Warren Nelson - University of Nevada, Reno

thousand dollars. Th ey left , remarked that it
was a good show and then walked down the
street. I think that’s cool.
Later on in a poker game in Reno, that
Francis was playing in, he asked me to get a
bet down for him. He gave me six thousand
dollars to bet on a horse, two, two and two,
win, place, and show. Th e horse was about
eight or nine to one, and I had to hustle to get
the money down because one book wouldn’t
take it, but I got all the money down. He had
six thousand dollars bet, and I think the race
came off about three o’clock. I was on needles
and pins wondering what the horse was going
to do. Finally the race was run; he came in
third. So Francis just about got his money
back. I went back to the game to take off the
vigorish for that hour and Francis never asked
me how the horse had done. Th e next two
times I went in he never asked me how the
horse had done. He hadn’t been out, but he
knew the race had been over for two hours. At
seven o’clock, he came out and walked toward
the door. When he was about to the door he
turned back and looked at the race board and
saw that the horse had come in third and then
he went in to get a cup of coff ee. Th at’s cool.
Francis later lost his job there and became
a gambler and lost all his money. Eventually
he became a heroin addict and died. It was
a tragic thing because he was a bright man,
very smart. He had a wife and a couple of kids.
What I thought had been a great deal of “cool”
might have been drugs, but, I don’t think he
took them when he was young. He did have
an illness that started him on the heroin. I’m
sure that he wasn’t a guy that started taking
heroin for kicks, but I think he took it for pain
and became hooked on it.
Th at was all for the cool things about him,
but there were other things. When we were
younger he came over to Great Falls and asked
me to go out and party. He asked me to get
Palace Club, 1936-1942
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some girls. I got a couple of pretty nice girls,
not for an orgy, but an ordinary party. We
went to his room, and he ordered champagne.
Th is was a big thing for me and for the girls.
Francis had about a six carat diamond ring on.
One of the girls said, “Oh, Francis, that’s
the prettiest diamond I ever saw. Can I try it
on?”
He said yes, and she put it on. Th e party
went on ’til about fi ve o’clock in the morning.
Th e girls were going to go home.
He came to me and said, “Warren, I didn’t
get my ring back.” I told him to go get it. He
said, “I don’t know how.” I brought the girl
over, reached over and took the ring and gave
it to him. I found out he knew a lot about
gambling but not very much about girls or
the ordinary things in life.
Francis Lyden had a great deal to do
with my thinking about gambling, probably
more negative than positive. Bill Panelli was
probably, in my opinion, the most procedure
correct gambler—knew more about the nittygritty
than anybody.
Through 1940 I worked every day in
the pit, working hard, making money in the
summertime, losing money in the wintertime,
but always a little bit more win than lose. I
enjoyed working for John Petricciani; he was
a very fair man. He was very stern looking
man, but a good family man in one way,
but in another way not. Mainly a fi ne man,
very, very honorable. When he said he’d do
something he did it. He certainly treated
me very well. He gave me the latitude and
tools to learn the business. He never tried to
hold anything back; he let me do just about
anything I wanted to as far as the Palace Club
was concerned.
Th e Palace Club was one of only three
places in town then. Th e Bank Club, the Palace
Club and about that time a little joint by the
name of Harolds Club opened up. Everybody