Bobbi Eugene Shaw, Al Bramlet, and the Lake Mead Barrel
International news coverage has been focused on the discovery of a body in a barrel at Lake Mead in May of this year. Local news covered the possible identification of the remains with missing Las Vegan Bobbi Eugene Shaw. (KVVU/Las Vegas-Clark Country Library District/LVRJ/Shawna Hollister/KLAS/@VegasIssues)
the lake mead barrel
A gruesome discovery was made by visitors to Lake Mead on May 1st of this year. The remains of an unidentified man were found inside of a corroded barrel lodged in the mud left by the receding lake near Hemenway Harbor.
Questions immediately emerged, especially given the mob-linked history of Las Vegas.
Police investigation of the crime scene revealed that the body in the barrel had died of a gunshot wound to the head. Homicide detectives were able to narrow down the timeframe for the murder to sometime in the mid-70’s to early-80’s as the victim’s clothing was widely sold at Las Vegas area K-Marts at that time.
The 1976 strike led by Bramlet’s Culinary Union Local 226 that shut down the Strip for two weeks garnered extensive coverage in the local Vegas press, including the violent flareups during the labor demonstration and the economic impacts to the tourist economy. Mentioned amidst the coverage was the arrest of Culinary Union member Robert E. Shaw. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/LVRJ)
a name for the body in the barrel?
For months the investigation into the murder with all the hallmarks of a gangland slaying quietly proceeded without much new public information.
Then last week news broke that investigators may have a name to put with the body in the barrel – Bobbi Eugene Shaw.
Shaw went missing in Las Vegas in 1977, and he bore physical similarities to the body found in the barrel. And perhaps most interesting, Shaw was known to have connections with some of the mafia figures permeating the Vegas Valley during the late-70’s.
Shaw’s sister – Barbara Brock – was contacted by Las Vegas police to collect a DNA sample to compare to the remains in the barrel. Brock told reporters with Las Vegas FOX5, “Bob went missing, I believe 1977 and of course all these years, we have wondered where he is at.”
Shaw’s sister also told reporters, “When they found the first body in the barrel, I just knew it was him.”
Headlines after a series of bombings at restaurants across Las Vegas from 1975-77. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/LVRJ/LVMPD)
links to al bramlet?
We searched the Las Vegas newspaper archives for references to Shaw during the 1970’s. The only potentially relevant reference we found was to a Robert E. Shaw, resident of 1728 Howard Drive, who was among several dozen arrested in March of 1976 during a strike on the Las Vegas Strip by the local Culinary Union.
This reference to Shaw as potentially being arrested during the ’76 Culinary strike immediately causes the mind to turn to Al Bramlet – the loved and feared head of the Culinary Union in Vegas at the time. Bramlet advanced the interests of casino employees across Las Vegas, but he also was notorious for his links to organized crime and willingness to use any means necessary to advance his aims.
From our article on Bramlet and the “Restaurant Wars” of 70’s Vegas:
As the Local 226 under Bramlet’s leadership continued to grow, the union did not shy away from aggressive tactics when necessary to pursue their members’ interests. Among the more memorable of these was the massive strike led by the Culinary Union in March of 1976 that saw thousands of cooks, waiters, and dishwashers walk off their jobs and refuse to return until the heads of major Strip casinos agreed to a wage increase. Strip casinos went dark as restaurants and shows temporarily closed.
The ’76 strike even saw the occasional flare-up of violence. Scuffles broke out along the picket lines and police arrested dozens of union members during the two-week long strike, often when strikers blocking the roads caused traffic to slow to a stop on the Strip. Throughout almost every day of the ordeal, Al Bramlet slowly rolled by the picket lines in his silver Cadillac, with the union boss bearing a giant grin at the show of muscle from the organization he had been so instrumental in building.
The Nevada Resort Association, the trade group representing the holdout casino owners, took out advertisements in the local newspapers trying to sway public opinion against the union, arguing union negotiators were refusing to bargain in good faith. But the union held strong, with 22,000 members drawing attention to what they argued were reasonable demands of the casino owners. Amidst this frenetic back-and-forth between labor and management to win the battle for the public’s heart and mind, another unexpected labor action broke out – housekeepers seeking to draw attention to their efforts to become part of Local 226 conducted a strike at several motels.
The Nevada Resort Association ultimately caved and agreed to almost all of the Culinary Union’s demands as part of a four-year contract. Culinary’s strike was a tough but legal negotiating tactic that won union members substantial concessions from the casino owners.
Bramlet was suspected of ordering the bombings of several local gourmet restaurants that resisted efforts at unionization. But these attacks became the powerful union boss’s undoing. In 1977 – the same year that Shaw went missing – Bramlet was abducted from McCarran Airport in Las Vegas by father-son hitman duo Tom and Gramby Hanley. Bramlet was then driven out into the desert and shot to death for failing to make payment for one of the bombings he allegedly ordered.
We will be curious to see if the body found in a barrel at Lake Mead this spring has anything to do with the murder of Al Bramlet or his dealings while head of the Culinary Union.