BJ Dealers School + Poker Cheat + White Chick = THIEF!

Mob Speak announced an upcoming subject several posts ago.

So, what does a casino dealers school, a poker cheat and a curious white chick with a dubious past have in common?

It goes like this...years ago yours truly, the white chick with a dubious past, worked as TV station manager and on-air personality (Bambi Lin) for an indie TV station in Santa Fe/Albuquerque, NM. Talk about a fun job. Then boom. The TV station sold and I found myself in the unemployment line.

Well, Indian casinos were popping up all over the state like wigwams. I interviewed seven blackjack dealers who agreed to talk with me and found out they made pretty decent tip money. Barely knowing how to hold a deck of cards, I had to enroll in a casino dealers school. It was there I met William "Slick" Hanner, one of my teachers. He carried around a yellow tablet with 28 pages of his handwritten "life story," searching for some sucker to make it into a book. Naturally he had no money to pay anyone.

We think it was an "act of God" that convinced me to take on the task because I'd never written anything other than a shopping list, let alone a book about gangsters. Plus, I didn't know the first thing about the crazy, complicated publishing world. With all that stacked against me, I was determined to write the true tale of a zany card mechanic who went through life like a speeding freight train about to derail at any minute. Something I can't explain drove me to write the book then get it commercially published. It was sort of like a passive death wish.

Almost overnight (actually nine grueling years later), Slick was ready to kill me out of frustration when we finally landed a publishing contract with Barricade Books. A year later, THIEF! The Gutsy, True Story of an Ex-Con Artist hit bookstores.


Young Slick handcuffed with his rap partners
from THIEF!

As for my blackjack dealing abilities, you can read about that in earlier posts...like the time I was auditioning (that's how prospective dealers get hired) and one of my fake red fingernails flew off and hit a player between the eyes. Or the time I was auditioning as a roulette dealer, spun the ball a little wildly, it flew out of the wheel and hit the floorman in the crotch.

Listen, I really don't have to make this s--t up. It follows me around like the dog crap you step in and can't shake off.

That's it for now.

Greed, Mob Ties, Vengeance...

There's one person who definitely knows who killed Bugsy Siegel and that person is Sandra Lansky, Meyer Lansky's daughter. As everyone knows, Meyer Lansky and Siegel were thick as thieves from childhood. I hope Sandra is one of the panelists mentioned below. In our book THIEF!, co-author Slick has plenty to say about Ben Siegel's murder. Courtroom Conversations could prove interesting.

Slick's Las Vegas Then & Now: 27th in Series

It's been quite a while since MOB SPEAK posted an excerpt from Slick's colorful take on "Old Las Vegas" versus "New Las Vegas." Here it is from its 1940s heyday to mega-corporate 2009:
 

Present day Las Vegas Strip

Las Vegas Then and Now

Then: Crime and murder rates low
Now: Crime and murder rates high

Then: Mobsters ruled
Now: Wall Street, mega corporations and real estate
developers rule

Then: Lido de Paris
Now: Magic Shows; Cirque du Soleil


Onetime mayor, Oscar Goodman
and friends

Then: Mob took care of cheaters
Now: Law takes care of cheaters

Then: Evening gowns and men's suits
Now: Tank tops and flip flops

Then: Seven-card stud
Now: Texas Hold’em

Then: Thick smoke everywhere
Now: Smoking banned almost everywhere

Then: Hookers in every bar
Now: Overpriced strip clubs, fake escort ads and


Old Stardust

bordellos allowed only outside county limits

Then: $.49 breakfast
Now: Better eat at home

Then: Movie Casino
Now: Movie 21

Then: Drive anywhere in Las Vegas in 10 minutes or less
Now: Try to get anywhere in one day

Then: Las Vegas jumping with movie stars
Now: See movie stars in movies

Then: Comped Room, food, booze
Now: Players card

Then: Free entrance to beautiful, clean Lake Meade
Now: Pay to see what’s left of Lake Meade

THIEF! Life with the mob, prostitues and gamblers

As we said in the last post, the website for our book THIEF! The Gutsy, True Story of an Ex-Con Artist by William "Slick" Hanner and (yours truly) Cherie Rohn will be trunk music on March 1, 2015. After that, MOB SPEAK will take up any slack. So look for more THIEF! postings right here. 

In case you didn't know, THIEF! is the true tale of a 1930's Chicago kid who gets into hot water with the mob, prostitutes and gambling figures. The book chronicles Slick's roller coaster life as a con-artist and mob associate from the 1930s through the early 1990s.

Those in the know say it best. One-time Nevada whorehouse madam, Lora Shaner, alleged that Slick "conned for kicks, gambled with gusto, stole for sustenance and womanized for fun in every hotspot in the country." We're talking about Chicago, Miami, Havana, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and anywhere that greedy suckers yearn to make an easy buck.

On one occasion, Slick's plan to increase his take as a limo driver for the Chicken Ranch bordello in Pahrump, Nevada, goes up in smoke. Let's just say that as Jerry Lewis's bodyguard, Slick wasn't supposed to be moonlighting. Taking calls on his cell phone from guys itching for a lay during Jerry's TV rehearsals leads to some hilarious highjinks.

Coming up: What does a casino dealers school, a poker cheat and a curious white chick with a dubious past have in common?

Mob Speak: On the lam no more

THIEF Las Vegas book signing

 

Hey, pay attention all you goombas.On March 1, 2015, our website Thief True Story will be rubbed out, knocked off, iced, clipped. (I think you get the message.) MOB SPEAK will take over all posts. So if you want to stay connected, make sure you add MOB SPEAK to your favorites.

  

Yeah, I know it's like MOB SPEAK has gone into the Witness Protection Program or something, but we've been underground for good reason. No details at this time.

Repeal Day, Wise Guys and more

 

 

MOB SPEAK spills news re the Las Vegas Mob Museum. Don't own a magnifying glass? Check out www.themobmuseum.org for a larger version and complete story.



 

 

Rotting in Prison

Seth Ferranti

MOB SPEAK recently published a piece by Seth Ferranti who vividly described his 20+ years doing time in prison as a first-time, non-violent offender. Seth is serving the final stages of his prison term. His Website, Gorilla Convict, http://www.gorillaconvict.com/ featured K.L. Blakinger's story, "Rotting in Prison.

Check out more thought-provoking views on Seth Ferranti's blog: https://plus.google.com/+SethFerranti?cfem=1#+SethFerranti/posts?cfem=1.