Steve Fischer - When the Mob Ran Vegas: Stories of Money, Mayhem and Murder

BruceMartin ,Producer, On the Felt radio www.MLPoker.com

Hearing Las Vegas tales from the 50s and 60s is far morefascinating than hearing stories about other cities during the sameyears. This is mostly because the players all have nicknames likeBugsy, Icepick, and The Ant, and their real-life activitieswere more outrageous than the endless fiction they continue toinspire. If The Sopranos is entertaining,true stories from the years when the Mob ran Vegas are downrightenthralling....

When the Mob Ran Vegas is a unique glimpseinto the past that shaped Las Vegas into what it is today. Whetheryou find it nostalgic or shocking, whether you wish those dayscould return or are happy theyve vanished into the past, Fischerhas created a picture of an era that preserves not only faces andfacts, but also a personal impression of a city he clearlyloves.

MeganEdwards, Living Las Vegas

DavidG. Schwartz, Coordinator, Gaming Studies

When the Mob Ran Vegas is worth a read ifyoure one of those people who cant read enough stories about OldVegas and the days when hoodlums came to the desert to create aplace that hard-working, law-abiding Americans wouldnt be able toresist.

Richard B. Taylor, Historian and Author, Moulin Rouge Hotel History and SinCity?

SteveFischer has pieced together the true story of Vegas in the 50s and60s. He makes you feel a part of the scene when the boys ranthe town...Its the story Casino didnt dare tellabout the real owners who built, ran, and played in Las Vegas andbegan what is now the Entertainment Capital of the World...This isthe history of Las Vegas, by which all other Las Vegas books mustbe measured. I simply couldnt put it down.

Erskine, Host of Erskine Overnight www.ErskineonRadio.com on Genesis Radio Network

Onthe front cover: Virginia Hill, upper left corner; mug shots, left to right,Little Moey Sedway, Steve Fischer, Marshall Caifano, Tony Accardo,Frank Lefty Rosenthal, Meyer Lansky, Tony Spilotro; death scene,Bugsy Siegel.

On the back cover: Lisa Malouf Medford in a1961 photo at the Tropicana, the first nude showgirl in Las Vegas.Photo by the legendary Michael Nagro.

2005, 2006, Steve Fischer

ISBN 13: 978-0-9770658-3-7

All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in anyform or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of thepublisher. Photo of Steve Fischer courtesy of Picture People.

Fischer, Steve 1943 When The Mob Ran Vegas: Storiesof Money, Mayhem and Murder / Steve Fischer

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references andindex.

1. Las Vegas (Nev.)History20th centuryAnecodotes.

2. Las Vegas (Nev.)SocialSocial life and customs20th centuryAnecdotes.

3. Organized crimeNevada Las VegasHistory 20thcenturyAnecdotes.

4. Nineteen fifties. 5. Nineteen sixties. I.Title.

F849.L35F575 2005 979.313504 QB105-600177

Published at Smashwords by Berkline Press. For moreinformation about this book, to order the printed book, and tocontact the author, go to www.WhenTheMobRanVegas.com .

Marketing and publicity by www.ConciergeMarketing.com

This could very well be the first book ever createdfrom eBay listings. Id like to thank the hundreds of eBayerswhove made the writing of this book as much fun as it has been.Thanks for your kind and supportive emails.

Many others helped me put this book together:

Thanks to Deanna DeMatteo for immenseresearch assistance over the past few years. Recognized as the mostcomplete and well-researched compendium of information available isDeannas Web site LasVegasStripHistory.com. A special thank you forthe countless hours of research on the Tony Cornero biography.

History turns to dust, and Imhere to collect that dust and turn it into something called a story... which is what I do when I take people on a tour of mycollection. A quote from Howard Klein, one of the true experts on the evolution of theLas Vegas Strip, Howard has put together a world-class collectionof Las Vegas history. With thanks for your friendship, yourknowledge, and all youve done for this book.

John Neeland, Publicity Manager of theRiviera Hotel in Las Vegas, has been a pleasure to work with onthis project. John and his staff at the Riviera have supplied mewith many of the photos for the book. After nearly 40 years in thebusiness, there are not a lot of headliners with whom he hasntworked, or stories he doesnt know.

I dont know if theres an author who writes aboutLas Vegas who doesnt speak with Howard Schwartz of theGamblers Book Shop and the famous GBC (Gamblers Book Club) in LasVegas. His knowledge of the personalities of Las Vegas islegendary.

BobStoldal isNews Director of KLAS TV, General Manager of Las Vegas One TV, anda man who enjoys the history of Las Vegas as much as I do. Bobsspecialty is the Las Vegas of the early Twentieth Century, from1900 through 1931, and hes the recognized expert in that field.Bob is Chairman of the Nevada State Museum Board, and Chairman ofthe City of Las Vegas Historical PreservationCommission.

Steve Cutler, collector, historian and founder of the CasinoLegends Hall of Fame, gets a special thank you. Steve and hiswife, Sheryl Slakoff, seem to know everyone in LasVegas. And they were kind enough to open doors for me that I wouldnever have been able to enter were it not for them.

Thanks to Stephen D. Fitt, Ph.D.,Instructional Librarian UNLV, for all his assistance on thisproject. Thanks to casino legend Bernie Sindler.

And also, thanks to Richard Greeno, a leadingauthority on Benny Binion and the El Rancho Vegas. To DickTaylor, author and historian. Dick was GM of Hacienda for manyyears, and the Last Frontier in the late 50s. To Casino Chipand Token News Magazine, especially to Allan Anderson,editor, and to Jim Steffner, Dick Covington, and MikeQuinlivan. And to Paul Reed, for sharing his knowledgeof what really happened when the Mob ran Vegas.

Thanks to Jeff and Corky Bleaman, Esther Meiches,John Zipay, Jay Kiran, Veronica Worth, Skip Harouff, Paul Wagner,Jim Brown, Ross Conquest, Vikki Celaya and my friend, the now