I am not sure who wrote this article, most of which I agree with. I knew a number of "crossroaders," travelled with a few of them to learn how to protect a game, they were a breed all to themselves. Names like Blondy Johnson, Buster Smoot, the Preacher, the Cowboy, and my favorite, Wesley J. West. There were two brothers who lived in San Jose, California. Had their own airplane. They would get something lined up in Vegas, fly in, do their "thing" and fly back home, Blondy was my first. He slide an 11 on me early one morning when I was training at the Nevada Club. He was wearing bib overalls and looked like a farmer.
He rented the NICE house he lived in, leased his car, owned nothing. Was an excellent golfer and pool player, when he wanted to, hustled and made BIG money at both, as well as poker.
The origin of the term crossroader was this. They would hit a casino, do their thing, whatever it was, and then meet out of town afterwards, "at the crossroads." They were a rare breed.
I was driving with Wesley and a few of them one time, from Elko to Reno. Stopped in Battle Mountain to get something to eat. Wesley noted a new dealer on a table, could not resist. We ended up leaving there with the aid of tear gas pens, which Wesley happened to have a few of. Never did eat. I forget the next town, but went into a carry out type grocery store. They stole lunch meat, bread, cheese, chips, pop, etc. They were probably carrying about ten thousand or more between them, but they would rather steal it than buy it, they just kept in practice.
Crossroaders were some of the most intelligent people I have ever met, and a unique breed. One, I heard, ended up getting shot, in Vegas.
A "crossroader" is a highly skilled professional gambling cheat that uses one or more techniques to gain an unfair advantage (or flat-out steal) in a game of chance. The term probably originated in the Old West and was used to describe a cheater that frequented saloons that were usually located at the crossroads of small towns. A crossroader would spend many hours learning a specific skill, such as card manipulation or dice switching, so he could fleece suckers in the many private games that flourished in the latter third of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth.
The skills a crossroader needed were passed along from cheater to would be cheater and techniques were refined over the years. With the involvement of America in WWII, many crossroaders enlisted, so they could have the opportunity to fleece the thousands of GI’s that wanted a momentary diversion from the monotony and the horrors of war. The number of gambling supply factories that specialized in the manufacturing of marked card and loaded dice increased dramatically in the war years and all of them did a booming business. Famed magician and gambling expert John Scarne recognized this and gave demonstrations to members of our armed forces, in an effort to educate our GI’s in the methods of cheaters.
Since the end of the war coincided with growth of legalized gambling in Nevada, it was only natural that some crossroaders decided to call Reno or Las Vegas their new home. Other crossroaders wore out their welcome in illegal gambling Mecca’s such as Steubenville Ohio, Hot Springs Arkansas and Galveston Texas. Some of them became "bustout dealers" that were hired by the casinos to "enhance" the house percentage. Others worked in gangs that took full advantage of the fact that there was no "eye in the sky." Understand that even catwalks weren’t invented for many years, so if someone made a move when the bosses were looking the other way, who was going to see it? Some were dealers that either worked with an "agent" (partner in crime) and did things like deal seconds or overpay bets to them or they wore "subs" (a hidden pocket in the pants or apron) and stole as many silver dollars and five-dollar checks they thought they could get away with. Sometimes they would pass off their subs to their agent by meeting them in the restroom and passing it under the stalls.
Eventually the "wild west" settled down a bit, due primarily to the advent of surveillance. Another factor is that the federal government eventually cracked down on the companies that manufactured crooked dice and cards, forcing the few remaining manufacturers underground. It has been said that the era of the crossroader has, in all but a few cases, has come to an end. Perhaps, but I had a known dice slider get a shot on a game that I was sitting box on because surveillance contended the die tumbled, when I knew it actually slid. A friend of mine caught two BJ players mucking cards in on a game. I caught some flea doing the $27 for $3 switch on my game and we later found out that he had used that move for many years without being caught. I was working on a crew where one of the dealers was caught handing off a stack of green to his agent. I was working in a joint that caught a dealer changing into a disguise in the parking lot. Apparently she had been stealing red and silver for months from her BJ game and then changing into a disguise, so she could become her alter ego and cash out on her breaks. I have worked in at least three casinos that fired a BJ dealer for tipping their hole card to a George.
All of this makes me wonder how far removed the industry really is from the "wild west" days. If I have been exposed to this much in my career (and much more) can you imagine how much more was going on? It has been suggested and I tend to agree, the era of the highly skilled crossroader has all but disappeared but a few are probably still out there and there will always be a supply of people with larcenous intentions.
