‘Mafia Princess’ planning museum

The "Mafia Princess" is moving to Las Vegas to help open a mob-themed exhibit.

Antoinette Giancana, daughter of murdered Chicago mob chief Sam Giancana, was in Las Vegas over the weekend for meetings with backers of the museum, which is planned for a Strip location. It would compete with a $50 million downtown mob museum being pushed by Mayor Oscar Goodman.

She's partnering with local investors Jay Bloom and Charlie Sandefur, who reportedly are in negotiations with Strip properties for their venue.

"There would be tremendous foot traffic," she said by phone Tuesday. "I think it's going to be dynamite. Jeez," she paused, adding, "I shouldn't use that word."

Her 1984 book was titled "Mafia Princess," as was the 1986 made-for-TV movie that starred Susan Lucci as Giancana and Tony Curtis as her father.

Las Vegas was part of her father's territory, and she's excited about "following in the shadow of his footsteps."

Giancana, 74, said she's moving here this summer to take a hands-on role in the project.

Her father, who controlled Chicago in the late 1950s and 1960s, was killed at his Chicago home June 19, 1975, four days before her birthday.

While the name of Las Vegas hit man Tony Spilotro has come up as a suspect, her No. 1 suspect, she said, remains the CIA.

She's convinced the CIA wanted to silence her father. She co-wrote the 2005 book "JFK and Sam: The Connection Between the Giancana and Kennedy Assassinations," which made the case that her father ordered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Giancana arrived with two beefy bodyguards for a business dinner Saturday at Capo's on West Sahara Avenue. She has asked Capo's owner Nico Santucci, a Chicago native, to design the Giancana room for the exhibit, which will include the same furniture that was in the family home the night her father was killed while frying Italian sausage and peppers.

"Sam would love this joint," she told Santucci, who opened the Italian steakhouse at 5675 W. Sahara Ave. this year. It's patterned after a Chicago speakeasy with photographs of mob icons and members of the Rat Pack.

The exhibit is "going to be a first," Giancana said. Bloom, she said, is "bringing in millions of dollars (worth of stuff) from various different (crime) families that have never, ever been seen" by the public.

JACKSON UPDATE

Following up on leads, Los Angeles investigators probing Michael Jackson's death were in Las Vegas on Monday to interview physicians and personnel at medical facilities, according to Fox News.

The Fox report said the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery and Homicide Division, along with several field agents from the Los Angeles Drug Enforcement Administration office, were focusing on information that at least one drug believed to have contributed to Jackson's death June 25 originated in Las Vegas.

Jackson's personal physician, Conrad Murray, who has had a practice here, has come under scrutiny in the case.

Meanwhile, Las Vegas is being mentioned as an option as opposition grows to having Jackson's Neverland Ranch turned into a Graceland-like memorial.

Bob Field, former Santa Ynez Valley Planning Advisory Committee chairman, is proposing that Neverland Ranch be dismantled and moved to Las Vegas.

Building a memorial on the current site "would take five or 10 years," Field told USA Today. "And I wouldn't bet that it would get approved. ... (In Las Vegas) the infrastructure's there. Picture what they've built on the Strip. This is easy."

THE SCENE AND HEARD

Rumblings out of Orange County, Calif., have Fred Glusman selling out his share of the Ritz restaurant in Newport Beach and moving back to Las Vegas, where he owns Piero's Italian Cuisine.

SIGHTINGS

Former NBA star Isiah Thomas, with former coach George Raveling and friends Tuesday at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab (Forum Shops at Caesars). ... Hugh Hefner, drawing a sheep with a smoking pipe in its mouth on the wall of Holly Madison's dressing room during his visit Saturday to "Peepshow." She plays "Bo Peep" in the burlesque show. ... Miko Brando, longtime friend and former bodyguard to Jackson, working his iPhone incessantly while dining on the patio at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab.

THE PUNCH LINE

"There was a huge fire at a medical marijuana facility in Los Angeles. The smog has been awesome today." -- Craig Ferguson

Norm Clarke can be reached at 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com.