RELUCTANT PRESS

"DOLLY"

By SUSAN SWEET

"GAMBLING WAS MY DOWNFALL"

All my life I have been fascinated by odds and games of chance. Even as a child I would bet money on almost anything. My luck was always fairly good and I won most of the time, until I met Jack Dugan, and my luck changed forever.

I met Jack in a bar on the west side of LA.., and after a few drinks, the conversation turned to horse racing. Jack said he had a tip on the third race at Santa Anita the next day, and when I showed an interest, he said he would be willing to place a bet for me with a bookie he knew. I jumped at the chance and placed a fifty dollar bet with Jack. He promised to meet me in the bar the next evening, hopefully to give me my winnings.

The horse that Jack had told me to bet on won easily, and Jack met me at the bar as he said he would with a payoff of three hundred dollars. I was hooked and eager for more. Jack was reluctant at first, but after much insisting, I got him to place bets for me with the bookie he knew along with his own.

Jack was the greatest handicapper I have ever known. He only placed one bet a day, but he never failed to pick a winner. At the end of a week, I was two thousand dollars richer and on the hottest winning streak of my life. When Jack said he had the hottest tip ever and that we couldn't lose, I jumped at the chance, and jumped right down the chute to Hell.

According to Jack's plan, we would both go to the bookies office the next day and place ten thousand dollar bets on Horse #7 in the fifth race at Santa Anita that day. At 8 to 1

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