Being Oscar: From Mob Lawyer to Mayor of Las Vegas

by Oscar Goodman

  If I had had the power, I would have legalized all drugs in Las Vegas. I think it’s the right thing to do. I would have advocated for changes in the federal laws, too.

  I’ll tell you another thing I would have done, and this has nothing to do with prostitution or drugs. I’m concerned about young people in this country. Too many of them seem to lack a sense of community. They’re devoid of feelings other than for themselves and their small group of friends. And I think part of the reason is an overall decline in personal interaction.

  A benevolent dictator could do something about this. If I had the power, I’d make everyone who bought one of those social media conveyors—a smart phone, an iPad, those kinds of things—take a test before they could start using the product. They would have to shake a hand, look someone in the eye, blow someone a kiss. People have forgotten how to do this. All they do is use their thumbs to interact.

  If Darwin is right, and I think he is, within the next couple of generations the thumb will become the largest appendage on the human body. This could cause all kinds of problems, not the least of which would be the ability to throw a pitch.

  I already know a little bit about that. Just stay away from that rosin bag.

  CHAPTER 18

  ALL IN THE FAMILY

  It’s been a great run, and the beauty of it all is that it’s not over. As I look back, it occurs to me that only in Las Vegas could I have lived the life that I did. Carolyn and I made the right choice coming out here. My law career and my three terms as mayor are certainly a part of what I’m talking about, but there were other, greater accomplishments.

  Carolyn is extraordinary. Would you believe that during fifty years of marriage, she’s only asked me for three things? When we first moved to the desert, she asked me to buy her a horse. To me, that was a signal that she was ready to embrace the “western life” that I was exposing her to. I got her a horse, “Moon Lad.” He was 7/8ths thoroughbred and 1/8th quarter horse, and he stood seventeen hands high; a real horse. She loved him.

  When I started earning big bucks, Carolyn asked if I would buy her a Mercedes. I got her the car, and she treasured it. She kept the first one for sixteen years. She has another Mercedes now, but her favorite car is her 1990 Suburban, which is really good during the flash flood season. Anytime she parks that car, someone leaves a note under the windshield wiper asking if she’s interested in selling it. No one ever leaves a note on the Mercedes.

  Her third request was to meet the Queen of England someday. We’ve been to London several times for the Convention and Visitors Authority, but so far, I’ve struck out. I haven’t been able to deliver on that last request. If anyone has read this far and happens to know the Queen, please call me. I’ll arrange a game of pool for you with Prince Harry the next time he’s in Las Vegas if you can set up a curtsey for Carolyn.

  Las Vegas also provided us with our four incredible children. As I said, Carolyn raised the kids while I was traipsing around the country representing people in trouble, but we both take the greatest pride in our sons and daughter, who they are and what they are accomplishing.

  Carolyn had a rule. When the kids went off to college, she told them that once they earned their final degree and started their careers, they would have to live away from Las Vegas for three years. Because of my situation as mayor, she thought they should establish themselves somewhere else without the potential influence, for better or worse, of being the children of the city’s top elected official.

  Oscar Jr. is an MD with a PhD; an oncologist who’s doing cancer research. He graduated from Swarthmore College and Thomas Jefferson University Medical School in Philadelphia, and then went to work at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He was recruited and came back to work at the Las Vegas Cancer Institute. The nicest thing in the world is to have someone say to you, “Your son is my husband’s doctor, and he saved my husband’s life.”

  Ross, our middle son, is a wonderful lawyer. After earning degrees at the University of San Diego and University of Tulsa Law School, he completed his reserve commitment as a Major in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving at Quantico, Cherry Point, and the Washington Navy Yard. Upon returning to Las Vegas he has achieved several multi-million dollar verdicts and has had the thrill of hearing verdicts of “not guilty.”

  Eric, our youngest boy, gave us all we could handle. At one point he dropped out of college and Carolyn said that was his choice, but he wasn’t going to live at home. For a time he worked in a carpet factory here in town. I think he was the only employee who had a legitimate social security card; everybody else was a felon. He took advantage of those second chances I’m always talking about in Las Vegas and went back to college. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan and then, of all things, went to the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He spent some time at a big Philadelphia law firm, then came back home. He was recently elected a judge in Las Vegas Township Justice Court.

  Cara, our daughter and our youngest, went to Stanford after graduating from the Meadows School. She was the only one of our children to go to the Meadows; the others were too old. She stayed to get her master’s at Stanford, and then worked for a time in San Francisco as a human resources consultant before coming back to Las Vegas, where she works as a family therapist.

  When she applied to Stanford, she wrote, “I know you only consider the top ten percent of the class. I am the top third.”

  There were only three students in the first graduating class at the Meadows.

  All four of our children came back. I’m not sure what that means, but it’s great to have them and their families come over for Sunday dinner or to watch a football game with me. Carolyn cooks their favorite meals, and we just enjoy one another.

  It all makes me wonder about that age-old argument of nature versus nurture; whether the environment or heredity determines how one turns out. No one wins the argument with our family; Carolyn says each of their personalities is distinct and unique.

  Oscar Jr. was asked about that in an interview published in a local magazine, Vegas Seven, back in 2011. The interviewer noted that Oscar’s parents were both highly accomplished individuals who had adopted four children, and that those four children in turn were highly accomplished in their own right. To what did he attribute that?

  “It was the upbringing,” he said. “It really speaks to the environment versus the genes [debate]. I think we’re a case study . . . the environment . . . makes the difference, and particularly parenting. It’s a huge part of upbringing. It’s probably 80 percent, and schools are the other 20 percent. My parents really bestowed values on all of us. I heard the golden rule a million times: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ And whenever you decide to do something, don’t just think of yourself, think of others.”

  When my final term as mayor was about to expire, Carolyn and I were looking forward to retirement and maybe traveling a little. She had stepped down at the Meadows after running the school for twenty-six years. But I could see that she was restless. One day she said to me, “I’ve cleaned the house once. I’ve cleaned it twice. I don’t want to clean the house again. I want to do something meaningful.” I wasn’t sure what she meant or what she had in mind, but retirement wasn’t in the cards for either of us.

  On July 6, 2011, I swore in my wife as the twentieth mayor in the history of Las Vegas. The pundits joked about a dynasty, and Carolyn, as always, was ready with an answer.

  “We’ve got four children and six grandchildren,” she said. “You have no idea what a dynasty is.”

  When she first mentioned that she was considering running for mayor, I was less than encouraging. I didn’t want her to have to deal with all the petty bickering, the squabbling, the treachery and chicanery. I have a thick skin, and it rolled off my back. But I didn’t want her to be exposed to the meanness of some people. Politics is full of greedy, envious, and jealous individuals who are always playing games and looking for their own advancement. Carolyn isn’t like that. Don’t get me wr
ong; she’s just as tough as I am, and in many ways tougher. I just didn’t want her to have to go through that.

  Her argument to me, however, was simple, and obviously aimed at the large ego that she, over the years, had come to recognize was part of my make-up.

  “Who’s going to finish what you started?” she asked. “Someone else will have a different agenda.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. And to my mind, no one was better qualified to succeed me. She had raised our four children, gotten her master’s degree, and founded the Meadows. Her accomplishments spoke for themselves.

  A few days before the filing deadline, I told her that if she was going to run, she should do it now, and not on the last day because her announcement would get lost in the weekend news cycle. The next morning, when we woke up, I said, “I really don’t think you should do it.”

  “I’m going for it,” she said.

  What else could I do? I became her biggest supporter.

  There were eighteen candidates in the original field, and three were elected officials who had never lost a race before. One candidate was a multi-millionaire with deep pockets. Several others had ties to a variety of special-interest groups who were happy to fund their campaigns. But from the get-go, it was Carolyn’s race. She won going away, capturing 61 percent of the vote. And she’s been great. Like me, she didn’t need the job, but she wanted it. That makes all the difference.

  I moved on to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, where I work as a spokesman and an ambassador-at-large for Las Vegas. My actual title is chairman of the authority’s Permanent Host Committee. The committee’s goals are to educate the public on the importance of tourism and to make tourists aware of how much we appreciate their presence.

  The bottom line is that I’m a brand. I show up at events with a showgirl on each arm and a martini in my hand. That’s Las Vegas.

  I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Among other things, I’ve licensed my persona to the restaurant at the Plaza Hotel downtown. The hotel was totally renovated as part of the renaissance there. The site is historic; it’s where a land auction occurred on May 15, 1905, that was really the birth of Las Vegas.

  As I said earlier, the restaurant is called “Oscar’s Beef, Booze and Broads.” It’s become pretty popular, and I try to stop in as often as I can. They’ve got a giant martini glass always ready for me. I enjoy meeting the customers and telling them stories about my time as a criminal lawyer and my years in City Hall. Stop in and say hello the next time you’re in town.

  Life is still full for both Carolyn and me. She’s working twenty-four/seven for the city. I’m trying to stay relevant, but I feel a little like Aesop telling my fables to anyone who’ll listen. It’s been a great life; I wouldn’t change a thing. And I guess if you can say that, there’s really nothing else that needs to be said.

  People ask me if I miss being mayor. I tell them it’s more fun sleeping with the mayor.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Since this is the first book I’ve written, I’m not really sure how the acknowledgement part goes so I’m just going to wing it.

  It goes without saying that my family was my mainstay and I can’t say enough about all of them. But there also were a lot of other folks along the way who helped to shape Oscar, and those I also want to thank.

  In elementary school two friends, Spinks and Hurst, made sure I walked back and forth to school without having too many fights with the boys from St. Carthage. Mrs. Cecelia Chevone was smart enough to have me skip second grade at Bryant School after I wrote and produced a play called “Felix the Cat.” And the class of 206 students at Philadelphia’s Central High School convinced me I was no genius but did have a ken for leadership.

  The boys at the Main Line’s Haverford School were socialites with whom I had little in common. But I did manage to conquer many of their debutantes. Haverford College, on the other hand, was an Elysium where Professors Desjardins and Reid and Coach Prudente made every day a pleasure.

  The saving grace of Penn Law School was to come into contact with the most decent of men, Professor A. Leo Levin, and to have the opportunity to work as a bartender at social gatherings in the home of my criminal law professor, Louis Schwartz.

  I learned how to practice law at the feet of some of the great defenders of citizens’ rights while in the courtroom. Many are mentioned in this book, but there are legions of others to whom I am also grateful and indebted.

  To the decent judges with whom I fought tooth and nail, only to show more class than I had when embracing me after a case, I say thank you. And the same to the handful of prosecutors who lived by the adage that achieving justice is more important than winning.

  A special thanks to Tom Cochrane of the U.S. Conference of Mayors who guided me throughout my mayoral tenure, and also to his wife, Carlotta, with whom Carolyn and I became dear friends. The same to all the mayors I met along the way who loved the city they represented and weren’t looking to seek “higher office.” In my mind, there is no higher office.

  Thank you, too, to George Anastasia, a real author, who folded all my stories into a book.

  I’m also grateful to the members of City Council who supported my dream of creating a renaissance in Las Vegas and to the city staff that made it happen: Joel, and Joel and Keith who put Humpty Dumpty back together. Finally, to my office staff, Sherry, Joey, and Ericka, who worked with me and, more important, rooted for me, all along the way.

  INDEX

  Abraham, Dustin Lee, 200

  Adamson, Arnie, 187, 188–189

  Agosto, Joe, 128

  Alberta, Vince, 255

  Allison, Jo Ann/Tommy and Merck case, 182–184

  Anderson, Aldon, 145

  Angel Blade (movie), 198

  Anka, Paul, 95

  Ann Margaret, 199

  Apprentice, The (television), 220

  Argent Corporation, 120, 129

  Atkins diet, 242

  Auerhahn, Jeffrey, 177, 178

  Baken (Calise), Rick, 72–73

  Baker, Manny, 57–61, 190

  Barrie, Dennis, 212, 213

  Baylin, Oscar, 11

  Beckley, Gil “The Brain,” 43–44, 50

  Bell, Lloyd, 31

  Beloff, Diane, 162, 163

  Beloff, Leland, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163

  Berns, Chuckie, 126

  Bettman, Gary, 252

  Bingham (Crockett case witness), 28, 29, 30, 31, 32

  Bingham, Jay, 186, 187

  Binion, Benny, 6–7, 67, 144, 145

  Binion, Jack, 67

  Binion, Teddy, 151–152

  Black Book, x, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 120, 133, 229

  Black, Mrs. Homer, 29

  Blake, Archie, 85–86

  Blake, Jimmy, 18

  Blasko, Joe, 67

  Bluestein, Frankie, 78

  Bobblehead dolls, xi, 4, 240

  Bombay Sapphire gin, 241, 256

  Bonavena, Oscar, 148

  Boston, Joey, 51

  Botha, Frans “The White Buffalo,” 91–92

  Brando, Marlon, 199

  Brazina, Paul, 209

  Briggs, Mitzy, 129

  Bryant, Brad, 97–98

  Butler, Bob, 35

  Bybee, Shannon, 76

  Caan, James, 201, 202

  Caesars Palace, 21, 69, 99, 126

  Cahn, Bill, 51–52

  Canzoneri, Tough Tony, 87

  Caramandi, Nicky “The Crow,” 54–55, 159, 160–161, 162–163, 167

  Carter, Jimmy, 144, 145

  Casino chips/Goodman caricature, 240, 257

  Casino (movie), 126–127, 133–134, 195–196, 199, 212, 263

  Cassidy, Bill, 237–238

  Chagra, Jimmy

  background/description, 96, 99–100, 101, 107, 203

  drug allegations/trial and, 96, 98, 101–102, 103–106

  Spilotro and, 95–97, 100

  Wood’s murder trial, 103–105, 106, 108–115, 203

  Chagra, J
oe, 106, 107, 108

  Chagra, Lee

  background/description, 97, 98–99, 101

  civil suit against Wood and, 98–99, 100, 102

  drug-dealing allegations, 98, 101

  murder, 100–101

  Chagra, Liz, 101, 105, 106–108

  Chan, Jackie, 197

  Chandler, Happy/family, 97–98

  Chesnoff, David, 177–178

  Circus Circus, 68, 69, 71, 127

  Civella, Nick

  background/description, 80–81

  feds bugging prison, 106

  Goodman/Goodman’s family and, xi, 67, 79, 82, 83, 84, 98

  Goodman/wiretap case and, 53

  Rosenthal and, 135, 136

  skimming and, 127–129

  Claiborne, Harry

  background/description, 71, 79, 141, 142–145, 153–154, 155, 157

  case against, 141, 147, 149, 151–152, 153–155

  as federal law enforcement target, 145–147, 149, 151–152, 153–155

  impeachment and, xi–xiii, 141, 142, 155–157

  Clinton, Hillary, 226

  Clinton, President, 190, 231

  Cohen, Sam, 47

  Cohen, Willie, 68

  Collins, Jon, 31–32

  Come Blow Your Horn (play), 13–14

  Conforte, Joe, 147, 149–150, 152–153

  Conforte, Sally, 147–149

  Coolidge, Martha, 200–201

  Cotton Club, The (movie), 77

  Crime/criminal cases

  burglary vs. robbery, 27

  jurors return/verdict and, 29, 38

  Scottish verdict, 116

  television programs vs., 27, 198

  See also Goodman, Oscar/defense attorney career; Law enforcement; specific cases/individuals

  Crockett, Lewis “Brown” and Goodman setup, 73

  Crockett, Lewis “Brown”/case

  background, 27, 28

  polygraph deal, 33–35

  trials, 28–32

  CSI (television), 198–200, 220

  Cullotta, Frank, 122, 123, 124, 129, 130–131