Hot Springs, AR Part III: Duck, Here Come the Gangsters!

Hot Springs, AR

The duck tour we took in a few years ago in Branson, MO was a lot of fun, and so was the one we took in West Palm Beach. Therefore, when we found out about Hot Springs National Park Duck Tour that offered a tour of Bathhouse Row and of nearby Lake Hamilton, we decided to go. You're probably wondering what ducks have to do with gangsters; but hang in there, and we'll make the connection.

The duck is a WWII amphibious vehicle. The name comes from DUKW, which was a letter code used by GM, the original designer of the vehicles. The photo below shows the duck for our Hot Springs tour.

The duck tour goes up Central Avenue, but since we had walked Bathhouse Row the day before, that wasn't our main reason for taking the tour. We were more interested in getting a closer look at Lake Hamilton. Lake Hamilton, which lies to the south and west of town, was created in 1932 when the Ouachita River (pronounced WASH-it-ah) was dammed up for the purpose of generating electrical power. After a short drive out to the lake, we headed down the boat ramp.

Lake Hamilton has a surface area of over 7,000 acres and is popular for boating and fishing. The lake is ringed with condos, hotels, restaurants and private homes, one of which is shown in the next photo.

Another one of the homes on the shore of the lake was once the stable and boat house for Hamilton House.

Hamilton House, which is shown in the next photo, was built about the time the dam was completed by Van Lyell of the Zeigfield Follies. Mr. and Mrs. Lyell moved to Hot Springs from New York in 1927. They used Hamilton House for a lakeside getaway, for recreation and for entertaining. Hamilton House is now a bed and breakfast.

Here's where the connection between our duck tour and gangsters comes in. It is rumored that gangsters frequently hung out at Hamilton House and that there was a casino in the basement that was accessed by the arched doorway right there at the boat dock. In fact, there were reportedly several illegal casinos around Lake Hamilton.

Illegal gambling became established in Hot Springs after the Civil War. It grew to huge proportions in the 1920s and 1930s, and it lasted into the 1960s.

Our duck tour ended up back in town near the visitor center for Mountain Valley Spring Water, so we walked half a block up the street to check it out.

Unfortunately, tours at Mountain Valley are only given on Tuesdays at 9:00 and 10:00 AM, but we got a sample of some very cold and very delicious spring water. We looked around the lobby where they had some old photos, displays of old bottles, and a large horse made from various size water bottles and jugs.

Since our duck tour dropped us off near the Mountain Valley Spring bottling company, we can make another gangster connection. During prohibition, there were plenty of illegal stills around Hot Springs. The gangsters had gained access to Mountain Valley Spring bottles and to the rail cars Mountain Valley used to ship water. Bootleggers could then ship a type of moonshine they called Clear (similar to "white lightening"), in Mountain Valley Spring bottles and rail cars undetected to New York and Chicago.

Until we took the duck tour, we had no idea Hot Springs had such an unsavory past. To find out more about Hot Springs gangsters, we decided to stop at the Gangster Museum, which was located right near the city parking garage where we had parked.

The Gangster Museum looks like it is relatively new. They conduct tours in small groups through numerous rooms where there are photos and sometimes a few displays of artifacts like the weapons shown below.

Each room has a different theme and a video about a different era or phase of illegal activity in Hot Springs. As we mentioned, illegal gambling started after the Civil War, but the museum picks up with the more recent history of illegal activity starting in the 1920s. The election of Leo McLaughlin as mayor of Hot Springs in 1926 ensured the continuation of illegal gambling, prostitution and moonshine.

McLaughlin ran on a platform of making Hot Springs an open town. He built a strong political machine, and he ran unopposed most of the time. If someone did dare to run against him, McLaughlin would stuff the ballot boxes to insure his own win.

One reason illegal activities continued unabated was because the mayor controlled the police department. There were also payoffs that probably ran all the way to the governor. One strong piece of evidence for that was the existence of Oaklawn Race Track. Starting in 1905, the track operated intermittently depending on the political climate; but in 1934, it resumed operation in earnest and within a year had become competitive with the best horse tracks in the country. You can pull the drapes on a casino's windows to keep prying eyes out, but a racetrack would have been pretty hard to hide.

Owen "Owney" Madden, who was born in England, was another important crime figure in Hot Springs. Madden was involved in illegal gambling and prostitution in New York; but after serving a prison sentence in Sing Sing, he was under increasing pressure from law enforcement in New York. The Mafia was also encroaching on his territory in New York, so Madden left for Hot Springs in 1935. Madden, with full knowledge and approval of the flamboyant Mayor McLaughlin, began to oversee illegal activities in Hot Springs.

An interesting fact we learned was that Hot Springs was considered by the gangsters to be neutral ground. Gangsters fought each other over territory all the time. But if you wanted to "bump somebody off," you didn't do it in Hot Springs. Consequently, the local residents didn't see the gangsters as the ruthless, violent criminals they were, but as wealthy businessmen who spent a lot of money and brought jobs to Hot Springs.

One room in the museum was dedicated to Al Capone, who liked to vacation in Hot Springs. The museum had a copy of the 1930 Time Magazine cover that pictured Capone.

When Al Capone came to Hot Springs, he would rent the entire 4th floor of the Arlington Hotel for himself and his entourage. The museum also has a photo of Al Capone's restored, armored Cadillac taken in the lobby of the Arlington in 2008. The car has 3,000 pounds of armor in the doors and under the floorboards. It also had one of the first uses of bullet-proof glass in a vehicle.

After Capone's arrest, his armored Caddy was seized. Before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, no one thought much about presidential security. In fact, federal law prohibited government agencies from purchasing any vehicle that cost more than $750. After the attack, however, it was realized the president needed protection, so the Secret Service used Capone's car to drive Roosevelt to Congress to request a declaration of war against Japan.

Illegal activities continued in Hot Springs until 1967. There were several ineffective attempts to clean up the town before that, but Governor Winthrop Rockefeller and Judge Henry Britt sent state troopers in to burn gambling equipment and shut down casinos once and for all. Oaklawn Race Track is the only remaining gambling establishment, and it is now one of only two legal gambling establishments in the state - the other is a greyhound track in West Memphis.

One of the more interesting rooms was where they had some of the old gambling equipment from the illegal casinos. Most of the equipment was destroyed in the 1967 raids, so not much of it survived. There were several slot machines that supposedly still function. The glass windows were full of nickels, so it looked like somebody must have been trying them out. Shhhhh. It's illegal, remember?

The next photo shows a roulette table from the Southern Club, which was one of the most popular casinos in Hot Springs.

 

On our way out of the museum, Paul stopped for a tourist photo with a likeness of Al. That's a real (but deactivated) Thompson sub-machine gun - better known as a "Tommy gun." The Tommy gun, which was originally a military weapon, was a favorite weapon of gangsters and law enforcement alike. It was hard to shoot because the rapid fire and the recoil caused the muzzle to rise; but if you could hold it still, you had a good chance of hitting something because it could unload a magazine of fifty 45-caliber bullets in a hurry.

Margery really liked the Gangster Museum. Paul thought it was OK, but he prefers to see more artifacts. There is more to tell about in Hot Springs, so look for our next post.

Comments

[Alan & Marilyn]

WOW, I learned a lot. I think you are right about the Gangster Museum being new. I'm glad you enjoyed H.S. -- much better than sweating trying to find a diamond:)

[Stacy]

Your blog is amazing! You are so totally lucky to be able to travel the country like you do, Thanks for sharing it with the rest of us!

[slots]

Hi just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a few of the pictures aren't loading properly. I'm not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I've tried it in two different web browsers and both show the same outcome.