El Cerrito era of gambling, vice and racketeers recounted in talk – East Bay Times

EL CERRITO There is nothing on the exterior of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Hall on Carlson Boulevard that hints at the buildings former identity as a gambling hall.

The hall, known as the Wagon Wheel during its gambling days, opened in 1935 and closed in 1951, during a time when El Cerrito was notorious as a center for gambling, dog racing, prostitution and other entertainment and vice.

That era was recounted at the Eagles hall last week as part of the citys 2017 Centennial Celebration by East Bay Times editor Chris Treadway, who is writing a book about the colorful period in El Cerritos history.

These operations were tolerated as one of the few stable parts of the local economy that otherwise had little industry or employment opportunities in town, Treadway told a group of about 90 at the event.

Gambling and prostitution had existed in El Cerrito prior to the citys incorporation in 1917, but a dog racing track that opened in 1932 on the site of the present-day El Cerrito Plaza shopping center attracted more gamblers from outside the city, Treadway said.

The track brought more than just the general public to town, he said. Gamblers and petty crooks began to hang around, attracted by people with money at the track.

Gambling interests began catering to that crowd with other forms of gaming, particularly in the unincorporated area near the Albany border that was called No Mans Land.

In 1933, a well-known racketeer and bootlegger named Walter Big Bill Pechart opened a nightclub called the Rancho San Pablo in the historic Castro Adobe, the home built by Spanish settler Don Victor Castro in 1839.

The club opened less than a month after the end of Prohibition, making the downstairs bar legal, with card tables, roulette and slot machines in the second-floor gaming area. Big-name entertainers were often booked at the nightclub.

Pechart was also behind the founding of The Wagon Wheel, which was to become a headquarters for gambling operations around Contra Costa County.

An array of nightclubs sprang up on San Pablo Avenue during the 30s, including the Kona Club, Club Rio, Club Compiano, the Acme Club, The Cave, The Miami Club, The 90 Club, The 333 Club and the It Club.

The clubs received a boost during World War II when thousands of war workers arrived to work at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond and other defense operations.

The war allowed gambling and prostitution to flourish like never before, Treadway said.

Housing for war workers joined the deserted dog track and the Castro Adobe on the current shopping center site, giving the new residents easy access to the clubs and gambling halls and prompting a spurt of new growth.

Carl Nealis, the man in charge of slot machine operations at the Wagon Wheel, was found to have accumulated more than $655,000 in coins and cash as his share of slot machine revenue after his death in 1946.

Such outsized profits drew organized crime to El Cerrito looking for a share.

Elmer Remmer, an associate of mob boss Bugsy Seigel, formed an alliance with Pechert and his Wagon Wheel partner Dave Kessel, with the intention of trying to control gambling operations throughout Northern California.

But, Remmer ran afoul of federal authorities who began an extended prosecuted of him for income tax evasion in 1950.

The downfall of gambling began right after the war when a group of citizens formed as the Good Government League, which recalled the incumbent City Council and replaced it with candidates who refused to take payoffs from gambling interests and got clubs within the city limits to end wide-open gambling.

Unable to offer gambling and with the growing popularity of television as entertainment, the clubs began to close one by one.

The dog racing track was demolished to make way for a drive-in movie theater in 1948 and the theater, in turn, gave way to the shopping center in 1958.

The next Centennial history talk, El Cerrito Athletics A History of Victory, will be given by former baseball coach Larry Quirico on April 19 at the Community Center, 7007 Moeser Lane, beginning at 7 p.m.

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El Cerrito era of gambling, vice and racketeers recounted in talk - East Bay Times