Jimmy Reid
US Open 9 Ball Champion
1972./ 'The Hustler's Tournament' Johnston City, IL (that's exactly what it was called).
This was the first time in my life there was absolutely no action for me, nobody wanted to play anything, with the exception of Ronnie 'Fast Eddie' Allen who offered everyone there 10 to 8 playing one pocket and told me the only thing I could get was an extra piece of chalk.
So, not wanting to play the greatest one pocket player of all time even I decided to take dead aim at the first and last round robin 9 ball and 1 pocket tournament ever held.
This meant everybody played everybody both games in the two 64 man fields over the next 3 weeks.
The tournament began with the bookmaker 'Magnolia Red' laying 6 to 5 I win the 9 ball. Two weeks later after beating Ronnie Allen 4/0 in the one pocket Red was laying 8 to 5 I win both divisions.
Three weeks later with 4 players left in the tournament on the semi-final night I was top of the board in both divisions, while playing Norman Hitchcock in the one pocket semi final, leading 1 game to 0 and 5 balls to 0 in the second game.
ALL OF A SUDDEN THERE WAS A VOICE OVER THE MICROPHONE "WE ARE THE FBI AND THIS IS A RAID EVERYONE REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE, THE EXITS ARE BLOCKED AND WE WILL FILE YOU OUT ONE AT A TIME."
They indicted and swallowed the cash of myself and 11 more. Plus they subpoenaed 32 more to appear at a special Grand Jury hearing (on Saturday) the next morning a few hours drive away in St. Louis, MO at 9 AM. Cole Dickson and I rode together.
We were all wondering what brought this about. When they called me in front of the Grand Jury I found out.
It seems that 3 weeks earlier on tournament eve during a multi Midwestern state television and radio broadcast,
Rudolph 'Minnesota Fats' Wanderone in an effort to promote the tournament said there would be a ton of after hours action for spectators to enjoy. Then while being interviewed said;
" Jimmy Reid is here from LA and wants to play any man from any land, any game he can name, for any amount he can count, anything he can bring."
Since the tournament was in IL, to the FBI this meant they could charge any pros gambling during the tournament that weren't from IL with the 'Interstate Gambling Act' and Income Tax Evasion to those of us that had money and or a new car.which would allow them to arrest those out of state players that had come to compete in the tourney and gamble now they could snatch all the cheese.
They took over $200,000 which was eventually returned to the 12 indighted players, I have no idea what they got from Jansco's safe in the Show Bar office at the tournament.
When Larry Lisciotti who rode with me as my road partner for 2 months prior to the tournament after returning to LA and telling John Brascia what had happened to me and the tournament, John said "it sounds like a good book" 6 years later he started the filming of 'The Baltimore Bullet' with Omar Shariff playing my part and James Coburn playing Jimmy Fusco's part to some degree.
On a lighter note and the main reason we all got our money back in the next 2 years following the raid. During the Grand Jury hearing Fats showed up late and insisted immediately to testify next.
When he finished the entire Grand Jury were laughing while Fats who never stopped was talking, they had filed out to get his autograph.
Two days later, Fats took me to dinner in the back of the Show Bar in Johnston City. Me eating a 16 oz. steak while he ate two complete steak dinners baked potato's and veggies included. I asked Fats what he'd said to get the Grand Jury to cause them to follow Fats out of the courtroom for his autograph.
"To the best of my memory, this is what Fats told me." Jimmy Reid
"When I took the stand the first thing I did was show them my Honorary Colonel on the Governor's staff of IL ID.
Then I just told them the truth, that pool players weren't harming anyone and that it was such a travesty of justice to hassle these players who were entertaining the public with their skills in a game where the rewards were so few, to make a living at it players were forced to gamble.
I told them by the time I was 8 years old I beat the King of Belgium and won $2 million. This got a few laughs from the Grand Jury.
Then i hired a female driver and bought a Deusenberg so long that when I parked it on 6th st. in NY, I had to put a nickel in the meter on 8th.
This really started them laughing.
Reid I knew I had them and went for the knock out.
Then Fats said "Do you people on the Grand Jury really want to hear from 'Dirty Low Down Red' and 'Omaha Fats' both of them are $2 players and if you gave them a blood test you'd find it was 90% hot dog and 10% coffee."
"This is when I started laughing hard and couldn't stop. Fats was a riot, no wonder they wanted his autograph." Jimmy Reid
Then Fats said he got up and walked out of court with the US Attorney dumbfounded and The Grand Jury in tow. That's all there was to it.
To this day Fats is the greatest talker I've ever seen or heard, Ronnie Allen is second.
Just reopened free pool lessons dot com, more stories and lessons coming.
Jansco paid me $3,500 for honorary second in both divisions. Larry (Boston Shorty) Johnson and Jimmy Fusco didn't have to go to court and they each won a division.
This was the first time in my life there was absolutely no action for me, nobody wanted to play anything, with the exception of Ronnie 'Fast Eddie' Allen who offered everyone there 10 to 8 playing one pocket and told me the only thing I could get was an extra piece of chalk.
So, not wanting to play the greatest one pocket player of all time even I decided to take dead aim at the first and last round robin 9 ball and 1 pocket tournament ever held.
This meant everybody played everybody both games in the two 64 man fields over the next 3 weeks.
The tournament began with the bookmaker 'Magnolia Red' laying 6 to 5 I win the 9 ball. Two weeks later after beating Ronnie Allen 4/0 in the one pocket Red was laying 8 to 5 I win both divisions.
Three weeks later with 4 players left in the tournament on the semi-final night I was top of the board in both divisions, while playing Norman Hitchcock in the one pocket semi final, leading 1 game to 0 and 5 balls to 0 in the second game.
ALL OF A SUDDEN THERE WAS A VOICE OVER THE MICROPHONE "WE ARE THE FBI AND THIS IS A RAID EVERYONE REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE, THE EXITS ARE BLOCKED AND WE WILL FILE YOU OUT ONE AT A TIME."
They indicted and swallowed the cash of myself and 11 more. Plus they subpoenaed 32 more to appear at a special Grand Jury hearing (on Saturday) the next morning a few hours drive away in St. Louis, MO at 9 AM. Cole Dickson and I rode together.
We were all wondering what brought this about. When they called me in front of the Grand Jury I found out.
It seems that 3 weeks earlier on tournament eve during a multi Midwestern state television and radio broadcast,
Rudolph 'Minnesota Fats' Wanderone in an effort to promote the tournament said there would be a ton of after hours action for spectators to enjoy. Then while being interviewed said;
" Jimmy Reid is here from LA and wants to play any man from any land, any game he can name, for any amount he can count, anything he can bring."
Since the tournament was in IL, to the FBI this meant they could charge any pros gambling during the tournament that weren't from IL with the 'Interstate Gambling Act' and Income Tax Evasion to those of us that had money and or a new car.which would allow them to arrest those out of state players that had come to compete in the tourney and gamble now they could snatch all the cheese.
They took over $200,000 which was eventually returned to the 12 indighted players, I have no idea what they got from Jansco's safe in the Show Bar office at the tournament.
When Larry Lisciotti who rode with me as my road partner for 2 months prior to the tournament after returning to LA and telling John Brascia what had happened to me and the tournament, John said "it sounds like a good book" 6 years later he started the filming of 'The Baltimore Bullet' with Omar Shariff playing my part and James Coburn playing Jimmy Fusco's part to some degree.
On a lighter note and the main reason we all got our money back in the next 2 years following the raid. During the Grand Jury hearing Fats showed up late and insisted immediately to testify next.
When he finished the entire Grand Jury were laughing while Fats who never stopped was talking, they had filed out to get his autograph.
Two days later, Fats took me to dinner in the back of the Show Bar in Johnston City. Me eating a 16 oz. steak while he ate two complete steak dinners baked potato's and veggies included. I asked Fats what he'd said to get the Grand Jury to cause them to follow Fats out of the courtroom for his autograph.
"To the best of my memory, this is what Fats told me." Jimmy Reid
"When I took the stand the first thing I did was show them my Honorary Colonel on the Governor's staff of IL ID.
Then I just told them the truth, that pool players weren't harming anyone and that it was such a travesty of justice to hassle these players who were entertaining the public with their skills in a game where the rewards were so few, to make a living at it players were forced to gamble.
I told them by the time I was 8 years old I beat the King of Belgium and won $2 million. This got a few laughs from the Grand Jury.
Then i hired a female driver and bought a Deusenberg so long that when I parked it on 6th st. in NY, I had to put a nickel in the meter on 8th.
This really started them laughing.
Reid I knew I had them and went for the knock out.
Then Fats said "Do you people on the Grand Jury really want to hear from 'Dirty Low Down Red' and 'Omaha Fats' both of them are $2 players and if you gave them a blood test you'd find it was 90% hot dog and 10% coffee."
"This is when I started laughing hard and couldn't stop. Fats was a riot, no wonder they wanted his autograph." Jimmy Reid
Then Fats said he got up and walked out of court with the US Attorney dumbfounded and The Grand Jury in tow. That's all there was to it.
To this day Fats is the greatest talker I've ever seen or heard, Ronnie Allen is second.
Just reopened free pool lessons dot com, more stories and lessons coming.
Jansco paid me $3,500 for honorary second in both divisions. Larry (Boston Shorty) Johnson and Jimmy Fusco didn't have to go to court and they each won a division.
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