On August 5, 1939, Janet MacDonald, a 36-year-old divorcee, reached her breaking point. With her 11-year-old daughter, Pearl, seated beside her in the car, she made a tragic decision. Janet was devastated by the end of her relationship with her boyfriend, 37-year-old Detroiter William McBride. A month earlier, William, also known as Bill, had ended their romance. In a letter written on hotel stationery, he urged Janet to move on, claiming she deserved better than him. Bill confessed to being a former bootlegger, current numbers operator and gambler, expressing his concerns about his lack of steady employment and his inability to provide for Janet. While Janet longed for marriage, Bill did not share her desires. Nevertheless, she remained devoted to him, affectionately calling him "Billy."

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On that fateful Saturday night, Janet met with Bill for the last time, but her efforts to reconcile were unsuccessful. Afterward, Bill rendezvoused with another woman at a downtown hotel. His callous behavior pushed Janet over the edge. Distraught and desperate, Janet drove around with Pearl until the child fell asleep in her pretty pink taffeta dress. Janet parked the car in a rented garage, left the engine running, and ran a hose from the exhaust into the car, succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning. Their lifeless bodies were discovered the following day.

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Before her tragic act, Janet wrote letters to the governor of Michigan, local newspapers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Superintendent of Police, and to William "Billy" McBride. In a letter to Bill dated August 5, Janet wrote:

 

"For the last time I am recollecting our friendship together and what should have been a beautiful thing certainly has failed, why? If I only knew why.  Up until several months ago you claimed to be contented.  You said you were satisfied with our arrangement at that time and you hoped I was.  You said you were not interested in any one else.  Then out of a clear sky you try to have extra arguments and start saying you were going to step out with half a dozen and started breaking our dates and saying your ex-wife was causing trouble and trying to break us up.  At that time I believed you, but now I’m in doubt what to believe, you’ve told so many lies…I took insult upon insult from you while we worked at the Great Lakes only because I knew I cared too much for you to give you up, and now you’ve thrown me aside, for what?...Billy, you remember how I always told you the only way you could have another mama would be over my dead body.  You didn’t think I really meant it, but I did.  I can’t and won’t think of living without you.  Picturing someone else in my place is too much.  Call me crazy if you like. That’s what I’d be if I tried to go on without you.  In spirit I’ll return and curse any woman that you make a friend of until the day you die.  I’ll keep returning, then we’ll go together and you’ll know we should have been together here.  You couldn’t fathom the loneliness and sorrow I’ve had these last weeks.  Some day you may have a glimpse of it, too.  I must go now, my time is up and I’m just a little frightened.”

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In other letters discovered near her body, MacDonald accused several city and police officials of accepting bribes from McBride and other numbers organizations to safeguard their illegal businesses. With these suicide notes, Janet MacDonald triggered one of the most explosive investigations in Detroit’s history, ultimately exposing the intricate details of numbers gambling and its connection to corruption within the city of Detroit and Wayne County. This scandal marked neither the beginning nor the end of numbers gambling in Detroit, but it shed light on how this illegal lottery system had financially and socially impacted thousands of Detroiters.

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Numbers gambling in Detroit served multiple functions within society, notably as a form of entertainment and sport. However, it also played other significant historical roles. It served as a means to acquire power and wealth in the city. At its peak in the early 1940s, Detroit was undergoing rapid change and upheaval. Racial tensions and inequalities permeated neighborhoods and workplaces, with blacks facing segregation and denied equal opportunities. Additionally, Detroit grappled with tensions arising from labor disputes and war production.

 
[…] too many of the people of Detroit are confused, embittered and distracted by factional groups that are fighting each other harder than they are willing to fight Hitler…Detroit is a city of violent extremes.  In the 1920’s it made so many automobiles that it got rich and expanded beyond its wildest dreams.  But in the 1930’s it sank lower into the great depression than any big U.S. city.  Its large banks were the first to close and its labor wars were the most vicious in the nation…Now Detroit is flushed with feverish prosperity again but it still seethes with racial, religious, political and economic unrest.  More than half its population of nearly two million came to Detroit in the last 20 years.  They have no great love for their city and they give their loyalty to their own group, creed or union (Life 1942:17-19).

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It was reported that “…the peculiar forces in Detroit have made the racial situation much more acute there than in most other cities…” (Brown 1944:24). This created an environment conducive for numbers gambling to operate and flourish. Numbers gambling offered professional employment opportunities for blacks when other avenues were denied to them and served as a financial institution for those who lacked access to mainstream financial institutions. Many Detroit blacks credited numbers gambling with enabling the existence of numerous black businesses. The individuals who ran numbers gambling establishments provided funding for businesses and institutions when mainstream banks refused, allowing Detroit's black community access to essential neighborhood businesses and services. These included hotels, bars, insurance companies, loan offices, real estate firms, newspaper stands, barbershops, and shoe shine parlors. These thriving businesses, supported by numbers gambling, instilled a sense of pride in the community. People viewed these businesses and their proprietors as positive examples of what the black race could achieve. In essence, numbers gambling became a means to address economic and social injustices, offering a shot at the "American Dream" for blacks who were otherwise denied it.

 

Bridgett M. Davis authored a poignant book about her mother, a Detroit Numbers Queen, recounting her experiences growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. The book illustrates how her resourceful mother provided the American Dream for her family through the numbers game.

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