Grimhaven

One thing for certain, Tasker was considerably more adept at writing than he was at armed robbery. On St. Valentine's Day, 1924, Tasker walked into Sauer's Dance Parlor in Oakland, California and mounted the bandstand where Les Hite's band was playing. Good-looking enough to be mistaken for the band's master of ceremonies or their recently acquired white crooner, he commandeered the microphone, reached into his jacket pocket and produced a revolver. Waving the gun from one side of the dance hall to the other, he announced that onlookers place whatever paper money they had into a tablecloth he provided for the occasion.

The police had little trouble apprehending Tasker. They found him outside the dance hall, sitting on its steps smoking a cigarette, the bulging tablecloth full of money at his side. A police officer grabbed the gun, only to discover Tasker had never bothered to put bullets in it.

-from the Introduction by Woody Haut