Charles Tumminello (1899-1982) came to Pittsburgh from Villarosa, Sicily, and settled in the North Side. He became an accountant and built a stable, successful life free from any (known) entanglements with law enforcement. Yet, in the summer of 1930 he filed the paperwork for the first of two patents for “card sorting” machines. There’s nothing unlawful in that simple clerical exercise.

What’s curious, though, are two of the people he named as “assignees” in the patents: gambling entrepreneurs Harry “Kid” Angel and Sam Greenberg. Greenberg didn’t leave much of a paper trail during his gambling career. Kid Angel, however, was a pioneer and almost a legend in Pittsburgh’s pantheon of notable racketeers. He cut his teeth running pool halls and gaming rooms in the Hill District, graduating to numbers gambling and sports books.

Tuminello filed the application for his first patent July 30, 1930. That was four weeks after Greenberg, Angel, Frank ‘Froy” Nathan, Phil Lange, et al. went into the dog track business in O’Hara Township. Their ill-fated Guyasuta Kennel Club made headlines throughout the month of July before the courts finally forced them to shut it down. I’m left scratching my head with this one question: why did Tuminello name Angel and Greenberg as assignees on his patents? That role is typically reserved for the people/entities employing the inventor ….

© 2022 D.S. Rotenstein.