The World of Vince Landa: Social Club Services - Coin

The World of Vince Landa:
Social Club Services
In 1965 Vince Landa had gone from “Rags to Riches”, by being in the right place at the
right time, he had moved from a failed café business in London to being the boss of
“Social Club Services” a fruit machine operating company based in the North East of
England.
With the introduction of the new style of fruit machines that were coming in from the U.
S. A. the vast amount of Working Men’s Clubs that were located in the prosperous coal
mining areas of the Northeast such as Durham, Newcastle and Sunderland were
clamoring to install these new electro mechanical machines such as the Bally Money
Honey and the Bally De-Luxe Gold Cup models.
Bally Money Honey 1964
Bally De-Luxe Gold Cup 1966
These new models were so successful that the Bally distributor for the U. K. The
Phonographic Equipment Company Limited was flying these machines in by the plane
loads, just to keep up with the demand from the single site operators.
The Bally Gold Cup range was probably the greatest money makers of the 1960’s, with
their multi coin mechanism that would accept 2/6, 2/-, 1/- and 6 pence coins, also with a
“Hopper” pay out system that held more coins than the entire cash box of a mechanical
fruit machine, they took money like never before seen from a conventional fruit machine.
On any given day, operators would be lined up outside of the Phonographic warehouse in
Barlby Road, in London to buy as many of these machines as they were allowed to buy.
Prior to these new models being introduced in 1964-5, most operators were operating
either the Jennings “Governor” or the Sega “Diamond” mechanical fruit machines along
with either a Bally “Treble Chance” or a Keeney “Blue Spot” upright models, there was
certain areas of the U.K. where the Jennings/Keeney distributors were strong, and other
areas where a Sega distributor was strong, in the various areas where a Sega distributor
was strong, operators would probably install a Sega “Mad Money” and a Bally “Treble
Chance” while in an area where a Jennings/Keeney distributor was strong an operator
would install a Jennings “Governor” and a Keeney “Blue Spot” for their club locations.
Jennings 6p “Governor” 1963
Keeney’s “Super Blue-Spot” 1960
Sega 6p “Bonanza Star” 1962
Bally “Super Treble Chance” 1961
Prior to Vince Landa’s “ Social Club Services” operating the new Bally machines, he was
buying Sega and Jennings fruit machines at the rate of twenty machines a week
(According to Michael Green who was a sales director at Phonographic at the time).
When the new Bally fruit machines and upright models was first introduced, they were
the first choice of every working men’s club and Miner’s Welfare in the Northeast,
because these new machines had sofisticated metering systems, it was easy to convince
the committee of any club to take these machines and be able to stop any stealing by both
the operator or club manager, to go a step further, Vince Landa installed even more
security by encasing the “Hopper” system and installing even more meters in his fruit
machines. (These machines had such good cash control that it was doubtful if Angus
Sibbet was stealing money from the machines, so that motive should go out the window)
Murder of Angus Sibbet: Collector of Fruit Machine takings
The murder of Angus Sibbet has been debated and brought before every court in the land,
it is strongly felt by many that Michael Luviglia and Dennis Stafford who was found
guilty of the murder in 1967 were indeed innocent of the crime.
In my opinion after following the case and reading the transcripts and also
understanding more about the operation of Fruit Machines in the 1960’s than any law
enforcement officer, that Michael Luviglia and Dennis Stafford were convicted more on
circumstantial evidence (or the lack of) than any think else.
It is obvious that Dennis Stafford was a career criminal, but I know several career
criminals personally (Who I have even trusted leaving my children with), who would
never murder anybody, especially in the cold blooded execution style that Angus Sibbet
was murdered.
In the mid 1960’s there was a lot of gang wars between warring factions in the
Northeast, why would the operation of fruit machines be exempt from those wars, if
gangs could battle and burn vans selling Ice Cream at three pence a cone, then why not
the lucrative business of Night Clubs and the operation of fruit machines attract them.
Vince Landa was no different from the likes of John Gotti (Flamboyant head of the
Gambino Crime Family) he thought he was untouchable, like many gangsters before him,
power went to his head, (Michael Green once quoted,” I was once with Vince Landa in his
flashy American Buick in Sunderland, he could not find anywhere to park, he called over
a policeman, and asked him to look after is car for awhile, the policeman said”, “It will be
my honor Mr. Landa”) It is my understanding that both Vince Landa and Dennis Stafford
was acquainted with the notorious Kray Twins and the Richardson’s, two London gangs
that were associated with both distributors and operators of fruit machines in the
London area.
In 1959 an American by the name of David “Gabe” Forman was sent to the U. K. by Tony
“Ducks” Carolla head of the Gennavase Crime Family in New York, David Forman (Who
would become a lifelong friend of mine up until his death just a few years ago) was sent
to England to open up the market for a surplus of used slot machines that had been
operating in the State of Maryland.
David Forman as many of the old timers reading this article will remember this
flamboyant character who started “Las Vegas Coin Ltd” in Poland street in London at
that time.
David Forman was protected by the British Gangster Albert Dimes, in fact the notorious
“Mad” Frankie Fraser delivered the fruit machines for “Las Vegas Coin” after Albert
Dimes asked David Forman to give “Mad” Frankie a job, also working for David Forman
was another local villain called Lennie Martin (Who later went on to manage the boxer
John Conte from Liverpool).
Albert Dimes team at that time consisted of several British-Italian gangsters, such as
Tommy and Billy Falco, Billy Stayton (Whose mother had a café across the road from
Phonographic Equipment Company when they were in Ladbroke Grove), Bobby Warren
(Uncle of Frankie Warren the boxing promoter) Arthur Thompson and the McCathy
Brothers, this team of characters not only operated all of the Dog and Horse Racing
tracks (Flapping Tracks)in the U. K. but also several what was commonly called
“Spielers” (Gambling Clubs) around the west end of London. They also had their own
Soccer Team called “The Soho Rangers”, sponsored by the film actor Stanley Baker.
In London at that time there was two other gangs operating the various rackets such as
Protection, Gambling and prostitution, those gangs were the Richardson’s and the up
and coming Kray Twins, although the Richardson’s who operated a scrap yard in
Battersea, they also operated many fruit machines in the private clubs that were dotted
around London, and also had interest in a Diamond mine in South Africa.
Dennis Stafford would have been around most of these characters at that time prior to
going to Sunderland, and although he was obviously a career villain, he would have been
too “street” smart to have done a crime in the way the Angus Sibbet murder would have
gone down.
It is my contention that there are three possibilities that set him and Michael Luviglia up
for the murder of Angus Sibbet:
1. Vince Landa was being targeted by a rival gang, that wanted to draw attention to
his Social Club Services activities, and murdered Angus Sibbet and also set up
Dennis Stafford and Michael Luvaglia to take the fall for the murder, and also
taking out three of Vince Landa’s key employees.
2. The Kray twins was trying to muscle in on Vince Landa’s lucrative fruit machine
operation, after all they did visit him in Sunderland, it was only after Vince Landa
informed the police that the Kray twins were in town that that the police gave the
Twins their marching orders to get back to London, this made the crazy Krays
retaliate by causing the police to believe there would be more gang violence, and
cause the police to make a quick decision to prosecute these undesirables and get
them off of the streets of Newcastle.
3. And lastly what I truly believed happened was that Angus Sibbet being the
playboy that he was, started playing around with somebody’s wife who possibly
worked in one of the clubs that Angus frequented, this person having seen his wife
with Angus Sibbet, set out to plan to murder angus and frame two characters, one
having an extensive crime record, he saw Angus’s Mark X jaguar ram into Vince
Landa’s car knowing that two of Angus’s friends were driving it that night, he then
saw Angus and his wife drive off, he followed them to the spot under the bridge,
caught them in the back of the car and in a fit of rage smashed the side window
and shot Angus Sibbet to death and disappeared taking his wife with him, or he
just followed Angus to the spot and when Angus’s car overheated under the bridge,
he followed Angus to the phone box, and then confronted him about his
relationship with his wife, he then went back to Angus’s car and shot him..
Vince Landa’s E-Type Jaguar 1967
Angus Sibbet’s Jaguar Mark 10 1967
If anyone of you as ever owned a E-Type jaguar, you would know they were lethal,
they would spin like a top, on the least slippery surface, it would have been
impossible for Dennis and Michael to drive the 16 miles at 70 miles per hour,
without spinning that car.
Vince Landa was well connected both in the world of coin machine distributors
and with the London villains of the 1960’s, Marty Bromley’s secretary Cissy Marks
used to take packages of money to Vince Landa in Majorca on a regular basis,
perhaps Vince Landa had partners that nobody knew about.
I have attached the step by step details of the Angus Sibbet murder, I am also
attaching articles on a court case involving Vince Landa when the defendants
were convicted, the judge made the comment that they were not the real guilty
parties, but it was their boss, who was he-Vince Landa.
judge for yourself if they are innocent.
Until next time.
Freddy Bailey