Lucius Lomax

Lucius Lomax (December 24, 1878 – June 21, 1961) was an American soldier, bootlegger, gambler–bookmaker, pimp, and real estate investor.

Biography Lomax was born in Texas, and served in the Spanish-American War and in the campaign against Pancho Villa. He later departed Texas (possibly because of a murder charge), went to Japan, and then landed in Washington in time for Prohibition. He became a bootlegger, and ran a brothel with his half-sister prior to moving to the L.A. area. A 1937 grand jury minority report named Lomax alongside figures like Guy McAfee, Bob Gans, and Tutor Scherer as one of 27 suspected "vice chiefs" of the Greater Los Angeles area. His most productive era in California was from the late 1930s to early 1950s. The newspaper, edited by Almena Lomax, was viewed by Almena as "the first step in [Lomax Sr.]'s rehabilitation from mobster to legitimate citizen". When he died by self-inflicted gunshot in 1961, Lomax's estate was estimated to be worth approximately half a million dollars, and Lomax was described by a news wire service as someone who built "an empire of wealth through his knowledge of human nature and material values, but still remained modest and unpretentious".