Download or read book When the Mob Ran Vegas Stories of Money Mayhem and Murder written by Steve Fischer and published by Berkline Press. This book was released on 2022-03-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is it about Las Vegas that captivates us? Is it how the skim worked at the Stardust and how millions of dollars walked out the door uncounted? Or what really happened when Frank Sinatra threw a chair at the casino boss of the Sands? Did you ever hear the story about how some very bad Vegas guys rigged the gin rummy games at the Friars Club and took a bunch of famous people to the cleaners? Howard Hughes had some weird notions about the Silver Slipper and put his money where his paranoia was. It's all Vegas, and it is fascinating history. Vegas in the '50s and '60s was indeed another world. Those were the days when small-time gamblers like me, in town with my wife for a weekend of shows and great food, could ride down the elevator at one of the Strip hotels with Lucille Ball, have an A table at the Versailles Room at the Riviera to see Rowan and Martin, with Edie Adams opening, and laugh until it hurt when Buddy Hackett played the old Congo Room at the Sahara. Behind the scenes, the Mob ran Vegas in those days. And stories abound. Through years of study and interviews and just talking to people from all strata of Las Vegas comes this book, a glimpse into the money, mayhem, and murders of early Vegas.
Download or read book Vegas and the Mob written by Al W Moe and published by Al W Moe. This book was released on 2017-02-16 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Las Vegas was the Mob's greatest venture and most spectacular success, and through 40 years of frenzy, murder, deceit, scams, and skimming, the FBI listened on phone taps and did virtually nothing to stop the fun. This is the truth about the Mob's control of the casinos in Vegas like you've never heard it before, from start to finish. Two of the nation's most powerful crime family bosses went to prison in the 1930's: Al Capone and Lucky Luciano. Frank Nitti took over the Chicago Outfit, while Frank Costello ran things for the Luciano Family. Both men were influenced by their bosses from prison, and both sent enough gangsters into the streets to influence loan sharking, extortion, union control, and drug sales. Bugsy Siegel worked for both groups, handling a string of murders and opening up gaming on the west coast, and that included Las Vegas, an oasis of sin in the middle of the desert - and it was legal. Most of it. The FBI watched as the Mob took control of casino after casino, killed off the competition, and stole enough money to bribe their way to respectability back home. By the 1950's, nearly every major crime family had a stake in a Las Vegas casino. Some did better than others. Casino owners watched-over their profits while competing crime families eyed each other's success like jealous lovers. Murder often followed.
Download or read book Casino written by Nicholas Pileggi and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story behind the Martin Scorsese film: A “riveting . . . account of how organized crime looted the casinos they controlled” (Kirkus Reviews). Focusing on Chicago bookie Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and his partner, Anthony Spilotro, and drawing on extensive, in-depth interviews, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of the Mafia classic Wiseguy—basis for the film Goodfellas—Nicholas Pileggi reveals how the pair worked together to oversee Las Vegas casino operations for the mob. He unearths how Teamster pension funds were used to take control of the Stardust and Tropicana and how Spilotro simultaneously ran a crew of jewel thieves nicknamed the “Hole in the Wall Gang.” For years, these gangsters kept a stranglehold on Sin City’s brightly lit nightspots, skimming millions in cash for their bosses. But the elaborate scheme began to crumble when Rosenthal’s disproportionate ambitions drove him to make mistakes. Spilotro made an error of his own, falling for his partner’s wife, a troubled showgirl named Geri. It would all lead to betrayal, a wide-ranging FBI investigation, multiple convictions, and the end of the Mafia’s longstanding grip on the multibillion-dollar gaming oasis in the midst of the Nevada desert. Casino is a journey into 1970s Las Vegas and a riveting nonfiction account of the world portrayed in the Martin Scorsese film of the same name, starring Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone. A story of adultery, murder, infighting, and revenge, this “fascinating true-crime Mob history” is a high-stakes page-turner (Booklist).
Download or read book Being Oscar written by Oscar Goodman and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Being Oscar,one of America’s most celebrated criminal defense attorneys recounts the stories and cases of his epic life. The Mafia’s go-to defender, he has tried an estimated 300 criminal cases, and won most of them. His roster of clients reads like a history of organized crime: Meyer Lansky, Nicky Scarfo, and “Lefty” Rosenthal, as well as Mike Tyson and boxing promoter Don King, along with a midget, a dentist, and a federal judge. After thirty-five years as a defender, he ran for mayor of Las Vegas, and America’s greatest Mob lawyer became the mayor of its sexiest city. He was so popular his image appeared on the 5, 25, and 100 chips. While mayor of Vegas, he starred on the screen in Rush Hour 2 and CSI. He is as large a character in the history of organized crime as any of his clients and as legendary a figure in the history of Las Vegas as the entrepreneurs (his friends and clients) who built the city. This is his astonishing story—the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Download or read book The Battle for Las Vegas written by Dennis N. Griffin and published by Huntington Press Inc. This book was released on 2006-04-25 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the 1970s through the mid-1980s, the Chicago Outfit dominated organized crime in Las Vegas. To ensure the smooth flow of cash, the gangsters installed a front man with no criminal background, Allen R. Glick, as the casino owner of record, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal as the real boss of casino operations, and Tony Spilotro as the ultimate enforcer, who’d do whatever it took to protect their interests. It wasn’t long before Spilotro, also in charge of Vegas street crime, was known as the “King of the Strip.” Federal and local law enforcement, recognizing the need to rid the casinos of the mob and shut down Spilotro’s rackets, declared war on organized crime. The Battle for Las Vegas relates the story of the fight between the tough guys on both sides, told in large part by the agents and detectives who knew they had to win.
Download or read book When the Mob Ran Vegas written by Steve Fischer and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Enforcer written by William F. Roemer, Jr. and published by Ivy Books. This book was released on 1995-04-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bugsy Siegel built Las Vegas, but it was Tony "The Ant" Spilotro who ran the show. Now William F. Roemer, Jr., veteran FBI agent and scourge of the Cosa Nostra, tells the shocking story of how a teenage wiseguy grew up to become "the man" in Vegas. From the gritty streets of Chicago to the neon-lit Nevada wonderland, Roemer assembles a rogue's gallery of the highest-ranking capos and the lowest creeps of organized crime. As incredible as any work of fiction -- but it's all fact!
Download or read book Vegas Rag Doll written by Joe Schoenmann and published by Stephens PressLlc. This book was released on 2011 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wendy Hanley Mazaros's story of sex, drugs, corruption, and murder features many well-known figures from Las Vegas's history, in addition to her life as the wife of Tom Hanley, a hitman for the mob.
Download or read book Fly on the Wall written by Dick Odessky and published by Huntington Press Inc. This book was released on 2012-06 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine what it must have been like to be in Las Vegas during its most glamorous and eventful years: the 1950s, the 1960s, and the 1970s.Back then, "the boys" ran the town, dinner shows were a dollar, and vacant lots on what is now the Strip sold for $5 an acre. Tallulah played baccarat, Shecky shot dice, and Frank dealt blackjack.Fly on the Wall chronicles those times, as well as the men and women who shaped them.As a reporter for two of the city's most respected newspapers and a publicist for two of the city's most infamous casinos, Dick Odessky was in the thick of itthe proverbial fly on the wall. His recollections of Las Vegas' good old bad old days put you in the thick of it, too.
Download or read book Elvis in Vegas written by Richard Zoglin and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Outstanding pop-culture history.” —Newsday The “smart and zippy account” (The Wall Street Journal) of how Las Vegas saved Elvis and Elvis saved Las Vegas in the greatest musical comeback of all time. Elvis’s 1969 opening night in Vegas was his first time back on a live stage in more than eight years. His career had gone sour—bad movies, mediocre pop songs that no longer made the charts—and he’d been dismissed by most critics as over-the-hill. But in Vegas he played the biggest showroom in the biggest hotel in the city, drawing more people for his four-week engagement than any other show in Vegas history. His performance got rave reviews; “Suspicious Minds,” the song he introduced there, gave him his first number-one hit in seven years; and Elvis became Vegas’s biggest star. Over the next seven years, he performed more than 600 shows there, and sold out every one. Las Vegas was changed, too. By the end of the ‘60s, Vegas’ golden age—when the Rat Pack led a glittering array of stars who made it the nation’s premier live-entertainment center—was losing its luster. Elvis created a new kind of Vegas show: an over-the-top, rock-concert extravaganza. He set a new bar for Vegas performers, with the biggest salary, the biggest musical production, and the biggest promotion campaign the city had ever seen. He opened the door to a new generation of pop/rock artists and brought a new audience to Vegas—not the traditional well-heeled older gamblers, but a mass audience from Middle America that Vegas depends on for its success to this day. At once “a fascinating history of Vegas as gambling capital, celebrity playground, mob hangout, [and] entertainment Valhalla” (Rolling Stone) and the incredible “tale of how the King got his groove back” (Associated Press), Elvis in Vegas is a classic feel-good story for the ages.
Download or read book Cult Vegas written by Mike Weatherford and published by Huntington Press Inc. This book was released on 2001 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mike Weatherford resurrects the mystique of Vegas's Golden Age--the '60s of history and legend--bringing the hipster legacy to new Vegasphiles. Meet '50s and '60s lounge greats the Treniers, the Mary Kaye Trio, and Louis Prima and Keely Smith; comedy legends Joe E. Lewis, Shecky Greene, and Don Rickles; and Vegas babes Vampira, Lili St. Cyr, Ann-Margret, and Tempest Storm. Weatherford also covers nearly every offbeat movie ever made about Las Vegas, as well as Elvis and Frank's impact on the town. This gorgeous entertainment retrospective is packed with showroom esoterica, descriptions of near-forgotten corners of Vegas cult musicology, odd trivia, and unsung heroes of a bygone era. Cult Vegas chronicles the major moments--the camp, the extreme, the awful--in short, the magic of Las Vegas' half-century run as an entertainment mecca.
Download or read book Surviving the Mob written by Dennis N. Griffin and published by Huntington Press Inc. This book was released on 2010 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do you do when the law wants you behind bars and the New York crime families want you buried? Surviving the Mob is a cautionary tale of the harsh reality of a criminal, inmate, fugitive, and witness who -- so far -- has lived to tell the tale.
Download or read book Weird Las Vegas and Nevada written by Joe Oesterle and published by Sterling Publishing Company. This book was released on 2007 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A travel guide to Las Vegas that also focusses on the neglection of its historic places.
Download or read book The Mob Chronicles Episode 2 written by Andrew J. McLean and published by . This book was released on 2012-10-20 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine sitting front stage at the Desert Inn's Copa Room enjoying such great celebrities perform as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. Envision too, Elvis Presley, the soon-to-be king of rock 'n' roll, performing live at the New Frontier as a 21-year old teen idol. If you were lucky enough to be in Las Vegas from 1956 through the early 1970s, you had the opportunity to see these great performers live, on stage, for the mere price of a two drink minimum. These were the old days-the days when the Mob ran Las Vegas. Pairing McLean's vivid investigative style of writing, this beautifully illustrated book reveals an authentic look at the Mob era in Vegas. Unearth the Hollywood myth behind Bugsy's Flamingo and discover the true story about his partner Billy Wilkerson, the celebrated Hollywood nightclub owner who truly invented the Las Vegas Strip. During its heyday-1950 to 1980-the Mob virtually ran every sizable casino along the Fabulous Vegas Strip, stealing untold millions from casino count rooms. Those were the days when Jimmy Hoffa arranged millions in Teamster loans to build the Mob-run casinos while Frank Rosenthal provided the skim, and Anthony Spilotro made sure the millions in stolen cash made it back east to Mob coffers. Las Vegas was a treasure trove-gangster style. The Mob had it made for almost 40 years, but it all started crumbling down soon after Tony Spilotro came to Vegas in 1971. It wouldn't be long before five Vegas loan sharks were discovered dead in the desert, each with their throat slit Mafia style. Inside Las Vegas The Mob Years enjoy fascinating stories about the city's forefathers, today's casino operators and memorable celebrities who performed on the stages of Las Vegas showrooms during the Mob era-Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. Discover in Las Vegas the Mob Years . . . The story of Jimmy Hoffa: His mysterious disappearance and how Teamster loans made Las Vegas what it is today. The fascinating crime saga of ex-Dallas Mob boss Benny Binion, featuring a murderous blood feud that left two dead bodies and another in prison. How the Kefauver Hearings uncovered the skim and a multitude of Mob-run casinos. The inside story of Steve Wynn and Kirk Kerkorian, and the intricate details of the way they virtually started from scratch and earned billions as successful casino developers. Plus the fascinating stories of the godfather of Vegas Moe Dalitz, and other gangsters including Johnny Rosselli, Tony Accardo, Sam Giancana, Tony Cornero, Frank Rosenthal, Tony Spilotro and more . . .
Download or read book The Rise and Fall of a Casino Mobster written by Dennis Griffin and published by Wildblue Press. This book was released on 2017-04-19 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chicago organized crime family known as the 'Outfit' dates back to the reign of the infamous Al Capone and prohibition. As the years passed and prohibition was repealed, Outfit bosses had to adapt and seek new ways to make money illegally. One of those was the expanding gambling and entertainment oasis in the desert: Las Vegas. A lot of cash passed through the Vegas casinos and the mobsters devised a way to get some of it, using a process that came to be known as 'the skim.' To protect their interests, the Outfit sent an enforcer to Sin City in 1971 He was to make sure their casino operations ran smoothly and deal with interlopers, employees who were skimming the skim and other troublemakers, by any means necessary. His name was Tony Spilotro. To help him run his empire Tony imported several heavies from Chicago. Among them was his childhood friend Frank Cullotta, who would function as Tony's street lieutenant. His assignment was to assemble a crew of thieves, arsonists and killers to provide muscle for Tony as necessary, and carry out lucrative burglaries that Tony brought to their attention. Frank and his crew were dubbed by the news media as the Hole in the Wall Gang. The Spilotro era in Vegas was dramatized in the 1995 blockbuster movie Casino, in which Joe Pesci played a character based on Spilotro. Character actor Frank Vincent played 'Frankie' based on Frank Cullotta. The real Frank Cullotta was a technical consultant to the film and appeared in several scenes as a hit man. As screenwriter Nick Pileggi said, 'Without Frank Cullotta there would have been no Casino.' In 'The Rise and Fall' of Tony Spilotro, Frank tells the true story of Tony Spilotro, his rise up the ladder to become an Outfit boss, his subsequent fall from power and murder at the hands of the Outfit. Frank also talks about the many murders Tony committed, ordered or planned. In several instances Frank names the killers in cases that are officially unsolved. It's a story that only Frank Cullotta could tell.
Download or read book Mafia Spies written by Thomas Maier and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Bestselling Author and Television Producer of MASTERS OF SEX, a True Story of Espionage and Mobsters, Based on the Never-Before-Released JFK Files, and Optioned by Warner Bros. Mafia Spies is the definitive account of America’s most remarkable espionage plots ever—with CIA agents, mob hitmen, “kompromat” sex, presidential indiscretion, and James Bond-like killing devices together in a top-secret mystery full of surprise twists and deadly intrigue. In the early 1960s, two top gangsters, Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana, were hired by the CIA to kill Cuba’s Communist leader, Fidel Castro, only to wind up murdered themselves amidst Congressional hearings and a national debate about the JFK assassination. Mafia Spies revolves around the outlaw friendship of these two mob buddies and their fascinating world of CIA spies, fellow Mafioso in Chicago, Cuban exile commandos in Miami, beautiful Hollywood women, famous entertainers like Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack in Las Vegas, Castro’s own spies in Havana and his double agents hidden in Florida, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI snooping, and the Kennedy administration’s “Get Castro” obsession in Washington. Thomas Maier is among the first to take full advantage of the National Archives’ 2017–18 release of the long-suppressed JFK files, many of which deal with the CIA’s top secret anti-Castro operation in Florida and Cuba. With several new investigative findings, Mafia Spies is a spy exposé, murder mystery, and shocking true story that recounts America’s first foray into the assassination business, a tale with profound impact for today’s Trump era. Who killed Johnny and Sam—and why wasn’t Castro assassinated despite the CIA’s many clandestine efforts?
Download or read book Killing the Mob written by Bill O'Reilly and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Instant #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly bestseller! In the tenth book in the multimillion-selling Killing series, Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard take on their most controversial subject yet: The Mob. Killing the Mob is the tenth book in Bill O'Reilly's #1 New York Times bestselling series of popular narrative histories, with sales of nearly 18 million copies worldwide, and over 320 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. O’Reilly and co-author Martin Dugard trace the brutal history of 20th Century organized crime in the United States, and expertly plumb the history of this nation’s most notorious serial robbers, conmen, murderers, and especially, mob family bosses. Covering the period from the 1930s to the 1980s, O’Reilly and Dugard trace the prohibition-busting bank robbers of the Depression Era, such as John Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby-Face Nelson. In addition, the authors highlight the creation of the Mafia Commission, the power struggles within the “Five Families,” the growth of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, the mob battles to control Cuba, Las Vegas and Hollywood, as well as the personal war between the U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and legendary Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. O’Reilly and Dugard turn these legendary criminals and their true-life escapades into a read that rivals the most riveting crime novel. With Killing the Mob, their hit series is primed for its greatest success yet.
