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10 Most Famous Las Vegas Mobsters & Gangsters

The glamorous city of Las Vegas, as we know it today, was once a dusty railroad town. Now boasting one of the grandest entertainment scenes in the country, with strings of lush resorts, a thriving nightlife, and everything Vegas, one can hardly imagine that crime played a role in shaping its current status. The city saw numerous bootlegging businesses spring up during the Prohibition era in the 1920s. Soon, Las Vegas had become a playing ground for illegal gambling operations, mobster casino owners and the frenzy of making fast money was at its highest.

Figures such as Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky cemented their positions in the fast-growing underworld.  These mobsters and businessmen operated major casinos in the city, attracting party lovers and the wealthy to their establishments. A city that had been known only for bootlegging was now rapidly turning into an entertainment and resort destination. It’s hard, therefore, to separate Las Vegas from its history, as dark as it is. Its outlines are painted by some of the most famous mobsters and gangsters, who, in one way or another, influenced the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Here are 10 of them!

Read also; Top 10 Facts about the Prohibition Era and Organized Crime.

1. Bugsy Siegel

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The name is a familiar one in the history of the Las Vegas underworld. Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel is one of the few mobsters who took to the spotlight. Described as charismatic, and sharp but ruthless when he needed to be, he was a key influential figure in several crime circles. These include the Jewish Mob, the Italian-American Mafia, and the Italian-Jewish crime syndicate. He saw an opportunity to make money during the Prohibition era, a period in the 1920s that saw the banning of alcoholic drinks. He became a bootlegger, before turning to gamble after the repealing of prohibition in 1933.

All along, he was operating in New York, his home city. He had befriended Meyer Lansky, another mobster rising through the ranks in the 1920s. Bugsy doubled as a hitman for the mob and was known for his skill with guns. He formed the Bugs and Meyer Mob, which preceded the infamous Murder Inc. The latter was an organized crime group operational from 1929 to 1941.  Bugsy later moved to Las Vegas in 1946 and took to controlling gambling in the clubs. His hotel and club projects ran into financial troubles, and he was in debt. His ambition was cut short when he got gunned down on June 20, 1947.

2. Meyer Lansky

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Lansky was known as the Mob’s Accountant for his business acumen in the underworld, and his role in taking care of the Mob’s finances. He was born in Russia, before moving to New York. In his formative years in the world of crime, Lansky formed relationships with the likes of Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano, and Gus Greenbaum. The Prohibition era in the United States saw the rise of the illegal sale of alcohol. Bootleggers made ridiculously high profits, and some, including Lansky, soon advanced into other forms of crime.

Lansky opened several casinos and held significant percentages in New Orleans, Cuba, the Bahamas, London, and Florida. He is known to have developed a gambling empire stretching across the major cities of the world. He was also heavily invested in the Las Vegas scene, running massive gambling operations in casinos. He is considered one of the most financially successful gangsters. He died in 1983.

Read more on; 10 Most Notorious New York Gangsters.

3. Moe Dalitz

Morris Barney Dalitz was known as ‘Mr. Las Vegas. He was a key figure in the development of the Las Vegas strip through his numerous legal and illegal operations in the city. Dalitz had a good hand in business, and he capitalized on every opportunity that came his way. At the advent of the Prohibition era, he became a bootlegger, taking advantage of his easy access to laundry trucks owned by his family. He was able to supply liquor from Canada and Mexico, making huge profits. He ran illegal gambling operations and casino businesses in Las Vegas.

Initially, he secretly managed his resorts such as the Desert Inn, keeping off the limelight. He ran the Stardust Resort & Casino after Tony Cornero’s death. Moe is credited for transforming the landscape of Las Vegas, despite his involvement in illegal business. He described the building of the Las Vegas Convention Center as one of his greatest achievements in a 1983 SUN interview.

4. Moe Sedway

Morris Sidwirtz was a Jewish-American mobster and businessman in the 1930s. His criminal career dates to the early 1920s, working with street gangs alongside Bugsy Siegel. He was a close associate of Bugsy, another major player in the shaping of the Las Vegas Strip. He was involved in illegal gambling and the casino business in Vegas, just like his associates. Moe was also one of the earliest diplomatic links between New York’s mobster Lucky Luciano and casino owners in Las Vegas. He could be diplomatic in such instances, but also ruthless as a fee collector.

Moe worked as a fee collector for Meyer Lansky, a key Las Vegas mobster. Lansky connected him to business in the city, and by 1945, he was running the famous El Cortez hotel with Gus Greenbaum. The two made huge profits from the casino business. After Bugsy’s death, they took over the Flamingo Casino, making it a remarkable success.

Have  a look at 10 Notorious Jewish-American Gangsters you should Know.

5. Frank Cullota

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Born in Chicago in 1938, Cullota entered the world of crime alongside his friend Tony Spilotro, at a young age. Cullota had left school in the ninth grade. The two carried out theft, burglary, and murder. They would later become members of the Chicago Outfit, an Italian-American crime syndicate. Cullota then moved to Las Vegas in 1979. His childhood friend, Spilotro had moved in 1971, and the two reunited in crime. He found Spilotro’s gang, ‘Hole in the Wall Gang’, and joined them almost immediately.

They conducted burglaries, and murders when they needed to. Until his arrest in 1982, Cullota took part in numerous criminal activities with the gang, including murder. He however became a government witness and entered the witness protection program. Cullota co-wrote two books with Dennis N. Griffin. These are Cullota: the Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster, Government Witness (2007), and The Rise and Fall of a Casino Mobster: The Tony Spilotro’s Story Through a Hitman’s Eyes (2017). He died in 2020 due to health complications.

6. Johnny Roselli

Roselli was a significant player in the Las Vegas mobsters’ world. He was born in Rome, Italy but later settled in Chicago. That was around 1922, during the Prohibition era. Roselli rose through the ranks of the criminal underworld in Chicago and beyond. He joined the Chicago Outfit, an Italian-American crime syndicate based in Chicago. He had become a representative for the Chicago mobsters in Las Vegas by the 1950s. His role was to collect part of the profits from Las Vegas casinos on behalf of the Chicago outfit mob.

Roselli formed a good relationship with musician Frank Sinatra, who sponsored his membership in the Friar’s Club. This was an exclusive Las Vegas club. It was here that Roselli joined his friend Maurice Friedman in a card-cheating scam, swindling many wealthy members of millions of dollars. He was finally convicted but his deportation was unsuccessful. In 1975, he was called to testify as an informant about a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy. Three months later, he went missing. He was later found dead in a fuel drum near Miami on August 7, 1976. Authorities tied the murder to the Chicago Outfit.

7. Tony Accardo

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Known in the underworld as ‘Joe Batters’ or ‘Big Tuna’, Tony was a notorious American mobster whose criminal career spanned eight decades. It’s said that the nickname ‘Joe Batters’ was crafted when Tony killed three men with a baseball bat. His life of crime began at an early age. He had dropped out of school by age 14 and was in the streets of Chicago soon after that. He joined a street gang called Circus Café Gang before being recruited by the ruthless Al Capone’s hitman, Jack ‘Machine Gun’ McGurn.

Tony rose through the ranks in the 1940s, becoming an underboss in Chicago Outfit after Capone’s imprisonment. Paul ‘The Waiter’ Ricca, took over as the acting boss, and the two ran the mob until Ricca died in 1972. Tony was now boss. He expanded the mob’s operations into counterfeiting liquor tax stamps, vending machines, and narcotics smuggling, He always kept a low profile. He died on May 22, 1992, from respiratory disease.

8. Marcello Giuseppe Caifano

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Marshall Caifano was one of the most ruthless gangsters in the Las Vegas criminal scene. He was in Sicily, Italy, and moved to the United States. He worked for several Chicago mob bosses as an enforcer, conducting arson, extortion, and murder. In 1941, Caifano was a key suspect in the murder of Estelle Carey, an alleged federal informant. She was found tied to a chair; beaten and burned. Caifano’s reputation earned him more offers to work as an enforcer of mob operations in Las Vegas. In 1953, he is alleged to have exchanged his wife for a job as an enforcer. Caifano’s willingness to do anything to rise through the underworld ranks made him one of the most feared, and violent enforcers of his time.

Check out the 20 Most Ruthless Gangsters in Boston.

9. Frank Rosenthal

‘Lefty’, as he was known, was Chicago born and bred before he later moved to Las Vegas as a casino executive. He was a famous sports bettor and fixer. He was once described by Sports Illustrated as ‘the greatest living expert on sports gambling.’ Rosenthal was unshaken despite the several summonses by authorities to testify about his involvement in match-fixing. He would always invoke the Fifth Amendment, and although was escaped charges, he was banned from the tracks in Florida.  Rosenthal moved to Las Vegas in the 1960s on instruction by the Chicago Outfit, an organized crime group.

He illegally ran major casinos, albeit secretly. These included the Hacienda and Fremont. His art of scamming the system persisted, and authorities were hell-bent on sniffing him out. Eventually, he had to leave the casino and gambling business after the Nevada Gaming Control Board got too close. It was after this that questions concerning his loyalty to the mob began. He was injured in a car explosion on October 4, 1982. Mob boss, Frank Balistrieri, also known as ‘the Mad Bomber’ was accused of attempted murder.

10. Gus Greenbaum

Greenbaum was born in Phoenix before moving to New York around 1917. He became a member of the mob led by Meyer Lansky on the city’s lower east side. By the late 1920s, Greenbaum had risen through the ranks and gained trust in the underworld, becoming an associate of the Chicago Outfit. He worked with Bugsy Siegel from the early 1940s in his El Cortez Casino in Las Vegas. Upon Bugsy’s assassination, Greenbaum assumed the running of the Flamingo casino.

Under his control, it made huge profits, earning him immense wealth. He also ran the Riviera Casino when it opened. However, later when he decided that it was time for him to retire his boots, his then-associate, Tony Accardo, would not let him. Tony blew up Greenbaum’s friend’s car as a warning. Greenbaum got hooked on drug abuse and gambling, and on December 3, 1958, he was found dead in his home. He and his wife had been killed by two hitmen sent by Chicago Outfit.

Indeed, while tremendous effort has been made to combat the underworld’s operations over the years, Las Vegas crime history may be hard to erase or separate from the city’s development to date. In any case, the nickname, ‘Sin City’ echoes what transpired in some of the most dangerous, unruly years in its history.