According to a 1952 Los Angeles Daily News series on the history of crime in the city: "Two brother who were engaged in the wholesale tobacco business were quick to see the power for profit from slot machines. They acquired a few and installed them around the city. The brother were Bob and Joe Gans, the latter now dead for many years. The boys were favorably known in Los Angeles as legitimate business men and were well liked. They were gentlemen and had taken a modest interest in municipal and county ejections, staking various candidates to financial help."[6] For example, in 1924, according to the Municipal League of Los Angeles, half of the $2,069 campaign budget reported by Superior Court judge Hugh J. Crawford was provided by his campaign manager, Robert J. Gans.[7]

A 1925 article about Ocean Park refusing to allow J. J. Gans to operate "peppermint vending machines" in the town stated that representatives for the company insisted that "the machines were absolutely within the law, had been decided so by many court decisions and that every time a customer put a nickel in machine he received a five-cent package of mints. Sometimes they received more, but never less."[8] The brothers were described as "wealthy inventors of gambling devices" in September of that year, after being arrested in Avalon "on charges of maintaining gambling devices in the form of slot machines....According to deputy sheriffs who made the arrest, the two Gans brothers maintained eleven slot machines which paid off in cash instead of the usual trade checks. Justice Hunter notified authorities that he had been warned to lay off the prosecution of the Gans brothers and had been threatened with the loss of his position should he continue with the case."[9]

Joe Gans died suddenly in 1926 of "acute indigestion," leaving an estate reported to be worth US$250,000 (equivalent to $4,302,632 in 2023).[10][11] In 1927, Bob Gans returned profit he'd made on Julian Petroleum "stock pools"—"Julian Pete" having turned out to be a massive scam that defrauded thousands of people of millions of dollars).[12] Gans was also at one time an investor in Baron Long's Agua Caliente resort and racetrack in Mexico.[4] The Internal Revenue Service believed that the Gans brothers had made profits of between $15 million and $20 million from their slots business in the 1920s.[13]

Gans' machines reportedly operated unmolested under the protection of Joe Shaw, brother of Los Angeles mayor Frank Shaw.[14][15] However, there was a stickup at Gans' downtown "novelty shop" in 1932 in which robbers made off with roughly US$2,000 (equivalent to $44,663 in 2023) in cash.[16] In 1935 an informant told the county grand jury that local gambling establishments were well known to city police (including chief James E. Davis) and Guy McAfee, and that "Open gambling flourished...and proprietors of clubs were tipped off in advance of raids, so that when the raiders arrived the gambling equipment had been put away and there was only dancing and dining."[17] Charles Gans testified at the same time that there had not been any slot machines running in Los Angeles for the past year; deputy district attorney Grant Cooper told the jury that former slot-machine operators were now in the "pin-and-marble game" business.[17] In 1936, Gans reportedly donated $27,000 to the gubernatorial campaign of Buron Fitts.[18]

Later career[edit]

Gans allegedly retired from slot machines in 1938 (after Earl Kynette bombed Harry J. Raymond), handing over the reins to Curly Robinson.[6] Gans, however, reportedly stayed active in politics, funding candidates he favored from a fortune estimated to be between $15,000,000 and US$25,000,000 (equivalent to $286,842,105 in 2023).[6] LAPD Sgt. Charles Stoker's 1951 exposé Thicker 'N Thieves described Gans as "conniving," and claimed that McAfee and Gans gave orders to three lower-level figures: James Francis Utley, Anne "the Black Widow" Forrester, and Anthony Stralla, aka Tony Cornero.[19]

In 1955, when unidentified gunmen shot up the home of "Bingo King" Max Kleiger in Pacific Palisades, the Los Angeles Mirror reported, "The beach front gambler's name popped up in Kefauver committee testimony here a few years ago in connection with an alleged plot to recall then Mayor Bowron so that open gambling could run in the city. The committee reportedly received evidence of a meeting of five powerful syndicate figures in a Hollywood hotel room." The five people in the meeting were reportedly Bob Gans, Max Kleiger, Jimmy "the Eel" Utley, Curley Robinson, and Sammy Rummel.[20] Kleiger was a bookie, Robinson ran slots, Utley "concentrated on bingo and abortion," and Sam Rummel was Mickey Cohen's lawyer.[21]

In or before 1937, Gans joined the board of what was then called the Mt. Sinai Home for Chronic Invalids.[22] He eventually served as the president of the board for eight consecutive terms, oversaw Mt. Sinai's merge with the Los Angeles Sanitorium,[23] and was honored for his service in 1955 with a banquet in the Embassy Room at the Ambassador Hotel that featured entertainers Jeanette MacDonald, Bob Crosby, Dick Contino, and Belle Baker.[24] Gans' community leadership was said to be the result of the good influence of his wife, Effie Wise Gans.[25][6] When Effie Gans died in 1951, she reportedly left substantial bequests to "Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish charities".[26]

Gans died of a myocardial infarction in Los Angeles, California in 1959 and was interred at Beth Olam Mausoleum.[27] He was described in one obituary as a "political figure of the 1930s".[26] Another obituary described Mt. Sinai as "virtually a monument" to Gans, "a former prominent gambling figure".[28]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Bash & Niotta (2021), p. 99.
  2. ^ "Dan Cupid Busy". United States Tobacco Journal. BMT Publications. 1909.
  3. ^ "Entry for Jonas Gans, 02 May 1926". California Death Index, 1905–1939. FamilySearch.
  4. ^ a b Bash & Niotta (2021), p. 47.
  5. ^ "Charles J Gans, 12 Oct 1961; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento". California Death Index, 1940-1997. FamilySearch.
  6. ^ a b c d Strange, Jack (March 24, 1952). "'History of Cops and Robbers': Slot machines highly remunerative". Daily News. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  7. ^ "Judge Crawford's Backers". Municipal League Bulletin. Municipal League of Los Angeles. 1923.
  8. ^ "Slot Machines Application Turned Down". Evening Vanguard. Venice, California. June 30, 1925. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  9. ^ "2 Gambling Device Inventors Arraigned". Los Angeles Evening Express. September 11, 1925. p. 11. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  10. ^ "J. J. Gans, Pioneer of Fullerton, Dies". Daily News. May 4, 1926. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  11. ^ "$250,000 Fortune Left by J. J. Gans". Daily News. May 13, 1926. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  12. ^ "Julian Pool Profits Are Given Back". San Francisco Bulletin. August 17, 1927. p. 6. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  13. ^ Mcdougal (2009), p. 471.
  14. ^ Wagner (2000), pp. 123–124.
  15. ^ "From Crony Capitalism To Gangster Graft: The Corrupt History Of Early LA Politics". LAist. May 25, 2022. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  16. ^ "Bob Gans Robbed by Gunmen". Los Angeles Evening Post-Record. August 10, 1932. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  17. ^ a b "Insider Tells of Gambling Racket". Daily News. January 10, 1935. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  18. ^ Shuler (2012), p. 100.
  19. ^ Stoker, Charles (1951). Thicker'n Thieves. Sidereal Company.
  20. ^ "Gangland Shoots Warning at Bingo King; He Flees". Los Angeles Mirror. September 16, 1955. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  21. ^ Buntin (2010), pp. 162–163.
  22. ^ "Ben Tyre Elected New Sinai Home President". Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. January 15, 1937. p. 11. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  23. ^ "Los Angeles Sanatorium, Mt. Sinai Hospital-Clinic Announce Merger". Eastside Journal. July 2, 1947. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  24. ^ "Testimonial Set for Robert J. Gans". The Los Angeles Times. November 23, 1955. p. 24. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  25. ^ "Welfare Leader". Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. September 15, 1951. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  26. ^ a b "Robert Gans, Political Figure, Dies at 71". Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. September 18, 1959. p. 20. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  27. ^ "Entry for Robert J Gans and Joseph Gans, 17 September 1959". California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994. FamilySearch.
  28. ^ "Robert Gans Dies After Long Illness". Los Angeles Mirror. September 17, 1959. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-06-04.

Sources[edit]

  • Bash, Avi; Niotta, J. Michael (2021). Los Angeles Underworld. Images of America. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-43967-209-9. LCCN 2020947165.
  • Buntin, John (2010). L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City. Crown. ISBN 9780307352088.
  • Mcdougal, Dennis (2009). Privileged Son: Otis Chandler and the Rise and Fall of the L. A. Times Dynasty. Hachette Books. ISBN 9780786751136.
  • Shuler, Robert (2012). Fighting Bob Shuler of Los Angeles. Dog Ear Publishing, LLC. ISBN 9781457508035.
  • Wagner, Rob Leicester (2000). Red Ink, White Lies: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles Newspapers, 1920–1962. Upland, California: Dragonflyer Press. ISBN 978-0-944933-80-0. LCCN 0944933807. OCLC 44654778.

Further reading[edit]

  • Allerfeldt, Kristofer (2018). Organized Crime in the United States, 1865–1941. McFarland, Inc. ISBN 9781476670652.
  • Tereba, Tere (2012). Mickey Cohen: The Life and Crimes of L.A.'s Notorious Mobster. ECW Press. ISBN 9781770902039.
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