The money and the power the making of las vegas and its hold on america

The Money and the Power The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America, 1947–2000 Sally Denton and Roger Morris Alfred A Knopf New York 2001 Contents Title Dedication Prologue First City of the Twenty-first Century Part One The Juice Meyer Lansky The Racketeer as Chairman of the Board Benny Binion The Outlaw as Icon Pat McCarran The Democrat as Autocrat Bugsy Siegel The Executioner as Entrepreneur Hank Greenspun The Hustler as Conscience Estes Kefauver The Opportunist as Prophet Part Two City of Fronts “Beyond This Place There Be Dragons” “This Alliance of Gamblers, Gangsters, and Government” “Temple Town of the American Dream” 10 “Character Loans” Part Three American Mecca 11 A Party in Carson City 12 An Enemy Too Far Within 13 “Cleaning Out the Sucker” 14 High Rollers 15 One Last Cruise 16 “A Joint’s a Joint” Epilogue Shadow Capital Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index A Note About the Authors Also by Sally Denton Also by Roger Morris A Note on the Type For Gloria Loomis and Maya Miller, true angels of this book and for those of the Sweet Promised Land, “humbled by long neglect” There has never been another place like it for connecting the unconnectable —Michael Herr, “The Big Room” Prologue First City of the Twenty-first Century The city is as up front as it ever was, for it can deny neither its purpose nor its psychology —Michael Ventura, “Literary Las Vegas” It is a soft, starlit night in mid-May 1998, the high desert bathed in a temperate spring darkness Dressed in polo shirts and tailored slacks, the men stream out of the CasaBlanca casino and spa at Mesquite, Nevada, on the Utah border, one of them telling his usual lewd jokes, the others laughing, as they clamber into the three stretch limousines idling at the entrance The group has spent the weekend as they expected, flying to the resort in chartered jets, relaxing around the pool, enjoying massages and facials, trying their luck at the tables Over a lengthy dinner one of their hosts secretly calls the “Last Supper,” they avidly discussed how to handle the latest half-billion dollars in drug proceeds already on hand Waiters heard them cheering and shouting excitedly behind the closed doors of the private banquet room To celebrate agreement on dividing the money, they plan to finish the evening with the special attraction promised for the weekend—Nevada’s Chicken Ranch brothel some miles away, renowned for its beautiful women and rustic setting Chauffeurs drive them in caravan, eight to a car, along Interstate 15 southwest of Mesquite The highway follows the original Mormon Trail by which America first came to the Las Vegas Valley 143 years before Further west, the road will begin to parallel another, later migrant path, old Highway 91 from California, whose approach to the city would be known to the world as the Strip The routes are historic if little-known passageways of people, money, and power, and this midnight these men are part of an unbroken tradition The unmistakable glow of Las Vegas already fills the horizon when the cars suddenly slow and pull onto the shoulder surrounded by flashing lights “Sorry, I guess I was speeding,” one of the chauffeurs explains to his passengers But they see there are too many police cruisers for a traffic stop U.S Customs officers now encircle the limousines and take into custody twelve prominent Mexican bankers along with their lawyers and associates Others riding with them are undercover American agents, posing as the suspects’ partners and chauffeurs What the Customs men call their “takedown” here in the southern Nevada desert climaxes an unprecedented covert operation, part of more than 140 arrests at six locales across three continents “The largest, most comprehensive drug- money laundering case in the history of United States law enforcement,” Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin calls it in the later public announcement in Washington The investigation has uncovered crimes in the hundreds of billions of dollars amid international corruption at the highest levels of business and government And now, as over the past half century, Las Vegas is a nexus of it all From the outset, the Mexican criminals insisted on meeting in Las Vegas for regular exchanges with their supposed American partners The city seemed to both sides a natural, traditional setting, like a summit of governments in Geneva or winter Olympics in the Alps “All of them felt comfortable in Vegas, knew they could talk freely there,” a U.S official says in recalling the meetings They stayed in plush suites at Steve Wynn’s famous Mirage resort, their undercover American hosts spending freely to entertain them Casino executives up and down the Strip treated the well-known, Armani-suited traffickers and bankers as high rollers, gave them a lavish welcome of special privileges At century’s end, as always, the city is a fount of cash legal and illegal for criminals, businessmen, and politicians from every continent, though by the mid-1990s there was relatively little of the comparatively crude processing done so commonly over the decades at Nevada tables Scarcely three years before this undercover investigation, other Customs agents in Las Vegas had come upon signs of an intricate and far-flung financial conspiracy involving Japan and Korea and the suspected investment by American and international organized crime of hundreds of millions in some of the city’s most famous new casinos But the mere five agents posted to Las Vegas, long one of the world centers of money laundering and criminal finance, were no match for a network that controlled fortunes, deployed a fleet of private jets, and marshaled an array of bankers, lawyers, politicians, and corporate giants Like Mexican drug lords, the Strip commands its own governments and financial systems, its own sophisticated means in the world at large Reviewing some of the 3,000 hours of audio and video recordings of their dealings in the sting —repeating, “Play it again, play it again”—Customs agents code-named their case “Operation Casablanca,” after the motion picture’s supposedly familiar line, “Play it again, Sam.” After one of them mentioned driving by a casino named the CasaBlanca in Mesquite, not far from Las Vegas, they decided to stage some of the climactic arrests there, an apt touch as well as a more secure setting “In Vegas everybody’s watching everybody else,” a U.S agent recalls “The casinos knew these people were high-level Mexican Mafia, and you never know who might have noticed something and tipped them off.” While the proprietors of the CasaBlanca knew nothing of the operation, Customs men posed as new owners of the casino, inviting the Mexicans for another enjoyable interlude in Nevada, a meeting to parcel more profits and a memorable visit to the Chicken Ranch Like the gatherings at the Mirage, it was all credible enough—that American drug-money brokers would own a casino, and that the resort was a place to business, and to celebrate “The key to being successful undercover,” one U.S agent said afterward, “is to blend a lot of reality with the mask.” “Why wouldn’t they want Vegas?” a Customs agent says of the traffickers and bankers “They know the town These people know their history.” It is a heritage less familiar to most Americans, though it is theirs as well Drug money founded modern Las Vegas When World War II interrupted narcotics shipments to the United States from Asia and Europe, the gangster Meyer Lansky opened a new route south of the border Managing the traffic in Mexico City was a formidable, if less-known, peer of Lansky in the leadership of American organized crime, Harold “Happy” Meltzer, a pivotal figure in gambling, prostitution, and union corruption as well as drugs, and later an operative for the U.S government involved in the assassination of heads of state At the frontier, their flamboyant partner Bugsy Siegel oversaw a brisk traffic of planes, speedboats, and cars smuggling opium into Southern California, some of it in hidden compartments in his own Chrysler Royal convertible, the polished black roadster a familiar sight to friendly Mexican and American border guards at the Tijuana crossing The Mexican drug trade flourished throughout the 1940s with the collusion of corrupt officials in both Mexico and the United States, especially in the postwar years with the complicity of Mexico’s newly organized federal intelligence service and secret police, modeled after, and in close liaison with, America’s Central Intelligence Agency Lansky’s Mexican drug profits capitalized in part Siegel’s legendary Flamingo, the extravagant casino that launched the modern Las Vegas Strip in 1947 Laundered at the Flamingo and the many resorts that soon followed it along the desert highway southwest of Las Vegas was a constant outpouring of cash from narcotics and other vice throughout the United States, from Miami to Seattle, Boston to Los Angeles, Minneapolis to Dallas That criminal money built much of the Strip after 1948 Over the rest of the twentieth century, the city’s casinos thrived as centers for the laundering and investment of billions in drug profits, which had a historic impact on the course and control of American politics and business during the closing decades of the millennium Meanwhile, the main routes of the narcotics traffic into the United States went full circle, first from Mexico, then the Middle East and France in the fifties, Southeast Asia in the later sixties, South America over the next twenty years, and then Mexico again in the nineties Yet proceeds from the drug traffic and other corruption were only one of many sources of the money that made for a Las Vegas so largely operated by and for organized crime American capitalism was also a founding if silent partner in financing the Strip In 1946, Phoenix and Salt Lake City banks quietly joined Lansky and his partners to back the Flamingo By 1954, international drug money, national vice profits, and the incessant skim of casino earnings all began to mingle in organized crime’s deepening pool of capital—often interchangeably through the same intermediaries —with the furtive investments of prominent American banks, the Mormon Church, union pension funds, an eminent Wall Street brokerage, the Princeton University endowment, a leading defense and aerospace contractor, a major construction combine, an owner of the New York Yankees, a Manhattan real estate consortium, a respected Texas insurance company, a Caribbean bank run covertly by the CIA, and other, similarly representative and powerful interests The national underwriting of Las Vegas casinos from the 1950s capitalized much of American corruption nationwide in the second half of the century The added finance enabled criminal forces and their collaborators in business to magnify their investment and control far beyond the Strip or holdings elsewhere to other major sectors of the national economy, particularly along the booming southern tier of the postwar United States They expanded into entertainment, public service contracting, hotels, food and restaurant chains, agribusiness, manufacturing, electronics, shopping malls, real estate development, and eventually into banking, insurance, securities, and other fields This burgeoning wealth and influence enlarged their hold over still wider and deeper reaches of American politics and governance By the 1990s, the undercover operation’s Mexican guests at the Mirage—crime lords in partnership with prominent financiers, businessmen, and politicians—were part of a venerable tradition on both sides of the border As the Customs agent said: “These people know their history.” There is no place like it It is literally a beacon of civilization Peering from space at their cloudspeckled blue and blood-rust planet, astronauts make out the lights of Las Vegas before anything else, a first sign of life on earth The sighting is apt The city’s luminance draws a world More than 50 million people journey to it every year Only Mecca inspires as many pilgrims Las Vegas knows its visitors, caters to them Though strangers, they are familiar Nearly half of America has been there, more than to any other locale in the nation Most of the country recognizes the remarkable silhouette of the city From its suburban approaches it might seem like any other squat, sprawling western metropolis of subdivisions and freeways A cluster of taller buildings marks the older downtown But then suddenly, not far to the southwest, there rises a great corridor of massive structures, marching across the valley as if in phalanx It is a skyline like no other, not for offices or apartments but for the visitors themselves The glow visible from space ignites here, in the city’s colossal hotels, among them the ten largest in the nation There are more guestrooms in Las Vegas than anywhere else in America, twice as many as in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles—and plans for more To the delight of the throngs, the huge resorts take as their themes some of the most popular tourist attractions around the world Off a sham Piazza San Marco, gondolas glide on simulated Venetian canals carved onto the face of the Great American Desert Not far away rise grand imitations: an Eiffel Tower, a Roman palace, a medieval castle, an Empire State Building, a volcano erupting on cue in growling flame Upward from a dark glass pyramid beams a searchlight of 40 billion candlepower, said to be the brightest ray in the solar system, save for the sun or a nuclear blast At a massive copy of a Belle Epoque grand hotel in the Alps, its eight-acre lake sunk in a lot once dotted with scrub and cactus, two hundred gardeners tend a solarium with thousands of flowers changed several times a year Nearby, the publicly subsidized private collection of the casino’s founder comprises one of the more impressive galleries in North America, featuring works by Renoir, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Picasso, and de Kooning, masterpieces together worth hundreds of millions of dollars Still, for all the recent attractions and refinements, the essence of the city remains its original commerce, and the might of a single business whose customers spend six times more than is spent on all other spectator sports and entertainment combined in the United States With 30 to 50 percent profits, double the average of even the most successful business, the global gambling empire of Las Vegas is a force like few others in the history of human affairs By its contributions to politicians, its tax revenue to reliant public treasuries, its hold over collateral enterprise, and not least its millions Roosevelt, Franklin D., Jr., ref-1 Roosevelt, Theodore, ref-1 Rosen, Nig, ref-1 Rosenberg, Abraham, ref-1 Rosenberg, Joe “Bowser,” ref-1 Rosenstiel, Lewis, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 Rosenthal, Lefty, ref-1 Ross, John, ref-1 Rosselli, Johnny, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9 CIA and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 described, ref-1 Hughes and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8 incarceration of, ref-1 Kennedy family and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6 knowledge of plots against Castro, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 Maheu and, ref-1, ref-2 murder of, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 plots against Castro and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Ruby and, ref-1 Rothman, Norman “Roughhouse,” ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7 Rothstein, Arnold, ref-1 Rowan, Dan, ref-1 Royal Nevada, ref-1, ref-2 Rubin, Robert, ref-1, ref-2 Ruby, Jack, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6 Running Scared (Smith), ref-1, ref-2 Russell, Charles, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6 Russell, Richard, ref-1, ref-2 Russo, Gus, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 Sachs, Alan, ref-1, ref-2 Sacramento Bee, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Sagebrush Rebellion, ref-1 Sahara, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7 expansion of, ref-1 Sahara-Tahoe casino resort, ref-1 Sale, Kirkpatrick, ref-1, ref-2 Salinger, Pierre, ref-1 Salt Lake Tribune, ref-1 Sands, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9, ref-10, ref-11, ref-12, ref-13, ref-14, ref-15 FBI wiretaps at, ref-1, ref-2 Hughes and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Sans Souci, Havana, ref-1 Santini, James, ref-1 Sarno, Jay, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 Sartini, Blake, ref-1 Saturday Evening Post, ref-1, ref-2 Sawyer, Grant, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8 Black Book and, see Black Book gubernatorial race of 1962, ref-1 gubernatorial race of 1966, ref-1 Hughes and, ref-1 Kennedys and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9, ref-10, ref-11, ref-12 and regulation of gaming, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 “Scelso, John” (CIA officer), ref-1 Schenley Industries, ref-1 Scherr, Leslie, ref-1 Schiff, Dorothy, ref-1 Schmoutey, Ben, ref-1 Schweiker, Richard, ref-1 Schwimmer, Adolph “Al,” ref-1 Scott, Peter Dale, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 Secret Agenda (Hougan), ref-1 Securities and Exchange Commission, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9 Sedway, Moe, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 Selk, Reynold, ref-1 Senate Banking Committee, ref-1 Senate Committee on Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9 final report of, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Las Vegas hearings, ref-1, ref-2 misconceptions in findings of, ref-1 Senate Judiciary Committee, ref-1 Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS), ref-1 Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor and Management Field, ref-1 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities, ref-1, ref-2 Service League, ref-1 sexism, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Sharon, William, ref-1 Sheehan, Jack, ref-1 Shenker, Morris, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8 Sherer, Tutor, ref-1, ref-2 Shivers, Alan, ref-1 Showboat, ref-1, ref-2 Siegel, Benjamin “Bugsy,” ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9, ref-10 assassination of, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 drug trafficking and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 Flamingo and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9 Virginia Hill and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Lansky and, see Lansky, Meyer: Siegel and as murderer, ref-1, ref-2 scouting out of Las Vegas, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Siegel, Esther, ref-1 Silvagni, Pietro Orlando “P O,” ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 Silver Party, ref-1, ref-2 Silver Slipper Casino, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Silvert, Harvey, ref-1, ref-2 Sinatra, Frank, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9 Kennedys and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8 Nevada gaming license revoked, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Sirhan, Sirhan, ref-1 Six Companies consortium, ref-1 60 Minutes, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 skimming and tax evasion, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9, ref-10, ref-11, ref-12, ref-13, ref-14, ref-15, ref-16, ref-17, ref-18, ref-19, ref-20, ref-21, ref-22, ref-23, ref-24, ref-25, ref-26, ref-27, ref-28, ref-29 estimate of annual, ref-1 FBI wiretap evidence of, ref-1, ref-2 Sloane, Arthur, ref-1, ref-2 Smathers, Sen George, ref-1, ref-2 Smith, Al, ref-1 Smith, Earl T., ref-1, ref-2 Smith, Jean Kennedy, ref-1 Smith, John L., ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8 Smith, Joseph, Jr., ref-1, ref-2 Smith, Sandy, ref-1 Smith, Stephen, ref-1 Smith, Steve, ref-1 Smith, William French, ref-1, ref-2 Smoot, Joe, ref-1, ref-2 Snyder, Jimmy “The Greek,” ref-1 Somerset Imports, ref-1, ref-2 Sons and Brothers (Mahoney), ref-1 Sour wine, Julien “Jay,” ref-1, ref-2 Southeast Asia, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 Soviet Union, ref-1 Cold War with, see Cold War Cuba and, ref-1, ref-2 Spees, Richard, ref-1, ref-2 Spilotro, Tony “The Ant,” ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7 Spooks (Hougan), ref-1 Sportsystems, ref-1, ref-2 Stacher, Joseph “Doc,” ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 Standard Fruit and Steamship Company, ref-1 Stardust, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9, ref-10, ref-11, ref-12, ref-13, ref-14, ref-15, ref-16, ref-17 FBI wiretaps at, ref-1, ref-2 Hughes and, ref-1, ref-2 State Department, U.S., ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Steele, James B., ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9, ref-10, ref-11 Steffens, Lincoln, ref-1 Stegner, Wallace, ref-1 Steuer, Arthur, ref-1, ref-2 Stevenson, Adlai, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8 Strand Motel, Atlantic City, ref-1 Strauss, “Russian Louie,” ref-1 Strip, the, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 naming of, ref-1 themes of the resorts, ref-1, ref-2 see also individual casinos Stuart, Lyle, ref-1, ref-2 Stupak, Bob, ref-1 Sturgis, Frank, ref-1 Sullivan, K J., ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Summerlin, Jean Amelia, ref-1 Summers, Tony, ref-1 Sundance, ref-1 Sunrise Hospital, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Sunset, ref-1 Supreme Court, U.S., ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 Swan, Robbyn, ref-1 Swanson, Gloria, ref-1 Sweeney, John, ref-1, ref-2 Sweet Promised Land (Laxalt), ref-1, ref-2 Swiss bank accounts, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Syndicate, the, ref-1 alternative names for, ref-1 capitalization by legitimate banks, start of, ref-1, ref-2 concentration of power in Las Vegas and Nevada, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 investigations of, see specific individuals and congressional committees multiethnic nature of, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 taxes, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 on gaming, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6 legislation apportioning gambling revenues in Nevada, ref-1 Reagan tax cuts, ref-1 see also skimming and tax evasion Teamsters Union, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9, ref-10, ref-11, ref-12, ref-13 pension funds, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9, ref-10, ref-11, ref-12, ref-13, ref-14, ref-15, ref-16, ref-17 Reagan and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 and RFK’s crackdown on organized crime, ref-1 Senate investigation of, ref-1, ref-2 see also Hoffa, James R Teller, Edward, ref-1 Thomas, E(dward) Parry, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9, ref-10 Hughes and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 SEC investigation of, ref-1, ref-2 Wynn and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8 Thomas, Evan, ref-1 Thomas, Thomas Edward, ref-1, ref-2 Thunderbird, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9, ref-10, ref-11, ref-12 Time, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7 Time Warner, ref-1 Tobey, Sen Charles, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 Tobman, Herb, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Toledo Mining Company, ref-1 Tolson, Clyde, ref-1, ref-2 Tonopah Bombing and Gunnery Range, ref-1 Top O’Hill Terrace, Fort Worth, ref-1, ref-2 Torres, Ed, ref-1, ref-2 Tosches, Nick, ref-1, ref-2 Tourine, Charlie, ref-1 tourism and tourists, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 composition of, ref-1, ref-2 nuclear weapons tests and, ref-1 statistics, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6 Trafficante, Santo, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7 Castro assassination plots and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6 drug trade and, ref-1, ref-2 Havana casinos and, ref-1, ref-2 and RFK’s crackdown on organized crime, ref-1 Trafficante, Santo, Jr., ref-1 Trans America Wire Service, ref-1 Trans International Airlines, ref-1 Trans World Airlines, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 Treasure Island, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Treasury Department, U.S., ref-1 Tropicana, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9, ref-10, ref-11 Tropicana, Havana, ref-1 Truman, Harry S, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6 Cuba and, ref-1, ref-2 Kefauver’s presidential candidacy and, ref-1, ref-2 Turkus, Burton, ref-1 Turner, Wallace, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6 Twain, Mark, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6 Twentieth Century Congress, A (Kefauver), ref-1 Twentieth Century Fund, ref-1 Udall, Stewart, ref-1 Union Pacific, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 unions, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 Senate investigation of, ref-1 Syndicate control of, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 see also individual unions United Fruit, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 U.S Steel Pension Fund, ref-1 University of California at Berkeley, ref-1 University of Nevada in Las Vegas, ref-1, ref-2 Utah Corporation, ref-1 Valachi, Joe, ref-1 Valley Bank of Nevada, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7 see also Bank of Las Vegas Valley National Bank of Alhambra, ref-1 Valley National Bank of Phoenix, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Valley Times, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Veblen, Thorstein, ref-1 Venetian Hotel and Casino, ref-1, ref-2 Ventura, Michael, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Vietnam, ref-1, ref-2 Village Voice, ref-1 Vlaming, Liz, ref-1 Vogliotti, Gabe, ref-1 Von Tobel, George, ref-1 Wallace, Mike, ref-1 Wall Street, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 junk bonds, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Wall Street Journal, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 Walsh, Denny, ref-1 Warren, Earl, ref-1 Warren Commission, ref-1, ref-2 Washington Post, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7 Watergate scandal, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6 the break-in, ref-1, ref-2 the Hughes connection and, ref-1 investigation of, ref-1, ref-2 plots to assassinate Castro and, ref-1 “Plumbers, the,” ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 water supply, ref-1 Webb, Del, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9 Webster, William, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4 wedding chapels, ref-1 Weinberg, Michael, ref-1 Welles, Orson, ref-1 Wertheimer brothers, ref-1 Western Transportation Co., ref-1 Wexler, Morris J., ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Whearley, Bob, ref-1 Where I Stand: The Biography of a Restless Man (Greenspun), ref-1, ref-2 Whipple, Reed, ref-1 White, George, ref-1, ref-2 White, Theodore, ref-1 Wien, Lawrence, ref-1, ref-2 Wiley, Sen Alexander, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5 Wiley, Peter, ref-1 Wilhelm, John, ref-1 Williams, Bill, ref-1 Williams, Edward Bennett, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Williams, G Mennen “Soapy,” ref-1, ref-2 Wilson, Woodrow, ref-1, ref-2 Winchell, Walter, ref-1 Wingfield, George, ref-1, ref-2 McCarran and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Winte, Ralph, ref-1 Winter, Al, ref-1 Witter, Dean, ref-1 Wood, Judge John, ref-1 Woods, Rose Mary, ref-1 Woodward, Bob, ref-1 workers in Las Vegas, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7 World War II, ref-1, ref-2 black markets during, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Hughes’s fortune and, ref-1, ref-2 Wynn, Elaine Pascal, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Wynn, Steve, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7, ref-8, ref-9, ref-10, ref-11 and Atlantic City, ref-1, ref-2 biography of, ref-1, ref-2 Milken and, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 rise of, ref-1 Scotland Yard investigation of, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 takeover of Mirage Resorts and, ref-1, ref-2 Thomas and, see Thomas, E(dward) Parry: Wynn and Yablonsky, Joseph, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3, ref-4, ref-5, ref-6, ref-7 Yablonsky, Wilma, ref-1, ref-2 Young, Brigham, ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 Young, Felix, ref-1 Zarowitz, Jerome, ref-1, ref-2 Zwillman, Abner “Longy,” ref-1, ref-2, ref-3 A Note About the Authors Sally Denton is a third-generation Nevadan Since 1977, she has been an award-winning investigative reporter in both print and television, having written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune She is the author of The Bluegrass Conspiracy: An Inside Story of Power, Greed, Drugs, and Murder Awarded a Lannan Literary Grant in support of this book, she lives in the Southwest with her husband, who is her coauthor, and her three sons Roger Morris served on the senior staff of the National Security Council under both Presidents Johnson and Nixon until resigning over the invasion of Cambodia Since 1975, he has won several national prizes, including the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for the finest investigative journalism in all media nationwide in 1985 A Guggenheim Fellow, Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a Fellow of the Society of American Historians, he is the author of several books on history and politics His Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician won the National Book Award silver medal for nonfiction and was a National Book Critics Circle award finalist for biography in 1990 Also by Sally Denton The Bluegrass Conspiracy: An Inside Story of Power, Greed, Drugs, and Murder Also by Roger Morris Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician The Devil’s Butcher Shop: The New Mexico Prison Uprising Haig: The General’s Progress Uncertain Greatness: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy A Note on the Type This book was set in Minion, a typeface produced by the Adobe Corporation specifically for the Macintosh personal computer, and released in 1990 Designed by Robert Slimbach, Minion combines the classic characteristics of old style faces with the full complement of weights required for modern typesetting Composed by North Market Street Graphics, Lancaster, Pennsylvania Printed and bound by Quebecor Printing, Fairfield, Pennsylvania THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A KNOPF Copyright © 2001 by Sally Denton and Roger Morris All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions Published in the United States by Alfred A Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York www.aaknopf.com Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Denton, Sally The money and the power: the making of Las Vegas and its hold on America, 1947–2000 / by Sally Denton and Roger Morris p cm Includes bibliographical references (p ) and index Las Vegas (Nev.)—Civilization—20th century Las Vegas (Nev.)—Economic conditions— 20th century Las Vegas (Nev.)—Biography Celebrities—Nevada—Las Vegas—History—20th century Politicians—Nevada—Las Vegas—History—20th century Organized crime—Nevada —Las Vegas—History—20th century Political corruption—United States—History—20th century I Morris, Roger II Title F 849.L35.D46 2001 979.3'135—dc21 00-062011 eISBN: 978-0-375-41444-2 v3.0 .. .The Money and the Power The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America, 1947–2000 Sally Denton and Roger Morris Alfred A Knopf New York 2001 Contents Title Dedication Prologue First City of. .. rise of the city, through the national political crises and drug pandemic of the seventies, the succession to power of the corporate regime in both Las Vegas and Washington in the eighties, and the. .. about the same time, by the end of 1947, Greenspun invested in the start-up of the town’s second radio station On the day of the station’s grand opening, with the governor of Nevada on hand, a phone