Morris Shenker

Hope I'm not stepping on any toes by being a noob and firing up a new topic, but another member, TonyG, and I have been discussing a guy from our hometown of St. Louis--Morris Shenker.

Shenker was a mob lawyer from way back--he was also Jimmy Hoffa's lead attorney for years. He was also the front owner for the Sands and the Aladdin in Vegas, representing the St. Louis and Detroit families, if memory serves.

TonyG also reminded me that Shenker represented more mobsters during the Kefauver hearings than any other attorney, and he wrote a brief on self-incrimination that was used by a lot of the other attorneys during the hearings.

There's not too much out there about him, but for my money, he was just as influential as Sidney Korshak, who's a lot better known. Anyone else got any information, stories, insights about him?

Below is a transcript from the Familty Secrets case. An interesting conversation between Joey 'the clown' Lombardo and Morris Shenker/Allen Dorfman:

May 22, 1979 Intercept 2 Intercept at AIA between Lombardo, Dorfman and Shenker

http://www.justice.gov/usao/iln/hot/familySecrets/2007_06_27/may_22_1979_t2.pdf

Very cool stuff.

I read this transcript. Joey Lombardo always had this demeanor like he's the last person who wants to carry out violent orders on the bosses' behalf. He uses it everywhere, seemingly to absolve himself of any guilt. It definitely shows up a couple times in the transcript, and in his conversations with Pat Spilotro as well.

Anyway, I just saw Casino. Was Morris Shenker supposed to be the lawyer with Ace Rothstein? I've also been looking in to 'The Dunes' and there's no real evidence that he was running it for the St. Louis family. He was either another frontman for the Outfit/KC/Milwaukee/Moshe Rockman casino skimming team or he was a strong enough OC figure to be given a piece of the action like the others were. That would have been interesting.

Not sure. The Philip Green character is based on Allen Dorfman, wasn't he? As for the lawyer with Ace/Lefty, not sure about that, but I'd doubt it. As a front owner for a couple of different casinos, I'm not sure Shenker would have represented, or been able to represent, someone in Rothstein/Rosenthal's position.

Casino's a great movie, but I don't think Dorfman was nearly as clueless and bumbling as Philip Green is.

I don't think St. L had a piece of the Dunes--I think it was the Sands and the Aladdin, and maybe the Riviera, too, but I'm not sure about that. In any case, I think it's interesting that Shenker served that role for a couple of different families, not just his hometown. Makes me wonder how he made all those connections.

One tidbit about Morris Shenker that occurred during the late 70's.

A guy walked into the office next door to Shenker's law office to rob it. The robber pulled a gun and demanded wallets and valuables. One of the "office workers" pulled his own gun out and shot and killed the robber.

Turns out, the occupants of the office next to Shenker's - an FBI sting operation that was monitoring (and I am betting bugged) Shenker.

Phillip Green was Allen Glick. Dorfman was 'Andy Stone'. He had a very interesting portrayal. The bosses all seemed to trust him enough to take a 55 year sentence, but when they turned their heads for Joey Aiuppa's vote, he said 'why take the risk?'. A perfect summing up of Aiuppa, who often killed people on hunches. I'd be interested to know if Dorfman was as much of a confidant and friend to the Midwest bosses as the film would have you believe.

Geez, that's an incredibly intelligent post. You're like 16, 17, right? Good looking on becoming a Federal Agent, I wish you all the luck man!

Oh, and this is one of the reasons why Casino is one of my all time favorite mob movies

I'm 17. Since there's no need for any sort of career while I'm a minor I've been spending more time trying to learn how criminals work through the BB. Thank you, man.

The lawyer in the 'Casino' Movie was Oscar Goodman. He was playing himself in the movie. He was an actual criminal defense lawyer in Las Vegas, and now he is (or was)the Mayor of Las Vegas. In real life he defended Tony Spilotro. Also, he is from Philly, and is licenced to practice there as well. He defended Nicky Scarfo in the past. There are many documentary film clips that show Oscar Goodman with both Little Nicky and the Ant. Check out these clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDwx4A7tNYQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XJOqsmnQTM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za5bPZLGVMw&feature=related
There is a full length documentary on Oscar, but I can't find it.

He was the mayor. Funny thing is, his wife, Carolyn Goodman, is currently the mayor of Las Vegas.

In 1974, Shenker was prepared to purchase the Stardust casino with a Teamster loan that would have been provided to him through Del Coleman, an investor. However, Shenker mysteriously backed out of the deal at the last moment and mob frontman Allan Glick was moved in on the deal.

Here's the write-up in Life Magazine from 1970 about Shenker, St. Louis mayor Alphonse Cervantes, and Vegas.

http://books.google.com/books?id=7lUEAAA...p;q&f=false