The Mafia's era in Vegas began to diminish when the poster boy for eccentric millionaires, Howard Hughes, decided he wanted to make the town his life-size Monopoly board. The old hoods were ready for retirement. They had gorged themselves on the sumptuous Las Vegas buffet. It was a great run for the underworld, so the big bosses decided to cash in.

Hughes was an enigmatic and megalomaniacal mega-millionaire who made his money in the aviation arena and also dabbled as a Hollywood mogul. When he arrived in secrecy, he immediately set to work acquiring a stable of properties. He bought seventeen casinos. The old hoods went back home with their loot and the young ones remained, but their power and influence were diminished. “Respectable” robber baron capitalists proved more than a match for the shady underworld.

Gone in a Flash

When Hughes bought up his cadre of properties, observers believed that Vegas was headed for a huge boom. Hughes, though, was beginning his descent into madness. He was increasingly out of touch with reality and let his business acumen fail. He lost a bundle, sold out, and left town after a few years — or rather, his handlers did. When he died several years later his corpse looked more like that of a homeless man than one of the richest men in the world. Emaciated with long hair and nails and covered in sores, he had left his handlers to rule the empire while he died an ignominious death.