The Las Vegas Strip has its fair share of iconic hotels & resorts, perhaps none of which are more steeped in history & folklore than The Flamingo.

Part of the Vegas landscape since the mid-1940’s…it was the brainchild of a Los Angeles-based night club owner, restaurant owner and entertainment news publisher who wanted to build one of the most luxurious hotels & casinos Las Vegas had ever seen.

But that’s not what legend & pop culture would have you believe...

To learn more about the history of the Flamingo, the murder of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and other true crime tales from the darker side of Las Vegas history, visit Mayhem In The Desert.

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It was the summer of 1993 when Las Vegas casino mogul, Steve Wynn, was thrust into a nightmare that few people could ever imagine.

In a brazen late-night plot that seemed to come straight out of a Hollywood thriller, Wynn’s daughter had been kidnapped…abducted from her own home and held hostage by two men, who were now demanding that wynn hand over a huge ransom.

But this wasn’t just a simple ransom demand. The kidnappers were watching – or so they claimed. Every move was carefully calculated, every phone call laced with threats.

To learn about the kidnapping of Kevyn Wynn and other true crime tales from the darker side of Las Vegas history, visit Mayhem In The Desert.

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It’s June 3, 1999…early morning, sometime around 5 am in a quiet neighborhood roughly a mile from the Las Vegas Strip.

Walking through this serene scene is a young man in his early twenties, draped in a camouflage shirt, sporting black pants and boots. In his hands, a pump-action shotgun loaded to maximum capacity. In his pockets are more shells…ready to be used. A total of nineteen shells in all.

The man’s name is Zane Floyd, and on this early summer morning, he plans to use those ninteen shells to kill the first nineteen people he encounters.

And as a resident of this neighbourhood, he already knows exactly where his first stop will be.

To learn about the story of Zane Floyd and other true crime tales from the darker side of Las Vegas history, visit Mayhem In The Desert.

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As the early 1980’s rolled around, the cold war between the United States and Russia was well into its third decade and tensions between these global superpowers were steadily mounting.

As newly elected U.S. President Ronald Reagan promised to take an aggressive stance against the Soviets, Russian troops secretly invaded Afghanistan and the USSR faced an international backlash over their human rights violations.

It was amidst this backdrop, that an elderly las vegas couple known for their outspoken views against the soviet union were found murdered in their home under circumstances straight out of a spy thriller…

Click here to read more about the double murder of Jack & Xenia Rabinowitsch - including photos, newspaper articles, and more!

To learn about other true crime tales from the darker side of Las Vegas history, visit Mayhem In The Desert.

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In the spring of 1980, headlines across the united states screamed out, “ANGEL OF DEATH!”

These sensational stories centered around 32-year-old Jani Adams, a nurse working the graveyard shift in a Las Vegas Intensive Care Unit. These articles about the so-called “Death Angel” carried a distinctly Vegas twist – word was, this nurse was running a hospital “dead pool”, placing wagers on when patients would die.

But how did a mild-mannered nurse - who described herself being “shy as a mouse” - end up in the national spotlight for allegedly murdering her patients?

Click here to read more about the case of Jani Adams - including photos, newspaper articles, and more!

To learn about other true crime tales from the darker side of Las Vegas history, visit Mayhem In The Desert.

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On a late-spring night in 1955, the Moulin Rouge in Las Vegas was coming alive with the promise of breaking down racial barriers. But as the city revelled in the excitement, a dark mystery was unfolding.

On May 25, 1955, renowned jazz saxophonist, Wardell Gray, who had been scheduled to be a part of the opening night entertainment at the Moulin Rouge, was found dead…his body discarded in the desert, his death shrouded in mystery.

Click here to read more about the mysterious death of Wardell Gray - including photos, newspaper articles, and more!

To learn about other true crime tales from the darker side of Las Vegas history, visit Mayhem In The Desert.

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October 1st, 2017…it’s a date burned into the memories of Las Vegas locals and people around the world.

It was on that day that from his high suite in a nearby hotel, a lone gunman focused his rage on a crowd of country music concert-goers. This turned the normally-festive Las Vegas Strip into a scene of unimaginable terror, and the site of the worst mass-shooting in modern U.S. history.

Click here to learn more about the October 1st, 2017 shooting on the Las Vegas Strip - including photos, newspaper articles, and more!

To learn about other true crime tales from the darker side of Las Vegas history, visit Mayhem In The Desert.

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BONUS EPISODE

With the passage of the 18th Amendment and the Federal Volstead Act, liquor was, by and large, made illegal across the United States starting in 1920 – including in the tiny newly-formed desert town of Las Vegas.

This immediately created a lucrative black market for the illicit sale of alcohol, and along with it came an explosion of violent crime as competing rackets fought for control of this new underground market.

Click here to read more about prohibition-era crime in Las Vegas - including photos, newspaper articles, and more!

To learn about other true crime tales from the darker side of Las Vegas history, visit Mayhem In The Desert.

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