Hello all,
I seem to recall reading a story a while back about a cheat who had been killed after being caught, and with his dying breath asked his co-conspirators to remove his holdout so that it wouldn't be known that he had used one. I thought that I had read it in the Annotated Erdnase and that the reference was to Robert-Houdin's Cardsharpers Exposed, but this appears to be incorrect. I also checked Sharps and Flats and can't find the story on a quick search. Does anyone remember this?

No, but it sounds like some patter from a card trick.

For those curious, I found the original, and it's in Robert-Houdin's autobiography.

Sharps and Flats contains a woodblock print of Kepplinger being frisked and his holdout discovered. He wasn't killed. According to legend, his opponents all demanded he build one for each of them. Does the Robert-Houdin story predate that or come after?

Jason

A month late, but to answer you: the Kepplinger story apparently took place in 1888 (as per Maskelyne). Robert-Houdin's Autobiography was published in 1858 and the story in question was supposed to have taken places several decades before. The story is related by Torrini to Rovbert-Houdin and supposedly takes place some twenty years before the conversation, so I'd guess 1800-1805ish?. The name of the unfortunate gambler is Zilbermann.

Good to know - thank you. I wasn't near my library at the time I asked so I couldn't check the Robert-Houdin book myself.

Again, thank you.

Jason

I stumbled on this thread and got intrigued.

I found an article S. H. Sharpe wrote in the Sept. - Oct 1959 issue of Magic Circular titled “Torrini - According to Robert-Houdin”. The article attempts to create a timeline of Torrini’s life. It puts Zilbermann’s death around 1796. Very interesting read.