Behind the dapper visage and the styling bowler hat is the cool-as-a-cucumber con-man Clarence Glass, AKA Charles Glass. And until his arrest in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on March 22, 1910, he played a key role in a gang of grifters known as the Maybray Gang or “Millionaire’s Club.”
Led by John C. Maybray, the group contained as many as eighty-five operatives who ran large-scale scams on affluent gamblers throughout the States. From their home base in Council Bluffs, Iowa, they set up elaborate con jobs in New Orleans, Denver, Missouri, Washington, and elsewhere.
Like in the classic film The Sting, starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman, each member of the crew played a specific role. Clarence Glass was one of the “steerers,” whose job consisted of finding marks or “Mikes” and luring them into betting on a fixed sporting event, usually boxing, wresting, or horse racing. A meticulous Mephistopheles, Maybray spared no expense or missed any detail in staging his fake games. Everything had to appear authentic so the mark didn’t suspect that he was about to lose a king’s ransom on a rigged contest. Maybray’s men enlisted the help of well-known athletes including wrestlers J.E. Coons from Owosso, Michigan, Ernest Fenby, and Thomas Gay of Chicago.
The Maybray gang advertised by sending leaflets through the mail from Post Office Box Number 4 in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Their use of the US Postal Service, however, would lead to their downfall. Federal postal inspectors grew suspicious and opened an investigation. Bloodhounds were sent to track Maybray and his key men. Meanwhile Maybray’s group worked confidence games in several major cities and by 1910, had bilked naive gamblers to the tune of around $5 million (in 1910 money)!
They deprived a Green Bay, Wisconsin farmer of $2,500 on a fixed horse race run in Council Bluffs. Another farmer from Alma, Michigan, lost $3,000 on what he later characterized as “a bit of sport.” A Missouri banker lost $30,000 on a rigged horse race.
Rigged wrestling matches proved to be a cash cow for Maybray’s “Millionaire’s.” Coons, Fenby, and Gay received handwritten directions from Maybray, sent from Box Number 4. The boss grifter indicated which match he wanted his wrestlers-on-the-take to stage, and then they executed a well-planned ruse. One wrestler kept a “bladder of blood” inside his cheek. On cue, he bit through the bladder, fell to the mat, and feigned serious injury. Inevitably, the referee ended the match and the “Mike” who bet on the fallen wrestler lost everything. The participants then scattered to the wind. In one particular match, a gambler lost a whopping $10,000. For his role in the fix, Thomas Gay received $2,500.
Finally, after years of investigation, the game finally came to an end in early March 1910 when federal authorities arrested Maybray. A search of his trunk revealed sheaves of incriminating documents. The three wrestlers–Coon, Fenby, and Gay–turned State’s evidence and described how the rigged wrestling matched worked. Fenby characterized himself as a puppet and fingered Maybray as the hand pulling all of the strings. The other two wrestlers also identified Maybray as the gang’s grifter impresario. The bunco leader and his top lieutenants landed on a Grand Jury indictment list for charges of mail fraud.
One by one, the dominoes began to fall. The Fort Wayne police nabbed the portly, barrel-chested Clarence Glass (5’7″ and 210 pounds) on March 22. Their photographer snapped mugshots and then an officer took a series of measurements.
This information was then transferred onto a mugshot or “Bertillon” card and placed into the city’s “rogues gallery”–a cabinet of cards containing photos and measurements of known felons. Often, these cards were reproduced and sent to other jurisdictions for use in their galleries.
Glass’ reputation as a gifted grifter proceeded him; his occupation was listed as “swindler.”
Found guilty, J.C. Maybray and each of his top operatives, including Clarence Glass, were sentenced to two years in a Federal Penitentiary and a fine of $10,000. The case made nationwide headlines. One journalist characterized it as one of “the most important and far reaching criminal operations the country has ever known.”
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