Title supplied by cataloger. Guy McAfee (1888-1960) was once a vice squad captain of the Los Angeles Police Department. Seeing he could make more money catering to crime, than fighting against it, he decided to leave the LAPD and soon became a reputed gambling "baron", establishing himself as a businessman on the Sunset Strip. In 1930, he arrived in Las Vegas and was licensed to run a business with restricted legal gambling. That became the start of a successful and fruitful venture for years to come. In 1931, McAfee was briefly detained following a double-homicide of two rival businessmen, newspaper reporter Herbert S. Spencer and Los Angeles politician Charles H. Crawford. McAfee denied any involvement and was never charged with a crime. After a 1939 grand jury investigation into local crime, headed by then-mayor Fletcher Bowron, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and U.S. Attorney General Frank Murphy, McAfee and his wife, former film actress June Brewster moved to Las Vegas. McAfee's first major purchase was the Pair-O-Dice Nightclub and Casino (renamed the 91 Club - after Highway 91), which he paid $20,000 for. In 1940, he opened a small casino he named the Frontier Club, and soon after, opened the Mandalay Lounge nightclub. In 1942 he bought the Pioneer Club on Fremont, and in 1945 he acquired the SS Rex (later renamed Benny Binion's Horseshoe). In 1946 McAfee opened the Golden Nugget Saloon, the largest casino in Las Vegas at the time. In 1951, he and two partners bought the Last Frontier for $5.5 million, and sold it in 1955 for an undisclosed amount. Less than a decade after moving to Las Vegas, McAfee had become the city's veritable gambling kingpin; he died on February 20, 1960 at the age of 71. Photograph caption dated January 5, 1950 reads, "Mrs. Kathleen M'Afee Inspects Damage - Gambler's Wife Suffered Burns in Try to Put Out Fire."
Type
Image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;24 x 18 on sheet 26 x 21 cm. Photographic prints
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