by Doug Swanson
“They had a real good city administration”: OH, Glass, 16.
“All gambling establishments”: FBI, Crime Survey, Dallas Division, 1944.
“I want everything closed”: DMN, Oct. 25, 1940.
“They’re on their way”: Sleeper, I’ll Do My Own Damn Killin’, 78.
“Gambling is presently operated”: FBI, Crime Survey, Dallas, 1944.
“Loudermilk had developed an antagonism”: FBI, Feb. 28, 1958.
He married Sam Murray’s widow: The account of Loudermilk’s life and of his shooting is drawn from contemporary stories in the Dallas Morning News and the Daily Times Herald.
“The grand jury lost no time”: DMN, April 3, 1943.
7. THE MOB WAR IS JOINED
“I wasn’t to be fucked with”: HC, March 12, 1989.
“Binion’s interests” ... “had complete control”: FBI, Nov. 25, 1953.
“Used to call him up”: HC, March 12, 1989.
gambling business had exercised an “evil influence”: City of Dallas, Vollmer.
“A lot of people from other parts”: Sheehan, The Players, 53.
such a raid was doomed to failure: FBI, Aug. 6, 1946.
she sat for hours chain-smoking and sketching: Interview, Brenda Binion Michael.
“Pay me back when you can”: Amarillo Globe-Times, Jan. 13, 1960.
“I turned to gambling”: DTH, Aug. 8, 1951.
“I operated a little place”: Ibid.
“were making so much money”: DPD, Butler.
“We have received some complaints”: DTH, Aug. 8, 1951.
“Benny had a bunch of thugs”: Ibid.
“collected a bunch of hoodlums”: DPD, Butler.
Noble headed for his ranch: The account of this incident is drawn from stories in the Dallas Morning News and the Daily Times Herald, as well as Dallas Police Department reports.
“You’re carrying a lot of heat”: DPD, Butler.
“Informed underworld sources”: Ibid.
8. “LIT OUT RUNNING”
“Hell, you can stub your toe”: OH, Glass, 86.
“I have given you law enforcement”: DMN, July 14, 1946.
“My sheriff just sat on his ass”: Sleeper, I’ll Do My Own Damn Killin’, 84.
“I will wear out the . . . Jail”: DMN, Dec. 10, 1946.
“Guthrie and Noble . . . had an extremely close personal relationship”: FBI, July 9, 1957.
“survey this area”: FBI, Jan. 29, 1947.
“their suitcases had a lot of money”: DMN, March 23, 1954.
“as hard a crew”: DMN, June 18, 1947.
“they just didn’t come there”: OH, Glass, 17.
“I don’t have to tell you who Benny Binion is”: The account of this meeting is taken from Texas Ranger transcripts reproduced in FBI files, and later collected by the House Select Committee on Assassinations. They can be accessed via www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/docset/getList.do?docSetId=1516.
“This arrangement . . . had done played out”: HC, March 12, 1989.
he’ll either be dead or in prison: Interview, Fred Merrill Jr.
“I depend on the dice”: OH, Glass, 33.
He recruited two of the best: Interview, R. D. Matthews.
“burglar, armed robber, narcotics pusher, gambler, murderer”: FBI, Oct. 10, 1958.
“Everybody was afraid of R.D.”: Interview, Mickey Bickers.
Part Two: Death and Taxes
9. MOBBED-UP PILGRIMS
“There’s nothing on earth”: OH, Glass, 21.
It was a broad desert basin: This short account of Las Vegas’s beginnings is drawn from a number of sources. Among them are Moehring and Green, Las Vegas: A Centennial History, and Ferrari and Ives, Las Vegas: An Unconventional History.
“There is precious little humor”: New York Times, March 20, 1941.
“a sunny place for shady people”: Berman, Lady Las Vegas, 49.
“They weren’t . . . Sunday school teachers”: Kefauver committee transcripts.
“It was in sorry shape”: Lacey, Little Man, 152.
“You may say for me”: Ibid., 151. Much of the background on Siegel comes from Lacey’s biography of Meyer Lansky.
“That was the biggest whoop-de-do”: OH, Glass, 21.
“most accommodating, most likable fellow”: OH, Glass, 48.
“I don’t believe all that stuff”: Ibid.
“With his glowing personality”: Caldwell, With All My Might, 241.
“On your hands and knees”: Reid, The Green Felt Jungle, 23.
“A heck of a good man”: OH, Glass, 48.
“another high-class guy”: Ibid.
“Very fine man”: OH, Glass, 66.
“During periods of stress”: Berman, Easy Street, 26.
10. TEXAS VS. VEGAS
“My friends can do no wrong”: Interview, Doyle Brunson.
“How’s your mammy?”: Interview, Brenda Binion Michael.
“wasn’t but something like 18,000 people”: OH, Glass, 19.
It had previously served as an apartment house: Interview, Brenda Binion Michael.
“This Las Vegas Club wasn’t the most beautiful place”: OH, Glass, 22.
“The guy played so long”: OH, Glass, 39.
“And he says, ‘That doesn’t worry me’”: OH, Glass (Cahill), 508.
“I didn’t pay no attention”: OH, Glass, 22.
“as honorable and honest as any man”: OH, Glass, 27.
“A cold-blooded, vicious son-of-a-bitch”: Alverson, Country Lawyer in a Maverick Boom Town, 46.
“You know how you can tell”: DPD, Butler.
“Sit down and shut up”: Ibid.
“He almost got on his knees”: Ibid.
“He was crazy”: OH, Glass, 36.
He drew his Colt automatic pistol: FBI lab report, May 17, 1947.
“You’ve got to kill him sometime”: OH, Glass, 27.
“a bunch of stupid cowboys”: Vernetti, Lies Within Lies, 15.
“because all my goddamned friends are drunks”: Alverson, 25.
“We have a problem”: Ibid., 47. This rendering of the encounter with Houssels is drawn from Claiborne’s recollections, in which he gives himself a rather heroic role.
“brutal gangland killing”: Letter from Jones to J. Edgar Hoover, May 13, 1947.
“District attorney Jones stated today”: FBI telex, April 3, 1947.
“these two splendid agents”: Letter from Jones to Hoover, Oct. 2, 1947.
“I did everything I could for him”: OH, Glass, 27.
“He used to take my kids riding”: OH, Coles, 201.
“How in the hell did you convict”: OH, Coles, 200.
Cupit unloaded his story: OH, Coles, 201.
“I want to hire you”: Alverson, 102.
“Me and Claiborne is the best friends”: OH, Glass, 28.
“I just kinda kept a-rollin’”: OH, Glass, 29.
11. “A KILL-CRAZY MAN”
“It lasts a long time”: HC, March 12, 1989.
“He snuck in a lot”: Interview, Brenda Binion Michael.
“The Las Vegas Club was a damn good operation”: OH, Glass, 39.
“kinda got in there with partners”: Ibid.
“They just weren’t the type of people”: OH, Glass, 35.
“Maybe I put up something like $3,500”: HC, March 12, 1989.
“This attempt was made”: DPD, Butler.
“A nicer ride”: The account of this episode and Noble’s reaction is drawn from contemporary stories and photographs in the Dallas Morning News and the Daily Times Herald.
“29-year-old underworld member”: DTH, Nov. 30, 1949.
“very strong reaction”: DPD, Butler.
“I told him those tests”: Interview, R. D. Matthews.
“He shot me in the head”: Ibid.
The Sky Vu was a cavernous dance hall: The account of events at the Sky Vu is drawn from coverage in the Dallas Morning News and the Daily Times Herald, as well as Dallas police reports penned by Butler. A side note: In 1954 Sky Vu owner Joe Bonds was convicted of sodomy and sentenced to eight years in prison. While the case was on appeal, Bonds and Dale Belmont fled Texas. He was found four years later in Washington, DC, where he was operating another nightclub under a different alias. Though he claimed he was insane, Bonds was returned to Texas to serve his sentence.
“He was loved and respected”: DTH, Dec. 28, 1949.
About a week after the funeral: DMN, Jan. 6, 1950.
“I left the state of Texas three years ago”: NSJ, Jan. 14, 1950. The account of the police raid is taken from contemporary news coverage and Dallas police files.
“I am a gambler”: REG, Jan. 3, 1950.
“It sounded like a cannon”: DTH, Feb. 7, 1950.
“a person with wanton disregard”: Ibid.
12. “TEARS ROLLING DOWN THE MAN’S EYES”
“Courage is a fine thing”: Brunson, The Godfather of Poker, 129.
“This devil’s stew”: DMN, Feb. 19, 1950.
“The people of Nevada were made to look like a bunch of miscreants”: NSJ, March 12, 1950.
“This . . . is the beginning of the final stage”: DMN, Jan. 8, 1950.
“I think it’s a political frame”: DMN, Feb. 11, 1950.
“It’s Noble who’s doing all the hollering”: Ibid.
“I don’t think I ever in my life”: HC, March 13, 1989.
“Eventually . . . we’ll get him”: REG, March 2, 1950.
“Wasn’t . . . none of them guys tough”: Sheehan, The Players, 56.
“I was in the counting room”: Berman, Lady Las Vegas, 93.
“stupid and devious”: DPD, Butler.
“I’ve been all over the country”: Butler’s transcript of this meeting was entered as part of the record of the Kefauver committee.
“dressed in the western style”: DMN, March 14, 1950.
“What the hell are you doing?”: Sleeper, I’ll Do My Own Damn Killin’, 159.
“They had warned Daddy”: Interview, Brenda Binion Michael.
“Yeah . . . They’re all over me”: DMN, Jan. 24, 1951.
“scorpion-tongued vixen”: Russo, The Outfit, 266.
“He’s got a great, big black brush”: OH, Glass (Cahill), 764.
13. THE BENNY BRAND GOES NATIONAL
“The only people I don’t like”: Vinson, Las Vegas Behind the Tables!, 129.
“and don’t bother to come back”: DMN, July 7, 1950.
“mild-looking middle-aged man”: DMN, Feb. 21, 1951.
“They didn’t even leave me the trash cans”: DMN, May 16, 1952.
“This is the big one”: FBI, memo to Hoover, Aug. 23, 1952.
Caudle was convicted of conspiracy: Dunar, The Truman Scandals, 151. Caudle served five months in prison, and received a full pardon from President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, after which he ran for Congress from North Carolina, but lost. Newspaper columnist Drew Pearson once wrote in his diary that he believed Caudle was not guilty, but merely dumb.
“Noble has often made the statement”: DPD, Butler.
the judge’s bench . . . was conveniently bulletproof: The old federal building now houses Las Vegas’s Mob Museum, and the second-floor courtroom has been faithfully restored to its 1950s condition.
“So many flashbulbs popped in his face”: LVRJ, Nov. 15, 1950.
“Privately, my father and his friends had joked”: Berman, Lady Las Vegas, 104.
“The top brass of the underworld”: Ferrari, Las Vegas: An Unconventional History, 111.
“Well . . . it depends on how you describe ‘high integrity’”: Kefauver committee transcripts.
“What I have seen here today”: Denton, The Money and the Power, 111.
“Hoodlums, racketeers and the other inevitable parasites”: Kefauver, Crime in America, 230.
“Benny never did like me too much”: DMN, April 4, 1951.
“We’ve got nothing to hide”: DMN, Aug. 30, 1950.
“What will happen if the gangsters get into the oil business?”: DMN, March 31, 1951.
“I would be foolish to pay my way down there”: DMN, March 30, 1951.
“It would be a fine state of affairs”: DMN, Dec. 7, 1950.
“I told him I didn’t want any part”: DTH, Aug. 8, 1951.
The contract included a special clause: DMN, Aug. 9, 1951.
“me and my son . . . went out to the Desert Inn”: HC, March 13, 1989.
“I was getting some pressure put on me”: OH, Glass, 37.
“I’ve bribed many a man”: Ibid.
“And that’s always been your way?”: HC, March 14, 1989.
14. THE CAT’S LAST DAYS
“They said he had nine lives”: Interview, Billy Bob Barnett.
“There was nothing good enough for her”: DMN, July 10, 1952. The account of Noble’s death is taken from contemporary reports and photographs in the Dallas Morning News and the Daily Times Herald, as well as internal memos written by Lieutenant George Butler.
“I always get a lot”: DTH, Aug. 9, 1951.
“Boisterous, buxomy Ginny Hill”: LVRJ, Aug. 14, 1951.
“I put the first carpet on the floor”: OH, Glass, 53.
“He was the type of man that didn’t understand gambling”: OH, Glass, 59.
“The first night . . . me and my wife went home”: OH, Glass, 55.
“The carpet cost $18,000”: OH, Glass, 53.
“The law enforcing here . . . honest and tops”: OH, Glass, 42.
Binion bought the publisher . . . a brand-new car: Reid, The Green Felt Jungle, 155.
“had been propositioned to kill or had attempted to kill”: Butler, DPD.
“You left yourself open to the argument”: OH, Glass (Cahill), 270.
“Most of the prolonged applause . . . came from the other big time gamblers”: DPD, Butler, and Texas Rangers, Crowder.
“No one . . . has ever come to me”: NSJ, Nov. 22, 1951.
“see hundreds of them stacked up in the lot”: OH, Glass (Cahill), 742.
“McCarran never quit trying”: OH, Glass (Cahill), 1134.
He was “cool and collected”: The account of this meeting is taken from the extensive written report jointly filed by Butler and Crowder after they returned to Dallas, now archived in the Texas Ranger Museum.
“A good man, Glen Jones”: OH, Glass, 68.
15. “THEY WAS ON THE TAKE”
“Them dice just run in cycles”: OH, Glass, 41.
“one of the best things that has happened to us”: NSJ, Nov. 29, 1951.
Miss Atomic Blast . . . “radiating loveliness”: U.S. Department of Energy, “Nevada National Security Site History.”
“low-use segment of the population”: Gallagher, American Ground Zero, 110.
“Binion had this very engaging style”: Johnston, Temples of Chance, 31.
“Just a nigger I caught stealing”: Ibid.
“Binion is a man you can believe in”: REG, Dec. 1, 1951.
“They was on the take”: OH, Glass, 37.
“Reports were received from reliable Informants”: FBI, Nov. 25, 1953.
“A wealthy Texan named Blondy Turner”: NSJ, Jan. 1, 1952.
“We could talk about anything”: Details on Binion’s family life and the house on Bonanza Road are drawn from interviews with Brenda Binion Michael and Fred Merrill Jr., an
d from a visit to the property.
“I’m just a gambler”: OH, Glass, 39.
“Their money management system is simple”: Johnston, 35.
“He come here in 1906”: OH, Glass, 49.
From this realm comes the story of the great Horseshoe battle: Poker scholars continue to debate whether this event actually occurred. It’s certainly curious that in his extensive 1973 interview with Mary Ellen Glass, Binion does not even mention a contest that would have been a significant milestone in his and the Horseshoe’s history. When Nick the Greek died in 1966, obituaries in the Las Vegas newspapers made no references to any monumental face-off with Moss. Moss’s self-published biography describes the battle with the Greek in great detail, but says it happened at the Horseshoe in 1949. The Horseshoe didn’t open until 1951. James McManus, in Cowboys Full, his exhaustive history of poker, takes the middle road: it probably happened, but has been enhanced in the retelling. “Accounts of the hand-to-hand combat of historical figures have always been embellished somewhat,” McManus writes. “But it’s safe to say that Dandalos and Moss were exceptional high-stakes players who engaged in a midcentury showdown that Dandalos lost. It was apparently something of a spectacle. And the spectacle was hosted by the impresario who would launch the World Series of Poker two decades later.” It may be too much to expect a definitive answer. Poker is, after all, a game of secrets and deception.
“I would rather fall from a mountaintop”: Grotenstein, All In, 15.
“He made Omar Sharif look like a truck driver”: Ibid.
“Well, Nick the Greek, he was the strangest character”: OH, Glass, 45. The snake-in-the-pocket quip was not original to Binion nor unique to Nick the Greek. It’s a common gambler’s encomium to convey cunning.
“recite by heart any poem in the English language”: Campbell, My Friend Nick the Greek, 25.
“What good is money”: Jenkins, Champion of Champions, 173.
“I learned how to gamble”: Sports Illustrated, Jan. 25, 1971.
“Sorry, you looked too long”: Jenkins, 133.
“little Al from Princeton”: This is a great Las Vegas tale that has never been sufficiently confirmed or debunked.
“Moss went over to the dice table”: Brunson, The Godfather of Poker, 132.
16. “NO WAY TO DUCK”
“Believe in justice”: Brunson, The Godfather of Poker, 129.