New memoir ‘The Bookie’ highlights the mobsters and characters in Las Vegas sportsbooks
Early in his career at Las Vegas casino sportsbooks, when mobsters were an intimidating presence around town, Art Manteris confronted Sammy Spiegel. One evening in the early 1980s, while working by himself at the Barbary Coast sportsbook on the Strip, Manteris let Spiegel know he owed money on previous basketball bets. The entire situation could have gotten Manteris “in a real jackpot,” he told The Mob Museum. Spiegel, who served as Tony “The Ant” Spilotro’s driver, was known to demand his own betting odds at the Stardust sportsbook instead of the posted numbers. Back then, Spilotro was the Chicago Outfit’s street enforcer in ...
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Alleged former Philadelphia Mafia boss Joey Merlino rebrands himself as restaurant owner
Joey Merlino, a 63-year-old convicted felon and reputed former Philadelphia Mafia boss, has become a social media personality while also…
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Grounded in history, ‘Mafia: The Old Country’ is a game you can’t refuse
The Mob movie may be experiencing a lull, evident by the lukewarm receptions to this year’s The Alto Knights and Mob Cops,…
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Owen Hanson goes from cartel kingpin to selling frozen protein bars
At one time Owen Hanson, a former University of Southern California national championship football player, was making millions as a…
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‘Dr. Death,’ notorious Detroit contract killer, committed first murder 70 years ago
The shooting death of 43-year-old Luther Mixon on July 1, 1955, landed Chester Wheeler Campbell, 24, and two accomplices in…
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Chicago Outfit boss Sam Giancana killed 50 years ago
Late in the evening of June 19, 1975, Sam “Momo” Giancana was cooking in his basement apartment, presumably for a…
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Lefty Rosenthal’s alleged sports-fixing past recalled in national sports story
In the 1970s, Mickey Bruce, a former University of Oregon football player, was called to Nevada to testify against Mob…
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Las Vegas casino pioneer a footnote in Southern California slaying
A high-profile murder in 1950s Southern California at the former home of a Las Vegas casino operator led to the…
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