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Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Killing Bares Jungle Casino at Pettyville

BIG LAKE--by T K PHOTOGRAPHY

Eva Melton, born in Manila, Arkansas, sent this article via email.  She received her copy from the Dorsey Edmundson Family. She is currently researching her Edmundson roots. Thank you, Eva, for sharing. . .
 
(ca. 1922 or 1923)
 
KILLING BARES JUNGLE CASINO AT PETTYVILLE
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Arkansas Sheriff Flushes Young Monte Carlo When Gamblers End Love Feud in Fight.
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    MANILA, Ark., May 8--Clustered in the jungle wilds near Pettyville, amid fragrant blossoms of rustic foliage, sheriff's deputies today stumbled upon a secluded Monte Carlo, a veritable hidden casino that rivaled Arkansas City, in its calmest days, for poker action and dice fading fame.
    This nook of the card sharp and lair of the "crap shooter" was revealed during a man hunt by the sheriff in the aftermath of a desperate love feud, fought to the death, last Saturday, when Dorsey Edmundson, of Big Lake, Ark., was found beneath a card table, a bullet wound in his breast.
    George Duncan, of Dell, Ark., was sought by the deputies, charged with the murder. He was captured and conveyed to the Blytheville jail because indignation against the prisoner was running rampant in this community.
Money plentiful in Game
    As the story was learned by the sheriff, a "craps game" was the star attraction of the woodland casino Friday night and early Saturday. Coin and bills in prosperous amounts had changed hands during the night's performance and business was picking up in the "tiger's retreat."
    "Moonshine" was bubbling and beading and old Bacchus was in his prime until Duncan and Edmundson met at the table of the "galloping dominoes."
    Duncan and his wife had been separated for two or three years. Edmundson was alleged to have been paying her court. The feud of jealous rivalry had long been pending, and friends had forecast "hip pocket" action between the two more than once.
    A dispute, ______ over the game, spectators thought, arose between the two. Duncan is alleged to have reached for his "gat." There was a click, an explosion and a burst of smoke. Edmundson crumpled on the ground.
    The deputies found all the tables, chairs and paraphernalia of a metropolitan gambling resort in the dense growth of brush and wildwood.


With Permission by T K Photography