12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Read, November 9, 2006
This review is from: The Battle for Las Vegas: The Law Vs. the Mob (True Crime) (Paperback)
Like most new things, Las Vegas had growing pains as aptly depicted in THE BATTLE FOR LAS VEGAS.
We have all heard of Bugsy Siegel and on the other side, Eliot Ness...but how many are familiar with the likes of Tony...The Ant...Spilotro? There is speculation as to how Spilotro got his nickname...some think it was a shortened version of his given name...others thought it was due to his stature. However the name The Ant came about, he is introduced to us in this exciting portrayal of how Sin City was steeped in not only sin but greed as well.
From murder to skimming to prostitution, this account tells it all. We meet the city officials as well as the law enforcement personnel who were `in the pockets' of these crooks. The general Las Vegas public appeared to be more obsessed with prostitution than they were with the mobs. There is a theory that most mob crime is mob upon mob and the average citizen would not feel the tentacles of this corrupt octopus. The public was so concerned with the sex crimes that they voted out their Sheriff, McCarthy, who went after the mob with a vengeance.
I would like to see the movie Casino once again now that I can put names to the characters with a much better understanding of who they are...thanks to Dennis Griffin.
If you'd like a vivid portrayal of how Las Vegas was tamed, be sure to put this on your reading list.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Business end of the dog, July 1, 2007
This review is from: The Battle for Las Vegas: The Law Vs. the Mob (True Crime) (Paperback)
Excellent, well-written and well-researched book. The book outlines the mobs' local crew under Tony Spilotro efforts to squeeze Las Vegas dry for their own purposes as well as the skim for their handlers in the midwest. The movie CASINO parallels this story. The movie presented law enforcement as country-bumpkins that, when unable to use effective law enforcement tactics, resorted to politics to interdict the mob. Griffin does a yeoman's job in showing that police/FBI were NOT ineffective and DID prevail. They prevailed, with hands tied in some cases, because they were intelligent and brave men that never gave up.
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23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
About the Book, August 7, 2006
This review is from: The Battle for Las Vegas: The Law Vs. the Mob (True Crime) (Paperback)
"King of the Strip"
In the 1970s and thru the mid-1980s, the Chicago Outfit was the dominant organized crime family in Las Vegas, with business interests in several casinos. During those years the Outfit and its colleagues in Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Cleveland were using Sin City as a cash cow. Commonly referred to as the "skim," unreported revenue from Outfit-controlled casinos was making its way out of Vegas by the bag full and ending up in the coffers of the crime bosses in those four locations.
The skim involved large amounts of money. The operation had to be properly set up and well managed to ensure a smooth cash flow. To accomplish that goal, the gangsters brought in a front man with no criminal record to purchase several casinos. Allen R. Glick, doing business as the Argent Corporation (Allen R. Glick Enterprises) purchased the Stardust, Fremont, Hacienda, and Marina. They next installed Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal as their inside man, and the real boss of the casino operations. Rosenthal was a Chicago native and considered to be a genius when it came to oddsmaking and sports betting. Under Lefty's supervision the casino count rooms were accessible to mob couriers.
But even with the competent Rosenthal in charge, there remained room for problems. What if an outsider tried to muscle in on the operation? Or just as bad, suppose one of their own decided to skim the skim? To guard against such possibilities the Chicago bosses decided to send someone to Vegas to give Rosenthal a hand should trouble arise. The successful applicant had to be a person with the kind of reputation that would deter interlopers from horning in, and make internal theft too risky to try. But the mob's outside man had to be capable of action as well as threats. In other words, he had to be a man who would do whatever it took to protect the Outfit's interests. So, in 1971, 33-year-old Tony Spilotro, considered by many to be the "ultimate enforcer," was sent to the burgeoning gambling and entertainment oasis in the desert. Spilotro, sometimes called "tough Tony," or "the Ant," was a made man of the Outfit and a childhood friend of Rosenthal. He was known as a man who could be counted on to get the job done.
Being an ambitious sort, Tony quickly recognized that there were other criminal opportunities in his new hometown besides skimming from the casinos. Street crimes ranging from loan sharking to burglary, robbery, and fencing stolen property were all in play. It wasn't very long before Tony had his hands into every one of these areas. As the scope of his criminal endeavors grew, Tony brought in other heavies from Chicago to fill out his gang. The five-foot-six-inch gangster was soon being called the "King of the Strip."
Federal and local law enforcement recognized the need to rid the casinos of the hidden ownership and control of the mob, and shut down Spilotro's street rackets. They declared war on organized crime and the battle was on. It was a hard fight, with plenty of tough guys on both sides. But it was a confrontation the law knew it had to win.
The Battle for Las Vegas relates the story of that conflict, told in large part by the agents and detectives who lived it.
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