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major funding for this program is provided by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and the Morris Foundation additional funding is from the C Lewis and Mary C cave foundation and the Monroe foundation every town is populated by the ghosts of the sister usually they're hidden beneath layers of modern developments or folded in the files of the local Historical Society here in Hot Springs Arkansas the ghosts are easy to find but sometimes hard to believe stand on Central Avenue and faith the old Arlington Hotel you'll sense a fading elegant but lingers from a more glamorous time a time when the hotel's guest lists included presidents and prize fighters gamblers and gangsters anyone in between who was somebody you have to look beyond the surface and listen to the ghosts to understand just how hot hot spring really was the wax museum across the street is really the old southern club a glittering high-stakes casino and entertainment palace just one of the many illegal gambling clubs bars and brothels that line the western side of central avenues past and blend silently into the antique stores tourist shops and art galleries of today cross the street and you enter a totally different world a row of stately bat houses stand proud although neglected for years reminders of a time when a million bands a year were taken by people hoping for better health believing they would find it here the other station capital of Arkansas a hot spring national park or ancient fairy first resort it's obvious to the most casual visitors I the spa city is not the town it used to be some say it's a better place to live today others remember the exciting prosperity of the gambling era and lament the opportunities lost this is the story of what happened here and why the town changed it's the story of the people and the ghosts of Hot Springs Arkansas who've made their home in a city of visitor you there is only one reason for a town to exist here in this valley of the Ouachita Mountains for centuries people have been drawn to this water mysteriously it emerges from a mountainside at an average temperature of 143 degrees Fahrenheit it is the stuff of legends powerful enough to build a city no one knows where the stories began some say native people consider this a valley of peace laying down their weapons and bathing together in the healing water a romantic notion probably invented around the same time this statue was placed in the men's bathing hall of the Fordyce bathhouse it depicts a young Indian maiden welcoming the Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto to the springs although there is little evidence to suggest de Soto was ever here the first European to see this water was more likely a French fur trapper one of many who came through here before the Louisiana Purchase these early visitors told stories about the waters curative properties one French resident of Louisiana wrote about several miraculous somewhat miraculous cares that he had heard about and had witnessed himself and he even told a tale of how the Bears came down out of the Washita mountains to bathe in the waters to cure themselves of the mange President Thomas Jefferson heard about the hot springs in 1804 one year after closing the deal on the Louisiana Purchase Jefferson authorizes a scientific expedition into the new territory to find and study the legendary water the expedition's report to Congress is published widely in many Eastern newspapers and though they make no claim for the waters healing properties this isolated Valley and the Ouachita Mountains becomes in the minds of many Americans a place at home people were looking for their miracle they were willing to travel over any kind of obstacles in order to make it to the springs to get a cure the folks just kind of came here gradually more and more until by 1820 the territorial assembly said basically wait a minute we are afraid that this potential boon for suffering mankind will be monopolized as have some of the medicinal springs further east and we send this memorial kind of like petition to Congress to request that it be set aside four sections of land with the hot springs as near the centers may be I hereby reserved is set apart for future disposal by the US government the people begin to collect here to attend the springs and use the waters during the warm weather we have some dreadful sites cripples from all parts of the world some of them are certainly natural curiosities Hiram Whittington hot springs 1833 they were just bathing in the streams to begin with and then they wanted to be a little more private and they would throw up a little shack and and for maybe a quarter you could go there and undress and put on some light clothing and lay in the creek bed and it looked like that they had just thrown up a bunch of shacks along the creek they really didn't put any signs up explaining who owned the place and he was supposedly running it so things developed willy-nilly questionable ownership doesn't stop some entrepreneurs from building on the springs by 1841 john cyrus hale is operating a hotel and bathhouse on government land he claims to own henry rector a future governor of the state challenges Hales claim with a land grant inherited from his father and builds a tavern and a bathhouse nearby the very early bath houses were sometimes built directly over Springs and steam would come up through the floorboards but if you look at some of the stereo graph cards and you look at the bath house what they were calling bath houses back then you see these wooden troughs or flumes carrying the water down from the springs and into bath houses and this was before Hot Springs Creek was covered over there were piles of boards everywhere and junk being thrown in the creek in fact there were cattle and pigs wandering around making it into the photos and these were photos that were being used to to really advertise a spa ha let each come here for here alone exists the power to save here tottering forms but skin and bone are rescued grave more and more visitors come the hotels and boarding houses are full with guests from as far away as New York Ohio and Pennsylvania the last leg of their journey has probably been by stagecoach from Little Rock a 50-mile rumble that by 1860 takes only 12 hours the town's population has reached 201 citizens and the future looks promising fueled by the miraculous water bubbling constantly from the side of hot springs Mountain the only question is who owns it the Civil War interrupts everything when Arkansas secedes from the Union the governor of the state is none other than Henry rector from hot springs by 1862 federal troops have moved within a hundred miles of Little Rock and are threatening the capital city governor rector panics and takes himself and all the state's records to his home in hot springs for two months the town is the unofficial capital of Arkansas like most of the state hot springs is decimated by the war looted burned and ransacked by both armies and roving gangs of bushwhackers the town is almost deserted but after the Civil War there were so many soldiers on both sides that had been injured and they were looking for something to help their suffering and that was when hot springs really started to grow visitors just almost immediately started coming number of visitors started doubling each year right after the war the question of who owns the springs is finally answered on April 24th 1876 the US Supreme Court ruled that none of the claims by individuals are valid Albert Pike the lawyer who argues Henry rector's case is disappointed by the decision I thought success was certain I knew the law and facts were on my side the Court did not decide according to the law but that the hot springs were too valuable for an individual to own it did result in a drastic shrinking of the boundaries they shrank it down from 4 square miles to basically just a piece of hot springs mountain and a couple of outlying areas the springs remain federal property private bath house owners may use the water by building on land leased from the government the permanence of the decision makes investing in the bathing industry a safer bet and Hot Springs becomes a boomtown I think the bathing industry grows the growth of the city you have all these new bath houses that are built following the Supreme Court decision and you have these nice wonderful hotels by 1875 the largest and most elegant hotel in Arkansas is in Hot Springs the Arlington financed by Colonel Samuel W Fortas a veteran of the Union Army and successful businessman who believes the hot springs saved his life the Arlington's rooms are lit by gas and each is connected to the front desk by an electric Bell story was that the Arlington Hotel never had to buy firewood for its fireplaces because so many crutches were simply left behind by all the people who had been cured Joseph diamond Joe Reynolds is another prosperous Yankee putting his mark on the southern spa wracked with rheumatism and frustrated by a bone-jarring stagecoach journey to the town Reynolds decides to build his own railroad connecting hot springs to the Iron Mountain rail station in Malvern known affectionately as the diamond Joe the narrow gauge line features luxury passenger cars outfitted with the best furnishings of the day connected now to the modern world by rail hot springs becomes more than a destination for the desperate the time will soon come when hot springs will not only be an invalids retreat but a fashionable watering-place Charles cutters vision of hot springs is spread across America and the world by a series of travel guides he begins publishing in 1874 cutter guides a new clientele to the water ladies looking for the Fountain of Youth those who feel the heavy hand of time being placed upon them and their looking glass reveals wrinkles and mole patches can buy bathing in and drinking of these waters so improve their complexion as to appear several years younger than their actual age it's been ten years since the end of the Civil War and thanks to this water the wounds inflicted on hot springs have healed faster than any place in the south the town is thriving the economy of hot springs is geared to serving the needs of its visitors and they have many needs when people come to take the bath that's not very time-consuming or entertaining so they naturally wanted something to do and so various kinds of entertainment including gambling including other may be illegal kinds of fun also developed along with that Hot Springs became known as a place to go you know if you got a have medical treatment go there and have a good time the springs brought people to the area and it brings a different kind of people for different reasons when all of these different kinds of people visiting partaking of the waters that is a concern because with the good sometimes you get the bad our town is now being flooded with lewd and immoral characters who infest our streets day and night and by their obscene carriage and vulgar language render it absolutely disagreeable for persons of respectability to be on the streets petition to incorporate hot springs 1875 so you got eighteen saloons you've got a number of houses of prostitution and that there were they weren't trying to keep them closed on Sunday people couldn't get out and go to church without seeing drunks laying on the sidewalk and straight walkers and things like this so they finally had enough by incorporating the city in 1875 citizens are hoping the new laws and a police force will bring a measure of control to the wild side of town on the verge of becoming America's most popular resort only one thing is certain there is plenty of hot water ahead for everyone the year is 1877 if you have come as a visitor to Hot Springs Arkansas you're probably sick and desperate for a cure I think you could have sensed hope in the air as people got off a train station no matter how much money he had if you were hurting you want to do what you could to get better and if it involved coming down to Arkansas especially if you know right after the Civil War just 20 30 years later I think that took a lot of faith you just would have had that in the atmosphere here on the hillside above the town more than 50 Springs pour forth the legendary hot water each has been named to reflect the particular benefits it may offer the magnesia Springs and the arsenic Springs are reportedly rich in these minerals the kidney and the liver Springs are said to be good for those vital organs the cornhole is popular with folks afflicted with bunions and other maladies of the feet the women's soak in the morning the men in the afternoon a row of new Victorian bath houses catered to the needs of those who can afford to bathe indoors while on the hillside behind bathhouse row a scattering of tents and shanties is home for a growing number of people bathing in the open communal springs some with contracted or crooked legs or arms enlarged or swollen joints gout scrofulous taint or skin diseases the white man and the colored man are often seen sitting together bathing their feet and legs as everyone has undisputed right to bathe in this pool some of these folks might well have been Civil War veterans they certainly were not folks who've had a great deal of money they couldn't afford a bath ticket down on the row they intercepted the water and used water at the actual springs higher up on the hillside before it made it down to the paying customers that did not please the bathhouse owners when General Benjamin Kelly arrives as the first superintendent of the Hot Springs reservation he orders all squatters and trespassers on federal property be removed there was something called an indignation meeting these folks held in which they threatened to come back and Lynch General Kelly Kelly provides for the construction of a government free bath house over the old mud hole spring to guarantee everyone access to the thermal water of all the ailments treated by the springs one of the most common is a disease people don't discuss in public they call it neuralgia that was sometimes a code word the joke was when somebody said I've got neuralgia the other person suspecting what they meant would say well I've got the older Alger obviously that meant venereal disease of some kind as the federal government takes over direct supervision of the reservation the general appearance of hotsprings begins to improve dramatically an archway is built to cover Hot Springs Creek making Central Avenue wider and more attractive with new landscaping around the bath houses down the street the hot springs opera house has just opened financed by Sam Fordyce the theater is packed nightly with patrons enjoying plays direct from New York performed by the leading actors of the day according to the town's new ordinances gambling is against the law in Hot Springs but by 1883 there are seven gambling houses on Central Avenue all of them controlled by one man Frank Flynn Frank soon got the attention of politicians by kicking back to them and letting him be the boss to say whether or not anybody else got to come in and open up a gambling establishment or not a problem arises in 1884 when major si Duran comes to town and opens a new gambling hall without the blessing of Frank Flynn for weeks Hot Springs is held hostage by a simmering feud between the two gamblers it finally arrests on Central Avenue when a horse-drawn cab carrying Flynn and his two brothers is ambushed by Duran's hired gunmen the shooting leaves three people lying mortally wounded on the town's Main Street the community really got upset and they organized what they call the committee of 13 and it was a committee that was instructed to run all the gamblers out of town and he did it at being that point and it seemed to work in those early years that they were able to get rid of the folks that they perceived to be causing problems for their image and they did want this nice squeaky-clean image but yet they wanted people to know that they could have a good time as well a good time for many visitors to Hot Springs includes drinking prostitution and gambling all of which are illegal and some say in more with a growing economy based more and more on entertaining the beta's there is a continual debate in town about how openly to allow these illegal activities to operate open or closed is usually the only issue on Election Day you had the church people voting for morality you had the other people and some of them were Church people that were voting for the gambling because they had a business downtown that relied on the vistors there for a while of the town was pretty balanced each way and each election of the mayor would bring forth a change in in the attitude if you elect is a liberal mayor for the next two years you were going to have gambling so the mayor appointed the chief of police in between the mayor and the chief of police they pretty well control the attitude in downtown hustle in 1899 Tom Toller is chief of police and hot springs but he's worried about his job because of the upcoming mayor's election he's heard that Bob Williams the popular County Sheriff is supporting a candidate for mayor who's promised to make his brother the new city police chief giving control of the entire county to one family the election boiled down to a struggle between city and county police over who will control and profit from the illegal activities in town on March 16 1899 in a bar on Central Avenue the escalating feud explodes in a brutal shootout between city police and County deputies three men are killed instantly including chief Toller the son of sheriff Williams lies dying in the street hearing the gunshots City police detective Jim Hart arrives minutes after the carnage is over he gets back just in time for Bob Williams to arrive Williams sees his son lying there dying and he grabs this detective and sticks his gun under his chin and blows the top of his head it emptied the town like nothing two gunfights in one day and five people killed it was unbelievable the story hits the New York Times front page and as far away as Sacramento the Arkansas Democrats headline screams city drenched in blood time and the water heals everything in hot springs streams of visitors flow in from everywhere undeterred by the town's risky reputation yeah it was but I think that adds to the charm of the spa that these things are going on but yeah it's a great place to go it's fun you you amid all the pleasant diversions hot springs remains a serious health treatment center an army-navy Hospital operates at full capacity the reservation now has a medical director who sets standards and guidelines for the treatment of Baylor's many come with a doctor's prescription for a series of Bath's lasting as long as three weeks others are here just to relax because bathing has become fashionable crowd swarm in these bands the Negro attendants scramble at the bidding of the bathers a man becomes a creature of three conditions he is about to take a bath he is taking a bath he has taken a bath Stephen Crane hot springs by the early 1900's the most exclusive bath houses are evolving into palaces of luxury and the hotels are equally opulent in a poor southern state still struggling to emerge from the Civil War Hot Springs Arkansas is a thriving cosmopolitan playground for America's elite oh my goodness anybody who was anybody came to Hot Springs it was the place to be because all the other celebrities were here glittering stars a film and stage politicians presidents prizefighters the Giants of Commerce and Industry they're all here in hot springs once a year the hotels are invaded by pirates and Indians and Red Sox in town for spring training Dave root uses the Baths to boil off the excesses of the offseason it is 1913 the mayor of Hot Springs is the aptly named ww waters he's a liberal so the gambling clubs are wide open and going strong businesses were booming in 1913 it hit it was a good year until things began the happen Bob Williams is still the County Sheriff like the mayor he's also been lenient toward gambling but his attitude changes when he realizes hot springs as being infested with visitors who are not here for the bats just the money conman they had come in and they do their game and get the money and take off and they hip wealthy people they thought that the wealthy people would be so embarrassed that they wouldn't complain about it they are wrong about Frank Foxx an Indiana oilman and race car driver when Fox was swindled out of $20,000 in hot springs he hires the famous burns detective agency to get his money back burn sends a bunch of private detectives down here and that was one thing that upset Bob Williams he finds out that the burns people are down here as he said looking under all the rocks and hotel what they're going to find sheriff Williams tells mayor waters it's time to close the gambling clubs until things cool down but the gamblers are getting mixed messages Watters was telling the club's is okay to stay open and Williams was saying close down or we're going to close you down Williams goes on a rampage raiding the clubs that remain open hauling away expensive equipment busting it up and burning it on the courthouse lawn he shuts down every gambling house in town including the Ohio Club owned device brother a local newspaper describes it as the gloomiest day of the year Frank Fox never gets his money back but more victims come forward claiming they too were scammed in hot springs the businessmen are appalled because the words is out all over the country this is hitting the national newspapers about hot springs of being a place where you can go down in and the con artists are out to get you as soon as you get off the train by April ww waters has lost the mayor's election to dr. Jacob McClendon who runs on a platform of strict law enforcement for now any gambling and Hot Springs will be hidden in the back rooms of the bars that is in the ones still standing after September 5th 1913 on that day around 2 o'clock in the afternoon a small fire is reported in a cottage on Church Street it spreads quickly fed by the neighboring frame houses unusually high winds push the flames across 50 blocks of the city the most destructive fire in Arkansas history no one is killed but nearly 1,000 buildings are lost and more than 2,000 people are homeless many folks didn't have insurance on their businesses or their homes huge areas of the town were destroyed but people were always quick to rebuild and interestingly it had little impact on people coming to visit they still came in they heard about the fire well let's go anyway the images of hot springs captured in these home movies from the 1920s suggest a modern urban community where families have plenty of places to go and things to do it looks cosmopolitan and comfortable but the lynching of a black man on Central Avenue in 1922 reminds everyone that hot springs is still a small segregated southern town and yet hundreds of African Americans are coming here because hot springs is different it was a place where you could educate your children you can build your houses by being a tourist town there was a different kind of attitude between the blacks and the whites here that you would not necessarily find anyplace else there was this attitude of openness and then all the money was coming from tourists no one wants to visit and be a part of your tourist town if there is conflict going on on any level they come to rest and relax and you know everybody quote unquote knew their place because as long as they kept their place the money would come in and everybody would profit from that one of the things we always enjoy doing is kids with walking down Central Avenue looking at the license plates on all of the cars here's one from New Hampshire here's one from Iowa far away places with strange-sounding names you know the people in Hot Springs were were very lucky because in other small Arkansas towns of people left in order to receive the culture the culture came to Hot Springs african-americans are not welcome as customers on bath house room but most of the bath attendants are black except at the buck staff which specializes in all white attendants there are places the black visitor can go to bathe in the thermal water if you're poor there's the government free bath house if you have money you might visit the Pythian in the heart of the town's thriving black commercial district it's almost this secret that for African Americans hot springs was a resort place where African Americans could go and do exactly what white people were doing they did horseback riding they played tennis they swam they they gambled they bought clothes if there was a need for something somebody started a business most of the businesses lined both sides of Melbourne Avenue a street often referred to as black Broadway well it was real nice because the streets would be full of people standing around talking looking there was always a lot of activity because that was where people went and people who came from all over talk about the quality of the hotels they all were owned and operated by blacks the promise of the water continues to draw people from across the country to hot springs recently named by Congress as America's 18th National Park the town experiences a steady growth in the numbers of visitors fueling the local economy but the city government is struggling financially already strapped by the costs of rebuilding the town after the devastating fire of 1913 hot springs is hit by a combination of fires and flood in 1923 the Arlington Hotel has burned but is rising on an even grander scale at a new location across the street from the Springs prohibition has closed the bars in town and made the hills of Garland County the most active bootlegging region in the state many miss the days when the illegal gambling clubs were wide open and the money flowed more freely down Central Avenue some say the town is stagnant and needs the energy of open gambling to thrive thus the mayor's election of 1927 presents the voters of Hot Springs with a familiar choice an open or a closed town in the spring of 1927 Leo P McLaughlin is a young city attorney in hot springs when he is convinced to run for mayor by Vern Leger would the city's municipal judge MacLaughlin is a good campaigner and he and judge Leger would have a plan for the town you tell the people the other night up at the Arlington Hotel I walked out on the veranda look down the street and he said I could have fired a Winchester rifle down the street and not hit a soul everything was closed up and he says if I'm elected we're going to revitalize the downtown area and we're going to open it up he never did come out and say we're going to have gambling here but everybody understood what he was talking about it is a heated and bitter campaign one local bank agrees to hold over $50,000 in bets made on the outcome of the election those who bet on leo are the winners as McLaughlin narrowly becomes the new mayor of hot springs now Leo had a failing all the way through his life was anyone opposed him he was an enemy from then on ledger wood wasn't quite that way he says I think we've got an opportunity here to meet with these fellows and if we tell them that we will support them if they'll support us that we can capture the entire county all the people that are under me I'm going to encourage them to support you if you encourage all of your people to support us now we can take it a step further they need their jobs and each employee came to understand that his job was depended on they knew that if you didn't vote for the right candidate that they had no it there was no secret ballot in your own camp with the unspoken blessing about county and city officials open gambling returns to Hot Springs this time only a limited number of clubs will be allowed to operate all gambling will be controlled by one man ws bill Jacobs who has an agreement with McLaughlin and ledger would let's keep it on a local basis do not let foreign money come in here and get control of it and then first thing you know we'll be out of it although gambling is now open it is still illegal twice a month the gamblers voluntarily come before Judge ledger woods Court plead guilty and pay their fines for gambling the first two charges are misdemeanors but the third conviction is a felony to avoid this they simply change their last names in the court record one month everyone's named after a color the next month a type of automobile or agricultural product money from the gambling fines begins to help the city's finances giving mayor McLaughlin the means to make improvements in the town without raising taxes when the people suggest giving the mayor a raise he would tell them no don't worry about giving leo raise Leo will get his one of these days or worse to that effect people knew that he was being taken care of by the gambling community from all appearances the LD McLaughlin is the perfect mayor for hot springs very nice-looking man he was tall fairly thin always impeccably dressed he wore his hat cocked on the side with this side down this side up I always wore a boutonniere loved publicity loved having his picture in the paper leo was becoming one of the town's most popular tourist attractions with his daily carriage rides downtown pulled by his horses scotch and soda the word would go down central MU the mayor's on his way up and by the time he'd get to the Arlington Hotel people would ball out on the street he'd pull his buggy over shake hands with everybody and they loved and and he was mr. hot springs like all forms of gambling betting on horse races is against the law in Arkansas the Oakland racetrack in Hot Springs has been closed for over 15 years nevertheless in 1933 mayor McLaughlin encourages a group of businessmen to stage a short quiet racing season at Oakland Park with no wager of course it is enormous ly successful the track sends a percentage of the illegal profits to the state of Arkansas as a voluntary income tax it's enough to persuade the state legislature to allow plating on the thoroughbreds to continue legally at Oakland for a limited time each year and hot springs becomes a city that moves to the rhythms of the racing season and the numbers of visitors multiplied during McLaughlin's first three terms of office the hot springs skyline has been transformed by a new army navy hospital and a 16-story medical arts building Arkansas's first skyscraper and this is all in the midst of the depression whether we agree with McLaughlin and his machines tactics whether we like him and what he stood for we can't argue with how many improvements took place in the city itself during his time in office house things just changing rightly downtown hot springs buzzes 24 hours a day during the racing season and every night there's a full house at the Belvedere a glittering new cabaret and casino boss gambler WS Jacobs has opened on the outskirts of town featuring gourmet food and big-name it club belvedere cater strictly to the high rollers now ray running neck-and-neck into the scratch anything with firstly our William John and flutter up young John moving up on the outside Northern Star on warm days a chorus of unusual sounds can be heard drifting from the open windows of the gambling clubs on Central Avenue as the results from horse races across the country are announced it again bracelets and I need a race track the winner is the number three or one of the most famous of the horse books is operated across the street from the Arlington hotel upstairs in the southern Club I could never be there in front of the Arlington and close to Arlington Park in the southern with that immense nostalgia feeling that I have come home surely Abbot is a writer from New York who grew up in hot springs she returns occasionally to visit with family and to remember her father who worked at the southern Club handling vets as the cashier he always was so well turned out I mean he dressed just like a banker to go downtown and work in this illegal business it was such an exotic world that my father worked in and I knew it was illegal I knew he could be arrested any day I when I said goodbye to him on a summer morning and he went off uptown in his ice-cream suit my mother and I both knew that he might be in jail by the end of the day but we were proud of him anyway everybody in town knew what was going on there was no illusion about that I mean he couldn't not know and we knew that we were thriving off something that was completely against a law and a lot of people really loved that and and would say well you know this is this is what key to the town prosperous where would we be without it we have to have this we have to have it and Hot Springs run a new world for country boy from Columbia County when CID McMath family moves to Hot Springs on his 10th birthday he finds a job selling newspapers on bathhouse room Central Avenue was a very busy that was downtown and that's where a lot of the book is in the gambling houses were and so forth and they were good places to sell papers called so many times you're going in sell a guy a paper in two pipe papers a nickel he'll give you a quarter and you hit you on the edge they bought keep a change at the young man growing up in Hot Springs McMath is exposed at an early age to the dark side of politics in his hometown this young girl that I was going with whose father was it can contract and his brother was apartment is the brother ran for sheriff in me in against McLaughlin's candidate he lost it was a hotly contested sheriff's race and he was a powerful campaigner and a popular individual but within a few weeks after the election was over he was lured into a back alley and assassinated and then I have another friend I was in high school still who whose father ran for mayor against McLaughlin and and his mortgage was it was due and they and they took over his mortgage and foreclosed on his house so if you oppose McGlothlin administration and you're vulnerable in any respect you could be punished somehow McMath avoids becoming cynical about politics just more interested after graduating with a law degree from the University of Arkansas and serving a year in the Marine Corps McMath comes home to hot springs to practice law most of his first cases are tried in courtrooms controlled by the mclaughlin administration and i saw how it worked he was the boss he called his shots they did what they were supposed to do the thing that concerned me was why they could get away with this why this could happen and what we call a free society I resolved then that I for one would endeavor to do something about it visitors to Hot Springs aren't too concerned about the town's politics many are here because of illness hoping the hot water will cure them the number of Bad's given on bathhouse row was approaching 1 million a year the town's new slogan is we bathe the world in 1936 hot springs swells with pride and people as President Franklin Roosevelt comes to town to celebrate Arkansas's 100th birthday as the nation's most popular health resort the city is accustomed to entertaining the rich and the famous as well as the rich and the infamous a roll call of America's most notorious gangsters and they thought well if that's that hot we better be going there to all the rich people in America go there and they bring their private railroad cars down to Hot Springs and I got gambling liquor down there and ain't go to Hot Springs and no one knows who they are mayor McLaughlin welcome to the shady visitors with some conditions fellows come on down and have a good time do not has all the local people spend your money get out on the lakes and fish use our golf courses have a good time but don't create any problems Al Capone is one of the first gangsters to discover the relaxing pleasures of hot springs reserving the entire fourth floor of the Arlington hotel for his entourage Capone Gamble's at the southern Club parties with the prostitutes and takes the baths possibly to ease his suffering from siblings one of hotsprings newest residents is Oney met a gang leader from New York City former owner of the Cotton Club and convicted murderer after being exiled from New York Madden retires to Hot Springs marries the postmasters daughter and becomes a model citizen mayor McLaughlin and Judge ledger wood are quick to visit met to explain that he's welcome here as long as he stays out of the local gambling business my father spoke of Owney Madden in a way that let me know that Owney Madden was a man to be feared and that owning Madden was a man with lots of power he said you know they say Owney Madden just lives here but he's you know happily married to a nice Hot Springs girl and he's just another citizen but that's not so Madden can usually be found in the afternoon sitting at his favorite table in the southern club every gangster who comes to town makes a point to check in with owning most come just to relax but some are wanted fugitives hiding from the law and they've heard the Hot Springs Police Department is willing to help for a price in June of 1933 Hot Springs Police Chief Joe wakeland is alarmed to hear that FBI agents have arrested Frank jelly Nash on Central Avenue and are taking him to Kansas City wanted for bank robbery Nash has been paying wakeland and his chief of detectives dutch acres protection money in kansas city as the agents are taking nash from the car they are gunned down by monsters tipped off by someone in hot springs after the Kansas City massacre FBI director J Edgar Hoover does not trust the Hot Springs Police Department his suspicions are confirmed three years later when one of America's most wanted criminals is arrested here despite the efforts of local police to protect him indicted for running a prostitution ring by the state of New York Charles Lucky Luciano heads for hot springs where a vacationing New York City policeman accidentally spots strolling down Central Avenue with none other than detective Dutch Akers Luciano was arrested by the county sheriff and his bond is set at $2,500 he reaches in his pocket pays it off and is released New York Attorney General Thomas Dewey cannot believe what is happening in Hot Springs it calls Arkansas governor Marion Futrell and demands that Luciano be extradited to New York Governor futile is an old fishing buddy of Judge ledger Woods and a friend to Hot Springs but the governor does not want any problems coming out of state of New York especially over Lucky Luciano and so he calls the sheriff and says take that man back in custody and holy eventually it takes Arkansas's attorney general Karl Bailey and a squadron of heavily armed Arkansas State Rangers to pry Lucky Luciano from the grasp of the garland county authorities and return him to New York in the meantime the FBI has been closing in on Alvin creepy carpets identified by J Edgar Hoover as public enemy number one they know he's somewhere in hot springs but he always seems to be one step ahead of me when Karpis is finally arrested in New Orleans there is enough evidence to convict police chief Joe Whelan and detective Dutch acres of harboring criminals in Hot Springs the negative publicity tarnishes the city's image the state legislature conducts an inquiry into corruption in the spa city newly elected governor Carl Bailey begins sending State Police from Little Rock to raid the gambling clubs but the gamblers place a lookout at Crowes station 20 miles outside of town if he saw car loads of State Police headed this way he immediately got on the phone and everything would be dark by the time they got here they'd be shut down and they could shut down in a hurry the outbreak of World War 2 seems to turn people's attention away from the problems of Hot Springs Arkansas it will be after the war is over before the real fight begins here in 1945 at the end of World War two Hot Springs Arkansas does not appear to be a town on the brink of change the bath houses the city's lifeblood are operating at full capacity bathing in the thermal water is still the primary treatment for many diseases the town is full of soldiers bunking in big luxury hotels like the Arlington transformed temporarily by the military into discharge centers and Central Avenue is hopping but there was life on Central Avenue paper will win in and lose in and make a noise although illegal gambling is the city's most lucrative business and despite the occasional raid by the State Police the casinos and horse books operate openly with the blessing of the local authorities well the enemy for my father was anybody who wanted to put him out of work Shirley Abbott's father Pat Abbott is one of the hundreds of Hot Springs residents working in the illegal gambling business he was always selling me the idea that things weren't what they seemed that civics book you're studying there says that things work in such and such a way that's not how they work let me tell you how they really work and then he would explain how things worked in hot springs how things work in hot springs is in the hands of three men Mayor Leo P mcLaughlin municipal judge burned ledger wood at Circuit Judge Earl Witt so they control the court system they they controlled the police system and they control the economy of hot springs because you did not operate a business there without their say-so the town catered to wealth and tourists and that was yet the gambling the number one the number one thing and they were corrupt as hell you know just they were corrupt you wanted to get something you paid for it and once they sold out they were bought and that sucked good and honest people in never thought they directly q Byram Hirst is one of the GIS returning home to Hot Springs his father is a local minister and an outspoken critic of mcLaughlin and illegal gambling but the younger Hurst is more dismayed by the lack of opportunity in its hometown for a young lawyer interested in politics I don't plan we all got home we were so independent that we didn't know what to do before but this time we seemed too much during the war and we had determined the truth turn Hot Springs over to the people should make math as a leader Sid Beck math was a crusader Sid McMath wanted to change he is the one who brought the others into it he is the one who convinced them that they could make a change the GIS as they call themselves decide to field a slate of candidates to run against the McLaughlin machine in the 1946 Democratic primary election this will be the first time in 10 years for many of the incumbents to face opposition but no one in the McLaughlin camp is very worried because they also control the elections they were afraid to vote against McLaughlin's people because he they knew that he would know how to voted if he wanted to find out and course we had good people in hot springs but they were intimidated intimidation works pretty well in a town like Hot Springs where the livelihood of so many people depends on illegal activity but fear is not enough to completely control an election for that the McLaughlin machine uses the poll tax an Arkansas state law that requires a person to pay for the privilege of voting it was legal in Arkansas for a person to go to the courthouse by a block of poll tax receipts and give them to whomever problem was if you could do this for legitimate voters you could also do it for those who are not legitimate voters McMath and the GIS know their only hope of winning the election is to expose the blocks of phony poll tax receipts forged by mcLaughlin supporters they got lists of names they started going door to door and asking people if they had actually signed these poll tax receipts found people who sit up like me when two of their campaign workers are robbed at gunpoint of a briefcase containing evidence of poll tax fraud the GIS know exactly where to go when to call on the mayor had a good visit waiting they went to Leo's office and told them look if you folks were playing rough we can play rough and these guys were kidding we settled that at that time and probably prevented any further confrontations that might have led for throat trouble the administration had blinked just three weeks before the primary election a federal judge rules that more than 1,600 poll tax receipts from garland County are fraudulent despite their efforts when the votes are counted all of the GI candidates are defeated except one Sid McMath narrowly wins the race for prosecuting attorney we knew there was a real crack in the foundation I mean it seemed them unbelievable with the with the system being what it was that someone could actually overturn it encouraged by McMath success the GIS decide to run again in the general election this time as independence the administration's supporters respond with a campaign of fear there were people whose jobs were threatened I mean little people waitresses gas station attendants little people who were threatened that if they supported the GIS they lost their job and they'd call us and threatening or just just remember yes you have a young daughter you know things like that as I should go back now I Realty annually you've got all through it because we're at that particular time but it's so important to us you know we're just going to go ahead anyway the G is mounted determined at energetic campaign led by the charismatic McMahon they're not walking on all in one evening I walked I know for several blocks and they every house it seemed had its radio on and is loud enough that I could hear who is speaking they were made a question now before you is whether you are going to govern yourselves in this community or if you are to be ruled and regulated by McLaughlin and a quarter and I said well that yes encourages they've got their radios on and they not mind if their neighbors hear it and so I think we've got a chance to endlessly McMath instincts are true the G is captures six of the county's most powerful political positions leading mayor McLaughlin and judge ledger woods still holding their city offices but no longer in control unprotected and uncertain about how the GIS will handle illegal gambling the casinos quietly closed down myrn ledger would decides that after serving 34 years he will retire as municipal judge but Leo P McLaughlin announces he will run again for his 11th consecutive term as mayor in one of his first acts as prosecuting attorney Sid McMath calls for a grand jury investigation of corruption in the mclaughlin administration indicted on 32 counts McLaughlin is arrested while sitting in his favorite box seat at Oak Lawn racetrack he decides to drop out of the mayor's race ending a reign of twenty years to concentrate on his defense the trial is moved to Mount Ida the neighboring county seat in the hope of finding a jury whose judgment will be unclouded by connections to hot springs the courtroom is packed as the testimony reveals a depth of corruption in the mclaughlin administration that shocks the average citizens of hot springs and arkansas and every sordid detail is reported by the national press one of the most embarrassing things was that Life magazine covered it and my father had been an avid reader of life and here we were being laid out his black magazine and it was just always more than he could bear despite the overwhelming evidence presented by prosecutor McMath the jury returns a verdict of not guilty in an interview recorded late in his life Verne ledger wood remembers how he and Earl Witte did everything they could to influence the jury not to convict McLaughlin could have gone to the penitentiary if we had anything I'll help him out there and then he wouldn't many more guilty than anybody else been in office sir good sheriff and everybody else when Leo P McLaughlin dies in his hometown ten years later his house is ransacked and his grave is opened by scavengers searching for his fortune by the early 1950s the mysterious thermal water that has nourished the growth of hot springs is beginning to lose its magic the number of bathers on bathhouse Row is dropping noticeably every year with the discovery of antibiotics and other modern medicine doctors are no longer prescribing the baths said McMath political star rises quickly he serves only one term as prosecuting attorney before being elected governor of Arkansas leaving behind the rest of the GIS to deal with a persistent demand for the return of illegal gambling to Hot Springs some of the GIS are for it I really thought that benefit of the county that gambling would the wave so used to it they would that we had to put up a some of it anyway during McMath tenure as governor gambling begins to reappear in hot springs but most of it is hidden out of sight that all changes in 1954 with the election of a new governor Orval Eugene Follis he sends a different message to Hot Springs as he put it gambling was a local issue and he was not going have any any part ended meeting okay boys you can open up again he wasn't too worried about the political fallout because he knew that in the state generally people just didn't care given the green light from Governor Faubus gambling returns like never before in Hot Springs old clubs reopen and new ones are built slot machines are everywhere there are rumors of a weekly cash payoff from the gamblers delivered directly to the governor's office in Little Rock but no one can prove it one thing is certain gambling is back and the spa city has come up with a way to cash in the city passed a tax on illegal business you were paying a amusement tax for running a illegal bar a house of prostitution a gambling casino and they use that like to pave the streets Public Works pays salaries everything and so that made it not so much of a crime by 1960 the gambling industry and hot springs is raking in more than 100 million dollars a year the owners of the illegal gambling clubs are considered legitimate businessmen in town they belong to civic organization and contribute generously to local charities they build glittering new night clubs like the vapors and bring in a variety of big-name entertainers many visitors come just for the show staged in the illegal casinos Alton Thomas Orville's wife like to go to hospitals but she knew she wasn't supposed to and she did not want to be seen there and she was sitting there with her friend and I can kind of bodyguard I guess when somebody got the microphone and said we have a very distinguished visitor here tonight mrs. Falk would you stand up this blew her cover the water is not the only thing heating up the spa city with gambling open again hot springs becomes a mecca for some of the biggest names in organized crime when I transferred with the FBI to Hot Springs some of the old agents said clay don't buy a home down there and I said wine they said well you won't be there long said it's too hot too much of a hot spot it was a 15 to 18 hour a day job a member one night getting up I just threw a suit on over my pajamas and I stayed that way for two days picking up fugitives and going from here to there and it could it was a madhouse although gambling is against the law in Arkansas the FBI agents have no jurisdiction here because there's no federal law against gambling yes we walked in all the gambling establishments every night practically hey how come this isn't being enforced anyone I could have closed them the chief of police the sheriff the prosecutor the judges governor in Washington DC Hot Springs becomes a hot topic at the Senate hearings on organized crime chaired by the senator from Arkansas John McClellan in 1964 the hearings result in the passage of new federal gambling statutes aimed directly at hot springs I got a call from FBI in Washington they said two individuals assistant attorney generals we're leaving that day to come to Hot Springs that night I took them to some of the casino took them to the mainly the southern Club the vapors club and the Belvedere last place we went to said we've seen enough we don't need to see any more so let's go to the motel so on the way the motel they asked me if I could call a press conference the next morning at the press conference the FBI describes hot springs as the largest illegal gambling operation in the country a warning is issued to all elected public officials failure to enforce the local laws against gambling is now a federal offense and the grand jury will soon be investigating those responsible for hot springs the Arkansas State Legislature responds quickly with a resolution calling for all illegal gambling and hot springs to be shut down immediately governor Faubus agrees and on March 28 1964 by order of the governor all the casinos in Hot Springs closed down for a while for the first time in his 10 years as governor Orval Faubus faces the viable opponent in the upcoming general election republican winter of rockefeller who has adopted Arkansas as his home state and made gambling an issue in the campaign and the basis for talking about illegal gambling in Hot Springs was the hypocrisy that it represented he knew we all knew that what was happening is the State Police when they were going to make a raid on Hot Springs the gamblers would be tipped off they would had all their stuff the raid would take place nothing would be found the state police would come back to Little Rock and the gamblers would get all the slots out and get going again and business as usual Baathist defeats Rockefeller in the 1964 election and for the next two years the gamblers continue their elusive dance around the occasional visit from the State Police illegal gambling and hot springs becomes a national news story when a reporter from the Washington Post runs into Governor Faubus at the Arlington Hotel he asks him about the illegal gambling in town when the governor said done he didn't know of any in the illegal gambling and Hot Springs himself as far as he knew it was all shut down the reporter walked out of the Arlington Hotel crossed Central Avenue and went into the southern Club where the equivalent the gambling was just wide open that day middle of the day but it got to be almost laughable not everyone in Arkansas is laughing Winthrop Rockefeller decides to run again for governor in 1966 promising to permanently close the illegal gambling and Hot Springs Orval Faubus announces he will not seek the election and in 1966 Winthrop Rockefeller becomes the first Republican to be elected governor of Arkansas in over 90 years yes read in the paper the gambling has reopened in Hot Springs uh the sincerity of his campaign promise is immediately tested by the gamblers and hot springs if this is brought to your attention will you use a State Police investigative agency to go over and look the situation over yes I've always taken the attitude and they certainly proved it by taking my oath of office that I'll enforce the law or the law does not permit open gambling this time the state police raids will be different no tip-offs we're going to go in there and get the machines beat him up make a big deal out of it show people in Hot Springs efficient that's what we did it was quick and dirty and and clear that this this era is over it's over and people that were that were gamblers themselves well-meaning people business people you know in effect prevailed on him to take it easy governor I mean my goodness you know you're killing us you know in effect but he was not dissuaded a that he was determined and he stayed with it some people said the town will die Hot Springs had to find a new identity gambling was gone it's entertainment was gone bathing was in decline now where do we go from here many in Hot Springs believe the only hope for the city's economic future is for the state to legalize gambling the people of this state I mean all the people of this state said we do not absolutely do not unequivocally turn not well Gamlen in Hot Springs and garland County somehow despite vocal opposition state senator q Byram Hearst manages to get a gambling bill passed by both houses of the state legislature when the fill goes to Governor Rockefeller it sits on his desk until the day before it will become law without his signature Rockefeller vetoes ending all hope of legalizing gambling and hotspot springs has always been a town with a split personality today the horses are still riding at Oakland Park and like the old horse ebooks baton races from all over the country but there's no more gambling on Central Avenue the old Southern Club is a wax museum and the vapors is a church on Malvern Avenue the National Baptist building were once upon a time Duke Ellington's band played late into the night is boarded up and black Broadway is just a memory people still believe there's something special about this water and visitors line up to bottle it and take it home but only one bath house is open for business another is the museum the rest are empty and crumbling in the steam patiently waiting for renovation if you stand on Central Avenue basically old Harlington hotel and listen you can hear the ghosts of hot springs arguing about what vital did maybe the first competition that Las Vegas has had because we have everything that they don't have everything listen that's the way it is in it and makes you feel bad too because we have chances to really make a city out of this place it was gonna be something anyway as there all the money people and the big tippers and big spenders quit coming to Tennessee because before that you can ride down Central Avenue because casually going on Central Avenue look over here there's a movie star walking down a sidewalk like anybody else it was kind of like we were the center of the world the aura surrounding hot springs somewhat disappeared the kind of feeling that people have when they hear the name hot stream but a lot of the excitement has been lost we remember that fondly that we forgotten the control we've forgotten the corruption we've forgotten it really open in morality everybody's amoral sometime I guess but when it's institutionalized let's just say to people they say oh boy things aren't like they used to be and I Got News for you and they never work I tell you when they want to good old days they don't know what they're talking about I think that people are looking forward and not backward I don't think they spend too much we're about worrying about the fast except they don't want to repeat it Hot Springs have never had much industry and so we've had to rely on the vistors and we still rely they come by the droves they're coming in greater numbers every year if you go downtown during the months of June and July and the early part of August you'll notice how crowded the streets are they're not vacant if Leo McLaughlin walked out on Arlington Hotel in Florida Winchester down Central and you either hit somebody this is a good time this is a good mmm major funding for this program is provided by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and the Morris Foundation additional funding is from the C Louis and Mary C Cave Foundation and the monroe foundation copies of this program are available by calling aetn membership services 1-866 two two three eight six a free educators guide for grades five through 12 is also available by request