The Mysterious Cold War Murder of a Las Vegas Couple
The unsolved 1981 murders of Jack and Xenia Rabinowitsch appeared to be the work of professional hitmen that left behind little evidence for investigators. Investigators came to believe that the double homicide could have links to the Soviet KGB. Police and local organizations offered a reward in an effort to generate leads in the case. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
Tensions in the Cold War were mounting in the early 1980’s. Newly-elected president Ronald Reagan promised an aggressive line against the Soviet Union, Russian troops recently invaded Afghanistan, and the USSR faced international condemnation over its human rights violations.
Amidst this backdrop, an elderly couple known for their outspoken views against the Soviet Union – including involvement in clandestine efforts to help persecuted Jews escape the USSR – were found murdered in their Las Vegas home under circumstances straight out of a spy thriller.
Xenia and Jack Rabinowitsch had met as children in their native Latvia and married after emigrating from the USSR to the US. (LVMPD)
It was June 25, 1981, and nobody had heard from either Jack or Xenia Rabinowitsch (also in press reports as Rabinowitsh) for several days. When a maid arrived at the couple’s home at 2856 La Casita Avenue in a tony area of Las Vegas that morning not long after 10:00 a.m., she immediately took note of three days’ worth of newspapers strewn near the front door. The Rabinowitsch’ four dogs were frantically barking, and a security gate near the home’s entrance was ajar. In fact, the barking emanating from the house was so incessant that several neighbors had already called the police to complain.
The unusual scene prompted the maid to flag down a passing security patrol. The security guard, followed by the Rabinowitschs’ maid, walked slowly through the sprawling 6,000 square foot home. The house had been ransacked, adding to the sense of dread building in the maid and security guard.
The maid’s worst fears were confirmed when the duo entered the bedroom and found the lifeless bodies of the Rabinowitschs on their bed, both killed by a single shot to the back of the head.
The Rabinowitsch murders were shrouded in mystery. The couple were deceased for approximately 35 hours before being discovered by their maid. Local press reports of the slayings noted the Rabinowitsh’s four dogs had been barking incessantly day and night between June 24 - June 25, 1981. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
Homicide detectives pieced together most of what transpired the night Jack and Xenia Rabinowitsch were killed.
Around 8:00 p.m. on June 23, 1981, Jack received a call from some “friends” informing him that they were driving to Las Vegas from Los Angeles. Not long after hanging up the phone, Jack received another call from his acquaintances informing him that their car had broken down and they were currently at McCarran Airport in need of a ride.
Jack hung up the phone again and got in his 1969 Lincoln to make the short drive to the airport. The Lincoln was ultimately found abandoned in a parking lot at McCarran Airport about two hours after police learned of the murders. Investigators were never able to determine whether Jack drove his “friends” back home or if he was forced into a different vehicle before being taken back to his house.
Once back at the home in the Sierra Vista Ranchos neighborhood, the killers bound and gagged the elderly couple. When police found the Rabinowitschs, the couple had marks on their wrists from handcuffs and still had duct tape covering their mouths. Detectives noted the crime scene showed no signs of a struggle. The killers ransacked the home, forcing Jack and Xenia to open each of the four safes in the residence.
Eventually, the assassins found what they were looking for – a single file located in a drawer of one of the safes. The contents of the stolen file were never determined, but the Rabinowitschs’ children believed the document contained information their parents “considered worth guarding.”
Once the intruders recovered the file, they led the couple to their bedroom and forced Jack and Xenia facedown on the bed they had shared for so many years. Then one of the killers took a pillow and used it as a crude silencer to muffle the sound of two gunshots from a .22 handgun. The pillow with powder burns was found lying next to the bodies.
No fingerprints were found in the home or in Jack’s 1969 Lincoln abandoned at McCarran Airport. The timeframe for the murder was no later than early on the morning of June 24, 1981 - a ticket found in the Lincoln was timestamped at 1:00 a.m. on June 24th.
The site of the Rabinowitsh murders on La Casita Avenue. (Google Maps)
The Rabinowitsch murders had the hallmarks of being a professional job – and robbery clearly was not a motive since over $250,000 in cash, art, and other valuables were found in the home – but not much beyond that was clear about the double slaying of a quiet retired couple in suburban Vegas.
Jack and Xenia – each 72 years of age at the time of their deaths – had met as children in their native Latvia and married after emigrating from to the U.S. from the Soviet Union. Jack worked as a professional violinist, though he made his fortune by investing in real estate which allowed the Rabinowitschs to purchase a home in an area of Las Vegas where their neighbors included former governors, casino executives, and Wayne Newton. The couple were known for their love of dogs and the arts, though neighbors said Jack and Xenia largely kept to themselves.
The Rabinowitschs were proud of their Jewish heritage and made countering the Soviet Union’s persecution of its Jewish citizens a central part of their lives. At the time of the couple’s murder, the Soviet Union faced international condemnation for failing to take steps to curb antisemitism within its borders while at the same time preventing hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews that desired to emigrate to Israel from leaving the country.
Police investigators believed Jack and Xenia were involved in an international “underground railroad” that assisted Jewish people in escaping from the Soviet Union to Israel or the U.S.
The Rabinowitschs were so well known for their criticism of the Soviet Union that they drew the attention of Soviet authorities. The couple were also known to maintain active ties to those still in the USSR as a result of their advocacy.
Protesters in the United States advocating against the Soviet Union’s treatment of its Jewish citizens, including the mass denial of the ability of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel. (American Jewish Historical Society)
In December of 1982, Russian author Yuri Brokhin was found murdered in New York City by a single shot to the head. Like the Rabinowitschs, Brokhin was a Jewish immigrant from the Soviet Union and an outspoken opponent of his former homeland. And also like in the Rabinowitsch slaying, the killer of Brokhin stole several documents and left behind $15,000 in cash located in an attache case.
Las Vegas homicide detectives conducted multiple interviews with two Russian nationals suspected of ties to the KGB that were acquainted with the Rabinowitschs. One of the Russian nationals even failed a polygraph administered by the NYPD in relation to the Brokhin murder. The FBI even offered assistance to Vegas detectives as federal agents believed the two Russian nationals were working as spies.
But police were never able to develop enough evidence to make an arrest. Those following the murders of Soviet emigres during the 1980’s speculated the KGB may have used its connections with the burgeoning Russian Mafia to carry out the assassination of those considered threats to the Soviet regime.
The Rabinowitsch slayings would crop up from time to time in the local Las Vegas press, but without generating any additional leads in the investigation. This 1996 column by well-known Las Vegas journalist John L. Smith recounted some of the more mysterious aspects of the crime, as well as the potential connection to the KGB. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
Dave Hatch, the lead detective on the Rabinowitsch double homicide, pursued the case for at least fifteen years after the slayings without developing enough to make an arrest. “It appears obvious to us that they knew their attackers,” commented the head of the LVMPD Homicide Bureau. “They were obviously killed because the murderers felt they could not leave witnesses behind.” The mysterious murders now sit among dozens of other cold cases in the files of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Jack and Xenia Rabinowitsch remain buried side by side at Palm Valley View Memorial Park in Las Vegas.The couple’s last wishes directed all donations in their name be made to either Israel or the Nevada Humane Society.