10 Places in Dallas the Mob Used to Control

In 1946, a man from Chicago sat down in the living room of the incoming Dallas County sheriff and offered him $40,000 a month to let the mob run Dallas. He had no idea every word was being recorded. For decades, Dallas was what people called an open town. During World War II, there were 27 casinos downtown alone. In this documentary, we visit 10 places where the Dallas underworld once ruled: the drugstore where a future Mafia boss fired a shotgun and walked free, the hotel where a young cowboy named Benny Binion learned to run a craps game, the street where rivals were ambushed, the Oak Cliff house where a car bomb killed the wrong person, the nightclub parking lot where a feared gangster was gunned down on Christmas Eve, the restaurant on Mockingbird Lane that's still serving pizza today, and the strip club whose owner changed American history on a Sunday morning in November 1963. Along the way, meet Herbert "The Cat" Noble, who survived at least 11 attempts on his life; Joseph Civello, the Dallas grocer arrested at the most famous Mafia meeting in American history; and Jack Ruby, the nightclub owner the whole world would soon know. Which of these stories did you know? If your family ever played the numbers in South Dallas or ate at the Egyptian Lounge back in the day, tell us in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 The Open Town 2:44 Number Ten: The St. Paul Drugstore 4:33 Number Nine: The St. George Hotel 7:00 Number Eight: The Southland Hotel 8:51 Number Seven: Allen Street 10:36 Number Six: The Airmen's Club 12:26 Number Five: Conrad Street, Oak Cliff 14:24 Number Four: The Sky Vue Club 16:48 Number Three: The Sheriff's Living Room 20:37 Number Two: Mockingbird Lane 24:10 Number One: The Carousel Club 27:41 What the Open Town Left Behind SOURCES Texas Monthly – Benny and the Boys: https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/benny-and-the-boys/ Wikipedia – Dallas crime family: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_crime_family Wikipedia – Joseph Civello: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Civello Oak Cliff Advocate – Cowboy and the Cat: https://oakcliff.advocatemag.com/2014/09/cowboy-cat/ D Magazine – Who's Behind the Mafia in Dallas (1977): https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1977/december/whos-behind-the-mafia-in-dallas/ Wikipedia – Paul Roland Jones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Roland_Jones The Mob Museum – Did the Chicago Mob Send Jack Ruby to Dallas?: https://themobmuseum.org/blog/did-the-chicago-mob-send-jack-ruby-to-dallas/ The Mob Museum – Benny Binion's Million-Dollar Gamble: https://themobmuseum.org/blog/benny-binions-million-dollar-gamble-lives-on-75-years-later/ Wikipedia – Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campisi%27s_Egyptian_Restaurant #Dallas #MobHistory #TexasHistory