Beth’s Books: Hit Me!

Hit Me!: Fighting The Las Vegas Mob By The Numbers by Danielle Gomes and Jay Bonansinga

This was an incredibly good and fun read.

It tells the story of Dennis Gomes, an accountant by trade, but whose goal was law enforcement. He was on the verge of joining the FBI when he got an offer to work on the Nevada Gaming Commission in Las Vegas. As the youngest head of the Audit Division ever (only 26 years old!), his job was to monitor the casinos and make sure that their counts were on the up-and-up. Since this was Las Vegas in the '70s, he obviously encountered plenty of illegal activities and Mob involvement.

His most consuming investigation was that of the Stardust, involving the Chicago Outfit guy, Frank Rosenthal, and Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, a psychopathic enforcer who loved to torture his victims. That situation and those characters were covered in the movie "Casino" (a movie I love).

Gomes had a deep-seated sense of justice, and it enraged him to see mobsters getting away with blatantly illegal activities, with many Nevada politicians turning a blind eye. My impression of Gomes was that of a kind and decent man who just wanted to see justice done and worked tirelessly to make that happen. The book was co-written by one of his daughters, and her love and respect for her late father shines through. Gomes is apparently a legend in the gaming industry and his memory is still well-respected.

I loved this for many reasons, but it was a lot of fun to see some of my favorite places mentioned. We've stayed at the Tropicana, the oldest casino still standing on the Strip, and one of the coolest places in Vegas is the Peppermill. Dennis and his wife visit the Peppermill for a bite to eat, then have a drink at the Fireside Lounge.

"As bright and festive as the dining room was, the Fireside Lounge was dark and mellow, but no less over the top. In the center of the room was a flaming pool, and there was always at least one couple brazenly kissing and fondling one another."

Vegas, baby! The flaming pool is still there!

If you are fascinated by the Mob, you'll enjoy this book. If you are fascinated by Vegas history, you'll enjoy this book. If you are fascinated by the history of the Mob in Vegas, you will love this book as much as I did! Highly recommended!

More Vegas signage

I've got another slideshow for you, with a few of the old motel signs I snapped on our bus ride downtown. Please pardon the presence of streetlights, etc., but it was a little tricky to try to get shots as we were moving! They have a mini version of the famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada sign on the way downtown, and it substitutes "downtown" for "fabulous." Super cool!

Some of the signs are in pretty good shape, which is more than I can say for some of the motels! Most of them looked like places you really wouldn't want to stay in, not if you wanted to walk out alive, uninfested, or both. There are a lot of sex shops and seedy-looking strip joints in this area, but also a lot of wedding chapels...which I found odd and interesting at the same time. A couple of my favorite motels we passed were the High Hat Motel (a great name, and the sign includes a boomerang) and the Tod Motor Motel. That was a pretty large sign, and I just liked the name. A motel named Tod. Of course, Tod (pronounced tote) is the German word for death, so I doubt if they get a lot of German visitors staying at the Tod Motor Motel!

I suppose there will come a day when Vegas tries to clean up the approach to the old downtown, but I hope it takes them a while. I thought it was kind of neat to see these signs and motels...although I don't think I'd want to walk around in the area. They're doing a lot of work on the area adjacent to the Fremont Street Experience, including expanding the sidewalks and adding some brand new neon signs, a couple of which I included in the slideshow. The martini glass is fabulous, with concentric circles lighting in sequence, then the olive! They've done a good job with these signs. But Las Vegas Boulevard, just north of the Strip, is probably what most people hate if they hate Vegas. It's seedy, dirty, and a little bit sleazy. I kinda like it, but then I have a fascination with the way buildings age, especially when contrasted with the glitter of the Strip. I still maintain that such buildings and signs will be the archaeological sites of the future.

I also included a couple more Boneyard signs in the slideshow, because I just knew I was missing a couple! I checked my camera, and there were about 10 that didn't download. One of the cutest signs was from a dry cleaners, and our guide Justin said it was his favorite growing up in Vegas. It's called Happy Shirt, and he would wave his arms and smile. There's a picture of a later incarnation of the Stardust sign (it went through several makeovers), which should give you an idea of how massive the Stardust sign always was. Justin said that the sign is in 9 pieces, and all of them are huge. He said they did a great job in dismantling the sign, as well, cutting along all the original welding lines. Yay!

By the way, although the movie "Casino" was mostly filmed at the Riviera, it's based on Franky "Lefty" Rosenthal and his management of the Stardust for a while, and his associate Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, played by Robert Deniro and Joe Pesci respectively. Ken and I watched "Casino" again not too long ago, and it's a great movie.

I still have lots of pictures of the Fremont Street casinos, and I'll save those for another day. Here's the slideshow, and again, you can click at any time to get the big picture.