{"id":482,"date":"2015-04-02T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T18:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lva.local\/secure\/shop\/products\/of-rats-and-men-second-edition\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T11:01:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:01:34","slug":"of-rats-and-men","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/products\/of-rats-and-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Rats and Men"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
<\/a><\/th>\n<\/a><\/th>\n<\/a><\/th>\n<\/a><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

For more than 35 years, Oscar Goodman defended\u00a0alleged gangsters. His endless client list reads like a Who\u2019s Who<\/em> of mobsters: Meyer Lansky, Nick Civella, Anthony Spilotro, Frank Rosenthal, Jimmy Chagra, Natale Richichi, Nicky Scarfo, and Vinny Ferrara, to name a few.<\/p>\n

So, was Goodman only what he claims: an attorney who defended his clients based on the simple principle that they, too, have constitutional rights? And if so, how did he manage to mingle with the mob for decades without becoming part of it?<\/p>\n

After scores of unlikely courtroom victories, Goodman pulled off an even more unlikely career change. Twice elected mayor of Las Vegas, he went from legal spokesman for the most notorious crime figures of our era to political spokesman for the most notorious city in the country.<\/p>\n

Originally available only in hard-cover format, this paperback edition<\/strong>\u00a0Of Rats and Men<\/em> has also been expanded with five new chapters that bring Goodman\u2019s story fully up-to-date. A must-read for any fan of Las Vegas and its colorful past — and even more colorful former \u201cmob\u201d mayor.<\/p>\n

About The Author<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Formerly the most widely read columnist in Nevada,\u00a0John L. Smith<\/strong>\u00a0has been honored by the National Headliner Awards, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, and the Nevada Press Association. In 2001, John was named a finalist for the prestigious Batten Medal. He appears regularly on national television shows and was a featured source for the award-winning British documentary “Mob Law: The True Story of Oscar Goodman.” A prolific author, Smith has also written No Limit\u2014The Rise and Fall of Bob Stupak and Las Vegas\u2019 Stratosphere Tower<\/em>, Quicksilver\u2014The Ted Binion Murder Case<\/em>, and On the Boulevard\u2014The Best of John L. Smith<\/em><\/a>, among numerous other books.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oscar Goodman was one of the pre-eminent defense attorneys for alleged gangsters in the U.S., then the colorful \u201cMob Mayor” of Las Vegas, and this is his unauthorized but definitive biography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"product_cat":[53,39,38,1917,1918,518,378],"product_tag":[158,149,157,330,329,554,166],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=482"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}