Plot to Terrorize ‘Queen of Bingo’ Is Denied : License dispute: Sylvia Dean says she didn’t hire an ex-convict

A former partner of bingo impresario Edith Ryan on Monday denied allegations that she hired an ex-convict to threaten Ryan’s life in a plot to seize control of her Woodland Hills-based gaming operation.

Sylvia Dean said in an interview she had “never, ever, ever in my life” conspired with or even met Gene Hawkins, an ex-convict who testified Thursday that Dean offered to pay him $10,000 to intimidate Ryan.

“It’s so off-the-wall,” Dean said of Hawkins’ testimony which came during an administrative hearing in which Los Angeles city authorities are seeking to revoke Ryan’s bingo license.

Ryan, 64, runs Identity Inc., the city’s biggest bingo operation, and she is widely known as the “Queen of Bingo.”

Hawkins, 58, claimed that Dean, a former director of Identity, asked him to “scare the wits out of Ryan” by telling her he was a member of a criminal organization and firing a gun next to her head.

Dean is one of four women testifying against Ryan for the city’s Social Service Department, which alleges that Ryan illegally paid her volunteer bingo workers--including the four key witnesses--from the proceeds of the gaming operation. Under state law, all bingo profits, after expenses and prizes have been paid, must go to charity.

Ryan has denied paying the workers and has alleged that Dean was stealing funds from the bingo games.

Assistant City Atty. Byron Boeckman, who is handling the city’s case against Ryan, said Thursday that Los Angeles Police Detective Fred Clapp would provide information undermining Hawkins’ credibility.

But Clapp did not testify Monday, the sixth day of hearings in the revocation case. Social Service Department chief Robert Burns said Clapp will testify at a later date. The next hearing in the matter is set for April 10.

Identity has grossed $29.4 million since 1982, more than any other bingo parlor in the city, according to city records. The organization’s bingo profits are to be used to fund rehabilitation programs for physically handicapped teen-agers and young adults.