46 CASINO CHIP AND TOKEN NEWS | Summer 2005

Septemver 13, 1945

Folsom’s Guest Cottages on USHighway 91, six miles south of LasVegas, had been closed since 1941.Harold Folsom had died and hiswidow, Maggie, just couldn’t run theplace. On September 13, Maggiereceived a long distance phone callfrom an attorney named GregBautser, who lived in Los Angeles.Mr. Bautser told Maggie that he had aclient who wanted to buy the FolsomCottages including the dilapidatedbuildings and 30 acres of property.Bautser’s client would pay all theback taxes due on the property andwould put $500 in Maggie’s pocket.

That afternoon, Mr. Bautser flewto Las Vegas with his client and the$500, met with the Folsom widowand, over lemonade, a deal wassigned. The client was MorrisSedway, who was employed by BenSiegel..

Little Moey, as he was called, heldonto the Folsom property for lessthan two months. Following theownership trail on this piece of prop-erty - Moe sold the land and cottagesto his attorney, Greg Bautser.

by Stephen Fischer

The First Years

Greg was representing his client,Billy Wilkerson in the transaction.Wilkerson owned two successfulHollywood nightclubs, Ciro’s and theTrocadero, and was sole owner of theHollywood Reporter, the movieindustry newspaper.

Now, again following the owner-ship of the property, Billy Wilkersonheld the Folsom Cottage property forless than a day.

November 24, 1945

George Raft’s home on ColdwaterCanyon Drive in Beverly Hills.There was a dinner at George’shouse. After dinner, Benny Siegelasked Raft to leave, his house wasbeing used to lay out the building ofthe Flamingo Club in Las Vegas. TheFlamingo Club was going to be fund-ed and owned by a new CaliforniaCorporation to be known as theNevada Projects Corporation. Thecompany that would build theFlamingo Hotel in Las Vegas.

Benny Siegel had already met withhis general contractor, Del Webb, andhis architect and builder, GeorgeRussell and Dick Stadleman.

The working number that Bennyhad in his head was going to be onemillion dollars for the project. Onemillion dollars would be needed tobuild Ben Siegel’s Flamingo Club.(The earliest references to theFlamingo Hotel, in the newspaperarticles of 1944 and 1945, referred toit as the Club - It became theFlamingo Hotel for licensing purpos-es in late 1945.)

The meeting was the normaliza-tion of the Nevada ProjectsCorporation. It was funded and theFlamingo Hotel was about to comeoff the drawing board.

Ben Siegel and George Raft

CASINO CHIP AND TOKEN NEWS | Summer 2005 47

A list of the shareholders in theNevada Projects Corporation - andtheir holdings:

Ben Siegel195 shares

Charlie Ross, Phoenix banker 100 shares

Allen Block10 shares

Billy Wilkerson, Ben’s working partner125 shares

“Solly” Solloway, Married to Ben’ssister20 shares

Hy Abrams22.5 shares

Joe Ross, Ben’s Beverly Hills attorney45 shares

Sam and Harry Rothberg, brothersand owners of American Distillers,one of the largest liquor distributorsin the country244 combined shares

Allen Smiley, a friend of Ben’s(Smiley was sitting on the couch nextto Ben when he was killed)15 shares

Louis Pokross, fronting for 15 peoplein the New York mobsunknown number of shares

Morris Rosen – also from New Yorkand fronting for Frank Costello in mostof his business deals in the 1940’s100 shares

Meyer Lansky100 shares

The same day the ground was bro-ken for the Flamingo, Ben Siegel’swife, Esta, established residency at aguest ranch just outside Reno,Nevada. She had to be a Nevada resi-dent for six weeks before she couldfile for uncontested divorce. (As anaside, in 1931 the Nevada legislaturepassed a series of measures thathelped insulate the state from effectsof the Depression, (these included

legal gambling, instant weddings andquick divorces, and legal prostitu-tion). It was an amicable settlement.The two daughters would stay withEsta and Ben would pay for theirschooling and expenses until theywere married, $350 per week plusschool tuition. Esta would get thehouse that Ben purchased at 200Delfern Drive in Hollywood, theirNew York apartment, Ben’s Cadillacand would also receive $600 perweek for the rest of her life.

This was 1945, postwar 1945, andbuilding materials were very hardcome by. Apparently, however, thiswas not the case for the NevadaProjects Corporation. With the help ofhis partner, Billy Wilkerson, Siegelobtained lumber and pipe right fromthe movie studios. Wilkerson appliedpressure to his friends in the studios,and before long, trucks from CulverCity and Hollywood were crossingthe desert loaded with lumber andpipe heading for the Flamingo Hotel’sbuilding site. Ben imported expensivemarble and decorative woods for theFlamingo’s lobby through theMexican black market. (Conveniently,he was involved in the drug trade inMexico and his Mexican partnerspaved the way for him).

Siegel had truck loads of celebrityand political friends. One of his bestfriends was Pat McCarren, (USSenator from the great State ofNevada). McCarren reprioritized thebuilding needs list for projects goingon in southern Nevada so that Benand the Nevada Projects Corporationcould receive the copper, fixtures andtiling they needed to get the Flamingoup and running by Christmas 1946.

There were protest meetings heldin Las Vegas and Boulder City by theVFW and the Elks. (Their memberswere finding that they couldn’t getany of the fixtures and building mate-rials needed for their projects.) All the

building material seemed to be goingto that “Gangster ‘Bugsy’ Siegel’sjoint, the Flamingo!”

While the Flamingo Hotel wasbeing built, Ben and his girlfriend,Virginia Hill, were living down theroad at the Last Frontier. They hadrented Suite 401 on a yearly basis.Each morning Ben would drive downto the Flamingo worksite and sign forthe morning deliveries. He wanted tobe totally involved in the Flamingoconstruction, but he didn’t knowabout business, especially, the con-struction business. During the daymany of those deliveries would disap-pear out the back gate. The next daythe same items would be resold toBen and the Flamingo. One truckloadof lumber looks pretty much the sameas every other truckload of lumber,right? Ben’s lack of business acumenmixed with his volatile personalityultimately contributed to the fact thatFlamingo Hotel really wasn’t going tobe ready by Christmas, 1946 …

Regarding his quick-trigger tem-perament, most people gave Siegel avery wide berth. (Apparently hiscraziness was based on real-lifeinsanity.) He was a powder keg and,once he exploded, there wasn’t muchthat could be done to calm him down.Abe Schiller was the central figure ina public episode of Siegel’s volatilepersonality. (I’ve read in a number ofplaces that Schiller was entertainmentdirector at the Flamingo Hotel, but noone probably mentioned that toChuck Gaskill, the general managerand entertainment director for the 65-day life of the Flamingo. Nor did any-one tell Jake Katleman, Bernie VanDer Steen or the Hall brothers, Joeand Vic, the owners of the El RanchoVegas, who at the time were givingAbe Schiller a paycheck every weekto be the promotional director overthere! There are many different ver-sions of the incident described below,but I believe this is the way it happened.

48 CASINO CHIP AND TOKEN NEWS | Summer 2005

On March 1, 1947 the FlamingoHotel reopened as the FabulousFlamingo. The grand re-opening washeld on a Saturday morning.

There was no fanfare, but thehotel’s front doors were opened bythe Andrews Sisters, Patty, Laverneand Maxine. All three gals mingledwith the guests, as did Joan Crawfordand the Ritz Brothers.

There was free food and freedrinks plus hot dogs and hamburgersout by the pool. People were encour-aged to “bring the kiddies.” One ofthe families showing up at the grandre-opening was the Schillers, Abe,Doris and their three kids. AlthoughAbe worked over at the El Rancho, hewanted to see what was so fabulousabout the Fabulous Flamingo. He andthe Missus and kids got their swim-suits and drove in from Henderson totry out the Fabulous Flamingo pool,and the free grub.

Ben had heard that Abe Schillerwas encouraging his comedians,(especially Joe E. Lewis), to jokeabout “that gangster up the road,Bugsy Siegel.”

Normally Ben Siegel didn’t carry apiece. He had three regular body-guards who watched his every step,but Ben knew that his days werenumbered and that there was a con-tract out on him. So besides his threeregular guns, he hired one of the topbutton men in the country to becomehis fourth bodyguard, a monsternamed “Hooky” Rothman.

To be on the safe side, Ben wasalso packing a piece. He and hisentourage were walking by the poolwhen he saw Abe Schiller in a swim-suit. He exploded. He hated Schillerand anyone else who criticized hisFlamingo, so he took out his gun andpistol-whipped Abe Schiller to theground. Then in front of Abe’s wife

and kids plus 200 or so Flamingoguests, Ben made Schiller crawlaround the entire Flamingo pool. Benwas walking alongside him, kickinghim and shooting over his head intothe pool.

Hooky Rothman pulled out hispiece and made damn sure no onestood up, or did anything else. Theguests and the Schiller familywatched in horror as Abe, bleedingfrom his pistol-whipping, continuedto crawl around the pool. Only thendid Ben let another of his bodyguards,“Fat Irish” Green, take him inside.But that all happened on March 1, 1947.

Let’s go back to December 26,1946 at the first grand opening…

Ben Siegel had three Las Vegasmanagers: Moey Sedway, DavieBerman and Solly Solloway. Again,Solloway was family, he had marriedBen’s sister.

The properties that Ben controlledwere the Northern Club, he had actu-ally purchased controlling interest for$50,000 in 1944, and the FrontierTurf Club. Ben had just sold his inter-est in the El Cortez, and his partner,Meyer Lansky did the same. Thehorse book at the Golden Nugget wasrun by Ben’s bodyguard, Fat IrishGreen, (the same guy who helpedSchiller at the pool). Hymie Segal,another bodyguard and no relation toBen, was running the horse book atthe Las Vegas Club.

Ben also had a piece of the ElRancho Vegas. His racing wire, theTrans America Service, operating outof Los Angeles, was in place in everysingle horse parlor in Las Vegas. (Thecompetitive racing wire, theContinental Wire Service based inChicago, was managed by a mannamed James Regan.) For a numberof years there was open warfarebetween the two services. Even

though 1946 wasn’t a great year forBen Siegel, James Regan was cut inhalf with shotgun blasts in Chicagoduring the grand opening week of theFlamingo.

Ben’s chief lieutenants were LittleMoey Sedway, who controlled manyof Ben’s Las Vegas ventures plus hiswarehouse business is Los Angeles,and Gus Greenbaum, who was livingin Phoenix and running the gamblingbusiness for Ben in Arizona.

In 1944 Ben bought a warehousein Cerritos, California, along with hisfriend Alan Smiley. They called it theCalifornia Metals Company, and werebuying millions of dollars worth ofstolen iron and other metals at veryreasonable prices, and then resellingthem to the government. MoeySedway was in charge of CaliforniaMetals.

Sedway was beginning to makesome decent money, but, apparently,he was getting too full of himself forBen Siegel’s liking. Ben had Moeyphysically thrown out the front doorof the Flamingo Hotel and told himthat he would be killed if he everentered the Flamingo again.

Very surprising because, for years,Moey Sedway was Ben Siegel’s “Go-To” guy. If something needed doing,it was Moey who made sure it wasdone. If someone needed somethingfrom Ben, they had to clear it throughMoey first. In a fit of rage and frus-tration, mostly aimed at the construc-tion delays, Ben threw his numberone ally out. But Moey Sedway didwhat many mobsters from around thecountry did, they reinvented them-selves in Las Vegas and becamerespectable citizens. Then Moey wentone step too far for Ben. He wasasked to run for the Nevada StateAssembly. Whether it was jealousy ornot, Moey was definitely personanon-grata in Ben Siegel’s world.

CASINO CHIP AND TOKEN NEWS | Summer 2005 49

Moe Sedway was liked by almosteveryone in the community. He gotthings done, to be sure, and he didthem with style. He was on the boardof aldermen of Clark County, beingpaid $1 a year for his services. Hewas head of the United Jewish Appealin Las Vegasand he was on the boardof directors of the Clark CountyLibrary.

Ben Siegel was another story. Themerchants downtown, and the smallcasino owners were aware that he wasgoing to be taking over Las Vegas.He had already gotten points in everycasino which had a horse book, andthe writing was on the wall. Ben rep-resented organized crime, and organ-ized crime was something that LasVegans didn’t want . When theFlamingo Hotel was ready for itsopening, a whisper campaign wasconducted all over Las Vegas.Dealers, deskmen, bellhops, valets,waitresses and other hotel personnelwere told to speak to guests and gam-blers about staying away from “thatgangster-ridden Flamingo…”

Local Las Vegans also began shy-ing away from the Flamingo thatopening week. In Hollywood, one byone, stars like Spencer Tracy andKatherine Hepburn, who had told Benthat they’d love to come up to theFlamingo for the grand opening, cameup with an excuse. Clark Gable devel-oped a head cold. Marlene Dietrichsprained her ankle, Gary Cooper saidhis mother was sick and he had to flyto Texas to see her. It seems every-one was pulling out of a commitmentthey’d made to show up at the grandopening.

The MGM movie stars were toldby William Randolph Hearst, knownto close friends as “W.R.”, that if theyvalued their careers, they’d stay outof the Flamingo. MGM stars werebanned from the hotel for months.One of he reasons that Hearst hated

Ben Siegel was Marian Davies.Hearst had information that Ben andMarian apparently had 30 or 40 one-night stands. This was just afterMarian and “Daddy,”, as she privatelycalled W.R., had stopped seeing oneanother. Ben, among his other enter-prises, also owned the Screen ExtrasGuild. He could and did hold up stu-dios for extortion money or he wouldand did pull the “extras” off the shootat a moment’s notice. Hearst had a lotof friends in the movie business whohated Ben Siegel.

But the actors were not part of thisgroup. Ben socialized with everyonein Hollywood. It was the studio headswho hated him, especially Hearst.W.R. let it be known that no motionpicture star, especially those withMGM, was to show his or her face atthe Flamingo, or else. BillyWilkerson, Ben Siegel’s original part-ner in the project, was still involvedwith the Flamingo. Wilkerson tried topromote the Flamingo among hismovie-star patrons at Ciro’s and theTrocadero, but with little success.

50 CASINO CHIP AND TOKEN NEWS | Summer 2005

George Raft did recruit a number ofhis friends to the grand opening at theFlamingo Hotel, an event starringRose Marie and Jimmy Durante.

Numerous articles have been writ-ten about the disastrous opening nightat the Flamingo. Though Ben hadhired twelve uniform guards to watchthe patrons, many of the dealers werehelping themselves to money. Luckwas running against the house andtwo rival casino owners, TutorScherer and Beldon Katleman, bothwon nearly $100,000. The decks andthe dice were running cold. GeorgeRaft was the only well-known loserthat first night, it’s said he dropped$75,000 at baccarat. But even withthat net gain, the house was downnearly $200,000 on its first night …

The Flamingo Showroom wasbarely half filled. The great Duranteplayed to fewer than 80 people onopening night. Ben had leased threeTWA Constellation jets to fly the richand famous guests from the LosAngeles area to Las Vegas, but theweather kept all of the planes ground-ed. The following night, December27, was much worse. Rose Marieplayed to fewer than 20 people andJimmy Durante said it was the small-est crowd he’d ever seen, even backto his saloon days. New Year’s Evewas a little better, Lucille Ball andDesi Arnez were guests of the hotel,as was Georgie Jessel and LeoCarillo, better known as Pancho, theCisco Kid’s sidekick.

One of the problems was that theFlamingo Hotel wasn’t really a hotel,It was a casino with a showroom anda coffee shop. It only had 90 roomsand they were constantly beingworked on. Each of the rooms, perBen Siegel’s instructions, had its ownprivate sewer system and furnishingswere running at nearly $11,000 perunit. Without hotel rooms to keep theguests on your property, they’re going

to play for a while and then headback up to the El Rancho or theFrontier where they had paid $5 fortheir room for the night, it was a longdrive back to the Flamingo. “So howabout if we play right here at the LastFrontier after dinner, Mildred?”

The Flamingo Hotel lost in theneighborhood of $700,000 during the65 days it remained opened. By thefirst of February, Ben had closedsome areas of the casino, theFlamingo Showroom and the outsidebar. The casino still had a blackjacktable, one craps table and the slots onthe east side of the casino. Thosegamblers and vacationers who wantedto see the Flamingo and try their luckthere were soon chased out by eitherthe constant noise of hotel construc-tion or the occasional very scaryglimpse of Ben Siegel and his muscle,the four bodyguards scowling ateverything walking through the casi-no. Dealers would cower hoping thanBen wouldn’t stop at their table.

Enough was enough! On February6, 1947, Ben Siegel told his two pub-licists, Paul Price in Los Angeles, andHank Greenspun in Las Vegas, to pre-pare press releases that the FlamingoHotel was temporarily closing butwould reopen as the FabulousFlamingo within the month, billed asthe World’s Most Glamorous Hotel!

The Fabulous Flamingo did openwithin the month, on Saturday, March1, 1947. The Andrew Sisters and theRitz Brothers, two of the hottest actsin the country, were booked to open.And, as they say, the rest is history. Inretrospect, I think many Las Vegashistorians would agree that were itnot for “Bugsy” Siegel, there possiblymight not have been a Las Vegas.

Regarding the murder itself: Benwas 41 years-old the evening he wasshot. He had gone out to dinner withhis friend and partner, Allen Smiley.

(Smiley was Russian, somethingthat’s not often reported). They wentto Jack’s on the Beach in SantaMonica then came back to VirginiaHill’s mansion at 810 North LindenDrive in Beverly Hills. Ben was onthe couch reading the newspaperwhen someone fired a 30-caliberarmy carbine rifle nine times throughan outside window. Four bullets hitBen. (Apparently the first shot hit himin his eye, it was found on the fire-place hearth across the room.) Of thefour hits, two were head shots andtwo were body shots. According tothe police report of the shooting, thedistance from the window to whereBen was sitting was “between 4 and4.5 feet.”

There are many theories on whokilled Ben Siegel. It’s generallyagreed that his death sentence wasvoted on during the Mafia meeting onDecember 26, 1946 held on the pent-house roof of the Hotel Nacional deCuba. Do you remember the scene inthe second Godfather movie whereHyman Roth is showing off his birth-day cake to everyone while MichaelCorleone and the rest of his group aresoaking up the Havana sun?

To this point we’ve covered theFlamingo from its beginning to theevening of June 20, 1947. On this dayBen Siegel was gunned down at about10:40 p.m. Two hours later, at aboutmidnight, Little Moey Sedway and

CASINO CHIP AND TOKEN NEWS | Summer 2005 51

Morris Rosen walked into the execu-tive offices of the Fabulous Flamingoas the new bosses. The very next daythere was a meeting of the stockhold-ers at the Flamingo. Attending thenew Flamingo owner’s meeting were:Joey Ross, Beverly Hills (an attorneyrepresenting Ben Siegel’s interests),Meyer Lansky, New York andHavana (de-facto chairman of thegroup), Morris Rosen, New York andLas Vegas (representing the mob andthe Fabulous Flamingo), GusGreenbaum, Phoenix and Las Vegas(Ben Siegel’s #1 man in Phoenix and#2 man in Las Vegas), Moey Sedway,Las Vegas, Joe Epstein, Chicago (amob lawyer)

If you take a look at the cities thatthese men traveled from, and thenrealize that this meeting took placeless than 24 hours after Ben’s death,there has always been speculation thatthis group was already in Las Vegaswhen Ben was shot.

After the discussion about thefuture of the Flamingo without Ben,Lansky and the Flamingo board ofdirectors took a break. They wentdownstairs to the Flamingo SunriseChuckwagon, (all you can eat foronly 99¢ per person), then they beganinterviewing two potential groups tomanage the Fabulous Flamingo.

Charlie Resnick, Sanford Adlerand Israel “Icepick Willie” Aldermanwere invited in to discuss theFlamingo. Their resumes: CharlieResnick, a 33% owner of the ElRancho Vegas in 1947. Sanford Adler.Back in June 1947, when this meetingtook place, Sandy Adler was one ofthe owners of El Rancho Vegas. Inlater years Adler became famous asthe casino boss at Caesar’s whopulled a gun on Frank Sinatra duringa fistfight they were having at the$100 minimum craps table. Sandywas a tough no-nonsense guy. Howmany people do you imagine would

get into a fight in Las Vegas withSinatra and then pull a gun on him?Sandy Adler, like other casino own-ers, didn’t back down easily. Israel“Icepick Willie” Alderman. Williehailed from the Twin Cities ofMinneapolis and St. Paul. It was saidif you got Icepick Willie drunkenough, he loved to share his storyabout the “even dozen” guys who gotin his way and never lived to tellabout it. His nickname came from thesignature method of ending discus-sions known as the quick icepicklunge. It seems if you quickly jam anicepick into someone’s ear, death isinstantaneous and quiet. It looks likethe person has just fallen asleep. Afterhe left the Twin Cities there werevery few of these unsolved murderswith that particular signature aroundany more. But some did show up inLas Vegas in the late 1930s and early1940s.

Charlie, Sandy and Icepick madetheir presentation, thanked Meyer forhis time, and left. The next groupmaking their bid for the Flamingomanagement included Davie Berman,a friend and assistant to GusGreenbaum, Al Abrams, who ran oneof the big legal brothels just outsideLas Vegas, and Sam Diamond, aBigtime bookmaker.

The decision that Meyer Lanskyand the other Flamingo ownersarrived at was they wanted SanfordAdler to be their new front man, theirman in the counting room. The“skim” was the main reason for themob’s intense interest in the newownership.

Sandy Adler bought the FabulousFlamingo along with his partner,Charlie Resnick. Icepick Willie onlyhad a small piece of the ownership.Sandy and Charlie were both currentowners of the El Rancho at this time,and they were looking to expandbecause the El Rancho was beginning

to “slide” a little. Remember, this was1947, the year before BeldonKatleman came into the El RanchoVegas scene.

A final price of $3,900,000 wasagreed to. Sandy Adler and CharlieResnick only had to put down$550,000 to secure the purchase.

Sandy and Mrs. Adler moved intothe “owner’s suite” at the Flamingoon June 21, 1947. (The owner’s suitewas formerly Ben’s.) It was the steel-lined penthouse on the third floor ofthe Oregon Building, the one alwayspictured behind the Flamingo swim-ming pool. The building came withescape tunnels, buried floor safes andall-bulletproof windows.

Sandy, Charlie and Icepick, andMrs. Sandy, Mrs. Charlie and Mrs.Icepick, were enjoying the perks ofbeing casino owners. In 1947 LasVegas was a still a pretty small town.And being a casino owner, or beingthe wife of a casino owner, was prettybig juice. You got to socialize withthe upper crust of Las Vegas society.It meant when BMI, BasicMagnesium, Incorporated, was havingone of their formal balls and dancesat the country club, you got invited.Or when the Cashmans or the Squireswere having couples over for dinner,you got an invitation. Can you imag-ine how Mrs. Icepick Alderman feltwhen she got an invitation from Mrs.Tom Hull to attend afternoon tea atthe Last Frontier to meet the guest ofhonor, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt? Thiswas real heady stuff.

As far as Sandy Adler himself goes, itsure was fun owning a hotel like theFlamingo. More benefits than youcould possibly imagine, most can’teven be discussed here. All in all, itwas a happy time for all the ownersand their wives. Only the real ownersof the hotel, Meyer Lansky andCompany, weren’t at all happy. In the

52 CASINO CHIP AND TOKEN NEWS | Summer 2005

short time period since Ben Siegelwas killed, the Flamingo still wasn’tmaking money. Meyer’s daily ques-tion was: “Who ever heard of a casi-no not making money?”

Sanford, Charlie and Icepick knewthe Flamingo wasn’t making moneyin the nine months since they tookover. So, one day in April 1948,Sandy Alder got a call from JakeLansky, Meyer’s brother.Sandy Adler: “Hello?”Jake Lamsky: “Sandy? This is Jake.Meyer sends his regards and says hewants for you to sell your interest inthe Flamingo back to him. OK,Sandy?”Sandy Adler: “What? No way am Igonna’ sell out of the Flamingo. Youtell Meyer that our luck’s been run-ning a little cold, but it’s about to turnaround.”Jake Lansky: “Oh! and Sandy? I wasalso told to tell you that you and yourpartners are going to have yourthroats cut and buried out in thedesert if you don’t sell out right now.And Sandy? Give my best to the wifeand kids.”

Again, Sanford and the boys werevery happy owning the Flamingo.They all agreed: “No way are wegonna’ let them kick us out. No way!”Sanford and Charlie Resnick, andtheir junior partner Icepick, decidedto talk to the “law.” Actually, it wasthe Nevada State Taxing Authoritywho controlled casino licenses in the1950s. They told the tax boys thatthey were being “elbowed out” by themob.

All three of them flew to CarsonCity to meet with the Nevada taxingguys. The tax guys kind of agreedwith them, they shouldn’t be kickedout of the Flamingo if they didn’twant to go. So it very quickly becamepublic knowledge that the “supposed”ownership of the Fabulous Flamingoand the “real” ownership of the

Fabulous Flamingo probably weren’tone in the same. That was somethingthat the Nevada Tax Commissionfound very interesting. Even you andI know that when you take the mob’smoney and get into bed with them,you’re not supposed to go crying tothe law about it. Unless you’re readyto go into hiding, that is.

But Sandy Adler made a mistake.After his trip to Carson City, he wentback to the Flamingo. When he waswalking past the reception desk in thelobby, he ran into Morris Rosen and acouple of his gorillas. Moe Rosensnarled at Adler and said: “We talk –Now!” Sandy Adler was quoted astelling Moe Rosen to “Go f___ your-self”. To the horror of guests in theFlamingo lobby, Sandy Adler wasrestrained by two mobsters while twoothers beat him unconscious.

Adler woke in up 10 hours later inthe hospital and came to his senses.He realized what he’d just done. Hewas released from the hospital andSandy and Mrs. Adler immediatelydrove to Beverly Hills. There Sandystopped at the Beverly Hills PoliceDepartment and explained the entiresituation to his friend Clint Anderson,

Chief of Police. Chief Anderson toldhim it probably wouldn’t be safe forhim to move to Beverly Hills. So theAdlers moved to Reno and, with thehelp of their attorney on the very daythey arrived in town, they sold 100%of their stock in the Flamingo Hotel.

The very next day, GusGreenbaum was named president ofthe Flamingo.

The day that Sandy Adler wasselected, he hired Abe Schiller fromthe El Rancho Vegas to start work asthe Flamingo’s new publicity andadvertising director. That same day,Hank Greenspun, Ben Siegel’s long-time publicist, resigned his positionas the Flamingo’s publicity andadvertising director.

Greenspun went to work for asmall Las Vegas weekly newspaper,then joined Wilbur Clark for severalyears while the Desert Inn was in itsplanning stages. He eventually endedup at the Las Vegas Sun, working hisway up to publisher.

Copyright© 2005 Steve Fischer All Rights Reserved

Virginia Hill’s mansion.