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Tahoe’s mobster hits and casino killings
Mobster hits and casino killings were a lot more common back in the day than you might think! This was according to my Father who would have known a lot about the dirty dealings of Tahoe mobsters.
Mobsters, gambling, and North Shore Lake Tahoe
Were mobsters killing people and dumping the bodies in the lake? In the late 1940s and 1950s, my Father ran the switchboard for all of the phone communications on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe and he says there were.
Every call went through my Father, his wife, or one of the few switchboard operators and it’s known that mob-affiliated gambling in Tahoe ran through the North Shore Casinos.
That means that every time the police would plan a raid on one of the casinos, my Father would know first. The way my Father tells it, he was the number one VIP as he tipped off the casinos before the police could raid them. He provided an invaluable service to the casinos and got the royal treatment from their owners and managers.
The mobster lore of Lake Tahoe is very popular. I’m lucky to be one of the few people who had the stories of my Father to confirm some of this lore.
This estate has since been demolished. People still visit the property even though it is now privately owned. There are a few remaining original structures on the property. The boathouse, a couple of caretaker cabins, and the yacht club. These are all that remain of the original estate which was built in 1939.
South Shore Mob Hits?
South Shore casinos had much less mobster involvement. There were still two murders of interest.
There was a 1949 murder of Harry Sherwood, he was killed by a “Russian” named Louie Strauss. The point of interest is that Sherwood was a partner in a casino, as was Strauss. The story is that Sherwood was skimming money off of the casino.
Strauss claimed the killing was self-defense and he was later absolved of the murder. Strauss then headed for Las Vegas where the rumor is he was killed by Mafia hitmen and by all accounts, he just disappeared.
The second murder of interest is the murder of Dick Shartran. In the 1960s Shartran was an owner of Barney’s Casino. He is said to have gone back on a loan.
He was murdered by a car bomb. The bomb was set off when he shifted his car into gear. Who uses car bombs to kill people? Mobsters. This murder was never solved.
Tahoe was too remote for mobster control
In the end, Lake Tahoe was out of reach for the mobsters. It was far from the home centers of Mob control. The climate wasn’t easy, it was a small area, and things were changing with the Nevada Gaming Commission. Once friendly to the Mobsters the commission was turning away from them.
The circular bar at the Cal Neva Lodge on a postcard with a 1944 postmark. Photo: Reno Printing Company / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
There was a new breed of casino owners at the Lake. Guys who are on the “up and up” following the law and managing the casinos above board. Bill Harrah and Harvey Gross founded gambling in South Shore and their straight-arrow ways didn’t leave any room for the mobsters to get in on the action.
I asked my Father if there are bodies in the lake from the mobster hits and casino killings. He heavily implied that there were. He said that gambling is big money and you have to run it with a heavy hand.
Then he joked about some guys sleeping with the fishes. He claimed to know of a couple of guys who were brought into the casino late at night for scamming the casino and he never saw them again, no one did.
If you want to know what happens to bodies in Lake Tahoe check out this article. Link to the bodies in Lake Tahoe article.
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About the author: Anna, special guest writer
Anna grew up in Kings Beach on Lake Tahoe's North Shore and spent her high school summers working as a summer camp counselor for the local parks and recreation department. As a special guest writer, she shares stories of growing up around the lake, from snorkeling at Speedboat Beach to the casino-era tales her father told.
