The End of the Road For Amarillo Slim

Famed poker legend Amarillo Slim, the man who entertained people with his crazy stories of giant bets and even bigger cons, prior to pleading guilty to charges of indecency involving his granddaughter, died April 29 in Amarillo.  Greg Dinkin, the co-author of Slim's memoir remembers the man he knew:

Thomas Austin "Amarillo Slim" Preston Jr. is the most entertaining raconteur I've ever met. He's also the most ornery and energy-sucking. You have every right to assume the worst and condemn him for a crime for which he pleaded guilty. Or, you can choose to remember him by his "book voice" and cherish the stories of one of the most brilliant, fascinating, and colorful characters the world has ever known. Whether his tall tales are the truth or just Amarillo Slim's truth, he has now taken them to his grave.
I'll miss that old cowboy, even if on his deathbed he would still put a rattlesnake in my pocket and ask me for a match.

As Dinkin said, the man was one of the most entertaining storytellers I've ever heard, but his indictment and guilty plea cast a shadow over him from which he couldn't escape.  His looseness with the truth made his pleas of innocence fall on deaf ears.