Sixty years ago, the grisly killings of the Riviera Hotel’s president and his wife stunned Las Vegas — and would haunt the casino industry for a generation.
The Motor City was at the heart of most of the country's illegal liquor trade during Prohibition. Now, the city is embracing its identity as a major force in the artisanal craft whiskey market.
On Monday, a jury convicted mob boss Whitey Bulger of more than 30 crimes, and connected him to 11 murders. The trial also revealed the inner workings of the Boston mob and the extent of corruption in the city's FBI office. Two experts on the Boston mob will be at the Mob Museum this weekend to talk about the trial, and the convoluted case of Whitey Bulger.
What does it take to infiltrate a mob family? Former FBI agent Jack Garcia is coming to the Mob Museum to share tales of intrigue from more than 100 undercover assignments. They include a three-year tour getting inside New York's Gambino family.
The Gaming Control Board has opened an investigation into the links between organized crime and the junket operators that bring the gamblers from the Chinese mainland to Macau. Those ferry companies also control the VIP rooms where many gamblers play cards and they extend credit and collect debts because casinos cannot legally collect gambling debts under Chinese law. The reports of mob involvement were published by a union local on a special Web site it has created to publicize the problems. So what will happen if the allegations are proven true? Is this a storm in a teacup or could it lead to a big shakeup in the world's biggest casino companies?
Luellen Smiley is the daughter of reputed mobster, Allen Smiley. Smiley's dad was a close friend and confidant of famous Las Vegas mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and he was sitting on the couch just feet away from Siegel the night he was murdered. While Luellen Smiley hadn't been born at the time of the shooting, she's conducted research on her father's life and the events leading up to the shooting and wants to dispel the common belief that her father might have been involved in the shooting. Luellen Smiley has contributed artifacts to the Las Vegas Mob Experience and she joins us to discuss her family history.
November 15 is the 60th anniversary of the Kefauver hearings into mob activity in Las Vegas. The occasion will be marked at the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement by the museum's designers, Dennis and Kathy Barrie.
