If somebody went to the length of rubbing out Morris B. Dalitz (1899-1989), they could have spared themselves the trouble. The Sept. 1, 1989 Las Vegas Sun obituary blamed the old mobster’s death on "congestive heart disease, chronic hypertension and kidney failure." It furthermore noted that Dalitz had been under nurses’ care since for the past year, as his various illnesses worsened and had spent his last three weeks confined to bed.
Alan Balboni’s chapter on Moe Dalitz in The Maverick Spirit: Building the New Nevada notes that the former bootlegger was dogged by cancer from 1987 onward. Bluntly put, there was no need to snuff Dalitz, given the extent of his physical decline. (For a book-length treatment of Dalitz’s eventful life, seek out Mr. Mob: The Life and Crimes of Moe Dalitz by Michael Newton.)
In his introduction to War of the Godfathers, author William F. Roemer Jr. freely admits to making up characters and conversations, relying up hearsay and "fictionalized" episodes. The "Vegas Star" is a thinly disguised version of the Stardust and the book preposterously depicts Dalitz as the victim of a "late 1986" phantom shootout in front of the in-progress Mirage (which didn’t break ground until 1987).
Other books have picked up the myth, which has the 89-year-old Dalitz catching four slugs from Joe Ferriola as he was "surveyed the construction site for the Mirage Hotel [sic]" in ’86 – which would have been a mighty neat trick, since the Castaways hotel still occupied that land, which Steve Wynn wouldn’t purchase and clear until 1987. In some versions, Dalitz miraculously survives another three years, only to be poisoned by a Sunrise Hospital orderly. (Ferriola died in March 1989, five months before his supposed target.)
Dalitz biographer Newton dismisses War of the Godfathers as "a tale loosely rooted in history, filled with events that never occurred." It depicts the "Vegas Star" being sold to an – as far as we can determine – nonexistent Japanese industrialist, "Tojo Yashudi," and having its counting room bombed ... an incident that seems to have taken place only in the author’s imagination.
Founder of what became the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, Dalitz built several casinos, although only the Sundance Hotel – now Fitzgerald’s – still stands. He had ties with both the Detroit and Chicago mobs but was most closely affiliated with the Cleveland underworld. It was from that demimonde that Dalitz recruited partners Morris Kleinman and Ruby Kolod. The three of them were the real power behind front man Wilbur Clark at the Desert Inn.
Dalitz was responsible for completion of the Stardust, which was a lucrative front for the Chicago mob. It had sat unfinished for two years following original owner Tony Cornero’s sudden 1955 demise at a Desert Inn craps table. Mrs. Rella Factor was listed as owner but her husband, Mob financier Jack "The Barber" Factor was a covert partner, as was Dalitz, who completed the resort using money lent by, among others, the Teamsters Union.
As for War of the Godfathers, we’d strongly advise re-shelving that under "Fiction."
