Former Illegal U.S. Gamblers Open Turkey’s First Casino

1969-1975 A bomb exploded on the Casino d’Istanbul’s roof, injuring several people, on the night of Saturday, May 1, 1971. It happened during a banquet hosted by the Dayton, Ohio-based National Cash Register Company and attended by 1,400 Europeans and Americans. Just the month before, 11 provinces in Turkey had been put under martial law…

Pay Up Or Blow Up — Reno/Sparks

1970-1971 In the summer of 1970, a package and suitcase found in a Sparks Nugget motor lodge room in Nevada with a note affixed saying to please deliver the items to Nugget owner John Ascuaga’s office. A $20 bill was attached as a tip. A few days later, Nugget manager Gil Padroli opened the package.…

Terror at Casino de Monte-Carlo

  1880 British and French patrons crowded the Casino de Monte-Carlo, games were in full operation and large sums of money sat on the tables. It was a typical Saturday night in spring at the Monaco institution.  Around 11 p.m., a tremendous explosion wracked one of the gambling rooms, throwing people to the floor, extinguishing…

Quick Fact – Gutsy Granny

1972 A 71-year-old, wheelchair-bound, California grandmother, Susan Ellyn Reid, who had a long rap sheet and various aliases, entered Harrahs Club in Reno, Nevada in July carrying a box. She gave casino personnel a typed note that demanded $100,000 and indicated she was holding a bomb. It revealed kidnappers were holding her grandson hostage, so…

Bomb Extortion Plan Blows Up

1980 Thirty-five years ago, on August 27, an intricate bomb blasted a chasm that spanned six of the 11 floors of Harvey’s Resort Hotel at Lake Tahoe’s South Shore. The explosion hadn’t been intentional but, rather, the result of the best idea experts could conceive of to disarm the instrument. “To this day it remains…