Infamous casino operator Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal dies
By most accounts he was a cheat, an egomaniac, a friend of the mob, and he most brilliant man ever to have ruled the Las Vegas casinos—before he was finally blacklisted by the Nevada gaming authorities in the 1980s.
The influence of Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal over Sin City was such that his life became the subject of a 1995 Martin Scorsese movie, Casino, in which he was played by Robert De Niro (a casting choice that left Rosenthal "almost impressed", according to those who knew him). Meanwhile, his former lawyer, Oscar Goodman, is now the city's high-living Democratic Mayor.
Even after his exile to Florida, it was widely believed that Rosenthal—nicknamed 'Lefty' for the notorious instance when he plead the Fifth Amendment no less than 38 times, refusing even to confirm that he was left-handed—was indestructible. After all, he had survived a direct hit by a car bomb in 1982 outside Tony Roma's steakhouse—a fluke probably attributable to the steel plate fitted to his Cadillac Eldorado to correct a balancing problem. Locals claim they can still point to the scorch marks in the restaurant's car park on East Sahara Avenue.
Read entire article at Times (UK)
The influence of Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal over Sin City was such that his life became the subject of a 1995 Martin Scorsese movie, Casino, in which he was played by Robert De Niro (a casting choice that left Rosenthal "almost impressed", according to those who knew him). Meanwhile, his former lawyer, Oscar Goodman, is now the city's high-living Democratic Mayor.
Even after his exile to Florida, it was widely believed that Rosenthal—nicknamed 'Lefty' for the notorious instance when he plead the Fifth Amendment no less than 38 times, refusing even to confirm that he was left-handed—was indestructible. After all, he had survived a direct hit by a car bomb in 1982 outside Tony Roma's steakhouse—a fluke probably attributable to the steel plate fitted to his Cadillac Eldorado to correct a balancing problem. Locals claim they can still point to the scorch marks in the restaurant's car park on East Sahara Avenue.