Famous Las Vegas Mobsters – Vegas Oldtimers
As most of you might know, Las Vegas wasn’t one of the most pleasant cities in the past with its dry weather and desert temperatures. Right now, you might wonder, “but how come such a place like Las Vegas became one the best gambling cities in the world?”. The truth is that it was a dirty, forgotten railroad city at the beginning. Still, thanks to many famous Las Vegas mobsters, the town grew exponentially, improving tenfold its economic state.
List of Las Vegas Mobsters
Las Vegas has always been a subject to crimes and other felonies. The actual gang development in the city started during the dry regime and the widely spread need for alcoholic beverages. Later on, the same people and their crime families laid the foundation of Las Vegas as we know it today. The list of Las Vegas mobsters that we have gathered for you consists of some of the most prominent gangsters in the city’s history. People who left their mark in the development and growth of Sin City. See which are the most famous Las Vegas mobsters:
In the following paragraphs, we will look at the life story of each of these mobsters in Las Vegas just mentioned. Some are famous for their good and bad deeds, while others are mainly for their bad ones. The history of Las Vegas mobsters shows that there were many taught times for the city’s citizens. Their incapability of staying out of the widely spread crime network between the 50s and the 70s was a real struggle. On the other side, millions of dirty dollars were invested in creating the best casino city in the world.
Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel – The Legend
We start with the most famous Las Vegas mobster – Bugsy Siegel. Undoubtedly, he is among the most recognizable names because he contributed most to the foundation of gambling casino resorts in Las Vegas. He was originally born in Brooklyn in a Jewish family of workers. He dropped out of school to join a gang in Lower East Side Manhattan, and his life went in the wrong direction.
In his 20s, his rap sheet was already quite long full of rackets, assaults, rape, armed robberies and more. Bugsy started working with Moe Sedway, an acquitted of Meyer Lansky (another famous Las Vegas mobster, who later became his partner in Vegas), and they both did some jobs for him. Lansky was not a small-time crook. He was actually the accountant of Charles Luciano, known as Lucky, one of the founders of the National Crime Syndicate. Among their ranks, you will see names like Al Capone, the Gambino crime family, Joe Adonis, Frank Castello and many more.
In 1946, Bugsy stepped into Las Vegas for the first time to build and manage the most famous Las Vegas casino – Flamingo. This was the start of the rise of the mobsters of Las Vegas. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same for Bugsy Siegel. He was shot and killed in June 1947 because he hid a significant amount of money from the crime syndicate, which cost him his life. After his death, Hollywood even made a movie based on the lifestory of Bugsy Siegel.
Anthony Cornero – Tony the Hat
Anthony Cornero, also known as Tony the Hat, was born in Italy in 1899. Shortly after, his family moved to the USA. He had a rough early life, but he has made his place among the most famous Las Vegas mobsters. One of the first schemes he got into was the illegal Canadian whiskey importation during the dry regime. He was already a millionaire by the age of 25, thanks to the alcohol traffic.
Yes, but as with every criminal, sooner or later, they all get caught up. In 1926, Cornero was arrested and sentenced to 2 years in prison, but he did escape before he was even transported to jail. He successfully got to Canada and Europe, hiding for a few years. In 1929, he was back in Los Angeles, California. Two years later, he saw the opportunity to start a gambling business in Las Vegas.
Tony the Hat is one of the owners of the first casinos in Las Vegas. His success brought him some troubles, too, because the Luciano crime family and Meyer Lansky were now after him, demanding a percentage of his profits. As you can guess, Cornero refused to be extorted. Later on, his hotel, The Meadows, was set on fire.
However, this made him pull all investments from Las Vegas and concentrate on floating casinos in California bay. There were several great years for Cornero, but again, he faced the California law when gambling ships were officially criminalized. This made him sell everything again and move to land-based casinos, so he went back to Vegas.
He was even shot four times in the stomach, which didn’t stop him from returning to Las Vegas permanently. He discussed loans from other famous Las Vegas mobsters like Moe Dalitz and Meyer Lansky. Still, he ended up dead before he even started constructing the casino establishment. All details around his death are controversial. The official police statement is that he died from a heart attack, but many consider poisoning a more relevant reason for his death.
Moe Dalitz – The Founder
Moe Dalitz is another legend in the history of Las Vegas mobsters. Originally from Boston, he became one of the top 5 most essential people in Sin CIty for the last century. He is also one of the few mobsters of Las Vegas who died from natural death at the age of 89.
He was born in a Jewish family in Boston and then moved to Michigan. At first, he was dealing with the laundry family business, but later on, he expanded the business. Then, the alcohol prohibition came, and he started importing illegal alcohol from Canada and Mexico.
After that, he started managing an illegal gambling hall, but at the time, he was called to join the army during World War 2. In 3 years, he was ranked first lieutenant and discharged from duty in 1945. Then, he moved to Las Vegas and started investing in gambling resorts.
He was either managing or standing behind the control of some of the most famous Las Vegas Strip casinos at the time: Desert Inn, Stardust Resort & Casino and Sundance Hotel Casino. Apart from being gang-related, he was also considered a businessman and philanthropist responsible for the city’s vision in the last century.
Meyer Lansky – The Hand of Charles Luciano
Born in Grodno, Russian Empire (current Belarus) in 1902, Meier Suchowlański was a Polish-Jewish descendent. He always considered himself more Polish than Russian. At the age of 9, his family moved to New York, and this is when he took the name Meyer Lansky.
He became a good friend with two other mob legends in his childhood: Bugsy Siegel and Charles Luciano. At first, he was dealing alcohol with Bugsy, but things got way more serious later on when Lucky Luciano successfully assembled the national crime syndicate. All crime families all around the USA were working and helping each other.
Lansky was playing the role of the mob’s accountant, but he was way more than that. He was involved in illegal activities and legal gambling in Florida, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and even Cuba. Lansky was even more clever. He purchased a Swiss bank where he could transfer and wash all of the mafia earnings. This is why we place him on the list of Las Vegas mobsters.
Yes, but nothing was perfect as it seemed. FBI was actively working on many mob-related crimes all around the states, while some crime families like the Chicago Outfit was looking to make as much as possible. After the death of his dear friend Bugsy Siegel, the Las Vegas mobsters power was transferred from the New York families to the Chigaco bosses like Tony Accardo.
Lansky is the person who managed to move the US mafia business out of the USA and establish Cuba as one of the best tourist places. Most of the high-level mob meetings were led exactly in Havana. Yes, but with the rise of Fidel Castro and the revolution in Cuba, it was no longer a suitable and safe place for business.
Then he started moving around until he decided to seek refugee in Israel, but they deported him to US soil. He made a deal with the FBI to stay away from prison if he gives testimony about another gang-related case. Meier Suchowlański or Meyer Lansky died from lung cancer at the age of 80 in Miami, Florida.
Frank Rosenthal – Chicago’s Finest
Frank Rosenthal is way younger than most of the mobsters of Las Vegas we have mentioned so far. He was born in 1929 in a Jewish family. Frank was around gambling since his early ages because his father was the owner of the racehorses. From a teenager, he started doing small jobs for the Chicago Outfit who made him one of the biggest illegal bookies in the city at that time.
Because of many accusations of sports briberies and other gambling schemes, he moved to Miami, Florida, in 1961. He continued doing what he knew best – illegal gambling and bookmaking. He was also a suspect for several car bombs and other malicious acts but never found guilty about any of them. Due to the vast publicity and attention, Frank Rosenthal moved to Las Vegas in 1968.
In the beginning, he was running the Chicago Outfit casinos from the shadows to skip any public attention. During his management, all of the establishments were flourishing. According to the Las Vegas gambling laws, he was stripped from his gambling license. Furthermore, could not control or manage any of the gambling places that mobsters in Las Vegas owned officially.
At the end of the mob’s reign, they even tried to kill him with a car bomb in 1982. Due to the tension, he decided to leave Las Vegas and move to California. At that time, he was focused on his family, not on gambling anymore. Shortly after, he moved into Florida, where he died at the age of 79, in 2008, from a heart attack. He became the inspiration for the shooting of the most famous mobster movie with Robert De Niro – Casino 1995.
Tony Accardo – The Leader from the Shadows
Tony Accardo has been one of the leading figures of the Chicago Outfit for several decades. His family moved to the USA just a year before he was born. At the age of 14, Tony was already in a bad company – the Circus Café Gang, one of the street gangs in Chicago.
The person from the Chicago Outfit who took him under his wing was Al Capone’s ruthless hitman – Jack “Machine Gun” McGurn. During the Capone regime, Tony Accardo became famous with his nickname, Joe Batters because he killed three of the Chicago Outfit snitches with a bat.
Tony took part in many criminal activities and assassinations in Chicago in the 1930s, including the St Valentine Massacre. When the country put Capone behind bars, Frank Nitti took the wheel. He liked Tony Accardo and even allowed him to assemble a crew of his own. In the 1940s, he was one of the most influencing mobsters in Chicago. In 1943, he became one of the heads of the Chicago Outfit.
He stayed one of the leading figures in the band for over 30 years. This is one of the mobsters of Las Vegas who remained in the shadows most of the time. He was a person who liked to keep a low profile and stay away from the spotlight. This is why he was able to remain intact for so many years. He died from a heart condition in 1992, at the age of 86.
Johny Roselli – Handsome Johny
Handsome Johny was the nickname of Johny Roselli who was an Italian emigrant born in Lazio, Italy, in 1905. When he and his family moved into the USA, his name was still Filippo Sacco. In 1922, he was arrested for narcotics in Massachusetts. Then, he moved to New York for several months. Shortly after, he moved to Chicago and changed his name to John Roselli. This was also when he joined the Chicago Outfit.
However, it is still not clear why he moved to LA in 1924, where he started working with another famous local mobster called Jack Dragna. In 1940, things didn’t go so well for Johny. Apart from the criminal charges, he also participated for three years in World War 2.
In 1950, he saw the rising opportunity in Las Vegas, and this is how he became one of the most famous Las Vegas mobsters as a representative of the LA and Chicago crime families. He was not that involved in the action play at the city, but he was well aware of everything that was going on there.
In the 1960s, Johny and other crime-related personas contemplated a plan to poison Fidel Castro to re-establish the most profitable gambling business stationed by then in Cuba. In 1970, there was a federal investigation about the abovementioned murder attempt. All that heat made him leave the region and move to Miami.
Thanks to his reputation, he was called in 1976 regarding the murder investigation of J.F. Kennedy, but suddenly, Handsome Johny disappeared. In 10 days, on the 7th of August 1976, he was found dead in a barrel floating in Dumfoundling Bay. The murder investigation showed that he was probably killed due to an unfair split of the shares from all Las Vegas operations between him and the Chicago Outfit. Still, John Roselli is considered one of the biggest names in the history of Las Vegas mobsters.
Frank Cullotta – The Hole In The Wall Gang
Frank Cullotta is one of the youngest in the history of Las Vegas mobsters. He was born in 1938 in Chicago. His father was also involved with the Chicago Outfit, so his place with them was assured in advance. After dropping out of school in the 9th grade, he started hanging out with bad friends like Tony Spilotro.
The main subject of their criminal activities were burglaries, thefts and murders. In 1968, he was sentenced to 8 years behind bars. In 1974, he got released, returning to his old lifestyle. In 1979, he moved to Las Vegas to reunite with his friend Tony Spilotro.
This is how they assembled the most famous Las Vegas mobsters crew, named by the media “The Hole in The Wall Gang”. In 1981, they robbed Bertha’s Gifts & Home Furnishings, but the whole operation was kaput. They all got arrested less than a week later.
In 1982, Cullotta was placed in jail again. From that moment onwards, we can scratch Frank Cullotta from the list of Las Vegas mobsters because, in 1983, he agreed to testify against his friend and ex-boss Tony Splilotro. Frank admitted participating in over 300 crimes, many of them brutal homicides. The stories of these crimes and people like Cullotta and other Las Vegas mobsters and criminals have been an inspiration for the creation of many slot games, found at some of the best US casino sites.
Despite all of his actions, Cullotta survived and helped with the creation of many mafia movies and books during the following decades. Unfortunately, he became a victim of Covid-19 in August 2020, when he died at the age of 81 in the Las Vegas hospital
FAQ
Due to the large load of information presented today, we assume you might have additional questions. Therefore, we gathered the most frequently asked questions about the list of Las Vegas mobsters, their life stories, and their influence over the city. If you want to investigate any of the names, just use the jump links situated in each answer.
