Was there really Mob Muscle in Las Vegas?

If anything is certain in life besides Death and Taxes, it’s that the Mob kept plenty of muscle in Las Vegas to protect its interests. In this case, the New York Mob started first, with a friendly visit from Meyer Lansky to the first club along what would become the Las Vegas Strip a dozen years later.

That story has more to do with Tony Cornero and his Meadows Country Club than enforcers, but it set the tone for demanding and getting a full cut of untaxed cash straight from the counting room at most of the major casinos that built along the Strip, like the Sands, Desert Inn, Stardust, Caesars (do I have to go on?) Well, yes, if we include the Downtown area with the Fremont, Mint, Horseshoe………… you get the idea.

The New York Mob was first and became famous after Frank Costello took a bullet to the head in his apartment foyer that left him splattered on the ground (he lived), but it was the little note in his pocket outlining the new Tropicana casino’s winnings in 1957 that alerted the police and public that the Mob was still connected to Las Vegas. And the cryptic notations designating who got what skim cash left little doubt there was a need for muscle.

Not just to protect the casino from cheating patrons, but to intimidate the bags (men and women) who took the cash in satchels to Meyer Lansky to distribute to crime families in Florida, New Jersey, New York, and even Pennsylvania.

Money skimmed from the Chicago Outfit’s casinos went first to Illinois and Missouri, including Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City. Late-coming families from Detroit and Cleveland also got a cut. It was those people, and the people looking the other way (cashiers, auditors, managers), who needed to be intimidated. And, the Flamingo casino, and its staff and managers get special notice because it’s where Bugsy Siegel invested a ton of Mob money before he was rubbed out.

Those people usually got $500 a week – more than their regular pay, and they kept their mouths shut. When someone slipped, enforcers had work to do. Their story is told on video here.

You might note that the main enforcers (Johnny Roselli, Marshall Caifano, or Tony Spilotro) were from Chicago, perhaps because they were taking a whopping 60% of the Vegas Skim by 1958. They were busy.

Marshall Caifano, above, was a scary guy. Note the “shark style” dead eyes. Then look at Tony “The Ant” Spilotro below. Coincidence? Who knows.

There’s much more to know about both of these murderous muscle mobsters, so check out Vegas and the Chicago Outfit for the whole story! We also review great Nevada Casino books that might interest you.