John L. Smith - Of Rats and Men: Oscar Goodmans Life from Mob Mouthpiece to Mayor of Las Vegas

Whatever I got from my days representing organized crime is not enough to compensate me for what happened to me.

Defense attorney John Fitzgerald, Jr., whose right leg was blown off by a car-bomb blast in retaliation for his representation of Boston hit-man-turned-informant Joseph the Animal Barboza.

The United States of America versus Anthony Spilotro. Now what kind of odds are those?

Chicago mobster Anthony Tough Tony Spilotro, a suspect in at least 22 murders. Never convicted.

Id rather have my daughter date Tony Spilotro than an FBI agent.

Oscar B. Goodman

Thank God for Oscar Goodman!

Multimillion-dollar drug trafficker Jimmy Chagra, after beating the rap for the murder of federal Judge Maximum John Wood.

There is no mob.

Oscar B. Goodman, to anyone who would listen.

The biggest lie of the 20th century: There is no mob.

Message on souvenir T-shirts distributed to hundreds of guests at the black-tie 25th anniversary celebration of Oscar B. Goodmans law practice specializing in criminal defense of reputed members of organized crime.

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? Yet if I am for myself only, what am I?

Hillel

Of Rats and Men

Oscar Goodmans Life From

Mob Mouthpiece to Mayor of Las Vegas

Published by

Huntington Press

3665 Procyon Street

Las Vegas, Nevada 89103

Phone (702) 252-0655

e-mail: books@huntingtonpress.com

Copyright 2012, John L. Smith

First Edition 2003

10-ISBN: 1-935396-90-0

13-ISBN: 978-1-935396-90-1

Design & Production: Laurie Cabot

Photo Credits: Photos obtained from the archives of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and private collections. Photo of Bob Martin by Howard Schwartz. Front cover photo by Jeff Scheid.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the copyright owner.

For four stand-up women: Laura Goodman, Carolyn Goodman, Janet Smith, and Tricia Smith.

F or a man who has lived much of his professional life in the media spotlight, tracking Oscar Goodmans incredible legal career provided a genuine challenge that was assisted by a variety of people. Those who provided insight into Goodmans character were often glad to do so on the condition they not be identified. I came to believe that this had far less to do with Goodmans reputation as a tough mob lawyer than it had to do with his meteoric political success. In a juice town, most attorneys and business owners would rather have Tony Spilotro mad at them than City Halls mercurial chief enforcer.

Off and on throughout the long process of researching this book, Goodman sat for many hours of interviews and allowed me to glimpse his heavily guarded personal life. That access is greatly appreciated.

Thanks are due to Carolyn Goodman, a class act who provided insight into her husband and their impressively successful and surprisingly well-adjusted children, Oscar Jr., Ross, Eric, and Cara. There is no doubt Carolyn is the real power behind the Goodmans. Thanks also to Oscars mother, Laura Baylin Goodman, an artist and charmer who agreed to be interviewed for this project. Its obvious that Oscar got his sense of humor and flair for the dramatic from his mother. Lona Livingston, Oscars sister, was also kind enough to grant an interview.

Next come the attorneys, business operators, law-enforcement investigators, former reporters, and underworld characters who shared their knowledge of the subject: Pete Beckman, Donald Campbell, Bill Cassidy, David Chesnoff, Harry Claiborne, Dick Crane, Joey Cusumano, Tom Dillard, Jim Ferrence, Mark Fierro, Byron Fox, Dominic Gentile, Brad Jerbic, Marty Keach, Tom Letizia, Don Logan, Gary Peck, Frank Rosenthal, Steve Stein, Loren Stevens, Michael Stuhff, Howard Stutz, Alan Tobin, Billy Vassiliadis, Gerald Werksman, and three dozen sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Oscar Goodman has been good copy for journalists for more than three decades and, as Las Vegas mayor, shows no signs of slowing down in the media and self-promotion departments. The work of the following reporters, columnists, and authors was insightful: Warren Bates, Connie Bruck, Jeff Burbank, Gary Cartwright, Juliet V. Casey, Norm Clarke, Donald Cox, Jim Day, Steve Friess, Frank Geary, Jeff German, John Kerr, George Knapp, Ed Koch, Glen Meek, Thomas Mitchell, Mike Miller, Jan Moller, Jane Ann Morrison, Erin Neff, Matt OBrien, Peter OConnell, Glenn Puit, Jon Ralston, Joe Schoenmann, Geoff Schumacher, Steve Sebelius, Vin Suprynowicz, and Mike Zapler. The work of Ned Day, late mob aficionado, continues to resound more than 15 years after his death.

When others faltered, Anthony Curtis of Huntington Press saw the potential in this project and showed great patience in ushering it into existence. The next editorial sitdown at the Tap House is on me, A. C. Editors Deke Castleman and Wendy Y. Tucker worked wonders with the manuscript and kept it on course through considerable tumult. Thanks also are due Huntington Press Bethany Coffey Rihel, Len Cipkins, Laurie Cabot, and Doug Meyer, as well as Jackie Joniec for her early contributions.

Thanks once again to Review-Journal publisher Sherman Frederick and editor Tom Mitchell, who give me the freedom to pursue writing outside my daily column.

Finally, I am grateful to my daughter, Amelia, for enduring the numerous ups and downs associated with taking this project from concept to publication. With you at my side, Im the luckiest mug to ever play Las Vegas.

A nd it came to pass in the new Las Vegas at the twilight of the 20th century that all the most notorious mobstersat least those with the snappy monikers and blood-soaked resums who lacked Ivy League MBAs and vast stock portfolioswere either infirm, incarcerated, interred, or had assumed new identities in the Federal Witness Protection Program.

This state of affairs suited the corporate image of a city built by Meyer Lansky and Benny Siegel, Moe Dalitz and the recalcitrant killers behind the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. But it was no fun at all for criminal defense attorney Oscar B. Goodman, whose marble-floored law office at 520 South Fourth Street in downtown Las Vegas was known nationally as the House the Mob Built. Not that Goodman was complaining loudly. Hed grown rich and infamous representing a rogues gallery of reputed members of organized crimea felonious fraternity whose very existence hed denied throughout most of his 35-year legal career. If the Mafia was a myth, it certainly paid exceedingly well and often in cash.

Goodman had become a name in the American justice system. He was among the nations premier criminal defense attorneys. Hed argued on the floor of the U.S. Senate, served as president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, was named one of Americas Best Trial Lawyers by the