Gunfight in the Las Vegas Corral

The outfit under the leadership Accardo viewed the action taken on their turf as an offense that could not be taken lightly. An action was required that would teach New York that they were in with a fight from the organization that had been involved in Capone's St. Valentine Day Massacre. A target had to be chosen that would drive home to New York the fact that Chicago was ready to fight to the last man. During the Capone days Bugs Moran as the leader of a rival gang was chosen as a high profile target. In the case of Las Vegas a target of equal value would have to be chosen to display the fact that Chicago was still willing to fight an all out war. The highest profile target to prove this point would be a hit on Dalitz. Here was the man that had betrayed his Chicago friends and was pulling the strings to make the New York move possible. To remove him would throw confusion into the blueprints for a takeover that had been hammered out by Bonanno from New York. Some question arose related to the rule of not spilling blood in Vegas. Accardo was quick to point out that the rulebook had been thrown out the window when New York started a movement to seize power in Vegas at the expense of Chicago.

A crew was dispatched from Chicago with the instructions of hitting Dalitz at any cost. This Chicago group followed Dalitz for a number of days and came to the quick realization that this would be a difficult job. Dalitz kept at least four bodyguards close to himself throughout most of the day. To reach Dalitz would only come at a heavy cost to the Chicago group. The only time that it appeared that Dalitz would provide any distance from his bodyguards was on visits to the site of the Mirage, at that time under construction. Dalitz would wonder across areas of the site feeling that he would be safe in broad day light in the view of tourists along the strip. Only a desperate man would be willing to risk a hit under these circumstances. But Dalitz was not aware of the fact that the cost of the hit was not to be a concern. The only concern was that it had to be carried out no matter what the cost. Based on this position when Dalitz pulled into the construction site the Chicago crew cut off his bodyguards and opened fire. Fire was quickly returned and bodies dropped left and right. There were some tourists wondering by whom did not seem to be aware of exactly was taking place. The gunfire continued allowing one of the Chicago gunmen to get close enough to place four bullets into Dalitz. The lone gunman fled the scene hoping that at his advanced age the four bullets would be enough to finish Dalitz off. It wasn't, but the point was made that Chicago group was willing to break any rule and pay any cost to halt the power play of New York in Vegas.

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