The hustler who haunts

Utley J. Puckett was born April 17, 1911, in Prattsville, Ark. After his father died in a logging train accident, his family moved to Fort Worth, where he attended what eventually became Trimble Technical High School.

Puckett excelled at basketball but also learned to play pool at the Panther Boys Club. Sometime during his middle teens, he dropped out of basketball and high school, briefly went into professional boxing and then got an acting job in Hollywood.

But eventually he took up pool full time, and by his mid-30s he was one of the South's most feared hustlers.

Fishing buddy Jackie Reagor said Puckett would sometimes put on greasy Texaco overalls before walking into a room. He'd explain that he'd just sold his gas station and wanted to celebrate. He'd show a few thousand dollars, cash money, and say he was ready to gamble.

Or sometimes Puckett would go looking for action wearing newly shot ducks festooned around his belt.

Literally, ducks. The ones that go quack.

Puckett was pretending he was a hick just in from the country, Reagor explained.

"He would go out duck hunting, and he'd come back into the pool hall and have ducks and hunting stuff with him, and he'd just go in and rob 'em" hustling pool, Reagor said.

Another Puckett trick was to down a big shot of whiskey so the alcohol was on his breath, and then stagger around the pool room guzzling brown water from a Jim Beam bottle.

"That was an old sandbagger's trick," said Carl Raithel, another regular at Fast Freddy's. "He was sober as a judge, but you would swear that he couldn't take another step without falling down."

Helen Puckett, his widow, doesn't mince words as she sums up his life: "He partied, he went with all the girls, he went fishing, and he played pool."

Because they married relatively late in life -- it was 1975 -- Helen Puckett also said she was experienced enough to know what to expect from her gambling man. No regrets.

"He loved life, and he lived it like he wanted to -- that was his life," said Helen Puckett, who was also quick to add, "I worked."

When she was told that the regulars down at Fast Freddy's insist that her late husband is still stomping around and causing mischief, she snorted. He hardly worked while he was living, so why would he make such an effort now that he's gone?

"I don't believe in spirits," she said flatly. full story