Ouachita Telegraph - Killing of a 3-card Monte Dealer

Date: May 2000
Submitted by: Lora Peppers <lpeppers@ouachita.lib.la.us>




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The Ouachita Telegraph
Saturday, December 16, 1871
Page 2, Column 4

 NOTE: This is part of a long article about Trenton (West Monroe)
entitled: 
"The Trenton market — Killing of a "Monte" Dealer — The Murderer Escapes."
 The day was just drawing to a peaceable close, when the scene was
suddenly changed, culminating in the tragical death of one Ed. Dillard —
known more familiarly as "the three card monte man" — who with the kind
assistance of hsi partner, who now mourns his loss, has been sojourning
in our town for the noble and praiseworthy purpose of edifying the
unsophisticated regarding the mysterious ways of making fortunes by
"flipping" the "picture card," in which they have been so far successful
as to send a number of "green uns" to the hills without a "red cent,"
but wiser men.  Yesterday, a gentleman living near Vernon, started out
of town with seventy-five dollars in his pocket.  Encountering these men
in the road in the suburbs, he stopped and saw that one of the party was
winning largely, and concluded to try his hand.  Just as he had disposed
of his last V, a merchant of this place happened to pass that way and
explained to the fleeced gentleman that the pair were partners, and
advised him to go home, and be a better man. — This evening just as they
had another victim, writhing under the anguish of a fifty dollar loss in
the shop of Mrs. Lagraw, of Tibadeaux, a fourth party came upon the
stage with a double barrel shot gun, and addressing the losing gentleman
as Billy Sims, asked to see him privately.  After a short interview they
returned and demanded the fifty dollars, which Dillard readily handed
them saying he "wanted no difficulty," whereupon the man with the gun
demanded all of Dillard's money, to which he answered that "he would be
G—d d—m if they could get it," and placed himself against the wall to
defend himself.  A scuffle ensued.  Dillard, finding the odds against
him, endeavored to escape by the front door while his partner was
deserting him through the back door.  Unfortunately for Dillard,
however, a well directed shot as he jumped into the street, sent a load
of buck shot throught the back part of his cranium and scattered his
brains to the winds, and sent his soul before that awful tribunal where
there is "no shuffling."  The men doing the shooting escaped without
detection.  Very Truly, ACCOUNTANT

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