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Authors: Dan E. Moldea
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would be our commission.
âWhen we came out that Monday, each place saw it the way we saw it. Eleven to ten looked more inviting and less trouble for the operator. It was accepted because they could keep their businesses together a lot easier. And eleven to ten has been the standard ever since.â
Curd also became known for his sixth sense about how the injuries of players would affect the point spreads of the games their teams played.
Meantime, when Frank Filchockâs NFL suspension was lifted, he joined the Baltimore Colts, which was part of a new, rival football league called the All-American Football Conference (AAFC), which had been founded in June 1944. The new league, fielding eight teams, had been dreamed up by influential Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward. Twice offered the position as NFL commissioner in 1940 and 1941, Ward turned it down both times. Instead he had recommended Elmer Layden for the job.
Several early team owners in the AAFC were high-stakes gamblers, including trucking executive John L. Keeshin, who had bought the Chicago Rockets; Indiana oil company president Ray Ryan, who had petitioned for a New York team with the widow of baseball star Lou Gehrig; New York Yankees owner Dan Topping and his minority partner, developer Del E. Webb; racetrack owner Ben Lindheimer of Chicago, who bought the Los Angeles Dons along with actor Don Ameche, who had tried but failed to obtain an NFL team; and cab company owner Mickey McBride, who founded the Cleveland Browns, named after his head coach, Paul Brown. 5
The owner of a Chicago trucking company, Keeshin was known to have made a direct cash âloanâ to James R. Hoffa, then the head of the Central Conference of Teamsters. 6 Governmentinvestigators later viewed the loan as nothing more than the price for labor peace with the Teamsters. Also a racetrack owner, Keeshin did business with Allen M. Dorfman, Hoffaâs handpicked fiduciary manager of the Teamstersâ Central States Health and Welfare Fundâand later the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund. Dorfmanâs stepfather, Paul âRedâ Dorfman, had been the head of the corrupt Chicago Wastehandlers Union and was responsible for introducing Hoffa to numerous Midwestern underworld figures. Although both Keeshin and the Dorfmans principally lived in Chicago, they each had second houses in Eagle River, Wisconsin, and were close friends.
Ray Ryan proudly proclaimed himself as one of the biggest gamblers in the country, particularly on professional football games. A close associate of Frank Erickson and Texas oil tycoons H. L. Hunt and Jack Davis, Ryan was the co-owner of the Mount Kenya Safari Club in Africa, along with actor William Holden. 7 Members included Erickson, as well as East Coast Mafia figures Gerardo Catena and Tommy and Pasquale Eboli.
Ryan had also been a partner in the syndicate that purchased RKO Pictures Corporation from Howard Hughes in 1952. However, after The Wall Street Journal reported that Ryan and his partners had all been involved with âorganized crime, fraudulent mail-order schemes, and big-time gambling,â and Ryan was specifically linked to mobster Frank Costello, the RKO deal collapsed. The studioâs ownership reverted back to Hughesâwho kept the $1.5 million down payment put up by Ryan and his partners.
A onetime associate of Hughes told me, âHoward Hughes knew the kind of people he was dealing with; he always did. He knew their backgrounds, and he knew their associations. That was the way he operated ⦠He took their down payment and then waited. At the right time, he leaked the story to the press.â
Ryan was later shaken down for $60,000 by Chicago mobster Marshall Caifano. Ryan testified against him in court and helped send him to jail for ten years. Ryan was later killed in Evansville, Indiana, when his car was bombed. Caifano was suspected of ordering the murder but was never
âWhen we came out that Monday, each place saw it the way we saw it. Eleven to ten looked more inviting and less trouble for the operator. It was accepted because they could keep their businesses together a lot easier. And eleven to ten has been the standard ever since.â
Curd also became known for his sixth sense about how the injuries of players would affect the point spreads of the games their teams played.
Meantime, when Frank Filchockâs NFL suspension was lifted, he joined the Baltimore Colts, which was part of a new, rival football league called the All-American Football Conference (AAFC), which had been founded in June 1944. The new league, fielding eight teams, had been dreamed up by influential Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward. Twice offered the position as NFL commissioner in 1940 and 1941, Ward turned it down both times. Instead he had recommended Elmer Layden for the job.
Several early team owners in the AAFC were high-stakes gamblers, including trucking executive John L. Keeshin, who had bought the Chicago Rockets; Indiana oil company president Ray Ryan, who had petitioned for a New York team with the widow of baseball star Lou Gehrig; New York Yankees owner Dan Topping and his minority partner, developer Del E. Webb; racetrack owner Ben Lindheimer of Chicago, who bought the Los Angeles Dons along with actor Don Ameche, who had tried but failed to obtain an NFL team; and cab company owner Mickey McBride, who founded the Cleveland Browns, named after his head coach, Paul Brown. 5
The owner of a Chicago trucking company, Keeshin was known to have made a direct cash âloanâ to James R. Hoffa, then the head of the Central Conference of Teamsters. 6 Governmentinvestigators later viewed the loan as nothing more than the price for labor peace with the Teamsters. Also a racetrack owner, Keeshin did business with Allen M. Dorfman, Hoffaâs handpicked fiduciary manager of the Teamstersâ Central States Health and Welfare Fundâand later the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund. Dorfmanâs stepfather, Paul âRedâ Dorfman, had been the head of the corrupt Chicago Wastehandlers Union and was responsible for introducing Hoffa to numerous Midwestern underworld figures. Although both Keeshin and the Dorfmans principally lived in Chicago, they each had second houses in Eagle River, Wisconsin, and were close friends.
Ray Ryan proudly proclaimed himself as one of the biggest gamblers in the country, particularly on professional football games. A close associate of Frank Erickson and Texas oil tycoons H. L. Hunt and Jack Davis, Ryan was the co-owner of the Mount Kenya Safari Club in Africa, along with actor William Holden. 7 Members included Erickson, as well as East Coast Mafia figures Gerardo Catena and Tommy and Pasquale Eboli.
Ryan had also been a partner in the syndicate that purchased RKO Pictures Corporation from Howard Hughes in 1952. However, after The Wall Street Journal reported that Ryan and his partners had all been involved with âorganized crime, fraudulent mail-order schemes, and big-time gambling,â and Ryan was specifically linked to mobster Frank Costello, the RKO deal collapsed. The studioâs ownership reverted back to Hughesâwho kept the $1.5 million down payment put up by Ryan and his partners.
A onetime associate of Hughes told me, âHoward Hughes knew the kind of people he was dealing with; he always did. He knew their backgrounds, and he knew their associations. That was the way he operated ⦠He took their down payment and then waited. At the right time, he leaked the story to the press.â
Ryan was later shaken down for $60,000 by Chicago mobster Marshall Caifano. Ryan testified against him in court and helped send him to jail for ten years. Ryan was later killed in Evansville, Indiana, when his car was bombed. Caifano was suspected of ordering the murder but was never
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