How “Dr.” Samuel Bennett Became the 'King of the Thimbles'

Criminalia

Shondaland Audio and iHeartPodcasts

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You can't talk about confidence artists and their games without talking about one of the classics: the shell game. It's been called a lot of things over the decades, and during the time and place we're going to visit in this episode, it was 'thimblerig'. It's often portrayed as a gambling game, but it's actually a con used to fleece unsuspecting bettors. Samuel Bennett was one of the best-known 'thimbleriggers' – perhaps ever, depending who you ask – and he made a fortune scamming passengers on steamboats along America's waterways in the 19th century.

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1:02.2	Introducing Hashtag Matter, a brand new eight episode scripted podcast. I'm
1:08.1	Colleen Sanders and we're here live from the Los Angeles Valley. You see one
1:14.8	officer dead and the second officer wounded. This case presented a lot of
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1:23.0	I'm author and journalist Kate Bell and this is Hashtag Matter. Listen to Hashtag
1:29.7	Matter on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:41.5	Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
1:53.9	You can't have a season about confidence artists and their games without talking
1:58.7	about one of the classics. The Shell game. It's been called a lot of things over the
2:04.0	years and during the time and place we're going to visit in this episode we'll be
2:08.0	calling it Thimble Rig. Though it's often portrayed as a gambling game it's
2:12.2	actually a confidence trick used to perpetrate fraud. It is a long popular game
	...

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