Houston Oilman James Marion ("Silver Dollar") West was a real-life version of the flamboyant Texas millionaire found in jokes, cartoons, movies and satirical novels. Worth an estimated $100 million, Jim West habitually sported a diamond-studded Texas Ranger badge and a brace of bolstered pistols dangling from a gold-buckled belt. He spent much of his adult life playing cops and robbers, riding around town with Houston policemen in a Cadillac equipped with two-way radio, four telephones and built-in racks for assorted firearms. Living up to his nickname, he had outsize pockets tailored into his trousers to hold eight 20-coin rolls...
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