Ocean's Eleven . . .

Cafe Society
1

I was watching Ocean’s Eleven the other day (the new version), and I was confused by the following conversation and was wondering if you could shed some light on this:

Rusty: “You’d need at least a dozen guys doing a combination of jobs.”
Danny: “What do you think?”
Rusty: “Off the top of my head, I say, looking at a Bowski, a Jim Brown, two Jethro’s and a Leon Spinx, not to mention the biggest Ella Fitzgerald…ever!”

I’m assuming that this is some sort of a criminal lingo for different types of people you’d need in order to pull of a heist, but as to which is which and why they have those names, I haven’t the slightest clue. I was hoping that you guys could shed some light on this subject for me, I’d appreciate it, thanks.

2

Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards! We actually had this exact same discussion here just a few days ago, coincidently. You can find it in this thread. No real definitive answers were found, but there are some interesting theories there.

3

The search function is your friend: “Ocean’s 11” (remake) cons

4

Your assumption may be right…but then again, maybe not. What they are probably talking about is the type of jobs they need and, because they have been partners for the longest time, has specially assigned names for each of them.

I mean think of it this way, if they are criminals, there is always the dangers of someone listening in on them, be it cops, FBI, or other cons. So it is in your best interest to not say “Yea we will need someone to hack the mainframe of the Vegas casino, someone to impersonate a guy to get into the vault, etc etc.”

You can draw your own parrallels. IMHO…

  • The “2 Jethros” could be the getaway brothers who are good at driving (and doing small jobbers but not much more - like Jethro was in the Beverly Hillbillies)
  • The “Bowski” would probably be Reuben …their bankroller who gave them the money to do the job
    -“Jim Brown” could be their pickpocket or someone who is 'good with his hands
    -“Leon Spinks” could be their inside man aka their Blackjack Dealer named after said fighter who was ‘good on the inside’ in fighting
    -And the ‘biggest Ella Fitzgerald’ would probably be Sal, who had to pull off being a convincing Russian High Roller, Gem Dealer, and corpse! A show stopper (or someone that needed to be perfect and on cue like the great Miss Fitzgerald was herself)