Category: Archive

On This Date: June 20, 1947, Mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Shot & Killed in Beverly Hills, CA

June 20, 2018
Bugsy Siegel Mug Shot

Bugsy Siegel

On this date: Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was shot and killed in Beverly Hills, California. In 1945, Bugsy Siegal, was instrumental in establishing the first resort on the now famous Las Vegas Strip with the opening of the Flamingo Hotel & Casino.

Siegel befriended fellow hooligan Meyer Lansky, with whom he established the Bugs-Meyer Gang, a band of ruthless Jewish mobsters that ran a group of contract killers under the name Murder, Inc.

Siegel opened The Flamingo Hotel & Casino at a total cost of $6 million on December 26, 1946. Billed as the world’s most luxurious hotel, the 105-room property and first luxury hotel on the Strip, it was built seven miles from Downtown Las Vegas out the the city limits in Clark County Nevada.

 

Bugsy was brutally killed On the evening of June 20, 1947, when bullets came crashing through his living room window in Beverly Hills. Meanwhile back in Las Vegas, three of Lansky’s cohorts entered the Flamingo Hotel and declared a takeover. Although Lansky denied involvement in the hit, there is little doubt that Siegel was murdered on orders.

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On This Date: February 18, 1958, Cecil Lynch’s Fortune Club Opened in Downtown Las Vegas

February 18, 2018
Fortune Club in Downtown Las Vegas

Fortune Club in Downtown Las Vegas

Cecil Lynch’s Fortune Club opened on February 18, 1958. It was located at 22 Fremont St. and was a slots only club with a restaurant. The uniqueness was the giant slot-machine facade over the entrance of the casino. The Fortune Club was located at the current site of the Glitter Gulch Gentleman’ s Club on the Fremont Street Experience.
The Fortune Club closed November  16, 1966.

List of business at 22 Fremont Street:

21 Club  –  1931 to 1934
Barrel House – 1934 -1938
Golden Slot Club – January 1, 1956 to February 17, 1958.
Cecil Lynch’s Fortune Club – February 18, 1958 to November  16, 1966
Goldie’s – 1966 to 1970/1973?
Mr. Reed’s – 1978-1979
Bob Stupak’s Glitter Gulch – October 1, 1980 to August. 15, 1981
Golden Goose 1982-1991
Glitter Gulch Gentleman’s Club – 1991 to present

Photo: http://hollyhocksandtulips.tumblr.com

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On This Date: February 10, 1983, the Las Vegas Post Office/Courthouse Was Placed on the National Register of Historic Places

February 10, 2018
mob museum

The newly restored Post Office/Court House historic building in downtown Las Vegas is now the home of the Mob Museum

The building was erected between 1931 and 1933, opening on November 27, 1933. It served as a post office, and as a court house of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada.

The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on February 10, 1983. The building remained an active post office for several more years.

Control of the building was turned over to the city in 2002 for use as a museum and cultural center.

Currently, the building is the home of the The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. The Museum is located at 300 Stewart Avenue in the heart of downtown Las Vegas. It was one of the 14 courthouses in the nation to hold the Kefauver Committee hearings on organized crime. It is also the very courtroom where Museum visionary and former Las Vegas Mayor, Oscar B. Goodman, defended many mobsters as organized crime’s go-to defense attorney. Meticulously rehabilitated to its original beauty, the building is significant not only for its neo-classical architecture reminiscent of the period in which it was built, but also for the historic events that unfolded inside of it.

Photo By: LasVegas360.com
Date Taken: December 30, 2011

http://www.themobmuseum.org/

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On This Date: January 17, 2008 Palazzo Opens in Las Vegas

January 17, 2018

Palazzo Opened on January 17, 2008

The Palazzo is a luxury hotel and casino located in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip at 3325 Las Vegas Blvd South between Wynn and the Venetian hotels. Many tourists believe that the Wynn, Palazzo and the Venetian are the best Las Vegas hotels in Las Vegas. The Palazzo has 3068 rooms and 105,000 sq. ft. of gaming space and cost over $1.8 billion to construct.

The soft opening of the Palazzo opened at 7 pm on Sunday, December 30 and the official grand opening took place on January 17, 2008.

Upon its completion, The Palazzo total floor area covering is 6,948,980 square feet beating the Pentagon as the largest building in the United States in terms of floor space, by about 383,000 square feet. The Palazzo is reported to be the eleventh largest building in the world in terms of available floor space and is also currently the second-largest building in the Western Hemisphere. The Palazzo property is LEED Silver Certified; making it the largest LEED certified building in the nation. For more information on The Palazzo, including restaurants, pictures, maps, and more, head over to The Palazzo at World Casino Directory.

Photo by: wikipedia.org

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On this Date January 11, 2006 the Old Showboat/Castaways Hotel was imploded

January 11, 2018
castaways-implosion

castaways-implosion

The Castaways Hotel and Casino (2000-2004), formerly the Showboat (1954–2000), was a hotel and casino located at the north end of the Boulder Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. The hotel consisted of a 19 story tower containing 445 rooms, a 80,000-square-foot casino and an adjacent RV park. After 50 years the hotel was closed on January 29, 2004 and the hotel town was later imploded on January 11, 2006.

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Crazy Motorcycle Stunts in Las Vegas

December 31, 2017

December 31, 1967 – Caesar Palace
It all Started with Evel Knevel. On December 31, 1967, Daredevil Evel Knievel attempted to jump over the water fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Knievel’s jump was a 141 foot attempt and his longest to-date. When he hit the takeoff ramp, he felt the motorcycle unexpectedly decelerate. The sudden loss of power on the takeoff caused Knievel to come up short and land on the safety ramp which was supported by a van. This caused the handlebars to be ripped out of his hands as he tumbled over them onto the pavement where he skidded into the Dunes parking lot. As a result of the crash, Knievel suffered a crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to his hip, wrist, and both ankles and a concussion that kept him in the hospital for a month in a reported coma for 29 days.

September 15, 1980 – Caesar Palace
Gary Wells gained much media coverage, and much physical suffering, when he unsuccessfully tried to jump a motorcycle over the water fountains at the Caesars Palace. He sustained injuries to many different parts of his body.

August 9, 1988 – Binion’s Horshoe Parking 7th Floor to Mint Parking garage 6th Floor
Johnny Airtime teamed up with Joe Reed and they billed themselves as The Guardian and The Bandit. They launched themselves from a seven story parking structure and landed 120′ later on top of a six story building. No safety ramp or landing ramp was used! Upon landing, they had to crash into a net to keep themselves from falling off the landing structure. The jump was billed as “Super Jump II” and was on the Guinness Book of Records television program. The gap between the two buildings was 90′.

February 4, 1999 – Jockey Club Towers in Las Vegas
Robbie Knievel jumped the 130-foot gap between the two 13-story Jockey Club Towers in Las Vegas. To avoid falling off the second tower, Robbie intentionally crashed his motorcycle into hay bales.

May 4, 2006 – Caesars Place
Mike ‘The Godfather’ Metzger sets a Guinness World Record with a 125-foot long motorcycle jump that included a back flip over a fountain at Caesars Palace on May 4, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

December 31, 2007 – Rio Hotel
Australian stunt rider Robbie Maddison, jumps the distance of a football leaping a world-record 322 feet, seven inches in Las Vegas on New Years Eve obliterating the previous Guinness World Record of 277 feet by Trigger Gumm.


December 31, 2008 – Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas
Robbie Knievel was scheduled to jump the volcano at the Mirage Hotel. At the actual 200-foot jump, Knievel gave the appearance of jumping the volcano, but limited the stunt to a ramp-to-ramp jump in front of the volcano with fireworks behind him.

December 31, 2008 – Paris Las Vegas
Robbie Madison, live on ESPN in front of a world audience, Maddison successfully jumped 96 feet up onto the Arc de Triomphe in front of Paris Las Vegas and then descended a 80-foot drop off the monument to return safely to ground level. Robbie said after the jump that he may have broken his hand and had a gash to the bone in the webbing of his left hand.

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