In December 1938, J.W. “Big Kid” Eames, who ran a gambling establishment called the Biltmore in the Reed Building at 3rd and Main Streets, was shot and killed by three masked robbers: Fern “Bubbles” Sadler, who ran the Copeco dance hall, and his friends and business partners Tommy Humotoff and Otis Slane (According to D.A. Brockett, Sadler ran the Mile-Away Dance Hall, but Grand Junction police officer Fritz Becker, who was an assisting officer the evening Eames was shot, insists that Sadler ran the Copeco and not the Mile-Away. The Grand Junction City Directory shows Cora Sadler, Fern's mother with whom he lived, living on Fruita rural route 1 in 1937, which would corroborate the Copeco Dance Hall. Cora later moved to Pomona, and so it's possible that Fern may have operated the Mile-Away upon his release from prison for killing Becker). The three had worked robberies together in California, and had been paroled into the custody of Charley Lumley in Mesa County. The three men were tried, convicted, and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, but were each given early parole. According to Grand Junction Police Officer Fritz Becker, Sadler received early parole after his mother gave then Governor Edwin Carl Johnson, who was seeking reelection, $8,000.
