When playing with one of the new decks of cards being distributed to them, poker playing prisoners in Florida are less likely to say they are holding "Big Slick," and more likely to say, "I have a murdered police detective and a missing 10-year-old girl. I'm all in." Yes, the poker boom has infiltrated even the Florida prison system, where inmates are receiving 100,000 decks of cards. But, instead of trying to train them to win the next World Series of Poker, Florida officials are hoping the card-playing prisoners will help them solve several cold cases.
The two 52-card decks being distributed feature pictures and details about unsolved Florida crimes. Each card has a picture (when available) of a missing person or a crime victim along with a description of what police know what happened to them.
"It is like interviewing all 2,500 inmates about 52 different homicides all at the same time!" said Detective Tommy Ray, FDLE Cold Case Assessment Team, referring to the 2,500 inmates in Polk County, FL.
1. a clever way to attract the attention to the unsolved cases, although the concentration could vanish with bunches of this type..
poker at 2:21PM on Jun 19th 2008