Remember when?

Feb. 23-27, 1968

An elderly cattleman from the southwestern part of Fayette County lost $4,860 in an old “skin game” known as Three-Card Monte. Sheriff T. J. Flournoy said the unwitting victim was sitting in his pick-up in front of a Flatonia store when two men approached and offered him $20 to take them to their place in another part of town. Once the men arrived, they started playing the card game that involved placing two red aces and the ace of spaces face down and guessing the location of the ace of spades. The cattleman won several times before he was shown a large wad of cash by the other two players. They told him he had to have at least $6,000 to win bigger stakes. The cattleman went to his bank, withdrew $4,000 and borrowed the rest. Following a subsequent round of the game, the card sharks placed all the cash he’d won in a large envelope addressed to him. The three drove to the post office and dropped the envelope in the outgoing letter drop box. What the victim didn’t know was the con men had switched envelopes, swindling the cattleman out of almost $5,000. A similar incident involving $6,000 was narrowly averted at Paige in neighboring Lee County around the same time.

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