Las Vegas Bootlegger

Ryan Neroni is a lonely lawyer with bad breath. All his life he's had everything handed to him on a silver platter, but after winning what should have been a career-defining lawsuit, he discovers that what he really wants is to drive contraband across state lines in a fast car with tinted windows. With the help of Theresa Barahona, an innocent and aspiring multi-level marketing entrepreneur, nothing can get in his way. Not social expectations, not the emptiness of the western U.S., and certainly not a string of surreal experiences orchestrated by a shadow organization known only as "the Committee."

Imagine sitting front stage at the Desert Inn's Copa Room enjoying such great celebrities perform as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. Envision too, Elvis Presley, the soon-to-be king of rock 'n' roll, performing live at the New Frontier as a 21-year old teen idol. If you were lucky enough to be in Las Vegas from 1956 through the early 1970s, you had the opportunity to see these great performers live, on stage, for the mere price of a two drink minimum. These were the old days-the days when the Mob ran Las Vegas. Pairing McLean's vivid investigative style of writing, this beautifully illustrated book reveals an authentic look at the Mob era in Vegas. Unearth the Hollywood myth behind Bugsy's Flamingo and discover the true story about his partner Billy Wilkerson, the celebrated Hollywood nightclub owner who truly invented the Las Vegas Strip. During its heyday-1950 to 1980-the Mob virtually ran every sizable casino along the Fabulous Vegas Strip, stealing untold millions from casino count rooms. Those were the days when Jimmy Hoffa arranged millions in Teamster loans to build the Mob-run casinos while Frank Rosenthal provided the skim, and Anthony Spilotro made sure the millions in stolen cash made it back east to Mob coffers. Las Vegas was a treasure trove-gangster style. The Mob had it made for almost 40 years, but it all started crumbling down soon after Tony Spilotro came to Vegas in 1971. It wouldn't be long before five Vegas loan sharks were discovered dead in the desert, each with their throat slit Mafia style. Inside Las Vegas The Mob Years enjoy fascinating stories about the city's forefathers, today's casino operators and memorable celebrities who performed on the stages of Las Vegas showrooms during the Mob era-Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. Discover in Las Vegas the Mob Years . . . The story of Jimmy Hoffa: His mysterious disappearance and how Teamster loans made Las Vegas what it is today. The fascinating crime saga of ex-Dallas Mob boss Benny Binion, featuring a murderous blood feud that left two dead bodies and another in prison. How the Kefauver Hearings uncovered the skim and a multitude of Mob-run casinos. The inside story of Steve Wynn and Kirk Kerkorian, and the intricate details of the way they virtually started from scratch and earned billions as successful casino developers. Plus the fascinating stories of the godfather of Vegas Moe Dalitz, and other gangsters including Johnny Rosselli, Tony Accardo, Sam Giancana, Tony Cornero, Frank Rosenthal, Tony Spilotro and more . . .

Bootlegger is about a Jewish immigrant who became a bootlegger at the age of 19 during Prohibition. By the time he was 24, the government claimed he owed $1.2 million in income taxes. He was a rarity in that he never used violence to achieve his wealth. After three of his breweries in Reading, Pennsylvania were closed down in 1928, he became a partner with Waxey Gordon, the foremost beer baron in the country. Their syndicate in North Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania controlled 17 breweries, according to the Prohibition Bureau. When real beer was legalized in 1933, Hassel became a legitimate brewer by placing a tax stamp on every barrel leaving his breweries. This was in direct opposition to the plans of the Luciano/Lansky forces whose plan was to retain control of the beer and liquor industries after Prohibition. Hassel was killed by mob hit men, setting off an investigation that ruined the mob's scheme. The mystery of who killed Hassel was not solved for almost seventy years. Hassel was not just another beer man who gained considerable wealth in the bootleg racket. He gave to numerous charities and financed a free loan society for the poor during Prohibition. The Hassel Foundation today gives grants totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to worthy causes in the Philadelphia and Reading area.

1920, New York. Prohibition rages - keeping the Van Dorn detective agency busy. But when Joseph Van Dorn is shot by rum-runners, Isaac Bell, its most famous agent, is forced to take charge. Bell's first priority is to discover who shot his boss to pieces. And soon he's heading out of New York for Detroit and on to Miami as he goes after bootlegging kingpin, Marat Zolner. Zolner is doing more than making money. His aim is to corrupt and destroy an entire nation. With his whole rotten empire at his disposal, he won't let the likes of Isaac Bell stand in his way. Bell, however, has a very dear friend to avenge . . . 'The adventure king.' Sunday Express

When the Prohibition era arrives in 1920, it changes the lives of almost every person living in America, including Bernie Winghart. Instead of pursuing a career as a factory worker or mechanic, Bernie vows to save the people from the bad liquor thats killing them. He teams up with his brother, Joe Winghart Jr., and his sister-in-law, Mayme Schaller Winghart, to illegally sell alcohol to the masses. Known as the Bootlegging Trio, they profit handsomely. Even so, this formerly upstanding family from upstate New York is now part of a secret underworld of lawbreakers that includes sinister gangsters. There is danger everywhere, and Bernie is so intimidated that he vows never to marry until hes out of the business. He goes from woman to woman, breaking hearts. Told through the perspective of the bootleggers daughter, Bernie, Youre a Bootlegger! gives a glimpse into how Prohibition affected one family and an entire nation until it was declared a failure.

For author Renee Carter Tench, April 17, 2008, was the first day of the rest of her life. It was the day she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Tench spent more and more time reflecting on her past experiences and examining her life. In Memoirs of a Bootleggers Daughter, she tries to understand the reason and purpose behind all of the chaos in growing up the child of alcoholic parents. The lone survivor of the Carter family who lived at the end of the dirt road in Hickory, North Carolina, Tench shares the stories of her tumultuous childhood. She tells how, by the grace of God and taking advantage of the opportunities He provided, she broke the cycle of alcoholism in her family, a cycle that began even before her grandfather and father became bootleggers. She often felt looked down on because of the spectacle she and her family often made. Memoirs of a Bootleggers Daughter narrates how Tench started out at the end of one dirt road and ended up at the end of another and the wild journey in between, a journey she would be happy to take again.

“True-crime writing at its finest.” —Dean Jobb, author of Empire of Deception A rich and fascinating history of Canada’s first celebrity mobster, Rocco Perri—King of the Bootleggers—and the man who pursued him, Canada’s first undercover Mountie, for readers of Erik Larson, Dean Jobb and Charlotte Gray At the dawn of the 20th century, two Italian men arrived in Canada amid waves of immigration. One, Rocco Perri, from southern Italy, rose from the life of a petty criminal on the streets of Toronto to running the most prominent bootlegging operation of the Prohibition era, taking over Hamilton and leading one of the country’s most influential crime syndicates. Perri was feared by his enemies and loved by the press, who featured him regularly in splashy front-page headlines. So great was his celebrity that, following the murder of his wife and business partner, Bessie Starkman, a crowd of 30,000 thronged the streets of Hamilton for her funeral. Perri’s businesses—which included alcohol, drugs, gambling and prostitution—kept him under constant police surveillance. He caught the interest of one man in particular, the other arrival from Italy, Frank Zaneth. Zaneth, originally from the Italian north, joined the RCMP and became its first undercover investigator—Operative No. 1. Zaneth’s work took him across the country, but he was dogged in his pursuit of Rocco Perri and worked for his arrest until the day Perri was last seen, in 1944, when he disappeared without a trace. With original research and masterful storytelling, Cole details the fascinating rise to power of a notorious Prohibition-era Canadian crime figure twinned with the life of the man who pursued him.

Prohibition was imposed by eager temperance movements organizers who sought to shape public behavior through alcoholic beverage control in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The success of reformers' efforts resulted in National Prohibition in America from 1920 to 1933, but it also resulted in a thriving illegal business in the manufacture and distribution of illegal liquor. The history of Prohibition and the resulting illegal drinking is frequently told through the lens of crime and violence in Chicago and other major East Coast cities. Often neglected are the effects of Prohibition on the Western part of the United States and how Westerners rose to the challenge of avoiding the consequences of illegal drinking. Illegal liquor was imported from abroad, made in stills using strange ingredients that were sometimes poisonous to the unlucky drinker. This history includes stories ranging from serious to quirky, and provides an entertaining account of how misguided efforts resulted in numerous unintended consequences.