The Green Felt Jungle: Was It True?
The behind-the-scenes backer: Edward Becker, was a liar; even about JFK's assassination.
Las Vegas was both shocked and entertained by The Green Felt Jungle,
written be Ed Reid and Ovid Demaris and published in January
1963. The authors claimed the book told the truth about Las Vegas,
and thus blew the lid off of the entertainment capital of the world. However,
much of the material in the book concerning the Dunes was not true
or was problematic for one reason or another.
There was a third person behind the book named Edward “Ed “ Becker.
It was common knowledge that he contributed much of the information
contained in it. Becker was an intelligent guy who portrayed a false
image to his friends and associates, which was one of being an insider and
Mob boss confidant. His employment at and relationship with the Riviera,
a major Mob- fronted hotel, did not put him on that level, however.
Becker claimed that Gus Greenbaum was “my friend and boss” and
implied he, Becker, was close to the Riviera operation. However, the second
biggest investor group in the Riviera was headed by Sidney Wyman,
and Becker did not mention Wyman in his book, All American Mafioso:
The Johnny Rosselli Story.238 This was odd because plenty of evidence
showed that Wyman knew Rosselli and was close to Greenbaum.
Other names that Becker did not mention in the book but should have
were Nick Civella and Ross Miller, as they both were heavily involved
with the Riviera, too.
Becker was a public relations man at the Riviera when Wyman was a stakeholder.
Becker may have worked alongside Wyman but he was never a close
enough associate to have been privy to inside information. It seems as though
Becker’s imagination and drive led him to surmise a great many bits and pieces
of information about the owners and operators of the casinos mentioned
in The Green Felt Jungle, which he then passed along to Reid and Demaris.
Wyman was known to take qualified people with him from hotel to
hotel if he liked them and they were capable of doing the job. This writer
cannot recall ever seeing Becker in the Dunes or in the company of Wyman
or the other executives.
The Green Felt Jungle alluded to the Dunes having had secret owners,
according to this passage: “Two well-known pawns, Sidney Wyman and
Kewpie Rich, were moved from the Flamingo to the Riviera (Wyman was
also at the Sands) and lately to the Dunes, which is having its share of
trouble with Chicago.”
However, it is clear from the 24/7 FBI surveillance on Sam Giancana
that the Dunes owners did not have any conflict with the Chicago Outfit.
In 1962, the FBI captured a detailed conversation between Wyman and
Morris “Potsy” Pearl in which they discussed a possible investment in the
Dunes by Pearl.240 Giancana also was interested in the Dunes and unless
he was lying to Pearl, there was no issue between the resort and the Chicago
Mob. This conversation occurred before February 1962, which means
that if the group behind The Green Felt Jungle really knew what was going
on inside the Dunes, they would have published it. The truth of the matter
is that they had no clue as to what the Dunes was all about. They speculated
but produced no concrete facts to support their claims.
Further, it is possible that Wyman presented the offer to Pearl of his
own accord. Perhaps it was a private arrangement between the two, one
that Wyman’s partners were not privy to.
The Green Felt Jungle alleged that Wyman and Rich were pawns for someone
else. In truth, while the two may have had “investors” who were passive,
those investors did not call the shots. These investors were not just anybody,
but rather most probably acquaintances from past business associations.
One example is Nick Civella, who tried to buy into the Riviera hotel
when Wyman was the second biggest investor.241 Ross Miller vehemently
opposed Civella obtaining a secret piece of the Riviera and informed the
Nevada gaming authorities that Civella was trying to. Miller was a faction in
the Riviera, was a close associate of Jimmy Hoffa and Chicago labor attorney
Sidney Korshak who, according to the FBI, represented the Outfit’s interests
in Las Vegas. Perhaps it was this situation between Miller and Civella
that was the conflict to which The Green Felt Jungle referred.
Reid, Demaris, and Becker would not have dared called Wyman and
Rich pawns to their face. Wyman, who could have been a champion college
debater, would have shamed him into being lower than a fly. And
their referring to Rich as “Kewpie” was just an insult as there was never a
classier boss than Charles J. Rich. The remarks hit below the belt. It simply
was a rank, sensationalistic tactic to sell books.
The authors claimed that Wyman and Rich moved from the Flamingo
to the Riviera, but there is no proof of Rich working at the Flamingo and
sketchy evidence that Wyman worked there in any position. It seems the
authors inferred from questioning of Rich during the Kefauver Committee
hearings that he and Wyman were involved in the Flamingo. During
the hearing it came out that the Senate committee had information alleging
that Rich was going to purchase an interest in that hotel-casino. Rich,
though, denied it. That exchange during the hearing was all public record
and available to Reid and Demaris.
The only truth about the Dunes in the book may have been the included
quote by Sherlock Feldman, a friend of Wyman: “People in the rest of
the world merely go broke and die broke. In Las Vegas you live broke.”
Becker, with Reid, was part of a controversy in that he linked New Orleans
Mafia boss Carlos Marcello to John F. Kennedy’s assassination, a
claim that fueled publicity and attention.
The Washington Post, in 1979, described the situation:242
“When the House Assassination Committee released its report last
month, its most perplexing section concerned alleged organized
crime involvement with the killing of John Kennedy. Santos Trafficante
and Carlos Marcello were fingered as ‘the most likely family
bosses’ to have participated in any plot, but then the ambivalent
report termed the notion ‘unlikely.’
“Linking Marcello to JFK’s death was an obscure private eye
named Edward N. Becker, a shadowy figure who has passed in and
out of organized crime circles as a shamus and anonymous researcher
of books. Who is Becker?
“He’s a 57-year-old, soft-spoken man who today lives in Las Vegas
with his second wife. He’s currently involved in business with
a former assistant attorney general of the U.S., Washington-based
attorney Jerris Leonard. And Becker is not delighted his name surfaced
in the House report.
“‘I expect some kind of retribution,’ Becker says today. ‘The
committee said, We’re doing everything in the world to protect
you. I didn’t believe it. Of course I’m worried.’
“In 1955 Becker signed on as public relations director for the
Riviera Hotel in Vegas. His milieu was gambling and men whose
occupations were vague, he says, and he eventually helped piece
together an NBC White Paper on organized crime in 1966. He also
helped gather information for the books, Green Felt Jungle and The
Grim Reapers, both billed as exposés of organized crime.
“Becker says he was in Louisiana in September of 1962 working
undercover for a finance company investigating Billie Sol Estes
when he struck up a friendship with Carlo Roppolo, a Shreveport
oil geologist well-liked by Marcello, according to the House
report. The two men visited Marcello at his estate near New Orleans.
In the course of a long evening of drinking scotch, Becker
remembers Marcello cursing the Kennedy brothers and talking
vaguely of trying to kill the president. Marcello denies that.
“That scene (without Becker’s name) made its way into Ed
Reid’s book, The Grim Reapers, which led the House committee to
Becker, who talked with a committee staffer by phone but refused
to testify because he feared the arm of organized crime as well as
the wrath of the FBI. The Bureau, according to the House report,
worked hard to discredit Becker instead of investigating the validity
of his information.”
Details were given in All American Mafioso about Becker meeting a second
time with Marcello. That passage read:
“The same month, Carlos Marcello described a more detailed plan
in the privacy of a farmhouse on his sprawling country estate outside
New Orleans. Ed Becker, a private investigator and free-lance
businessman, was meeting with Marcello and his longtime associates
Carlo Roppolo and Jack Liberto when their boss pulled out a
bottle and poured a generous round of Scotch. The conversation
wandered until Becker made an offhand remark about Bobby Kennedy
and Marcello’s deportation. The reference struck a nerve, and
Carlos jumped to his feet, exclaiming the Sicilian oath, ‘Livarsi na
pietra di la scarpa! (Take the stone out of my shoe!)’
“Reverting to English, Marcello shouted, ‘Don’t worry about that
Bobby son-of-a-bitch. He’s going to be taken care of.’ Emboldened by
the Scotch, Becker interrupted. ‘You can’t go after Bobby Kennedy.
You’ll get into a hell of a lot of trouble.’ In answer, Marcello invoked
an old Italian proverb: ‘If you want to kill a dog, you don’t cut off
the tail, you cut off the head.’ Bobby was the tail, an adjunct, an appendage.
If the President were killed then Bobby would lose his bite.
Marcello added that he had a plan, to use ‘a nut’ to take the fall for
the murder, ‘like they do in Sicily.’ Seated again, Marcello abruptly
changed the subject, and the Kennedys were not mentioned again.”
An interview by this writer of Tony Montana, a Chicago Outfit front
man, shed light on the question of whether or not Becker indeed did meet
with Marcello in 1962.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s Café Michele on Flamingo Road
was a lunch and drink hangout for locals and rounders in Las Vegas. This
author frequented the establishment on a daily basis to catch up with
friends and share and hear stories about the happenings in the world
of gaming, deals, and the Mob. Becker held court at Michele’s a few times
a week with his business companion and book advisor (working on the
Rosselli book), Tony Montana. In fact, Becker introduced Montana to
me. Montana was not a lightweight wannabe; he was the real deal. His
uncle, John Montana, was a guest at the famed Apalachin Mafia convening
in November 1957, and Tony was an employee of the late Chicago
boss Tony Spilotro. Tony Montana was an expert food and beverage manager
who had the skills to turn profits in bars and restaurants. Because he
was loyal, efficient, and a good problem solver, he was highly sought after.
Tony Montana had helped Becker get some interviews with top Mafia
bosses, which Becker could not land merely on the claim that he was associated
and worked with Gus Greenbaum at the Riviera and Flamingo
hotels. My former boss from the Dunes, Wyman, was the second biggest
shareholder in the Riviera with Greenbaum. Becker did not hold an inside
position in management and therefore was not connected, so to speak.
Becker wanted to interview Marcello in New Orleans but could never
connect with Marcello or any of his associates to arrange a meeting. Montana,
however, successfully set up an interview, through Joe Pignatello, associate
of Sam Giancana and owner of the once famous Villa d’Este Italian
restaurant in Las Vegas.
One afternoon this writer interviewed Tony Montana. I was interested
in the meeting Tony arranged between Marcello and Becker as described
in the book, All American Mafioso. Tony told me that he and Becker stayed
in a small hotel in the French Quarter and were to be ready the next morning
to be picked up by a driver. The pair waited in the outside dining area
and soon after breakfast, a car approached. The driver introduced himself
as a representative of Marcello. After the pleasantries, Montana got in the
front passenger seat and Becker sat in the rear. Becker was demonstrably
nervous after the driver said they were going out to the farm in Metairie
because he thought that the meeting would take place in a nearby office.
The trip to the farm took more than 30 minutes. “Don’t worry. If something
was going to happen to you, it would have already,” the driver told
Becker jokingly with a grin. Montana realized the driver was just being
humorous.
Tony continued the story, “We were brought into Marcello’s office, and
we met Carlos Marcello.”
That comment made a light go on for me. In Becker’s book he wrote
that he and Marcello met in 1962. If that were true then why did the two
men have to be re-introduced by Montana at this supposed second meeting?
Why would Marcello greet Becker as if he was meeting him for the
first time? That did not make sense.
I asked Tony, “Did it appear to you that Ed was meeting Marcello for
the first time?” He said, “Absolutely.”
The conclusion is that Becker never was at a meeting with Marcello in
1962. It was a fabrication.
One factual story in All American Mafioso was about the Dunes and
Howard Hughes. Rosselli introduced Robert “Bob” Maheu to Wyman
and company, which eventually led to Hughes negotiating to acquire the
Dunes.
An alleged incident involving Rosselli and the Dunes was relayed by
an FBI informant: “By airtel dated 4/12/63 in the case entitled ‘Dunes
Hotel aka Las Vegas Nevada.’ The Las Vegas Office advised that LV 70-
C* on 3/10/63 advised that Jake Gottlieb (Landlord, Dunes Hotel) and
Major Riddle engaged in a discussion involving the giving of markers and
they believed that Sid (Wyman-part owner) made a bad mistake in giving
credit to an unknown individual. Gottlieb remarked to the effect that Sid
had made other mistakes along these lines particularly ‘with that fellow
Rosselli from Los Angeles.’”243
243 FBI File 124-10225-10219, 1962