Who was Canada Bill?
Canada Bill Jones (?-1880) was the working nickname of William Jones, a noted confidence artist, riverboat gambler and card sharp. He has been described as “without doubt the greatest three-card-monte sharp ever to work the boats, perhaps the greatest of them all. Born in a Romnichal tent in Yorkshire, Jones learned the classic scams young. At twenty, he migrated to Canada in search of fresh marks. He honed his three card monte travelling Canada as a thrower with Dick Cady. When Jones wanted bigger game, he left Cady and headed south to the Mississippi riverboats. There he joined up with George Devol (not to be confused with the 20th Century roboticist & inventor George Devol), Holly Chappell and Tom Brown, working the boats. When the foursome broke up, Devol and Jones kept at it until the Civil War. They fell out when Jones caught Devol trying to cheat him.[1] After the war, Dutch Charlie was Jones’ next partner, this time in Kansas City. When they won $200,000 there, they decided to
