The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [46]
Hapes, the Giants’ backup fullback, didn’t know that the elder Paris was a convicted felon who had served four years in prison for mail fraud. On November 30, the night before a big Giants-Rams game at the Polo Grounds, Hapes found himself at Alvin Paris’ apartment. He also found, for lack of a better word, bait. He found beautiful women. And he did what many men would do in a similar situation. Being a team player, Hapes asked Paris if it would be alright to call his good friend, Giants quarterback Frank Filchock, and tell him to come over. Paris probably didn’t take too long to decide that it would be just fine. The players made dates with two of the women for the following Wednesday. It was a classic seduction. At one point in the evening, Paris asked Hapes how he thought his team would do the next day against the Rams. Hapes said he didn’t think the Giants should be seven-point favorites. Paris called his gambling connection Harvey Stemmer, and Stemmer suggested (according to Paris’ later testimony) that he needed to pass the information along to Jerome Zarowitz. Paris would testify that Zarowitz was employed at an Elizabeth, New Jersey, office operated by his stepfather Eddie Ginsberg, and there was subsequently a $200 bet placed on the Rams. Yes, the figure seems a little low—a lot lower than anyone would think—but rest assured, there is no extra zero missing. The $200 bet was what was reported. Perhaps it was just a test by the gamblers.
Convicted of bribing Brooklyn College basketball players to throw games in 1945, Harvey Stemmer was in Rikers Island at the time (though continuing his bookmaking operation).
After the December 1st game, Hapes and his wife took two other Giants teammates (tackle Vic Carroll and back Howie Livingston) and their wives to his new friend’s apartment. It was there that Paris dangled the prospect of getting jobs in the novelty business. Apparently, there was room in this company for both players; each would oversee sales in different parts of the country for about $15,000 per year. Paris took the couples to the Copacabana night club. As the United Press would report months later, “Girls, restaurants, and Cabarets were among the enticements used . . .” It was on Tuesday that Paris sought information from Filchock and Hapes about the Giants’ upcoming game against the second-place Redskins. The players told the gambler that the team was determined to beat Washington and play the Bears for the title. There were no postseason games then, except for the Championship Game. The winner in the Western Division played the winner of the Eastern Division in the NFL Championship Game. The standings for the Eastern Division entering into the final weekend’s games on December 8 were:
New York Giants, 6-3-1
Washington, 5-4-1
Philadelphia, 5-5
Therefore, a Giants victory over Washington would put them in the Championship Game on December 15 against the Bears. And the Giants had already earned a victory over the Chicago Bears in late October, shutting out the Bears 14-0 in New York.
The players were falling hook, line, and sinker. They allowed themselves and their families to be wined and dined at the Copa. They fell for Paris’ lure of an off-season job. And they fell for the women provided. According to Leonard Shector’s 1969 The Jocks, one of Paris’ best-looking ladies was the aforementioned Ida McGuire. “Also,” Shector wrote, “a perfumed dream named in trial records only as Emmy Lou, and then somebody called Betty Bigelow or Betty Bartholomew,