Luther Lassiter and Don Willis
- Thread starter Mr441
- Start date
The only story I heard was that Lassiter was robbed for 100K by con men who claimed to be IRS agents. Perhaps it is a story for today, tax day, but I was told that they convinced Lassiter that they knew of his unreported winnings and he gave over the cash. I was told he was not the same person after that event.
Man that's terrible if it's true. 100k back then was a probably like 500k or more now...ouch.
I too am fascinated with this pair... And Luther is without a doubt by favorite player of all time. I've read everthing I can find on these two but I don't think either one of them really talked about what happened. The IRS story is incredible if true. I can't believe I've never head it mentioned before. However if Drawman623 said it, you can't bet it's probably true. I contiually search for ANY footage of Luther playing. I know there's film archives of all that Jansco stuff as well as the full un-edited version of Luther and Cisero playing 14.1. They filmed ALOT more that you can find right now. I just wish I could find it.
I was wondering about these two the other day also. there have been books written about worse players how come no book on luther?
I would recommend Hustler Days by R.A. Dyer. It's a biography of three great pool hustlers/players; Jersey Red (Jack Breit), Luther (Wimpy) Lassiter and Minnesota Fats.
Beat me to it Jay
Read it. I meant something solely about luther. If peter "rabbit" has a book solely about him why not wimpy?
BTW Hustler days is an awesome book.
That is a great book. I didn't care so much for the Minnesota Fats chapters but the stuff about Lassiter and Red was great.
You made me curious. I checked the CPI (Consumer Price Index). I think Lassiter and Willis were together in the 1950's. The CPI for March of 1950 (using 1982-1984 as 100) was 23.6. The CPI for March of 2009 was 212.7. So in those 59 years, it has gone up by a factor of nine! It would take $900,000 now to buy what $100,000 would buy in 1950!
If you just want to use a 50-year period rather than 59 years (i.e., from March, 1959 to March, 2009), the multiple is 7.4 instead of 9.0!
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I read somewhere that they met in norfolk Wimpy was beating everybody and Don comes thru and beats him outa 300 at thirty a game and Lassiter was tired of Norkolk and heading on the road with Mr. Willis..
I read somewhere that they met in norfolk Wimpy was beating everybody and Don comes thru and beats him outa 300 at thirty a game and Lassiter was tired of Norkolk and heading on the road with Mr. Willis..
There were several annual "jamborees" each year, in various parts of the country. Hot Springs AR, Norfolk VA, Detroit MI, and Little Egypt (Cairo) IL were just a few. The pool 'hustlers' all knew each other, because they all showed for these 'competitions', which were mostly about gambling. The Jansco Bros. just formalized it, with the Johnston City tournaments in the 60's.
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Yikes! That's a lot of money.
It seems players played for a lot more money back then. I always hear stroies about players back then playing $100-$200 a game of 9 ball! I don't even hear that too often with todays players and it's not that much money now. I always wonder whether today's players are just tighter with their money or was it that yesterdays players had more belief in their own abilities.
Too bad video wasn't around back in the day. I guess they wouldn't of wanted video of all their gambling anyway.