Oscar Goodman bugged about days of surveillance

Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman promises he’s “not going to pull any punches” in his dinner series talk at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Oscar’s Beef, Booze & Broads at the Plaza.

The title itself is a stiff jab: “Lying Cops and Dirty Prosecutors.”

In this latest showcase of Goodman’s vaunted oratory skills, the ex-mayor plans to share anecdotes dating to his days as a Las Vegas defense attorney. As Goodman often recalls, he was the target of routine surveillance by local and federal law enforcement officials.

As evidence, Goodman received a stack of handwritten reports from Las Vegas police officers charting his activities when he represented fabled organized crime figures such as Tony Spilotro, Meyer Lansky, Lefty Rosenthal and “Fat Herbie” Blitzstein.

“I had a Metro police officer’s daughter come to our house one day, on a Sunday, and show me the log of a nighttime intelligence unit,” Goodman said Tuesday afternoon. “It was like, ‘Oscar is going to the airport. Oscar has landed. Oscar looks like he’s PO’d. Oscar is still PO’d.’”

Goodman says he and his wife, current Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, were constantly concerned they were being recorded in their home. “We had a barbecue one day for a bunch of lawyers in town, and one found a device he thought had been used to bug our conversations,” Goodman said. “There were so many intrusions into people’s privacy, you just became immune to it.”

The police logs given to Goodman are now on display at The Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.