Mob Experience fuels conspiracies

The Las Vegas Mob Experience will feature some tantalizing organized crime links to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Jay Bloom, managing partner of the attraction that opens at the Tropicana in December, said his group has acquired a videotaped death-bed confession of a 96-year-old mobster who told his family he had information about Kennedy's death in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Bloom wouldn't go into specifics but said the video "just arrived" from a member of a mob family.

Along with the video, the Mob Experience's collection of 1,000 artifacts will include mob chief Meyer Lansky's address book containing the name of Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub operator who shot alleged JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

Conspiracy theorists claim Ruby was a mob operative who shot Oswald to keep him from giving away details linking organized crime to Kennedy's assassination.

Also in the hands of the Mob Experience are more than 200 pages of Lansky diaries, including mentions of the hit on Bugsy Siegel, whom Lansky sent to Las Vegas to build the Flamingo.

A Mob Experience preview center opened at the Tropicana this week with Lansky's grandson, Meyer Lansky II, on hand.

Among items on display: a .38-caliber handgun that Las Vegas hitman Tony Spilotro reportedly left at home the day he was whacked.

THE SCENE AND HEARD

Joining newcomer Dan Ball on the 4 p.m. anchor desk at KSNV-TV, Channel 3 will be his former weekend morning co-anchor Marie Mortera . Jessica Moore, who has been working at the NBC affiliate WLEX-TV in Lexington, Ky., will co-anchor with Ball on the 11 p.m. newscast. Mortera and Moore start Sept. 7. ...

Some 50 Elvis impersonators are competing for The Best of Elvis from the '50s, '60s and '70s through Sunday at the CasaBlanca Resort in Mesquite. The winner gets $2,000. ...

Best-kept secret at CityCenter: Nickle-beer Night at Todd English's P.U.B. at Crystals in CityCenter. It was so jammed and boisterous I thought I had wandered into a sports bar near Fenway Park after a sweep of the Yankees.

SIGHTINGS

Geno Segers, who played Mufasa in the touring production of "The Lion King," taking in the Las Vegas version Wednesday at Mandalay Bay. Also in Segers' group: Ryan Ochoa, a Segers castmate in the upcoming "Pairs of Kings," which airs on the Disney Channel. ... Mirage headliner Terry Fator, at Opportunity Village on Wednesday to announce a long-term partnership with the not-for-profit organization that serves people with intellectual disabilities. ... Elton Brand of the Philadelphia 76ers, at Lavo (Palazzo) on Tuesday. ... The rock group the Scorpions, making a late stop at First Food & Bar (Palazzo) on Monday. ... "Peepshow" star Holly Madison and nightclub executive Marklen Kennedy, in a "C.S.I" pool party scene Tuesday at the Golden Nugget's shark tank.

THE PUNCH LINE

"Justin Bieber is 16 years old, and he's writing his memoir. Part one will be about the early years." -- David Letterman

Norm Clarke can be reached at (702) 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com.