Del Coleman (real name, Delbert) was a Harvard graduate and a fringe Outfit associate involved in jukeboxes who eventually became interested in purchasing Vegas casinos with his partner, Sidney Korshak, whom he met when Korshak represented him in his divorce from his wife.

He became an investor in Acapulco Towers, a hotel/resort in Mexico which was partly owned by Korshak and Eugene Klein (who at the time owned the San Diego Chargers), among others. Eventually, he sold his share of a Chicago-based jukebox company and took a controlling interest in a corporation known as Parvin-Dohrmann when the original owner (allegedly an associate of Meyer Lansky) retired.

After this (with Korshak as a behind the scenes co-conspirator/mastermind) Coleman and Korshak artificially manipulated the company's stock by giving insider tips to Korshak associates which in turn created interest in the company on the market. With the stock manipulation driving public interest sky-high (coupled with the 1969 Corporate Gaming Act allowing corporations to purchase shares in casinos) Korshak and Coleman attempted to initiate their "master plan", so to speak, by gobbling up casinos, with their first purchase being the Stardust Hotel and Casino (Korshak received a cool half-mil as a "finder's fee" for his part in the deal).

Not too long after that, things started to turn sour for both men when their stock activity was investigated and it was decided by Coleman and Korshak that it would be imperative to get out while the going was good, they would sell their shares for cash payments and leave the remaining shareholders with stock in Denny's Restaurants of all companies, which was attempting to buy out the Parvin-Dohrmann company.

Denny's got cold feet (ostensibly because of the company they would be dealing with to complete the transaction) and a Parvin-Dohrmann investor, with the backing of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed suit against Coleman and Korshak. Coleman caved almost immediately and agreed to resign, sell his controlling share to a voting trust, and testify against Korshak and other involved parties. Korshak lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and decried Coleman as a sworn enemy. Actually, it's a wonder Coleman didn't end up in a trunk considering who some of Korshak's friends were.

Before he left, Coleman managed to arrange a deal to sell the Stardust to a guy named Allen Glick, but that's another story entirely