Silvio Petricciani - University of Nevada, Reno

96 Silvio E. Petricciani
Beldon had gotten into a little argument, and
Carl left and went to the Sands, and a fellow by
the name of Alec Goldfine became the casino
manager. Now Alec and I became very, very
good friends, and we got along real well. Of
course, Alec was a worker just like myself, and
he liked me for that reason. Alec is still alive,
very sick man right now.
But I noticed that there was something
real strange going on in the place; it’s
something that we in this business call gritsense.
You have a feeling that something is
going on, and yet you don’t know what it
is, you know. So looking around one day, I
was working swing shift at the time, and I’d
come in about two o’clock in the afternoon,
check over all the machines and repair
whatever had to be repaired and so on and
so forth, and then go home, change and
come back to work that night. So, one day
I came in, and I saw the sheriff now in Las
Vegas, Ralph Lamb (was with the sheriff ’s
department earlier), and Lloyd Bell, who
has a brother who’s an attorney, Tom Bell,
down there. Lloyd Bell was with the sheriff ’s
department, and I think Lloyd was married
to Ralph Lamb’s sister or something; there
was some relationship. But anyway, I’m
minding my own business, and I come in
and I see Ralph.
Now Ralph had left the sheriff ’s
department and started his own private
detective agency at that time. So as I walked
in, I said, “Hi, Ralph, how’s things going?”
And walked on in. But he had another fella
sitting in the car with him. So I walked on in,
did my work, went on home, changed, came
on back. Well things, you know, just didn’t jell.
So I said, “Okay, something is wrong, and I
know it, but I don’t know what yet.”
So when I’d get through work at night,
then I sensed that I was being followed. So
what I would do is before I went home, I’d
just get in my car, and I’d go for a ride maybe
up to Nellis Air Force Base or something, and
just take a nice long ride for about an hour or
hour and a half. And then I knew I was being
followed, but then I’d go home, park my car
and go on to bed.
So this went on for quite a while. One day
Alec said, “I’m going to tell you a story.” He
says, “First you’re going to laugh, and then
you’re going to get mad.”
I said, “Well,” I said, “I know something’s
been going on here, but,” I said, “I want to
know what it is anyway.” So I said, “Go ahead
and tell me the story.”
“Well,” he said, “they caught two slot
machine thieves at the Flamingo. And,”
he said, “in so doing why one of the slot
machine thieves stated that he was also (in
our vernacular) taking off the El Rancho.
And he knew the man who was in charge of
the slot machines, and the man told him that
whatever he did, he had to do it before two
o’clock in the afternoon, but once he came in
at two o’clock in the afternoon, to just back
away and stay out of there.”
I said, “What?”
He said, “Yes, but wait a minute, let me
tell you the whole story.”
So I said, “All right, go ahead.” So at that
time I said, “That why Lamb was out there?”
“Yes.” Okay, fine.
So what happened was, that they had a
shill; a shill is a person, a game starter, as it
were. And lo and behold he couldn’t quite pass
for my twin brother, but he did look like me,
and he noticed what was going on with the
slot machines before I came in. So he went
to the slot machine thieves and he told them
that they were tree to work, manipulate the
slot machines or cheat them until two o’clock
in the afternoon, and then from two o’clock
in the afternoon, they had to back away. And
he cut himself in.