The Man Who Invented Las Vegas - Softcover

In line with Billy Wilkerson's top-drawer approach to business and life, we've taken special care to ensure that this book is a quality production. The book's striking cover, created by the designer of the "Titanic" movie poster is a piece of art in its own right. Nor was any expense spared in the production process. Intended to last for many years, this archival paperback is printed on acid-free, 80# stock and illustrated with more than twenty high-quality photographic reproductions.

I launched a one-man media campaign to publicize my father's story. Initially, I encountered a stone wall. Enchanted by the persuasive power of filmed legend, the press was reluctant to criticize "Bugsy's" factual basis. Getting the truth out was a slow, uphill battle. Finally, on Academy Award Night in 1992, many papers, including a few national dailies, ran accurate accounts containing elements of my father's story.

Although my efforts had paid off, I felt that the battle was just beginning. There was so much of my father's story still to be told. I decided to take some time off and uncover the full story behind the Flamingo Hotel.

I began my research by trying to prove the Bugsy myth correct. I was unable to find a shred of evidence to support either Bugsy's or the filmmakers' claims. I then turned to my father's well-documented life. Methodically piecing together everything from family interviews to cancelled checks, generated such a compelling paper-trail that I could not understand how history had gone so far astray.

I packaged all this material into a voluminous manuscript and sent it to British biographer, Robert Lacey. Lacey, who created the definitive account of organized crime in America with the 1991 publication of his Little Man a biography of Meyer Lansky, suggested trimming the manuscript down into a much smaller, but no less persuasive book

"Stick exclusively with your dad's story," he recommended. "That's what's never been told before." Six years later, as I look back on four years of research and two years spent actually writing "The Man Who Invented Las Vegas," I realize that Lacey's words were very, very good advice.