Vegas Rag Doll: A True Story of Terror and Survival as the Wife of a Mob Hitman - Softcover

Schoenmann, Joe; Mazaros, Wendy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1935043560 ISBN 13: 9781935043560

Publisher: Stephens Pr Llc, 2011

Synopsis

As a child, Wendy relished the small frontier town of Las Vegas. But as a teenager in the 1970s, Wendy's troubled home life and rebellious spirit led her to the legendary Horseshoe Club on Fremont Street, where she hooked up with Ted Binion, youngest son of notorious gambling figure Benny Binion. Her affair with the casino scion soon devolved into dalliances with high-rolling gamblers and suitcase deliveries of cash to Midwest mobsters.Binion then passed off Wendy like a trophy to Tom Hanley, a man thirty-nine years older who nonetheless drew her affections and ultimately married her. In partnership with his sadistic son, Gramby, Tom was a mob hitman. Wendy became a terrified and silent witness to his numerous crimes. Authorities say Hanley may have been responsible for more than twenty murders over three decades.Vegas Rag Doll paints a compelling portrait of the final years of organized crime in Las Vegas. In a fascinating era when legitimate facades disguised dark secrets, Wendy had a front-row seat - and a knack for survival.

About this title

From the Author:

Some days are harder than others.  I stand there looking at the image in the mirror and reassure myself I'm not Wendy Hanley anymore. That was then and this is now.  I'm Wendy Mazaros.  Other days I see the reflection of myself first as a girl and then a young woman,- the wife of the notorious czar Teamsters and Culinary Union enforcer and hit man, Tom Hanley,  during the time the Mob ran the city.

From the Inside Flap:

  As a child, Wendy relished the small frontier town of Las Vegas, where she and a friend rode their horses to Caesars Palace and tied them up front.  But as a teenager in the 1970s, Wendy's troubled home life and rebellious spirit led her to the legendary Horseshoe Club on Fremont Street, where she hooked up with Ted Binion, youngest son of notorious gambling figure Benny Binion.  Her affair with the casino scion soon devolved into dalliances with high-rolling gamblers and suitcase deliveries of cash to Midwest mobsters.
  Binion then passed off Wendy like a trophy to Tom Hanley, a man thirty-nine years older, who nonetheless drew her affections and ultimately married her.  But Hanley was no kindly old air-conditioning contractor.  In partnership with his sadistic son, Gramby, Tom was a mob hit-man.  Wendy became terrified and silent witness to his numerous crimes.  Authorities say Hanley may have been responsible for more than twenty murders over three decades.  He told Wendy he was involved in the murders of John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa.  His underworld career culminated with the 1977 murder of powerful Culinary Union boss Al Bramlet.
  The Bramlet murder proved to be the Hanley's undoing.  After a nation-wide manhunt, the father-son duo was arrested in Phoenix.  Seeking evidence, police tricked Wendy into leading them to a stash of jewelry taken from Bramlet after he was killed.  Taken into the Federal Witness Protection Program, Tom Hanley died after serving only one year in prison, while Gramby has lingered behind bars for two decades, living under an assumed identity. 
  In addition to tracing Wendy Hanley's harrowing life story, Vegas Rag Doll paints a vivid portrait of the final years of organized crime in Las Vegas, before the corporations took control.  In a fascinating era when legitimate facades disguised dark secrets, Wendy Hanley had a front-row seat - and a knack for survival.

About this edition

• Publisher: Stephens Pr Llc
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1935043560
• ISBN 13: 9781935043560
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 219