Illegal FBI tapes seemed to show that Levinson was involved in skimming profits for delivery to hidden underworld partners.

[1][2] His mother, Mary Goodman Levinson, was the aunt of Edward M. Gertz, who was involved in the liquor business in Chicago during the Prohibition Era.

[3] Ed and his brothers Mike and "Sleepout" Louis grew up in Chicago, then moved to Detroit where they joined the underworld, ran two casinos and were active in the 1920s newspaper circulation wars.

[4] Ed Levinson was a prominent member of the Detroit illegal gambling fraternity and collaborated with Samuel Garfield, a friend of Moe Dalitz.

[6] The Levinsons became key players in the flashy casino gambling scene in Newport, as did the "Cleveland Four", of which Moe Dalitz was a leader.

These included Levinson, Joseph Stacher, Mack Kufferman, Meyer Lansky, Malcolm Clarke and William Bischoff.

He said both Levinson and Clarke, licensed in the Sands Hotel, had gambling backgrounds which were studied minutely before they were granted casino permits.

[5] Levinson brought in Chef Shillig, formerly of the Ritz Hotel in Paris and the Savoy in London, and made Ed Torres the food and beverage manager.

Torres and Levinson arranged high-class entertainers like Wayne Newton, Kay Starr, Pat Boone and Helen Reddy to draw the crowds.

[28] In 1959 Levinson, Carl Cohen and Jack Entratter headed a group that bought the Riviera hotel and casino in Las Vegas.

[31] In February 1962 Levinson applied for approval of a sale of one third of his share in the Fremont to local businessman Jerome D. Mack for a maximum price of $370,000.

[34] An FBI report on the gambling industry recorded an informant's account of a conversation on January 21, 1963, between Levinson and Torres, vice-president of the Fremont, who were counting money and determining how much would be skimmed.

[31] The FBI bug recorded Benjamin B. Siegelbaum, a friend of Lansky, telling Levinson, "Meyer wants a breakdown".

[28] They thought the recording showed Levinson was counting out skim money from the Sands, Fremont, Flamingo and Horseshoe into shares that would be taken by courier to the hidden partners in the mob.

[c]" The casino operators at once searched their premises for bugs, and found microphones planted by the FBI in Levinson's office, the Dunes and the Horseshoe.

[37] Bobby Baker, a protege of Lyndon B. Johnson, and Fred Black, a lobbyist for North American Aviation, met Levinson at a pre-inauguration party in Washington, D.C., in January 1961 before John F. Kennedy took office.

[38] The District of Columbia National bank was chartered in 1962 with Bobby Baker, Fred Black, Levinson and Sigelbaum as stockholders, as well as various senior Democratic politicians or their relatives.

[39] Levinson, Baker and Jack Cooper, a Miami businessman and arms dealer, tried to arrange deals in the Dominican Republic.

"[41] Senator Kerr[e] arranged financing to set up to Serv-U Corporation, which obtained a near-monopoly on machines selling soft drinks, candy and cigarettes on sites where companies were working on government defense contracts.

[44] Levinson and Seigelbaum arranged with an Oklahoma City bank for a $400,000 start-up loan for the Serve-U Corporation to buy equipment and supplies.

[41] In December 1963 Fred Black told senators investigating Baker's role in the vending machine affair, "I go along as far as Levinson is concerned with gambling, but he is far from being a racketeer.

"[49][46] Levinson appeared before the Senate Rules Committee on March 2, 1964, and was asked who else had gone on the trips he made the Dominican Republic with Bobby Baker.

[51] In September 1966 it was reported that Ed Levinson and nine other Fremont Hotel executives had been served a subpoena to give information to US attorneys related to a suit against the FBI over the wiretapping.