Bonanno Makes His Move

Bonanno explained to his men that the plan for increasing their power involved the taking of Las Vegas. He reminded everyone that it was New York that first developed the area of Vegas and they had taken too much for granted allowing the interests from Chicago to gain control of major Vegas interests. In 1977 the New York faction had fallen for the promise of growing riches in the development of gambling in Atlantic City. The Commission had hammered out a deal by which Las Vegas would no longer be an open city but would fall under the control of the Chicago except for the casinos already under the control of the New York faction. In return Chicago promised to keep out of the Atlantic City enterprises. The problem that arose was that Atlantic City did not produce the type of income that was being generated by Vegas. Bonanno already had his problems in New York and saw a major move into Vegas as a way to enhance the power of his Family.

The key to Bonanno's plan was the leadership and experience of Dalitz in Vegas affairs. Dalitz had served the Chicago faction well over the years causing many to forget that his real roots had been developed through work with the New York faction. Dalitz had developed a close relationship with Meyer Lansky one of the major New York leaders. Bonanno explained that he had approached Lansky with his plan for going back into Vegas and asked Lansky to use his friendship to find out what type of reaction Dalitz might have toward such an action. Dalitz made it clear that his association with Tony Accardo and his Chicago group since the 1950's. Dalitz had difficulty in understanding how the leadership of this faction had passed into the hands of Sam Giancana. The respect that Dalitz held for Accardo was not extended to Giancana or in particular to Tony Spilotro sent out to Vegas as the representative of Giancana. Aware of Dalitz's feelings Bonanno approached him with a proposal that he join forces with the Bonanno Family in their Las Vegas move. Dalitz would bring with him a number of skills and experience that would make success in the action possible. With Dalitz the knowledge of the skim would be in the hands of the New York group and the connections that Dalitz had developed with Vegas politicians and business leaders would make transitions much easier. Dalitz would provide the brains and would expect Bonanno to provide soldiers for protection of Dalitz and his people.

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