In the first three days of January 2024, I removed all the books from my home library and gave all the shelves a good dusting. While cleaning, reorganizing, and inventorying (872 books), I found myself setting books I wanted to read aside into a pile. I was really going to read them (was I making a New Year’s resolution?). With the shelves newly organized, I pulled the first book off the stack; it was The Battle for Las Vegas The Law vs. The Mob by Dennis N. Griffin.
This page turner was recommended by a Vegas Big Bus tour guide as we passed the Mob Museum. Countless Vegas trips later, I still hadn’t read the book or gone to the Mob Museum or the Neon Museum. I finally read the book, I enjoyed it because despite watching reruns of Vegas with the late Robert Ulrich, this is a world beyond my imagination. The perfect summary of this book can be found on page 208 “From the perspective of a reporter covering FBI and IRS raids and countless court hearings, that period was one great news story after another. Murder, bookmaking, prostitution, burglary, home invasions, extortion, fencing, stolen, jewelry”.
If you don’t have time to read the book, I will tell you what the author says at the end: watch the movie Casino. I watched it, and the cast (Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, Don Rickles, Kevin Pollak, and James Woods)is amazing, but it probably goes without saying it’s not as good as the book. I am now excited for my next trip to Vegas, to not only check out the museums, but to take part in some of the Home + History Las Vegas tours.
