HUNTER: Did gambling granny punch hubby's ticket over casino visits?
· Toronto Sun
Blackjack dealers had a nickname for the rotund blond woman who regularly lost her shirt at the table.
Visit afrikasportnews.co.za for more information.
In reality, the name on her driver’s licence was Lois Riess, a 64-year-old Minnesota grandma. Lois was a devoted gambler but she wasn’t very good at it.
You need dough to run with the big dogs in the casino and, soon, she was stealing from her hubby (US$11,000) and the family business. So, on March 23, 2018, she parked three bullets into David Riess and went on the run. Naturally, her first stop was a casino, where — once more — she lost.
In Florida, Lois unalived Pamela Hutchinson, 59, who she met at a Fort Myers bar, stealing her identity and money. Losing Streak Lois’s time on the run ended in the parking lot of a Corpus Christi, Texas casino.
She came to mind when a similar story out of Brantford caught my eye.
Senior found dead in Brant County farmhouse
Cops say it was gambling that led to the death of elderly Brant County farmer Gordon Oughtred, 82 . His wife, Elfgard “Elfi” Oughtred, 83, is now on trial for second-degree murder in Brantford.
Gordon Outghtred was discovered lying in a pool of blood inside the couple’s farmhouse on Nov. 24, 2022. On the day he was murdered, Elfgard was captured on CCTV gambling at the casino.
She was arrested two years later.
The victim’s son and business partner in Sunny Terrace Farms, Warren Oughtred, testified that his father and Elfgard were having marital woes due to her gambling. There was the matter of missing money and her home away from home was Brantford’s Elements Casino.
Six months before he was murdered, Gordon allegedly told his wife: “If you want to go back to the casino, pack your bags and go live there.”
Warren added that the week of the murder he saw his stepmother’s Jeep parked at the gambling mecca every day.
Two days before Gordon had his head bashed in by a hammer, Warren urged him to check his bank statements. Dad said he didn’t get them. His son was gobsmacked.
He told the old man: “If there are a few thousand dollars missing, you might have a problem.”
Wife claimed he had fallen
Neighbour James McLellan said Elfgard arrived at his house claiming her husband had taken a fall. To McLellan, it didn’t look much like a fall. Gordon’s head was “distorted,” multiple blows to the head with a hammer will do that. Paramedics also noted the massive wounds on the side of the farmer’s head and the “copious” amount of blood. Toss in facial cuts and a black eye and, soon, it’s not looking like a fall.
Earlier, Elgard’s daughter claimed Gordon was a boozehound and abuser. The autopsy and other testimony said otherwise.
“She was fed up,” Rita Huellemann testified of her mom. “She went to the garage and got a hammer… and came and hit him.”
OPP analyst Valerie Thornton testified that in the six months leading up to her hubby’s murder, nearly $9,000 was withdrawn in cash and credit card advances from Elfgard’s bank account. Bank statements revealed purchases and withdrawals from Elements Casino in Brantford.
The trial continues and none of the charges have been proven in court.
Usually when we link gambling and murder, we think of some degenerate gambler blowing his paycheque or mortgage money at blackjack. And when the stone is devoid of blood, the guy gets whacked.
For Losing Streak Lois, home is a cement cell. In this regard, she actually got lucky for once. The alternative was a toxic cocktail dispatching her to oblivion. Pleading guilty was one gambit that paid off.
@HunterTOSun