S7E1 Who Killed the Faro Cheat?

Mysteries to Die For

Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.

I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you in the heart of a mystery. All stories are structured to challenge you to beat the detective to the solution. These are arrangements, which means instead of word-for-word readings, you get a performance meant to be heard. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes.

This is Season 7, Games People Play. Games are about competition conducted according to rules with participants working toward a goal. Games are a part of every culture and are one of the oldest forms of social interaction and engagement. Games can be fun, challenging and exhilarating. They can also be intense, cutthroat, and lethal. This season, our authors have fashioned deadly games and unscrupulous villains to test your detection skills.

This is Episode 1, the card game faro is the featured game. This is Who Killed the Faro Cheat? by Larry M. Keaton

DELIBERATION

Captain Rake Caldeen doesn’t want to play sheriff, but he’s the only one who can do the job of solving Sweeney’s murder…with our help, of course. Here is a list of the camp folks who aren’t dead, in the order Caldeen met them:

• Java, nephew of saloon owner whose mother was killed in San Francisco.

• Boots (deceased), miner who Sweeney owed money.

• Boston, the Faro dealer who shares a tent with Java.

• Mrs. Erin Quinn, the owner of the saloon, aunt to Java.

• Mr. Wyeth, businessman who is trying to appoint himself leader of the camp.

• Samson and Ezekiel, Sweeney’s abused slaves.

• Brown Brothers, miners with the claim next to Sweeney.

Here are the facts Caldeen has to work with:

• Boots fought with Sweeney over the debt and threated to stab him if he didn’t pay up.

• Boston caught Sweeney cheating at Faro and chased it out at knife point. Mrs. Quinn banned him from the saloon.

• The copper Sweeney gambled with was the missing half to the one Java had. It was last scene with his mother before she was killed.

• Mr. Wyeth reportedly battled with Sweeney over land. Sweeney claim was blocking the road Wyeth wanted to build.

• Samson and Ezekiel were brought in to work the claim, though slavery is illegal in California.

• The Brown Brothers didn’t like their neighbor, Sweeney, saying he stole from them.

• Sweeney was killed sometime during the night. Theodore Brown heard Sweeney argue with someone who he referred to as ‘boy’. Theodore was also the one who saw Samson standing over Sweeney’s body the next morning.

• Sweeney was stabbed with a large knife. Every suspect owns a knife. The blood pool has a small ball near it.

• Sweeney bled out near his tent with the queen of hearts shoved in his mouth. The same card he had made a comment about during Faro.

All right punters, on whose head are you going to put your gold dust?

ABOUT FARO

Faro is not a poker game but a card game all its own. Larry did a nice job in the story teaching us how it’s played. According to Wikipedia, Faro originated in France with the earliest references found in the last 1690s to early 1700s. It seems the word came from the court of Louis XIV who picked the name from the image of a pharaoh on the French-made cards. The spelling changed but the pronunciation stayed the same. Faro spread throughout Europe and eventually into the US. It was very popular in the 1800s and could be found in nearly every gambling hall. An 1882 study cited Faro as the most popular form of gambling based on money bet each year.

Faro was wildly popular and it was wildly common for the house to cheat. Played straight, the odds only slightly favored the house and the payouts were good. Hoyle’s Rules of Games, a bible of various card games and rules, reportedly began their faro section by warning readers that there wasn’t an honest game in the US. Doctored shoots and slight of hand worked to increase the house’s edge on the odds. Criminal prosecutions were referenced from 1803 and 1835.

The players cheated, too, just like in today’s story. Moving bets by slight of hand or use of a thread and removing coppers were common cheats and, not surprisingly, caused more than a few brawls. I’m sure today’s body, Sweeney, would have preferred a good butt kicking to what he got.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faro_(banking_game)#:~:text=Faro%20(%2F%CB%88f%C9%9B%C9%99ro%CA%8A,a%20banker%20and%20several%20players.

ABOUT Larry M. Keeton

With a 43-year Army career and county government service, Larry Keeton has plenty of unique characters to choose from in his short stories. His 51-years of marriage to his high school sweetheart has provided him ample lessons of dialogue best never said. His first published story, “Some Treats are Nasty Tricks,” appeared in the September 2023 issue of Mystery Magazine. To be accepted, and then lead off then lead off season 7 of Mysteries to Die For is a tremendous honor.

WRAP UP

That wraps this episode of Mysteries to Die For. Support our show by subscribing, telling a mystery lover about us, and giving us a five-star review. Check out our website TGWolff.com/Podcast for links to this season’s authors.

Mysteries to Die For is hosted by TG Wolff and Jack Wolff. Who Killed the Faro Cheat? was written by Larry M. Keaton. Music and production are by Jack Wolff. Episode art is by TG Wolff. Join us next week for a Toe Tag, which is the first chapter from a fresh release in the mystery, crime, or thriller genre. Then come back in two weeks for our next original story A Scent of Murder: The Cow Flop Bingo Caper by Paul A. Barra where, well, cow flop bingo is the featured game.