Zeke Caress

{{Short description|American bookmaker (1884–1968)}} '''Ezekiel Logan "Zeke" Caress''' (1884–1968) was an American bookmaker. He worked in Mexico at the Agua Caliente race track and at Santa Anita in California.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=1952-03-21 |title=Local lads grabbed early rackets, graft |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-local-lads-grabbed-early-rack/148859097/ |access-date=2024-06-07 |work=Daily News |pages=47}}</ref> He bought Jim Jeffries' saloon at 326 S. Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles in 1917, and the building became something like a central headquarters for the Los Angeles organized crime organization run by Guy McAfee that was known as the Syndicate.<ref name=":0" /> Caress was sometimes called the "king of the bookies".<ref>{{Cite news |date=1920-10-07 |title=Ask New Trial in Race Track Gambling Case |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-post-record-ask-new/148857967/ |access-date=2024-06-07 |work=Los Angeles Evening Post-Record |pages=5}}</ref> He handled off-track betting for clients, including reportedly actors of the Los Angeles film industry, and according to ''Time'' magazine in 1935 readily took bets of {{USD|25000|1935}}.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=1935-05-13 |title=Sport: At Churchill Downs |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,754764-3,00.html |access-date=2024-06-07 |magazine=Time |language=en-US |issn=0040-781X}}</ref>

== See also == * Betting on horse racing * Gambling in California

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * {{Cite web |last=jhgraham |date=2016-12-04 |title=Zeke Caress |url=https://jhgraham.com/2016/12/03/ezekiel-logan-zeke-caress-1881-1968/ |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=J. H. Graham |language=en}}

Category:1884 births Category:1968 deaths Category:Bookmakers Category:Businesspeople from Los Angeles Category:20th-century American people Category:Organized crime in Los Angeles