list of las vegas true crime tales
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true crime lists
Looking for quick true crime reads? Then our strue crime lists section is for you. Choose a topic to find several true crime snippets from Vegas history.
serial killers of sin city
Serial murder has become a mainstay of the 20th century and Las Vegas has not been spared from the random and often sadistic nature of murder committed as a compulsion. Click below to learn more about just a few of the serial murders linked to Sin City.
serial killers of sin city: part II
We bring you Part 2 in our series on the serial killers that have passed through Las Vegas over the decades, including Brookey Lee West, John Wayne Gacy, and Stephen Peter Morin.
Shocking Prohibition Era Crimes of Las Vegas
With the passage of the 18th Amendment and the federal Volstead Act, liquor was by and large made illegal across the United States starting in 1920. This immediately created a lucrative black market for the illicit sale of alcohol, and along with it came an explosion of violent crime as competing rackets fought for control of the new underground market. During Prohibition, the tiny town of Las Vegas was the scene of both homegrown bootleggers and organized crime elements that predated the more familiar Vegas mafia figures by decades.
Wildest Crimes of Old West Vegas
Las Vegas was founded in 1905 hundreds of miles away from the nearest sizable city. The early years of Vegas featured a town largely populated by prospectors and railroad workers that would often wile away their time in the saloons lining the city’s Red Light District. This mixture of rough characters, alcohol, and limited law enforcement created an Old West atmosphere.
Learn tales of Old West Vegas, such as a sheriff’s deputy challenging a judge to a duel, a saloon shooting, and the death of the first lawman in Las Vegas.
Boomtown - A history of Las Vegas Bombings
Thousands of bombs have gone off across the United States over the course of the 20th century for every reason from the personal, to the political, to the financial. And Las Vegas was not spared from the threat of criminal bombings.
domestic disturbance - a history of domestic violence in las vegas
Domestic violence can occur in any community and often has deadly results. The history of domestic crimes in Las Vegas shows how the city’s attitudes have evolved toward issues like stalking and self-defense claims by women that murdered their abusive spouses.
longer stories
Looking for an in-depth look at the crimes that shaped Las Vegas? Then you will want to check out our list of longform Vegas true crime tales below.
downtown siege: Nevada’s most dangerous criminal and a hostage crisis at the Las Vegas Jail
On a hot summer day in 1979, two inmates of the Las Vegas City Jail attempted a bold escape. But a fatal flaw in their plan was seeking the assistance of a man reputed to be Nevada’s most dangerous criminal – Patrick McKenna. A deadly siege would result in surprising legal battles and give rise to the unanswered question of whether McKenna was the product of a dehumanizing childhood and penal system or just born bad.
Bigotry and a Bomb Blast
The 1960’s saw a national wave of white supremacist terrorism targeting Black Americans as part of the backlash against the gains of the civil rights movement.
Sadly, Las Vegas was no exception, with a popular Strip performer targeted in a terrorist attack.
no one suspects the busboy: high-rise arson
The Las Vegas Hilton featured some of the most modern amenities in town along with showcase entertainers during the 1970’s, and the hotel looked poised for additional growth and success heading into the 1980’s. But a twisting story involving the deadliest arson in modern Nevada history temporarily derailed the steady expansion the Hilton had enjoyed, while putting a young hotel busboy in the national spotlight as the unlikely hero-turned-suspect behind the blaze.
Hospital Deadpools and Angels of Death
“Angel of Death!” screamed headlines across the United States in the spring of 1980. These sensational stories centered around a 32-year-old supervising nurse for the graveyard shift at Sunrise Hospital’s intensive care unit in Las Vegas named Jani Adams. And the articles about the “Death Angel” carried a distinctly Vegas twist – Jani and the nurses she supervised had been running a hospital “dead pool” to place wagers on when patients under their care would die.
How did a mild-mannered nurse that described herself being “shy as a mouse” end up in the national spotlight for allegedly murdering her patients?
murder in the divorce capital of the united states
Nevada offers the same lax residency requirements to obtain a divorce today as it did nearly 100 years ago – one only has to live in the State for six weeks before being eligible to file for divorce. But not too long after Nevada gained a national reputation as the place to go to get a divorce, Las Vegas was the scene of a brutal public murder on the steps of a law office in a tale involving domestic violence, the death of a child, and a desperate insanity defense to avoid the gas chamber.
kidnapping a gangster’s son
Benny Binion, the founder and owner of Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in downtown Las Vegas from 1946 until his death in 1989, was known for being an affable Texan with a reputation for taking care of his family as well as his employees. But despite his friendly demeanor, “Old Man Binion” never shed his roots as a notorious Dallas organized crime figure of the 1930’s and 40’s that oversaw a sprawling network of illegal gambling dens throughout that city. During his Dallas days, Binion maintained his extensive gambling network by faithfully following the rule, “Do your enemies before they can do you.”
A cab driver and part-time petty criminal decided he could make a quick fortune by kidnapping Benny Binion’s son. Find out what became of the cabbie’s plot to ransom a gangster’s child.
deadly negotiations: the gangster and the FBI agent
This true crime tale features a pillar of the Las Vegas community - lawyer, ex-FBI agent, former state legislator, and businessman Bill Coulthard - matched against a ruthless gangster and gambler that also happened to be one of the city’s most prominent businessmen, in a deadly negotiation over the future of a downtown casino.
restaurant wars
Las Vegas in the 1970’s was the site of bombings and murders, but not all of this mayhem was linked to the mafia. A labor dispute between the Culinary Union Local 226 and several off-Strip restaurants escalated into violence starting in the fall of 1975, which ultimately resulted in the head of the Culinary Union learning a valuable lesson – never refuse to pay a hitman.
the bombing of the orbit inn
A thunderous blast during the early morning hours rocked downtown Las Vegas in 1967. The explosion at the Orbit Inn would turn out to be the deadliest bombing in the history of Las Vegas. Surprisingly, in a city famous for organized crime-linked bombings, this murderous act was carried out by a deserter from the U.S. Army for reasons that are still shrouded in mystery.
fatal custody exchange - the “war bride” murder case
Las Vegas resident Frank Waters survived his service with the U.S. military in Europe during World War II. But only a year after the War’s end, the consequences of Frank’s actions overseas followed him thousands of miles back to the middle of the Mojave Desert, leading to a series of events that would ultimately result in Frank’s murder by his estranged wife in front of his young son, followed by a trial that made international headlines.
Stranger danger then and now
A story from 1909, shortly after the founding of Las Vegas, offers a glimpse into the similarities in reactions to cases of child abduction then and now, as well as how swift “justice” was often carried out in frontier towns like Las Vegas in the last days of the Old West.
losing your shirt in early vegas
Las Vegas was as known for vice today as it was 100 years ago. Vegas in its early days was a rail junction town that featured thousands of aspiring prospectors a year passing through on their way to make a fortune in the mining boomtowns of Nevada. These travelers often passed their time in the city’s Red Light District while waiting for their next train - and at times the less scrupulous dwellers of the Red Light District would take advantage of these adventurous travelers.
free speech vs. mccarthyism in Vegas
A tale from 1950’s Las Vegas features the most powerful publisher in the city on trial for publishing an editorial that federal prosecutors allege was intended to incite the assassination of the controversial U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy. The resulting legal proceedings were a national sensation that would involve intrigue at the highest levels of the U.S. government in an effort to defeat the destructive political environment unleashed by McCarthy’s ruthless pursuit of “communists” behind every corner.
the 1982 school shooting that rocked las vegas
A school shooting shocked the city of Las Vegas and the nation in 1982. But the crime demonstrates the differences in how we view school shootings today compared to the early 80’s before school violence had become an epidemic.
The Lost Women of Las Vegas
A new series of stories from Mayhem in the Desert about the unsolved deaths or disappearances of dozens of women in the Las Vegas area from the 1970’s through the mid-90’s.
Taken from school: the unsolved murder of Kim Bryant
The 1979 daylight abduction of a teenage girl across from her Las Vegas high school stunned the local community. While it was only a few weeks before Kim Bryant’s body was discovered in the desert surrounding the city, in the four decades since then her murder remains one of the most tragic and enduring unsolved mysteries in southern Nevada.
DISPOSABLE LIVES IN SIN CITY: TRAFFICKING AND MURDER UNDER THE DESERT SUN
A 1996 unsolved murder case from Las Vegas demonstrates a troubling proposition: three people can be murdered in a major American city with little more than a passing mention in the local press and zero potential suspects.