More Vegas Near Myths: The Stories Are So Wild, They Seem Fake But Aren't

Posted: January 6, 2025, 07:55 pm.

Last updated: January 5, 2025, 11:19 pm.

In the nearly three years since we started this weekly casino.org In the series, we examined many of the wildest stories we knew Was To be a myth.

Most of the time, we were right. This way we put to rest widely held Vegas beliefs such as bodies buried inside the Hoover Dam, the casino that Howard Hughes bought only to obscure its sign so he could sleep, and of course, Extra oxygen that casinos pump onto their floors to keep gamblers awake. (OK we tried Anyway, give them a rest. Many people still believe in him.)

However, some such stories, while being absolutely true, are extremely crazy.

If you missed our first installment, check out “Vegas Near Myths Pt.” 1,”

Steve Wynn's Gangland Roots

In 1971, Steve Wynn was a 29-year-old slot supervisor at Frontier. But the big banker E. Perry Thomas liked him. He saw Some.

Thomas arranged for Steve Wynn to purchase a narrow strip of land next to Caesars Palace. It was owned by Howard Hughes, who was leasing it to the casino resort for parking lots, and it was the last piece of Hughes-owned property on the Strip.

The parcel measured only 100 feet by 1,500 feet, hardly enough to build anything worthwhile. So Wynn's $1.2 million purchase price was a gamble. But due to a big hoax, it had to suffer the consequences.

Wynn claimed he was planning a new motel and casino on his finger-like parcel the likes of which Las Vegas had never seen before. And none other than Betty Willis, creator of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, was hired to create the renderings. Wynn called a press conference to unveil his grand plans.

In her 2019 book, “Eyes in the Sky”, author Karen Leslie described Wynn's concept: “A blatant depiction of a gangster-themed casino, complete with cartoon characters in old Packards and fedoras sporting machine guns, which Looks like it came straight out of Chicago.”

Wynn fielded press questions as if he was 1,000% serious, even when he named… Gangland!

Remember, this was still the early 1970s, so there were no marketing techniques applied to museums and bus tours to evoke crowd nostalgia. It was very much part of the Vegas present, and would control operations at many casinos for almost the next decade.

Caesars Palace CEO Bill Weinberger was already skeptical about the Wynn purchase, feeling that Hughes had first advised Caesars to purchase the site. Now, he had even more reason to be angry.

Even if Weinberger knew Wynn was bluffing – and he was a completely new player on the Strip, so it could definitely be known – he couldn't take the chance. He could never allow something so offensive to be built next to his luxurious resort – especially something that would remind the public that Caesars Palace itself was built in 1966 with Mafia money (via the Teamsters Pension Fund). Was created from.

On October 27, 1972, Weinberger nearly doubled Wynn's money, cashing in on his inevitable asking price of $2.25 million.

The young fraudster used his profits to buy a controlling stake in the then-defunct Golden Nugget Las Vegas. And that's how Steve Wynn started his Las Vegas empire.

Fedex loan on vegas blackjack

FedEx began operations in April 1971, thanks to $4 million that founder Fred Smith inherited from his father. His idea was to create an integrated air and ground delivery system that would transport packages from across the country to a single center, where they would be sorted and then flown or delivered to their destination.

But rapidly rising fuel costs caught the startup, then known as Federal Express, by surprise. By 1974, it was losing $1 million per month. Bankruptcy seemed the only option.

While waiting to fly home from Chicago to Memphis, where the board of General Dynamics had refused him funding, Smith impulsively boarded a plane to Vegas.

Here, in a casino he never recognized, he turned the company's last remaining $5,000 into $27,000 at a blackjack table, and this saved the company.

This initially struck us as a myth. How can $27,000 get a company out of millions of dollars of debt?

The answer is that Smith used it to pay FedEx's $24,000 overdue fuel bill. And that allowed the company to continue long enough for Smith to raise $11 million from its original investors.

Sinatra Jokes That Almost Annoyed Jackie Mason

In November 1966, Jackie Mason appeared at the Aladdin's Supper Club with Frank Sinatra's partner Joe E. Lewis. His act included jokes about the age difference between 50-year-old Frank Sinatra and his 21-year-old new bride, actress Mia Farrow.

“Frank soaks his dentures and Mia brushes her braces,” Mason said. “Then she takes off her roller skates and puts them near her stick. He takes off his hat and she lets down her hair.”

Hearing about the jokes, probably from Lewis, Sinatra came to watch the act with a group of colleagues and began harassing Mason, calling him a “creep” and a “bomb”.

“If you need that much attention, you should see a doctor, not my show,” Mason replied before the singer and his entourage exited.

Sinatra sent some thugs to Mason's dressing room to tell him to be smart or else.

Mason did not follow his advice. A few nights later, he received an anonymous call warning him to change his tune if he valued his life.

After a night or two of Sinatra material, three shots were fired through the front door of Mason's suite at the Aladdin. He was in the bathroom at that time. Bullets were found embedded in his mattress.

According to Mason, when he reported the incident to Las Vegas police, they declined to investigate.

Mason later said of his act, “I don't know who it was that tried to shoot me.” “After the shots were fired, I just heard someone singing, 'Doobie, doobie, doo.'”

Apparently Sinatra had the last laugh. On February 13, 1967, a thug wearing brass knuckles broke Mason's nose and cheekbones outside his apartment in Miami.

moment in the family

The first and last people to die in the construction of Hoover Dam were a father and his son.

Before we started researching this story, it seemed like the most convincing myth we had ever encountered. But once again, incredibly, the facts checked out.

Before construction began on the dam, John Gregory Tierney was among the surveyors looking for a construction site up and down the Colorado River. In 1921, Tierney fell from the boat he was riding in and drowned in a strong current.

Fourteen years later, Tierney's son, Patrick, became the last construction casualty at the dam when he fell from the newly constructed structure and died.

And, as if that weren't strange enough, both father and son died on December 20. Their names appear in raised metal on a plaque near the dam.

Watch “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday Casino.org. Click here to read the first Vegas Myths Debunked. Do you have any suggestions for a Vegas myth that needs to be debunked? Email corey@casino.org.