He had previously mentioned that one of his Great Aunts had been married to a mobster who owned the Cotton Club.
Well I just kind of dismissed it because as long as his name wasn't Al Capone, Bugsy Malone, or Bonnie and Clyde......it didn't seem like that big of deal.
WELL.....was I wrong!
When we visited Hot Springs, Arkansas they had a Gangster Museum. Wow....that sounds interesting. We've never visited a ganster museum before.
Well holy cow did I learn some things. Apparently Paul's ex Great Uncle WAS somewhat of a bigger ganster than I originally thought. Mr. Owney Madden is very popular in the Hot Springs gangster history.
Mr. Madden was one of the first gangsters to inhabit Hot Springs and in fact, was the "head guy" that the gangsters had to "check in" with when they came to Hot Springs. We learned that Hot Springs was a neutral ground for all the mobsters and that this town has a rich history of illegal gambling and moonshine.
Well Mr. Owney Madden is so well known in Hot Springs, that he was one of the featured "rooms" in the Gangster Museum. We found out lots of interesting facts about him. So eager are we to learn about him, we are searching out books of this distant relative.
Apparently, Owney was married to Paul's great aunt early in his "career" and they divorced. So this is not someone that Paul had ever met or was even part of his family when he was born.
How fun it was to learn about the gangsters of the early 20's and to find out that we actually were related to one!
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