Anthony Cornero Stralla also known as "the Admiral" and "Tony the Hat" (August 18, 1899 – July 31, 1955) was a bootlegger and gambling entrepreneur in Southern California from the 1920s through the 1950s. During his varied career, he bootlegged liquor into Los Angeles, ran legal gambling ships in international waters, and legally operated casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Life and career

Early life

Antonio Cornero was born in Lequio Tanaro, Province of Cuneo, in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy. Cornero and his family immigrated to the United States after his father lost the farm in a card game and a fire destroyed their harvest. Cornero's father died a few years later and his mother married Luigi Stralla, a former suitor from Italy. After their arrival in San Francisco, Cornero used the aliases Tony Cornero and Tony Stralla as he signed on to merchant ships bound for the Far East.

Prohibition

In 1923, with Prohibition in effect, Cornero became a rum-runner. His clientele included many high-class customers and night clubs.

Using a shrimping business as a cover, Cornero started smuggling Canadian whiskey into Southern California with his small fleet of freighters. One of Cornero's ships, the , could transport up to 4,000 cases of bootleg liquor in a single trip. Cornero would unload the liquor beyond the three-mile limit into his speedboats, which would bring it to the Southern California beaches. His fleet easily evaded the understaffed and ill-equipped U.S. Coast Guard. By the time Cornero turned 25, he had become a millionaire.

However, in 1926, the law caught up with Cornero. Returning from Guaymas, Mexico, with an estimated 1,000 cases of rum, he was intercepted and arrested. Sentenced to two years imprisonment, he jokingly told reporters he'd only purchased the illegal cargo "to keep 120 million people from being poisoned to death". While being transported by rail to prison, Cornero escaped from his guards and jumped off the train. Cornero boarded a ship for Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and fled the U.S. Eventually reaching Europe, he spent several years there in hiding. In 1929, he returned to Los Angeles and turned himself in.

In 1931, shortly after his release from prison, Cornero established the Ken Tar Insulation Company. However, federal authorities soon discovered it was a cover for a large scale bootlegging operation and raided it. Cornero then moved his operations to a location in Culver City, California. Soon he was producing up to 5,000 gallons of alcohol a day. Federal authorities raided the Culver City site, but found no evidence of bootlegging; Cornero was probably warned ahead of time.

Las Vegas – The Meadows

With the repeal of Prohibition, Cornero moved into gaming. In 1931 when gambling was legalized, he and his brothers Louis and Frank moved to Las Vegas, and took an option to purchase a  piece of desert land outside the Las Vegas city limits. Cornero soon opened The Meadows Casino & Hotel one of the first seven licensed casinos in the Las Vegas area, with a hotel that opened soon after the casino. It is considered the earliest resorts in Vegas, 10 years before El Rancho Vegas and 15 ahead of The Flamingo. 

However, Cornero's success soon brought unwanted attention. Charles "Lucky" Luciano, boss of the New York Luciano crime family and his associates, casino owner Meyer Lansky, demanded a percentage of Cornero's gaming profits. Cornero refused to be extorted and the Meadows was eventually torched. Cornero sold his Las Vegas interests and moved back to Los Angeles.

Floating casinos

In 1936, Cornero decided to open a shipboard gaming operation off the Southern California coast. By sailing in international waters, Cornero hoped to legally run his gambling dens without interference from U.S. authorities.

Cornero purchased two large ships and converted them into luxury casinos at a cost of $300,000. He named the ships the SS Rex and the . Cornero's premier cruise ship was the SS Rex, which could accommodate over 2,000 gamblers. It carried a crew of 350, including waiters and waitresses, gourmet chefs, a full orchestra, and a squad of gunmen. Its first class dining room served French cuisine exclusively.

The two ships were anchored outside the "three mile limit" off Santa Monica and Long Beach. The wealthy of Los Angeles would take water taxis out to the ships to enjoy the gambling, shows, and restaurants.

In October 1939, the Los Angeles Zoo was facing a financial crisis. Cornero offered the zoo a day's proceeds from the SS Rex. Considering that his ships were earning $300,000 a cruise, this was no idle gesture. Although zoo officials seriously considered the offer, pressure from state politicians forced them to decline it.

The end of the fleet

The success of Cornero's floating casinos brought outrage from California officials. State Attorney General Earl Warren ordered a series of raids against his gambling ships.

On May 4, 1946, after Warren became Governor of California, he issued a public statement declaring his intentions to shut down gambling ships outside California waters; Warren said he intended, "to call the Navy and Coast Guard if necessary." During his address, Warren specifically denounced the newly built gambling ship owned by "Admiral" Tony Cornero. Warren stated "It's an outrage that lumber should be used for such a gambling ship, when veterans can't get lumber with which to build their homes."

Despite battles with authorities over the legality of their entering international waters, the State of California found a way to circumvent the "three mile limit". The state refigured the starting point of the "three mile limit" off the coastline and determined the ships were indeed in California waters. Without wasting any time, police boarded several U.S. Coast Guard craft and sailed out to Cornero's ships to close them down and arrest Cornero. However, when the police reached the ships, Cornero would not let them board. Reportedly, Cornero turned the ship's fire hoses on the police when they attempted to board and declared they were committing "piracy on the high seas". A standoff ensued for eight days before Cornero finally surrendered.

Cornero eventually closed his floating casinos. He later tried to reopen land-based illegal casinos in Los Angeles; however, he was thwarted by mobster Mickey Cohen. Instead, Cornero returned to Las Vegas.

Murder attempt

In Las Vegas, Cornero contacted his friend Orlando Silvagni, owner of the Apache Hotel. Cornero made a deal with Silvagni to lease the hotel casino and rename it the "SS Rex" (after his former floating casino in California). The Las Vegas City Council, aware of Cornero's history with the Green Meadows casino and his floating casinos, voted "no" on approving his gambling license. However, one councilman then changed his vote, the motion passed, and Cornero got his license. However, in a later vote, the Council revoked Cornero's gambling license, and he then closed the SS Rex.

Cornero and his wife left Las Vegas and moved back to Beverly Hills, California. Cornero made plans to invest in Baja California in Mexico. On February 9, 1948, two Mexican men came to Cornero's home in Beverly Hills. When Cornero answered the door, one man gave Cornero a carton and said, "here, Cornero – this is for you" and shot him four times in the stomach. Gravely wounded, Cornero underwent surgery that night and managed to survive the shooting.

The Stardust Resort and Casino

As soon as Cornero recovered from his wounds, he returned to Vegas to build a new hotel and casino, the Stardust Resort & Casino. He bought a  piece of land on the Las Vegas Strip and filed an application with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to sell stock in the hotel corporation. When the stock was issued, Cornero bought 65,000 shares for 10 cents apiece, giving him majority control of the corporation at 51% of all stock. Cornero then sold the remaining shares. Finally, he applied to the Nevada Gaming Commission for his gaming license and was turned down. The Commission rejected Cornero's application because of an old bootlegging conviction and the trouble that Cornero was having with the SEC. This rejection meant Cornero had invested his money in a half-built casino that he was not allowed to operate.

Not to be stopped, Cornero came up with a new plan. He asked his friend Milton B. "Farmer" Page, another Las Vegas casino owner, to take over the project. Page agreed on the condition that he be able to run it. In 1955, Cornero made the first of several presentations seeking loans from Moe Dalitz, owner of the Desert Inn hotel and casino, and Dalitz' partner, New York mobster Meyer Lansky. Dalitz decided to initially loan Cornero $1.25 million. This loan was followed by a second and third loan, with Cornero using the unfinished Stardust Hotel as loan collateral. Loans with United Hotels were then nearly $4.3 million. Despite these cash infusions, Cornero ran out of money again as the hotel construction was finishing.

Suspicious death

On July 31, 1955, Cornero told an investors' meeting in Las Vegas, "we need another $800,000 to stock the casino with cash and pay the liquor and food suppliers". Later that day, Cornero was playing craps in the Desert Inn Casino. Suddenly, he fell to the floor and died.

Rumors soon arose that someone had poisoned Cornero's drink. The rumors gained credence when Cornero's body was removed from the casino floor before anyone contacted the Clark County Coroner or the Clark County Sheriff's Department. Cornero's drinking glass was taken and washed; sheriff's deputies never had the chance to examine it. No autopsy was performed and a coroner's jury in Los Angeles determined that he died of a heart attack.

Aftermath

Cornero was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. In 1958, the Stardust Resort and Casino finally opened and became the largest hotel in the world. The Stardust would remain a huge success until its demolition by implosion in 2007. Cornero is also credited with the lucrative concept of putting slot machines in the hotel lobby to lure guests as they passed by.

In popular culture

The 1940 novel Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler, portrayed gambling ships stationed off the Southern California coast, run by a sophisticated gangster similar to Cornero.  The story was adapted for the screen in 1942 as The Falcon Takes Over, in 1944 as Murder, My Sweet (also known in the UK as Farewell, My Lovely), and in 1975 as Farewell, My Lovely
The 1940 film Gambling on the High Seas was set in part aboard a gambling ship, the SS Sylvania.
In the 1943 film Mr. Lucky, Cary Grant portrayed "Joe 'The Greek' Adams", a character loosely based on Cornero.  The story-line carried over to episodes of the 1959–1960 CBS US TV series of the same name.

References

Notes

Bibliography
Capeci, Jerry (2002) The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books. 
Reppetto, Thomas A. (2004) American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 

Further reading
Henstell, Bruce (1984) Sunshine and Wealth: Los Angeles in the Twenties and Thirties. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. 
Marquz, Ernest (2011) Noir Afloat: Tony Cornero and the Notorious Gambling Ships of Southern California. Santa Monica: Angel City Press. 
Wolf, Marvin J. and Mader, Katherine (1988) Fallen Angels: Chronicles of L.A. Crime and Mystery. New York: Ballantine Books.

External links

Stardust In Your Eyes: Tony Cornero and the Stardust Hotel by John William Tuohy

The First 100 Persons Who Shaped Southern Nevada: Tony Cornero
LasVegasLogue.com - Tony Cornero  by Jen Leo
An ad for the Rex from 1939
LA Times Blogs Tony Cornero Shot at Home by Gunman

1899 births
1955 deaths
American gangsters of Italian descent
American gamblers
Businesspeople in the casino industry
Los Angeles crime family
Burials at Inglewood Park Cemetery
Italian emigrants to the United States