Captain Brantley and his raiders unlike other local law men and politicians did not play favorites with the Illinois illegal club operators. They took all of them down. The Thunderbird in East Cape Girardeau was no exception. Both Ed Hertel and Our "Friend Of The Hobby" contributed to this series of posts.

Enough of that:

This is the fourth in a series of mid and southern Illinois "illegal Of The Day" posts.
I am calling this series of posts "Raiders Of the Lost Illegal's" in honor of Captain Elza Brantley and the troopers that served with him.

"Raiders Of the Lost Illegal's" Part 4

The grandson of Captain Elza Brantley sent me 150 scans of raid pictures, notes on the raids, newspaper articles, official documents, and confiscated chips from 500 (300 in one month) raids on Illinois illegal's, conducted by his grandfather. Some of the chips we have never seen. Also raids on clubs we have never heard of.
Elza Brantley 1913-1999
Graduated from the first class at the Illinois State Police Academy.
1955-1960 Captain in Command Battery #6 Illinois State Police-District #13 East Saint Louis- 27 counties - 105 Troopers.

This "Illegal Of The Day" will take us through a mostly pectoral trip of the Thunderbird raids.
Jerry Birl wrote a very good article on the East Cape Girardeau illegals after a visit a few years ago. If I remember right it was in the Club magazine. I highly recommend it.

Here’s a pic of the Thunderbird:

ad from 1954:

11/10/1955 Mt Vernon Register:

Taylor chip orders:
Actual chip taken in a Thunderbird raid.

Actual chip taken in a Thunderbird raid.

Chip is from Ed Hertel's collection. Captain Brantley must have missed this one,

I need this chip, any color. Cough it up if you have a trader.

Miles Hill was a longtime gambling partner of Wilson (W=wilson H=hill); Wilson owned the Thunderbird and Hill was the manager. They also operated a place in 1955 across the Mississippi in Jefferson County, MO called the Hollywood Beach Club. They both operated the Colony Club after Joe Dodd sold it in 1958 (Dodd operated the Purple Crackle from 1962 until his death in 1975).

The Colony Club was featured in Illegal Of The Day Illinois 40.

http://www.thechipboard.com/index.cgi/page/1/md/read/id/1303397/sbj/illegal-of-the-day-illinois-40/

Gaming tables taken in raid at the Thunderbird from Captain Brantley's files.

The roulette wheel meets a destructive end. Big pile of chips, also. "The Horror"
I bet Jerry Birl will go bananas over roulette chips burning!

From Captain Brantley's notes. Thunderbird "raided hundred of times."

Thunderbird mentioned about half way down.

Thunderbird mentioned about 2/3rds of the way down.

Map of the area.

Coming soon to "Raiders Of The Lost Illegals."

Crap table with batteries. It is called a "crap joint."

And you thought all you had to do was beat the "odds."

You can read about a crap joint that caused 3 murders in Biloxi Mississippi - Part III posted here.
http://www.marlowcasinochips.com/links/genetrimble/genetrimble.htm

Cheating devises and Blackjack mechanics were used in many illegal joints across the country. The Arrowhead Inn in Branch Hill, OH had a rigged roulette wheel and used rigged dice on the crap table. Those stories posted at the above link, also.

The "ODDS" on any gambling game guarantee's the house cannot be beat over the long run. It was not enough for many of the illegal operators. Funny dice and cheating devises were sold in catalogues by most of the old distributors. TR King stopped selling in Nevada in 1974 to avoid a NV Gaming investigation into them selling funny dice. They sold them to anyone that paid including the NV casinos.

You can read about one of the most famous TR King funny dice scams here.

http://www.marlowcasinochips.com/links/genetrimble/illegaloftheday/JasonLeeIL.pdf

it was exposed in a five page article in the Saturday Evening Post. It reached from Chicago and California, across two oceans to Japan and Monte Carlo.