Quoting an old post but I concur with these observations. I think he was a local and the suicide note was garbage or mostly garbage. Maybe he was on a losing streak and ran up a debt he couldn't cope with. I lived in Las Vegas in the sports betting scene for 24 years from 1984 to 2008. Everybody in that realm carried pens. Likewise the poker guys carried pens. If you are going to succeed in that town it is all about the math and not the subjectivity. There wasn't one day in 24 years that I didn't have pens in my pocket and a Casio Data Bank watch on my wrist. That watch had a calculator. I wore it out. I remember going to Big 5 Sporting Goods on Maryland Parkway to replace my original Casio watch with an identical after the first one wore out. Someone later in this thread said his watch looked like it might have a calculator on it.
It's just too bad these details and especially that morgue photo weren't passed around the local group of gamblers at the time it happened. Somebody might have recognized him. So many guys come and go in that environment. They can be prominent in the casinos for months or a year and then disappear. Nobody pays much attention because it is so frequent and normal. In mid January 1997 we were too busy with the NFL playoffs and early conference college basketball season to know about a local nearby suicide. I was there living not far east on Koval Lane and never heard of this case until tonight. There are indeed countless guys in gambling circles who have separated from their family and are considered the oddball or black sheep of the family. Primarily they simply have different priorities and the remainder of the family can't rationalize it. The detached guys often consider it a badge of honor. Some of them always kidded me because I remained close to my family and would return at Christmas and during summer.
Based on the morgue photo I believe he is on the younger end of that 45-60 age bracket, and perhaps somewhat younger than the 45. The town can age you. My first thought was that he looked facially somewhat like Ted Binion, who was the victim in an infamous case the following year.
The location where this happened is bizarre. That's what jumped out at me immediately. Here is a Google Maps view of where it happened:
Google Maps
That's it. The details says north of Spring Mountain and west of Industrial Road. That is the intersection you are looking at. Spring Mountain elevates over the I-15 freeway going west. Industrial Road was renamed Sammy Davis Jr. Drive a few years ago, to link the Rat Pack once again. There is an intersection where Davis, Martin and Sinatra roads connect. Perhaps the details of this case should be changed to indicate Sammy Davis Jr. Drive and not Industrial Road. Otherwise it is not going to show up on modern maps.
Once I read billboard at that intersection I knew it could mean only one thing...a tall billboard aimed at cars heading west on Spring Mountain Road. There is zero reason for a low billboard there aimed at surface streets. You aren't reaching anyone. As Steve Wynn once bemoaned, "There is a reason it is called Industrial Road." Indeed. I almost feel bad for Sammy Davis. Locals use that road as quicker alternative to the Strip or I-15. But you don't advertise there. In 1997 there was quite a bit of foot traffic on Industrial Road about a quarter mile further north. The Stardust was there and in full swing. There was a post office on Industrial Road in that area. There was a Budget Suites Motel. There was a popular gym across the Stardust back parking lot on Industrial Road. But once you move south to this location it was vastly different.
Nobody walks in that area. Then or now. That is a standout variable. The guy really went out of his way to find a spot where there wouldn't be foot traffic to spoil his plan. That's another reason I think he had local knowledge. I walked a ton in Las Vegas. But after realizing where this happened I could think of only twice in 24 years I walked to that area. Both times my car was being serviced and I walked from the Stardust back to the post office then down Industrial Road to the Treasure Island hotel and casino. That is the closest casino to this spot. It is just a few hundred yards east on Spring Mountain. At the time this happened, Treasure Island was a young casino and a major player in center strip along with its sister casino Mirage alongside. The Bellagio wouldn't open and steal action until late 1998.
Mirage and Treasure Island were booming with gamblers and specifically poker players and sports bettors. That's why it's too bad law enforcement didn't bother to pass around this case and that morgue photo among local gamblers. If that had happened I would have known about it.
I think they were overly mesmerized by the suicide note and didn't consider other possibilities.
