The Las Vegas hearing of the Kefauver Committee, on November 15, , was not among the most gripping of the 27 investigative hearings held in 14 cities. Before cable television, satellites and cell phones, transmitting information to gamblers on horse and dog races, prizefight results and other sports action was handled by the race wire.
Siegel is best known for building the Flamingo Hotel, but he also generated healthy profits from the race book at the Golden Nugget and other casinos in Las Vegas. The man who fingered Siegel was William J. Moore, a hotel manager and member of the Nevada Tax Commission, the state agency that regulated casinos in Las Vegas at the time. Senator Estes Kefauver and other senators investigated organized crime in a series of high-profile and closely watched hearings across the United State in On November 15, , the committee met in the federal courthouse in Las Vegas โ the building The Mob Museum occupies today.
The basic issue: To get the sports results wired into your casino, you had to send some of your money to the Mob. So the people who were not getting such service were bitterly opposed to Siegel, is that right? Moore, executive vice president of the New Frontier, told the committee that for a while, it looked like the feud between the casinos and those who controlled the race wire would turn into a brawl that would be embarrassing for Las Vegas and everyone.
It was at the height of the race wire dispute that Siegel was shot to death. The murder remains an open case today with a number of theories circulating as to who killed him and why. Changes in state gambling laws signed by Governor Vail Pittman in said that every licensed casino had to have access, for a charge, to the race wire.
They have got peace of mind and can look everybody in the eye. He is a moral pervert and the scum of the earth, Lucky Luciano, and he is playing the game over there still in Italy. When decent men want to make a living, these men peel it off.
