Wagering on foot races was risky

Helen Myers, formerly well known in Webb City, told her granddaughter, Leslie Myers, about an illegal foot race that she witnessed.

At the time of the controversial incident, Helen would have only been about 3 years old, so it is assumed that this story was explained to her as she got older. But she did remember some details.

Foot racing was a popular sport beginning back in the early 1800s and continuing on into the 1900s. Webb City was not left out in this sport.

A saloon owner in Webb City, Robert “Buckfoot” Boatright, had quite a reputation with a group of foot racers known as the Buckfoot Gang. It was actually a pretty slick operation in which money was scammed from gamblers, who were unsuspecting of the gang’s shenanigans.

It was assumed that the Buckfoot racers had managed to collect over $3 million from their foot races that were arranged by the Webb City Athletic Club. The races were held in out-of-the-way places to hide from the law. 

Boatright and his Buckfoot gang were quite smooth in their scams making it hard to prove their ill ways. They paid the winning man with a sack full of cash, only to be discovered later that the sack contained paper bundles instead of cash. Fast runners, promoted as sure-wins, would accidently trip close to the end of the race. Those who had bet heavily on the sure-win lost a lot of money.

The most lucrative scam involved obtaining bets on highly contested races. The bets were collected and put into a safe in Boatright’s saloon. When the race was over and the money retrieved from the safe, it wouldn’t be there.

Law enforcement officials determined that the safe had a false back, allowing the money to be removed as soon as it was put into the safe.

The Joplin-News Herald described one scam in which two members of the gang went to a large city and convinced a wealthy man to judge a race and hold the money in security for the winner. Boatright’s men claimed he had failed to pay them when they’d won, and they were just trying to be sure that the money would be secure.

When they arrived in Webb City, Griffith, the rich man, offered to hold security on the money by depositing it in his bank account. He was asked to match the money to guarantee the money would be there.

After the race, when Griffith went to the bank to get the money, bank officials said they had been informed by the race “winners” that Griffith had lost his bet. The winners had been given all of the money, including Griffith’s security portion of the deposit.

It seems that they were able to take the money from the bank by using a well-known Webb City banker’s name as reference, who just happened to be a member of the Buckfoot Gang.

Griffith took Boatright and his accomplices, Ed Ellis and Bert Brumley, to court for obtaining money fraudulently. It took quite a while and went to the supreme court. It was a tough fight, but finally, the three men of the Buckfoot Gang were sentenced to three years in the state penitentiary by Judge Peepe in the circuit court of Lawrence County for obtaining money fraudulently in footrace games her. The case was moved to Lawrence County instead of Jasper County.

There’s also a story about a gentleman coming to Webb City looking for a foot race. He had $7,000 backing, and the gang was so entertaining to the nice looking gentleman. They quickly got a foot race together, and the gentleman lost all of his money. Well, it wasn’t his money. It belonged to his boss in St. Louis. That boss joined in on the campaign to take Boatright and his accomplices to court.

In later years, Boatright opened a commercial gymnasium in Webb City, according to the newspaper accounts in Webb City, Carthage and Joplin. This gymnasium was located above a pool hall at Allen (Main) and Daugherty streets.

I have been told by some reliable Webb Citians that there were lots of shenanigans going on in that building. Police had to be leery of Boatright opening a business of any kind in Webb City after his previous activities. But he always seemed to have important people backing him in any business venture he wanted.

Thanks to Leslie Myers, for listening to her grandmother, Helen Myers, and for her research on the court cases. Another interesting event in Webb City!

A book about this subject is available, perhaps locally, and for sure on Amazon.