Among many organized crime figures, Goodman represented Meyer Lansky, Philadelphia’s Nicky Scarfo and reputed Kansas City mob boss Nick Civella (also the basis for a character in Casino). He also included as clients Mike Tyson and Don King. Goodman supposedly got the second phone call to represent O.J. Simpson when he was accused of murder. Goodman even deposed Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Mob lawyer turned mayor turned husband of the mayor is the elevator story of Oscar Goodman’s career. But to get the full picture, and see Goodman’s true uniqueness and a life very well-lived, requires more time. And you won’t regret spending it. I had the privilege and pleasure of interviewing Oscar Goodman last month in his museum-like office at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, where he serves as Chairman of its Permanent Host Committee.
I did a lot of preparation for my time with the former mayor (except wear a suit, which Goodman was quick to notice and none too pleased with – although he assured me that he was kidding; but I’m not so sure). As I was becoming familiar with Goodman’s life story it hit me that I’d seen him before: the guy in the Dos Equis commercials who is touted as The Most Interesting Man in the World. They certainly look alike. The Dos Equis guy is always portrayed with a beer in front and lovely lady on each side. As mayor (and still), Goodman’s attendance at official functions was with a show girl on each arm and martini in his hand. But despite their appearances, there is also one very big difference between these two most interesting men in the world – the Dos Equis guy is fictional.
That Goodman traveled with showgirls in tow and a martini close by no doubt ruffled some feathers. [And I’m sure not all approved of his Martinis with the Mayor night.] But he went around with these symbols -- of what Vegas is undeniably all about -- because they promoted the city. Goodman, the show girls and martini became a brand. His brand. But, in fact, they are just one expression of what is Oscar Goodman’s real brand – speaking the truth and doing what he thinks is right, despite knowing that it might sometimes invite criticism. It is hard to imagine a more appropriate title for Goodmam’s 2013 autobiography than Being Oscar (co-written with legendary crime writer and reporter George Anastasia).
These first two stories are way out of chronological order, but they are my favorites to demonstrate what being Oscar means.
Oscar’s Beef Booze Broads
Goodman has licensed his persona to a steak house in The Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas. The restaurant is called Oscar’s Beef Booze Broads. Of course it is. Behind the bar is a massive bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin covered in Swarovski crystals. Many politicians would be afraid to even be photographed with a martini in hand. Goodman, who readily admits to drinking in excess (not to mention being a degenerate gambler), is an official spokesperson/pitchman for Bombay Sapphire. Of course he is. For this gig he pulled down a hundred large – which he donated to charities. I dined at Oscar’s BBB and bought a t-shirt – adorned with his thought on the difference between being a mayor and married to one. Of course it is. When I met Goodman he gave me some cards for free drinks at Oscar’s. They read: “Your first drink is on me…But I better see you order a second.” That’s being Oscar. |
Mob Mouth Piece
For Oscar Goodman, his story begins in Philadelphia, where he grew up, attended Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. His father was in the District Attorney’s Office and Goodman was a clerk there in law school and had caught the eye of an Assistant D.A. named Arlen Specter. There were lots of reasons for Goodman to stay in Philadelphia. But he didn’t want to. Goodman was intrigued by Las Vegas and in 1964, following his graduation from Penn, he and his new bride, Carolyn, drove west on Route 66, where a clerk’s job in the Clark County, Nevada D.A.’s Office awaited him. Goodman didn’t stay there long. Once he passed the Bar Exam he opened an office and started practicing law.
Goodman didn’t set out to be a mob lawyer. He just fell into it. He was asked to represent a major underworld figure’s stepbrother who had been arrested for driving a stolen car. Goodman was handed three thousand dollars -- a fortune, he called it -- in an envelope and told he’d better win the case. The problem was that the case was seemingly unwinnable. But Goodman somehow did. After that, word got out about Goodman in circles where criminal defense attorneys were in need.
It is impossible to describe Goodman’s decades-long career in such a short space. He does a fantastic job of it in his memoir--recounting one gripping tale after another of the inter-workings of organized crime and how he tried to keep guys with creative nicknames out of jail. By now you know how it turned out. Goodman tried major criminal cases all over the country – about 300 – winning most of them. Unlike so many criminal cases that end in pleas, when you are representing an alleged mobster, the deal offered is often-times so unpalatable that it forces the case to trial.
I love mob nicknames and asked Goodman if mob lawyers also get them. Yes, his was Senior, because he was the senior partner of his law firm. It might have been given to him by the Kansas City mob but he couldn’t remember.
Goodman’s cases were varied – but they shared a common theme as he explained in Being Oscar: “Over my forty-year career as a defense attorney, I regularly came into contact with people who lied, cheated, and tried to bend the system so they would come out on top. Most of them worked for the government. *** My clients were some of the most notorious mobsters in the country, but the guys in the white hats were the ones who I saw breaking the law. In almost every case I tried – and I tried hundreds – Federal prosecutors and FBI agents thought nothing of withholding evidence, distorting the facts, or making deals with despicable individuals who would get up on the witness stand and say whatever they were told.” Like all defense attorneys, Goodman saw his job as making the government play by the rules and helping to guarantee the fundamental rights that all criminal defendants are entitled to.
Goodman and I discussed O.J. Simpson’s Vegas case where the Juice received a particularly harsh sentence for generally trying to steal his own memorabilia -- a case that Goodman says should have involved no jail time, if it were even brought. Goodman has no doubt that Simpson was sentenced in the Vegas case for the California murders. He likened it to how prosecutors viewed his own clients – they were so bad, that even if they didn’t do what they were charged with, the prosecutor was getting a bad guy.
It is easy to think that a mob lawyer, especially one for so many years, would eventually become a made man himself. But all throughout his career Goodman heard his wife’s voice in the back of his head: “Don’t become your client.” Goodman was clear to me that he was just his clients’ lawyer. “They didn’t ask me whether they could kill anybody or whether they could extort somebody.”
One client that Goodman speaks much about in Being Oscar is Tony Spilotro – allegedly the Chicago mob’s enforcer and protector of casino “skim” operations (taking cash out of the count room) in Las Vegas. It was said that he committed 26 murders. Goodman represented Spilotro for years, spent a lot of time with him and kept him from being convicted of anything. While Goodman kept Spilotro out of jail it still ended very badly for him. If you’ve seen Casino then you know that. Spilotro was beaten, shot and buried alive in a hole in a cornfield in Indiana. Just hearing Goodman mention Spilotro’s name during our meeting was chilling.
The Mayor’s Office
For lots of reasons, by the late 1990s, Oscar Goodman had lost his mojo for practicing law. He had accomplished much, the job was becoming repetitive, he had plenty of money, he didn’t like the person he was becoming and there was a void in his life. So he decided to run for mayor, despite having never been in City Hall and having “no idea what a mayor did.”
He announced his candidacy in March 1999. The reaction was swift. That weekend The Las Vegas Review Journal’s editorial headline read: “Anybody but Oscar for Mayor.” Even the San Francisco Chronicle, a paper in a far away city, with lots of its own problems, urged Vegas voters not to vote for “the barrister to butchers.”
Goodman had no idea how to run a campaign. But he raised about $900,000, went door to door (drank his first glass of milk in 40 years at an elderly lady’s kitchen table) and counteracted the buzz that if he were elected the mob would take over City Hall. He won with 64% of the vote and received congratulatory calls five minutes apart from Bill Clinton and a heroin kingpin. In the next two elections Goodman won with 80% of the vote.
Just as it is impossible to describe Goodman’s decades-long career as a lawyer in a short space, the same challenge applies to a dozen years in the mayor’s office. One of Goodman’s passions while in office was the redevelopment of downtown Las Vegas. His baby was the opening of The Mob Museum. I went. It’s gorgeous. To stand in front of the actual brick wall from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, bullet holes right there, is pretty neat.
Goodman’s other downtown successes include numerous shops, a brand new cultural and performing arts center, a brain institute, premium outlet mall, major furniture showroom and the transformation of vacant city property to a park area, including “Oscar’s River” – a three foot wide culvert of re-circulating water. Goodman also worked to address downtown’s homeless problem. For the homeless that are sound of mind and able-bodied, Goodman said to run them out of town all the way to the Pacific Ocean. For this he was labeled “meanest mayor in America” by some homeless advocacy groups. He didn’t care: “I thought I was right, and I was going to speak my mind. I wasn’t elected to get re-elected; I was elected to lead the city. The situation with the homeless was a problem , and we were going to fix it.”
Goodman did not succeed in every idea. The legalization of prostitution and all drugs did not come to fruition – although they would have if he had the title that he would have preferred – Benevolent Dictator. Of course, as mayor, he knew he’d never have the public or political support for it – but why not at least discuss it, Goodman maintained. He advocates strongly for these views in his memoir.
Movie Star By Fiat
After his role in Casino, Goodman was bitten by the acting bug. There is a scene in the movie where Goodman is seated behind his law office desk speaking to clients De Niro and Sharon Stone about their marital troubles. Who wouldn’t be bitten by the acting bug after such an experience.
In addition to Casino, Goodman has appeared in several other films, including Bachelor Party Vegas and the erotic thriller Angel Blade (neither are Scorsese films) and numerous television shows, including several episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Las Vegas (2003-2008) starring James Caan.
Goodman has garnered some film credits by fiat. Shortly after coming into office he decreed that, to get a city permit to film a movie, he had to be given a part. After his scene in Ocean’s Eleven ended up on the cutting room floor, preceded by his scene in Rush Hour Two get chopped, he issued a new edict – contracts mandating that his scenes may not be cut. [His outrage at being cut from Rush Hour Two resulted in the scene being restored to the DVD version.]
Goodman always plays the same character – himself. That’s probably a good thing for the self-described “worst actor in the world.”
Taking On Ted Danson
CSI takes place in Las Vegas. In 2012 the show was named the most watched in the world for the fifth time. Since 2011 the show has starred Ted Danson, as D.B. Russell, the night shift supervisor of the crime scene investigators.
I asked Goodman if it bothered him that, despite all he has done for Vegas, he is still only the second best known public figure in the city’s history – with Ted Danson being number one. Goodman did not take kindly to my conclusion. He disagreed adamantly and said that “it’s not even close.” He challenged me to go downtown or the mall and ask people who’s Ted Danson and who’s Oscar Goodman. Goodman had no doubt that more people would know him.
The NBA In Las Vegas
One of Goodman’s dreams as mayor of Las Vegas was to bring a professional sports team to the city. He admits that there are no guarantees that it would be an economic success. However, he says, it would “create a sense of place and a sense of pride for the community. That’s the real reason to have a team.”
It has not been an easy road. Certain league Commissioners were simply not going to allow a team in a city that is so associated with gambling. Then-NBA Commissioner David Stern told Goodman “over my dead body” would there ever be a team in Vegas. Goodman sees this as ridiculous -- given the amount of illegal sports betting in the country.
But things have changed. Goodman told me that the gambling stigma is no longer an impediment to Vegas getting an NBA or NHL team. I asked Goodman where things stand on this front and he told me that he is certain that the city will have a professional franchise “very very soon.” He and his wife were guests of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver at this year’s All-Star Game in New Orleans and the two talked. MGM is building an arena and Goodman wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted an NBA franchise.
Goodman’s Controversies
No mayor can spend twelve years in office without racking up a few controversies. Needless to say, this is especially true for one whose trademark is to speak his mind.
When a fourth grader asked Goodman what he would bring to a desert island, if he could bring just one thing, he replied: “A bottle of gin.” Not everyone was amused. Goodman was unapologetic, calling himself the George Washington of mayors and saying “I think people want their elected officials to be honest.”
When a public sculpture of a giant desert tortoise, part of a Goodman highway beautification project, was marred with graffiti, Goodman advocated for the televised chopping off of the thumbs of the perpetrator if caught. A kid was caught and required to go to Goodman’s office to apologize. Goodman had a machete on his desk when the young boy walked in.
Goodman received lots of attention for a public spat with President Obama. In February 2009, in the throws of the financial crisis, Obama made a comment that corporations that that received a bailout should not go to Las Vegas for their conventions or take private jets to the Super Bowl. Goodman was furious. He wanted some sort of statement from the President that Vegas was a good place to come for a convention. The city was losing convention business. Goldman Sachs paid a $600,000 cancellation fee to move a convention from Vegas to San Francisco, a city described by Goodman as “more expensive and where there’s nothing to do except look at that stupid bridge.” [I asked and nobody from the City by the Bay contacted Goodman with a two word response.]
When Obama was scheduled to visit Vegas a few months later, Goodman refused to do the traditional airport greeting. He relented when Obama Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, promised that the President would say that Vegas is a great place to do business and have fun. But, instead, all Obama said was “It’s nice to be in Las Vegas.” A year later Obama threw Vegas under the bus again. This time even Senator Harry Reid chastised Obama and warned him to stop making Vegas the poster child for where people shouldn’t be spending their money. Goodman blasted Obama, saying that this time an apology wouldn’t be acceptable. The next time the President came to town, Goodman was not at the airport to greet him.
It’s Better To Sleep With The Mayor
In 1984, Goodman’s wife, Carolyn, seeing that Las Vegas’s public school system was a path to nowhere, started her own non-profit private school – the Meadows. Mrs. Goodman, taking no salary, built the Meadows into what it is today – one of the best prep schools in the state, offering grades pre-K through 12 and occupying a modern 40-acre campus.
But after 26 years running the Meadows, Carolyn Goodman was restless. In July 2011, Goodman, after his maximum permitted three terms in office were up, swore in his wife as the twentieth mayor of Las Vegas. There were eighteen candidates in the original field. Three were elected officials who had never lost a race. Others had special interests groups willing to fund their candidates. Mrs. Goodman won with 61% of the vote.
Goodman told me that, despite what some said would be the case, his wife is no puppet for him. He’s not the shadow mayor. She’s her own boss. Goodman shared with me one piece of advice that he gave to his wife. Before letting someone take up hours of your time, pitching a city project, make sure they have the money in the bank. This, Goodman told me, he learned the hard way.
Goodman pointed to the television in his office and told me that, if he knew how to work it, we could watch his wife in a City Council meeting.
Lunch With The Mayor
As we were wrapping things up the mayor invited me to lunch with a couple of other guys. Unfortunately, because of some timing and logistical issues, it didn’t work out. Goodman has seen and done it all and spent a lifetime hobnobbing with business titans and sports and cultural icons. So the fact that he suggested lunch with an anonymous lawyer, who analyzes commas in insurance policies, was an honor. I hope it also meant that he was getting over my not dressing like a lawyer.
Oscar Goodman In Five Words
It might seem a tall task to sum up Oscar Goodman’s life in one line. But not really. And, coincidentally, the easy answer comes from another Vegas legend. I did it my way. |