‘Sin City Gangsters’ Author Speaks at East End Libraries

Jeffrey Sussman, author of “Sin City Gangsters: The Rise and Decline of the Mob in Las Vegas,” will speak about his new book at four local libraries. On Friday, February 17, he will speak at the Shelter Island Library at 7 p.m. The following day, Saturday, February 18, he will speak at the East Hampton Library at 2 p.m. On February 22, at 6 p.m., he will speak at the Amagansett Library. And on Saturday, February 25, at 1 p.m., he will speak at the John Jermain Library in Sag Harbor. All talks will be both in person and on Zoom. Following each talk, Sussman will sign copies of “Sin City Gangsters.”

“Sin City Gangsters” is a fast-paced, unique, and compelling history of how the mob created and controlled Las Vegas. It contains accounts of how the most powerful mobsters in the country built, bought, and controlled not only gambling casinos in Vegas, but also many important politicians, who did the mob’s bidding.

Some of the more notorious mobsters were Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Moe Dalitz, Sam Giancana, Tony Accardo and Nick Civella, as well as the men they chose to carry out their plans, such as Tony Spilotro, Lefty Rosenthal and Donald Angelini. “Sin City Gangsters” devotes a chapter to Jimmy Hoffa, and how the Teamsters Pension Fund financed the mob’s casinos.

The book also offers accounts of the roles of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley in Vegas. Another chapter is devoted to Howard Hughes, who arrived in the dead of night in a sealed, germ-free railroad car and did not leave his suite at the Desert Inn for years. During that time, he bought one casino after another as if playing Monopoly. Following his exit and that of the mob, Vegas became the domain of Jay Sarno, Kirk Kerkorian, Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson. They were visionaries who transformed Vegas into the entertainment capital of the world by building billion-dollars-plus resorts and hiring the most popular contemporary entertainers.

Sin City Gangsters is the only book that charts Vegas from the first modest mob-owned casinos to the present billion-dollar-resorts; its cast of characters is an assembly of exceedingly ambitious risk takers who let nothing stand in their way of turning their dreams into stunning realities.