Wednesday, September 10. 1997
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
Former mafia members fight organized gambling
Bookies target college students
Ex-bookie Lex Viraria speaks about the dangers of gambling through bookies. He spoke in the Ballroom of the Kansas Union. Photo by Geoff Krieger/KANSAN
By Corrie Moore Kansan staff reporter
It is unlikely that a reverend and two former members of the mafia would be trying to convey the same message, but it happened last night.
The event was sponsored by Student Union Activities. Grey, Jacobs and Varria received close to $3,000 for the event.
"If a minister and a mob guy are saying the same thing, then there has got to be some truth there," Grev said.
The Rev. Grey spoke first and said that gambling bookies target college students.
"This is an important night," he said. "If I can't make contact with you, then they're gambling with your life."
He displayed seven cards asking if students wanted to play. The seven cards were labeled A through G, each representing a word relating to problems with gambling, which started with the word "addiction" and ended with the word "greed."
Grey said the American government gave up on its people by licensing casino owners.
"We cannot trust a government that is willing to cannibalize its people," he said.
He said that he alone could not reach college students, which was why he contacted Leo Jacobs and Lex Varria to help get a different view of gambling.
Jacobs, a member of Americans Against Organized Gambling, was a bookie for the mafia in Chicago for 15 years. He decided to get out of the business after people he knew started getting killed.
The Rev. Tom Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, and Leo Jacobs and Lex Varria, two ex-mafia bookies, spoke to about 75 students at the Kansas Union Ballroom last night.
The three wanted to explain about the dangers of gambling and encourage students to help fight organized gambling.
He went undercover for nine to 10 months and helped put 19 members of the mafia in jail by testifying in court cases. He was a part of the witness protection program two times, and although he feels safer now, he uses different names when he speaks publicly.
He revealed his real name, William Jahoda, at a press conference yesterday afternoon because he said he would be long gone by the time the papers released the information.
Jacobs said that legalized gambling was one of the four fastest growing businesses in America.
money loss through gambling was if someone had $1,000,000 and they played the lottery three times an hour from noon to 5 p.m., at the end of the day, they would be left with $31.25.
"You've turned a million dollars into two large pizzas and a six-pack," he said.
An example he gave to explain
Lex Varria said he worked as a bookie getting college students in the Boston area to place bets with him. He described the process of getting the students hooked to keep paying him money.
"If a kid had a problem, he didn't make it to his junior year," he said.
The three speakers ended with a question and answer session where most of the students wanted to know what it was like to be in the mfaia.
Jason Rowery, Shawnee junior, said he enjoyed hearing two former mobsters speak.
"I thought it was tremendous," he said. "I'm fascinated with all aspects of the mob."
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Lawrence resident shares tales of Holocaust victims
Although attendance was low, Leonard Magruder said he liked presenting such topics to others
By Sarah Chidwick
schadwick @kansan.com
Kansan stuff writer
During an hour-long presentation, Lawrence resident Leonard Magruder read from a book titled "Final Letters from Victims of the Holocaust."
Despite extensive advertising, only 10 people showed up at the Lawrence Public Library last night to hear a reading of letters found in concentration camps during the Holocaust.
He also read lyrics of four songs that were written during the Holocaust that dealt with knowing the end was near.
The letters were written by victims of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Many were written to family and friends but never reached their destinations.
One letter, from a girl known as Hannah, was written from the camp to her parents in France. She begged her parents to have faith that she would be home soon. She said she had not given up hope.
Another letter, more graphic than the others, described what a young man had witnessed in the camp. He described the horror a mother endured as she watched the rape of her 11-year-old daughter before experiencing her own torture.
Magruder, a retired professor of psychology at Suffolk College in New York, said he held presentations such as last night's to share his knowledge about a variety of topics with the community.
"I just like to think them up and share them with people," Magruder said. "I like to read and study different subjects."
Leonard Magruder reads letters found of Jewish Holocaust victims at Auschwitz. The Holocaust Memorial was held last night at the Lawrence Public Library. Photo by Augustus Anthony Piazza/KANSAN.
In the past few months, he has given two presentations on Vietnam and has set up a display of Hollywood posters at the library. He now has a display on view at the library about love poems written by boys and girls in Egypt.
"The Holocaust speaks powerfully to the heart of anybody," Schiebla said. "It's really a part of those people's immortality. It was a very powerful program. I feel as though I've walked with the spirits of those people. I wasn't expecting it to be that powerful."
"I've done five or six of these things before," Magruder said. "One had six people, another had 80. You never know how many will show up."
Barbara Schaible, Lawrence resident, attended the program.
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