The Wild Wild West (the Will Smith song)
How did the deadliest execution squad of the 20th century help build a city in the middle of the desert? The mob or more specifically organized crime is perhaps one of the most interesting topics in recent history. Organized crime has effected nearly the whole world in some way or another. The most famous example being the mob in Las Vegas, Nevada. The neon city of sin in the silver state. Casinos, brothels, murder, the mob is in it all. The mob used murder. Inc to send messages of fear and fear in general to help build Las Vegas.
Have you ever hated somebody enough to want them dead? Hated them to the point were you cannot stand to have them being alive. Probably not, but if you have then to you it’s a big deal, something to remember. Not for a gangster, for a gangster it happens a lot. And here we have a demand, a demand for killings to be taken out. Now who would supply this? Murder. Inc. Started in New York by Albert “The Mad Hatter” Anastasia (leader of operations) and Louis “Lepke” Buchalter after the creation of “the committee” for organized crime in America. Mobsters from around America hired them to eliminate witnesses and opposition. Early on in the first years of the business they made a name for themselves by murdering witnesses to prosecutors who would have them put in jail. This is the first message that murder. Inc sent: Don’t testify against them or even think about it for that matter. Without them Las Vegas would be a very different place.
Murder. inc specialized in all of this, based out of Browntown, Brooklyn they were ready to kill on a moments notice. Las Vegas mobsters had a major need for this and with murder. Inc was the perfect candidate with their long resume of kills and experience. They started by killing a long list of people involved in the legal system like the witnesses I mentioned and people like lawyers and sometimes even judges but that was extremely rare. The last thing you wanted was this Italian and Jewish mafia execution squad to show up at your door it was death sentence. Out of all these complex messages and codes of killing the driving thing they were trying to get out was not to mess with them. In 1938 police started cracking down on illegal gambling forcing gamblers to move to Las Vegas. This led to a boom in business for murder. inc and the mob.
“It’s not just who you kill, but how you kill”. Murder. Inc’s biggest weapon was fear. They got this from sending messages with their ruthless killings. This can be seen in one of the groups most infamous killings, the killing of Dutch Schultz a former member of the group. He ordered a hit on an attorney that was trying to prosecute murder. Inc against the will of the higher ups. You may be thinking “isn’t that a good thing?” I say no and so did the higher ups like the “lord high executioner” Albert Anastasia. They knew if the attorney as killed then it would give the mob an even worse name in the press so they went as far as to save his life and killing Dutch Schultz. This was 1935. At this point the mob was in the getting into businesses in Las Vegas and once that crackdown in 1938 came in the mob was waist deep in it, counting on murder. Inc to keep them there. Without they’re resourceful nature the mob would not have lasted nearly as long and may have even been kicked out of Vegas before the building of the flamingo and the start of an era that led to what we see in Vegas today.
Don’t mess with the mob in any way. It’s a one way ticket for you to become an example like the ones I used above. Murder. Inc was the organization that the mob used to instil the most fear to enemies and would be betrayers by sending messages with other killings and setting examples. They kept the mob in power and made anyone who wanted to cross the mob think twice.
First I want to establish the grittiness of the mob by opening with a cinematic shot of the desert covered by music. Then as the music fades out we hear quotes from famous mob movies about killing and power. After this it cuts to black and everything goes silent. Cuts in with me and my hook about them changing Las Vegas with a background of an old map of Vegas in background. Then it shows a board from the mob museum about killing and I give my Intro to murder. Inc. Cuts to video of me at the Pima air and space museum comparing the warthog and the stealth bomber and why.
How did the the deadliest execution squad of the 20th century help build a city in the middle of the desert? Simple doing what they do best. Killing people. (Cuts to black)
Organized crime has effected nearly all parts of the world in some way or another. There aren’t many more famous examples than that of Las Vegas, Nevada. The neon city of sin in the silver state. Brothels, casino, murder the mob was it all.
The mob used murder. Inc to send messages of fear and eliminate anyone who was halting their progress to help build Las Vegas.
What made murder. Inc so famous is no one quite knew what they were going to do next and no one knew what they were capable of.
The demand for killing in the mob world was high and filling this was murder. Inc from New York to Los Angeles they always got the best contracts. Started in New York by Albert “the mad hatter” Anastasia aka the lord high executioner for his love of killing and Louis “Lepke” Buchalter after the creation of “the committee” for organized crime in North America.
They made a name for themselves by killing witnesses to prosecutors who would put mobsters in jail. Attorneys and traitors of any kind.
The last thing you wanted was this Jewish and Italian mafia hit squad showing up to your door, it was a death sentence. (Cut to radio noises)
1938 a time of political unrest and a crackdown on illegal gambling. So were would all these gamblers go? Vegas of course. This meant a large increase in business for Las Vegas.
This was the beginning of the early 20th century boom for Las Vegas. (Kiss the sky). As song plays we see a compilation of gangsters and casinos.
Song cuts out (rewind sound). “It’s not who you kill, but how you kill.” (Over black then the words: “3 years earlier appear”). The mob ruled through fear. If you weren’t part of them you feared them. But what if you were a part of them?
Dutch Schultz was a former member of the group that ordered a hit on a high profile attorney that was in the process of prosecuting Murder. Inc. (video pause and pause symbol comes on screen.) So what’s the problem, you may ask? Well believe it or not the mob had PR problem and higher ups like Albert Anastasia and Luciano Buchlater knew that the killing of this attorney would put an even worse name to the mob. So they killed Dutch and in an ironic twist ended up saving the very man who was trying to end them.
By now the mob was waist deep in business in Las Vegas and the ban three years after this came at the perfect time. If it wasn’t for the resourceful nature of murder. Inc in the years leading up to this crackdown the mob would have been run out Las Vegas and the flamingo would have never been built, meaning Las Vegas wouldn’t be the city we know today.
This project was a change from ones we have done before and for that reason it was a challenge to get ideas, video and inspiration. We had to create a video essay about our fear factor unit. We watched many examples of good video essays to get an idea of what the teachers were expecting from us as a class. Our first step was to write a full essay on our topic mine being the mob. After this long process we edited and edited and edited some more. Then we highlighted everything as you can see above and pick what to keep and what to leave out. After this we wrote our script consisting of what we were going to say, what music we were going to play and what would be on the screen.