It's very tightknit," says Bryant, adding that the senior Bumb doesn't give interviews--ever. "Could he [Jeff] do any other work on his own behalf?" He also pulled off an armed robbery of the Aloha Roller Palace. Still Standing: Jeff Bumb, Bay 101's ostracized founder, boasts that despite various local, state and federal investigations over the years he has emerged squeaky clean. On Nov. 8, 1995, attorney Albin Danell, Elizabeth's brother-in-law, contacted the police, apparently after consulting with Elizabeth. Before the end of the month, the Flea Market laid off Jeff's daughters Anne and Rebecca. Dealers stood at the tables, ready to deal the cards. The district attorney's office says that Bumb attorney Ron Werner turned the letter over to authorities immediately after it came in the mail. And Brian, the handsome and gregarious youngest brother, was in charge of day-to-day operations at the Flea Market. (In one case, George Bumb Sr. loaned Jeff $31,250 in 1992 for his son to invest in Bay 101.) They recorded the conversation. Toward the end of the call, things got heated. When he was jailed, the desperate cop wrote a 15-page handwritten letter in pencil to George Bumb in May 1997 asking the Flea Market owner to bail him out. The teenagers had been drinking booze earlier in the night. Some improprieties did turn up: Bumb & Associates, a partnership including the four brothers and their father, had failed to file required reports disclosing more than $100,000 in political contributions made between 1989 and 1992. One wag refers to them as "the Beverly Hillbillies of San Jose." And he [Jeff] wants me to violate the condition which says in it that I sign away my rights and they close us down. Jeff entertained offers to buy the club, the highest bid, he recalls, coming in at $40 million. You know the school we went to?" Bryant, who acts as emissary for the family and its patriarch, thinks the Bumbs are a misunderstood bunch. The elder Bumb may not have been feeling well, but he wasn't too sick to remember who was boss in this family. Matthew Bumb's attorney argued that the relationship was consensual. In response to Jeff's legal attacks, George Bumb Sr. and Bumb & Associates filed two separate suits of their own to collect nearly $1 million in loans and interest they claimed Jeff never paid. But Jeff says that privately he and his brothers had an oral agreement--which Tim Bumb now corroborates--that would one day let him repurchase his shares and become a partner in Bay 101 again. "They had to find Snow White and Cinderella," Tim Bumb says, "and that was George and I." Tim and George Jr. would appeal and reapply, the hope being that the club would open as soon as possible. EIGHT MONTHS AFTER its approval by the City Council, the peach-colored Bay 101 held its "grand opening." "He worked for me." OK--we didn't get out--OK? Their pun-afflicted surname adds to the hillbilly mystique. And as with any divorce, embarrassing private details about the family and its businesses made their way into the public record. At one point in the investigation, sheriff's detectives had Jeff's daughter call Matthew while he was working at the Flea Market to confirm the sexual activities. Christopher Gardner Jeff's daughter interrupted Matthew and said, "And I didn't know better. ON AUG. 11, 1995, Jeff sat in his Flea Market office scribbling on a piece of paper, plotting his grand return to his peach palace. Jeff Bumb later explained to the press that they didn't know partnerships were required to file such reports, and they paid the state a $1,250 fine. The court saga evolved into a battle of wills between a father--a man who wouldn't even let the Vatican tell him what to do--and his oldest son, determined to break free from the old man's grasp. In a statement to police, Jeff's daughter recounted how the first incident had happened the year before on the Fourth of July at a family beach house near Santa Cruz when the older boy allegedly started fondling her while she was asleep on the living room couch. But his dream, which now seemed so close to being a reality, was about to become a nightmare. And there were gamblers everywhere who had come looking for some action. Before the end of the month, the Flea Market laid off Jeff's daughters Anne and Rebecca. Eight months later, the frame of the weapon was found in a Salinas pond near Venzon's home with the barrel and slide missing. Originally he was scheduled for questioning on March 10, 1997, but the old man's lawyers explained that their client was extremely ill, suffering from "severe life-threatening conditions," practically on his death bed. Meanwhile, Jeff and his lawyers spent 15 months trying get his father to appear at a deposition. Hamilton, where Latin mass is conducted on a regular basis. Jeff was also getting word from his nieces and nephews that his father said at a family poker game: "If it was up to him, all the grandchildren would marry each other." George Bumb Sr.'s loan-repayment demands came in July 1996, just as his oldest son and his wife were about to move to Los Gatos and break away from the family and its eastside enclave. Jeff Bumb says he believes that state and local investigators at the time of Bay 101's limbo were investigating a rumor that Jeff had tried to get someone killed, a charge Jeff denies. THINGS WERE certainly simpler back in the old days, before Bay 101, when the Bumbs were known for the Berryessa Flea Market, the family-owned business started in 1960 by 75-year-old family patriarch George Bumb Sr. "They didn't teach anything about this. attorney Frank Ubhaus asked the Bumb patriarch. When Vice President Al Gore called to personally invite the elder Bumb to a fundraiser at the Los Altos home of real estate magnate George Marcus, Bumb put the VP on hold for several minutes, ultimately making Betsy take the call. He can't ignore it. It wasn't the idea of gambling. Don't Shoot: George Bumb Sr., the publicity-shy patriarch of the Bumb family and creator of the Flea Market, in a rare photo which appeared in California Today magazine in 1980. The investigation was given a shot in the arm after the arrest of Johnny Venzon in 1997, a cop who made headlines for burglarizing homes while on duty to pay for his mounting gambling debts. Tim Bumb says writing a letter on Jeff's behalf would have violated the agreement with the police chief and put the club in jeopardy. The card club has done more than bring unwanted public scrutiny to this insular group. "They didn't teach anything about this. But Jeff says the loan dispute screwed up their moving plans. Over the years, he had developed working relationships with the city's politicians and bureaucrats. Along the way, Jeff raised the ante, hiring Frank Ubhaus, a lawyer who represented Garden City card club, Bay 101's crosstown rival. Bumb family attorney Ron Werner suggested that Jeff and his family had a hidden motive for waiting nearly a month to report the incident to police. Tim Bumb says writing a letter on Jeff's behalf would have violated the agreement with the police chief and put the club in jeopardy. "We made it very clear to Jeff and everybody else concerned," Tim says, "that I'm not going to stick my neck on the line here. Unlike other partners, neither Jeff nor Brian had buyback provisions in their written agreements, an intentional omission meant to appease state gaming officials who wanted them out of the picture. In a fit, he took the paper he was writing on, crumpled it up and threw it out the office door. "They didn't teach anything about this. The two, she said, never talked about what was going on while it was happening. Some improprieties did turn up: Bumb & Associates, a partnership including the four brothers and their father, had failed to file required reports disclosing more than $100,000 in political contributions made between 1989 and 1992. And Jeff himself had been playing poker since he was 12. And it was very explicit in there that no Bumbs could have anything to do with the club. Originally he was scheduled for questioning on March 10, 1997, but the old man's lawyers explained that their client was extremely ill, suffering from "severe life-threatening conditions," practically on his death bed. Christopher Gardner And as with any divorce, embarrassing private details about the family and its businesses made their way into the public record. Originally he was scheduled for questioning on March 10, 1997, but the old man's lawyers explained that their client was extremely ill, suffering from "severe life-threatening conditions," practically on his death bed. She told police about at least seven other sexual encounters she had with her cousin after that. He demanded $10 million from his brothers to compensate him for violating the purported secret Bay 101 deal. The two, she said, never talked about what was going on while it was happening. He was also the kind of guy, police records reveal, who told his mother about the incidents "because he felt guilty." EVERY DAY THE CLUB stayed closed, the Bumbs lost more money. And then police remembered the old rumors about a murder plot at the Flea Market, where Venzon had worked as a security guard for more than 15 years. Deputy chief Tom Wheatley says that police wondered if Venzon, or someone, destroyed the barrel to prevent a ballistics test from tracing a fired bullet to the gun. One month later, the state attorney general's office made a devastating announcement: Authorities had come across issues of "such magnitude" and "concern" that they would need at least another month to decide if gambling should be allowed at Bay 101. attorney Frank Ubhaus asked the Bumb patriarch. In February 1994, nearly one year after the San Jose City Council gave Bay 101 its blessing, the state denied the Bumbs and their partners' gaming license application. "My issue with [George Bumb Sr.]," Jeff Bumb complains about his father, "was his control of where you lived, what kind of house you bought, where your children went to school, who your friends are, whether your children went to college, who they would marry, what kind of wedding they would have." Eight days after the molestation incident was reported to police--and one day after Jeff Bumb formally refused his father's $6.9 million buyout offer--George Bumb Sr. sent Jeff a curt typewritten memo informing Jeff that he was terminated effective immediately and had to clean out his desk before 5pm. OK--we didn't get out--OK? Still Standing: Jeff Bumb, Bay 101's ostracized founder, boasts that despite various local, state and federal investigations over the years he has emerged squeaky clean. It wasn't the idea of gambling. Eight days after the molestation incident was reported to police--and one day after Jeff Bumb formally refused his father's $6.9 million buyout offer--George Bumb Sr. sent Jeff a curt typewritten memo informing Jeff that he was terminated effective immediately and had to clean out his desk before 5pm. Or at least he thought he didn't. AN ATTORNEY involved likened the whole contentious affair to a divorce. But Jeff and his family started hearing that instead of showing concern and support for his daughter, George Bumb Sr. and others in the family were blaming his freshman daughter for the incident and not her adult-age cousin. "He worked for me." Police reports would suggest she had, "for about a year," been giving "blow jobs" to 19-year-old Matthew Bumb, son of George Bumb Jr. But Jeff says the loan dispute screwed up their moving plans. Within weeks, Jeff says, his six-month-old dog was dead, his cat was dead and the tires of a family car were slashed. And as with any divorce, embarrassing private details about the family and its businesses made their way into the public record. You know the school we went to?" But Jeff says that privately he and his brothers had an oral agreement--which Tim Bumb now corroborates--that would one day let him repurchase his shares and become a partner in Bay 101 again. Though authorities were never able to prove a paid snuff plot, Jeff Bumb believes the allegations were a factor contributing to authorities' mistrust of him. Christopher Gardner I'm on the hook for $15 million. Within weeks, Jeff says, his six-month-old dog was dead, his cat was dead and the tires of a family car were slashed. AN ATTORNEY involved likened the whole contentious affair to a divorce. Tim and George Jr. worried that pressuring state and city officials to deal Jeff back in at Bay 101 would backfire and authorities would close down the card room. Police reports would suggest she had, "for about a year," been giving "blow jobs" to 19-year-old Matthew Bumb, son of George Bumb Jr. And it was very explicit in there that no Bumbs could have anything to do with the club. "My wife broke the code," he says, "and I supported her." Tim Bumb says writing a letter on Jeff's behalf would have violated the agreement with the police chief and put the club in jeopardy. Tim now runs Bay 101, which he says is no easy task. Jeff was also getting word from his nieces and nephews that his father said at a family poker game: "If it was up to him, all the grandchildren would marry each other." During his long tenure at the Flea Market, Venzon apparently developed a close relationship with George Bumb Sr. Christopher Gardner That promised to be a hard sell to the San Jose City Council, which would have to authorize both the new site and the expansion. Life of Brian: Initially denied a gaming license by the state, Brian Bumb has since received a provisional license and become a partner in Bay 101 with his brothers, Tim and George. "My wife broke the code," he says, "and I supported her." But his dream, which now seemed so close to being a reality, was about to become a nightmare. The Bumbs had a plenty of experience with a cash business through the Flea Market, which they've run for almost 40 years.