Atlantic City, New Jersey

Atlantic City, New Jersey

ASSASSINS TOUR – ATLANTIC CITY


ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey.

Atlantic City, the “Playground of the World” is not typically associated with the assassination of President Kennedy, but it has many historic connections and is where I started out on most of my trips on the train of the assassins.

It also is a good place to introduce my BioChronological approach to history, and focusing on individual biographies and their roles in special events that took place somewhere at a particular point in time.

Atlantic City is the home to a number of characters who became somehow implicated in the assassination of President Kennedy, including – John Martino, Candy Jones, Skinny D'Amato, Carrol Rossenbloom and Charles Ford to name the most interesting.

John Martino is named as a primary suspect in a number of books, like Tony Summer's "Not In Your Lifetime," David Kaiser’s The Road to Dallas, Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartman's Ultimate Sacrifice, and Larry Hancock's Someone Would Have Talked. Martino, who knew the Bay of Pigs date and location while in a Cuban prison, also expressed foreknowledge of the assassination, how it would unfold, and knew others who have been implicated, and was on the Bayo-Pawley mission to Cuba in June, 1963. Martino was born and raised in Atlantic City, and is named in early police reports as one of Angelo Bruno's bookies in Atlantic City.

Jessica “Candy Jones” Wilcox was a CIA programmed model and messenger, a Miss Atlantic City in the Miss America Padgent, she married a New York modeling agency heavyweight, got mixed up with World Heavyweight champion Gene Tunney, and was recruited into the CIA MKULTRA mind control program. She later married Long John Nebel, whose radio show call ins included Lee Harvey Oswald, and who assisted in her de-programming and exposure as a mind controled agent. It's probably a coincidence she grew up in the same Atlantic City neighborhood as John Martino, Charles Ford and Skinny D'Amato.

Ah, yes, then there's 500 Club owner and Sinatra pal Skinny D’Amato, who would help JFK win the West Virginia primary and become manager of the Cal/Neva Lodge with Frank and Sam Giancana, who was in on the Mafia/CIA plots to kill Castro.

They helped get JFK elected and part of the reward was the 1964 Democratic National Convention, when the President would be renominated for a second term and everyone would party with Frank and Jack at Skinny's. But it wouldn't work out that way.

John Martino would become Santo Traficante's casino security expert in Havana, Cuba, Skinny D'Amato would become manager of Frank and Sam's Cal/Neva Lodge, which Joe Kennedy reportedly had a piece of, while Carroll Rosenbloom would be suckered into buying Meyer Lansky's half of the Hotel Nacional in Havana shortly before Castro took over.

Carroll Rosenbloom, the owner of the Baltimore Colts, lived in the Jersey Shore barrier island just south of Atlantic City. Gambler and golfer Mike McLaney had convinced him to buy a substantial interest in the Hotel Nacional just before Castro took over, and he lost a bundle. When LBJ came to Atlantic City for the 1964 Democratic National Convention, he officially stayed at a boardwalk hotel, but he actually took up residence at Rosenbloom's Downbeach home.

Recently released FBI undercover agent reports on Mike McLaney includes a 1964 report on local mob boss Herman "Stumpy" Orman, who the report notes, was fretting over who to replace as chief of police, showing emphatically who was running who at the time of the Democratic National Convention.

Besides John Martino, Candy Jones, Skinny D'Amato, Carroll Rosenbloom, Mike McLaney and Stumpy Orman, there' CIA officer Charles D. Ford, who went into China in the OSS with G. Walton Moore, become a career CIA training officer, RFK's liason to JMWAVE at a critical time, and they say, RFK's Mafia connection.

Charles D. Ford's role in the whole affair needs further exploration and should be detailed.

More recently, former FBI agent and 9/11 casualty John O’Neill, killed at the World Trade Center, was a hard core Atlantic City guy from this same neighborhood, and helps bridge the gap between the Deep Politics of 11/22/63 and 9/11.

I find it pretty amazing that all of these people grew up in a small Atlantic City neighborhood they call Ducktown, really within a few city blocks of each other.

Atlantic City is a good place to start historically because of the history of organized crime in the resort, specifically the 1929 meeting of organized crime racketeers. This is especially significant since the mob are the primary whipping boys, along with the CIA, for being the false sponsors and allegedly responsible for the assassination of President Kennedy.

It was in 1929 in Atlantic City when the mobsters formally organized the natioanl syndicate of organized crime. While they didn’t formally incorporate as a commercial company, it was actually more of a conglamorate, as they divided the country into territories, approved or appointed bosses to govern each area, and set up the Commission to settle disputes between racketeers in different cities. [See: Atlantic City Organized Crime Convention 1929].

The Commission was the Board of Directors of the National Crime Syndicat and included the heads of the five New York families, plus Philadelphia (Bruno), Upstate Pennsylvania (DeCalvancate), New Orleans (Marcello), Florida (Traficante)and Chicago (Giancana). Chicago controlled Cleveland, Detroit, Texas, the Southwest, Vegas and California.

Atlantic City, from its earliest days, was an open town, where racketeers from all over the country could visit, and do business, but it was always under the nominal control of the Philadelphia family.

“Commodore” Louis Kehune was the first political and mob boss of Atlantic City, holding reign from the 1880s until 1908, when New Jersey Governor John First decided to clamp down on the gambling, prostitution and drugs in by enforcing the state law forbidding the sale of alcohol on Sunday. Kehune had to threaten to send in the National Guard to Atlantic City before the police, county sheriff and prosecutor decided to enforce the law, effectively ending Kehune’s rule.

In his place Enoch “Knucky” Johnson was elected sheriff and the Republican Party boss ruled the town for decades.

“Nucky” Johnson was the boss of Atlantic City and the host of the 1929 meeting, though he had nothing to do with the prearrangements. The shakeout of the Atlantic City shindig was that after the St. Valantine’s Day debacle, Capone had to thrown to the wolves to take the heat off of everybody, and the old school Mustache Petes had to be forceably retired in order to make room for the new, young Turks led by Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. The Young Turks would redirect the Syndicate’s main source of income from Prohibition booze to gambling, and their national network of bookies would be the basis of their conspiracy and cooperation.

The bosses change over the years but there’s always a boss, just like there’s always a heavyweight champion of the world, and the mob boss today can trace his lineage back to the mobsters who attended the 1929 meeting in Atlantic City.

Marco Reginelli was the head of the Philadelphia/South Jersey mob for many years, and is said to have sold the 500 Club in Atlantic City to Skinny D’Amato. Eventually Reginelli would be succeeded by Angelo Bruno, the “Gentle Don,” who ran the Philadelphia/South Jersey mob for many years and served on the Commission.

According to FBI reports from the era, Bruno met a number of times in 1963 with Santo Traficante, the Flordia mob boss who also included Havana in his territory.

According to Scott Deitche in The Silent Don – The Criminal Underworld of Santo trafficante Jr. (Barricade Books, Fort Lee, NJ, 2007, p. 44), “At the Hotel President conference in May 1929, one of the main orders of business was to deal with Al Capone’s increasing profile in Chicago and with the resulting violence from a major gang war that had been raging for years. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre earlier that year had been the icing on the proverbial cake, bringing together racketeers from across the country to the Jersey Shore.”

“According to Florida law enforcement, it was at this meeting that the Tampa family was formally recognized by the New York heavy contingent. It could be argued that the Hotel Statler meeting the previous year served as the formal recognition of the powers in the Tampa underworld, but since no secretary took minutes, the discussions at the meetings can only be surmised.”

John Martino was at one time an Atlantic City bookie [See: Angelo Bruno FBI reports at Mary Ferrell Archives] who became a casino electronics expert and worked at Santo Trafficante’s Havana casino before Castro took over.

Martino was later arrested in Cuba as a spy, served time in prison, and wrote a book (with Nate Weil) “I Was Castro’s Prisoner.” As the Florida roommate of Johnny Roselli who was working out of the CIA’s JMWAVE station, Martino had mob connections. He also visited Dallas shortly before the assassination, met with Syliva Odio and Father MacChann, and expressed foreknowledge of the assassination.

In The Road To Dallas, David Kaiser names Martino as one of the prime suspects in the assassination of President Kennedy. When Tony Summers was in Florida interviewing Martino's widow and son, I was in Atlantic City talking to Martino's sister and brother, who still lived in the old Chelsea section of Atlantic City, neare the boardwalk, where Skinny D'Amato also lived.

Then there is Charles D. Ford, who attended the same local Catholic high school as "Crazy Phil" Leonetti, John O'Neil and local basketball legend Chris Ford.

Charles D. Ford, an Atlantic City native, attended Princeton before joining the CIA and was assigned to JMWAVE before becoming the CIA’s liason with Bobby Kennedy when the CIA plots to kill Castro were hatched with the mob connections.

C.D. Ford it turns out, denies it all in a report to his CIA bosses, but he becomes even more tantalizing when his OSS records reveal that he was sent to China with G. Walton Moore, who later became George DeMohrenschildt's CIA case officer at the Dallas Domestic Contacts Division. It was Moore who gave DeMohrenschildt the "Okay" to befriend Oswald, and Moore's reports to the CIA on Oswald's activities should include DeMohrenschildt's suspicions of Oswald's involvement in the Walker shooting shortly after it happened. The idea that the CIA official receiving reports on Oswald in Dallas had previously served in OSS in China with the CIA officer said to be the liason between RFK and the mob, certainly requires closer scrunity.

And did John Martino and C.D. Ford know each other from the same old Ducktown Atlantic City neigbhorhood, where they both grew up within city blocks of each other?

Then there's Candy Jones.

Candy Jones was Miss Atlantic City 1940, her first husband, big time New York Model Agency director Harry Conover, introduced her to the society from where she was recruited into the CIA by a military officer and associate of former World Heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney. Tunney's name seems to keep coming up in the early history of the OSS/CIA in New York, and there must be a great story of how the heavyweight champion of the world became a spy. But Tunney introduced Candy Jones to the military people who recruited her as a CIA courier and MKULTRA subject.

Used as "a courier," a Quantico trained agent and MKULTRA test model, Candy Jones later married New York City radio talk show host John Nebel, who reportedly had a live on air telephone conversation with Lee Harvey Oswald.

After Nebel married Wilcox, he began to tape record her conversations when she would go into a trance, and assumed her CIA courier identity, the subject of a book by Donald Bain, The Control of Candy Jones (Playboy Press), which uses an alias for her CIA psychologist and mind bender “Dr. Jensen,” whose identity should now be known.

Jessica Wilcox grew up in the same Atlantic City neighborhood as John Martino and C. D. Ford, both characters in the CIA and mob plots to kill Castro.

Atlantic City is also where Adele Edisen met Dr. Jose Rivera, who also served as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves and expressed foreknowledge of the assassination.

Then there’s John O’Neill, the former FBI agent who died at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

O’Neill, the son of Atlantic City cab drivers and a graduate of Holy Spirit High School, worked his way up in the FBI from a tour guide to top agent in charge of the anti-terrorism unit in New York City. Ushered out of the FBI by others inside the agency, O’Neill was on the first day of his job as head of security of the World Trade Center, when he was murdered by his arch-nemesis Osama Bin Laden.

O’Neill, after stopping home to visit his parents, would stop by the White House Sub Shop to buy a dozen hoagies for his friends in the office or guys on steak out. An Atlantic City staple for decades, there’s pictures of the Beatles holding a White House sub in their Lafayette Hotel room in 1964.

In Atlantic City, one manditory stop on the Assassin's Tour is the JFK Memorial.

Kennedy Memorial – Kennedy Plaza – On the boardwalk in front of Boardwalk Hall – is a very likeable Kennedy bust designed by Texas sculpture, and much more eloquent than the Dallas Kennedy Memorial. [See Photos]

Another is 500 Club Lane - Missouri Avenue near Ceaser's Casino on Pacific Ave.

One of the most notorious Atlantic City characters is Skinny D'Amato.

Skinny D’Amato owned the 500 Club in Atlantic City, which featured Frank Sinatra, Joey Bishop, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis, Jr. and the rest of the Rat Pack, and managed the Cal/Neva Lodge for Sinatra and Sam Giancanna, the Chicago mob boss.

Most significantly, Skinny D’Amato is said to have played a big role in getting JFK victory in the West Virginia primary, a crucial election that gave JFK the momentum to win the Democratic nomination, which is detailed in Sy Hersh's The Dark Side of Camelot.

Anthony Summers also interviewed Skinny shortly before he died.

Here's Archie Black's three part series on the Five.

I also have an interview with Deano that I'll post later.

http://www.ratpack.biz/rat-pack-archive/skinny-damato-atlantic-city-newsletter.htm

Skinny D'Amato
Atlantic City Newsletter, March 2000
by Archie Black

The 500 Club - Part 1

Well, Brenda and I spent an enjoyable hour or so at the Atlantic City Library on Saturday morning and came up with a lot of interesting stuff with respect to the infamous 500 Club Chips that Bob Eisentstadt discovered, and Mason's records that Gene Trimble uncovered.

We plan to visit the Atlantic County Historical Society next Saturday where additional info may be forthcoming. However, what we have documented leaves no doubt in our minds that the 500 club chips that Rober Eisenstadt has provided scans for are the ones that were in use in the 1930's and 1940's, at the least. The floral mold design may have come about at a later date... but that's speculation.
The 1949 telephone directory lists a 500 Club Tavern at 6 South Missouri Avenue, which would indicate the shipping address on Mason's card file to a Mr. Pill Barr at 4 South Missouri Ave. as the same place.... or at least connected to the 500 Club property. While we could find nothing about Mr. Barr, to whom the chips were shipped, perhaps our search next weekend may shed some light on who he was. Possibly the manager or owner of the 500 Club at that time in the mid-30's?
This is a scanned photo of the 500 club that appears on page 149 of "Atlantic City America's Playground" by Bill Kent with Robert Ruffolo and Lauralee Dobbins that was published in 1998.

A superbly illustrated reference work on the history of Atlantic City. Beneath the photo of the actual 500 Club building, is an image of a dinner plate with "the 500" embossed.

Since February was Black History Month I have added some background to A.C.'s nightclubs which might prove relevant and interesting too.......
"An attempt by the black community to deal fairly with racial tensions that created Atlantic City's vibrant Kentucky Avenue nightclub district, (some of the clubs date back as far as the 1920's, Atlantic City's Kentucky Avenue reached its peak during the 1950's when six nightclubs on or near Kentucky Avenue between Arctic and Atlantic Avenues featured nearly every African American entertainer in the country. Sammy Davis Jr., Sarah Vaughn, Nat "King" Cole, Moms Mably, Slappy White, Billy Daniels, Billy Eckstine were only a few of the entertainers who perforemd at Graces, Little Belmont, the Wintergarden, the Paradise Club and Club Harlem."
"Like New York's Harlem nightclub district, Kentucky Avenue began as a group of night clubs and carpet joints that, due to the necessity of procuring alcohol during prohibition, were linked to organized crime. Kentucky Avenue clubs, along with those in the mostly Jewish South Inlet and the predominantly Italian Ducktown section west of Convention Hall, "all offered some form of gambling."

But what made the Kentucky Avenue clubs different were their hours of operation. Musicians performed at the Jockey Club or the 500 Club "WHERE SINGER DEAN MARTIN & COMEDIAN JERRY LEWIS FIRST TEAMED UP", could put their instruments down at 11 pm (occasionally they played as late as 1 am) and feel safe under the protection of the Atlantic City Musicians Union, one of the most powerful labor organizations in the city. Because African American musicians were not permitted to join the largely white musicians union, they formed their own, with the intention of beating the white union at its own game.

When other nightclubs in other parts of the city concluded their entertainment at 11 p.m., the Kentucky Ave clubs were just warming up. During the summer months from the late 1940's to the early 1960's, "the corner" of KY and the "Curb" between Arctic and Atlantic Avenues was so jammed with early morning revelers that cab drivers would pick up and discharge fares a block away, because it was often impossible to drive a car through the crowds.

The city's police made a career of raiding the nightclub gambling operations - as was the case during prohibition; a club could measure its prestige by how much of an advance warning the police gave before they arrived. This, and a series of highly publicized investigations into municipal corruption, contributed to Atlantic City's increasingly negative reputation as a city on the make.

The city had as many as 300 restaurants and bars open during the summer season, many of them taking advantage of the city's law allowing 24-hour liquor service. The city had 40 movie theaters, most of them on Atlantic Avenue.

A gradual change in the nature of entertainment doomed some of the clubs to a slow death. The dominance of the nightclub style of show that had thrilled pre-WWII generations was being challenged by movies and television, though Club Harlem and the 500 Club managed to survive into the 1960's.

A fire that burned everything but a picture of Frank Sinatra, destroyed the 500 Club on June 10th, 1973, while a shoot-out that killed a pregnant woman shut down the Club Harlem in 1968. The Club reopened infrequently and was eventually torn down. Today, 500 Club Lane, a portion of Mississippi Ave between Pacific and Atlantic Avenues, marks the "Five's" location. (the actual club stood where casino limousines now park).

"When the chips are down, you can bet "Mr. Chips" will be there to pick them up."

The 500 Club - Part 2

The following is taken from "The Boardwalk Jungle" by Ovid Demaris, (1986).

"With Nucky Johnson behind bars, Hap Farley lost little time in establishing himself as the boss of Atlantic County. Besides being a Senator, Chairman of Atlantic County's Republican Committee, and a practicing attorney, Farley appointed himself county treasurer. This not only gave him control of the purse string, but made it clear to county employees who was signing their paychecks and to welfare recipients who was responsible for their checks.... and he let the judges know who was boss. Once a month, he had his nephew deliver their paychecks."

"If anything, vice operations became more rampant under Farley's reign. He made sure the police were underpaid so that vice payoffs would be more palatable. And to make sure the police understood their role, Farley demanded that they sign "loyalty oaths" to the Organization, as his Republican Club was called. So when Farley or one of his flunkiies told a cop to lay off a vice operator, he laid off, or else."

By 1951 the stench of vice in Atlantic City was so ripe that U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver decided to bring his Crime Committee to Atlantic City. Kefauver would later write in his report: "When this committee moved into Atlantic Ctiy at the height of its tourist season, numbers runners and bookies ran for cover and a storm of protests arose from the politicians and racketeers".

Among the conclusions reached by the committee was that Farley was head of the city's rackets, that the Republican party assessed members of the police force $30 a year, that the police department showed "signs of deliberate laxity" and could never find any gamblers to prosecute, despite the fact that about 200 bookmakers were operating there.

Like all political bosses, Farley had a lot of pals. One of them was Public Safety Commissioner Mario Floriani, head of the Fourth Ward Italian American Club. A strong supporter of Floriani was Paul "Skinny" D'Amato, who never had any problem running prostitution and gambling in the 500 Club which he fronted for a succession of Mafia bosses. The 500 was a hangout for Mafiosi and politicians. That is where many of the deals were cut while Skinny acted as genial impresario.

Not all entertainment in Atlantic City was on the Boardwalk. What kept the city going in the fifties and early sixties was the side avenue nightclubs that offered top entertainment.

The Club Harlem, with Larry Steele's high-kicking chorus line, featured black stars (that were mentioned in Part 1). Graces' Little Belmont featured organist Wild Bill Davis and his jazz trio, and Le Bistro booked Jack Jones, Belle Barth, Vic Damone, Jackie Mason, and a young comic named Lenny Bruce.

But the 500 Club, only 50 yards from Le Bistro, became the "Big Daddy" of them all after Sknny took over in the early forties. Its showroom was gradually expanded until it seated a thousand people, and his backroom house a plush casino. At one time or another the lineup included all the top headliners on the nightclub circuit from Sophie Tucker to Patti Page, from Jimmy Durante to Joe E. Lewis and Jackie Leonard. Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin teamed up for the very first time at the 500 Club back in 1946. But the biggest draw ever at the 500 was Frank Sinatra, whose five engagements over a period of a half-dozen years literally became historical events."

The photos are of "Paul "Skinny" D'Amato and his pals who played his 500 club helped make Atlantic City the swingingest spot south of Manhattan in the 40's and 50's". "Skinny" is pictured with Jimmy Durante and Donald O'Connor in top photo and with Sammy Davis, Jr. in the bottom scan.

"When the chips are down, you can bet "Mr. Chips" will be there to pick them up."

The 500 Club - Part 3

"What is amazing about Sinatra's appearances at the 500 is that he performed free of charge, doing as many as four shows a night. Skinny D'Amato says that it was because Frank loved him "like a brother," but then Skinny seemed to feel that way about everybody he knew. And he acknowledged with pride that he knew all the important politicians in New Jersey, and every Mafia boss in the country.

The 500 was built by Marco Reginelli, underboss of the Philadelphia family, who lived and operated out of Camden, NJ. His successor, Angelo Bruno, also loved "Skinny" like a brother. "Skinny" was so proud of his new boss and partner that he named his only son Angelo. Through the years, Skinny turned the Five, as the club was known to its devotees, into a local institution and had himself crowned, "Mr. Atlantic City".

In the late 1930's Skinny had done a stretch in Lewisburg after being convicted as a "white slaver", and was still there, in fact, when another brotherly friend, Nucky Johnson, arrived at the federal pen to serve his time.

It was after Skinny's release from prison that Reginelli picked him to front the Five. Skinny put the club on the map and made millions for his friends.

According to Skinny, his managerial abilities so impressed another close friend, Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana, that was when Giancana and Sinatra bought into the Cal-Neva Lodge at Lake Tahoe they picked Skinny to manage the place. But that was short-lived. Sinatra who was blacklisted in Nevada, came to visit his sweetheart, singer Phyllis McGuire, who with her two sisters was headlining the Cal-Neva showroom.

"In recalling that event, Skinny told me that he and Sinatra had advised Giancana not to come. We died when we saw him drive up. But he was in love, what are you going to do?"

"During the 1960 presidential campaign, Giancana sent Skinny D'Amato to West Virginia to get votes for Jack Kennedy. He was to use his influence with the sheriffs who controlled the political machine of that state. Most of them had been customers at his 500 Club, and according to Skinny, "loved him like a brother." Whether he helped turn the tide for Kennedy in that crucial primary state is not as important as the fact that Giancana sent him there on Kennedy's behalf."

"Sinatra made only one more appearance at the 500 after his Nevada debacle. That was the one in August 1964. As Altantic City Press columnist Sonny Schwartz would note in later years, "Sans Sinatra, summer business in '65 and the following years took a decided downhill turn."

"The flames shot throught the roof and smoke belched skyward. The 500 Club was giving its final performance. Watching from across the street on this Sunday afternoon, June 10, 1973, Skinny D'Amato was being consoled by his two daughters, Paulajane and Cathy, and his son, Angelo. Reporters surrounded them."

"Fighting back tears, Skinny pointed to the second-floor living quarters above the nightclub. "That's where my kids were born... where they grew up." The tears started running down his sunken cheeks. He lowered his head, wiped at his face, and looked up. "I'll rebuild," he said. "I don't know how, but I'll try. I'm going to keep going. I was born on this street." Then he shook his head. "People can't afford it anymore." What he meant was that the 500 had been in the bankruptcy courts."

"A moment later, Skinny was entertaining the reporters with stories about Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. "They each called on Christmas and spoke to the whole family... to the kids." he said, now ignoring the flames that were ravaging the club. "Sinatra appeared here five times and never charged me a penny."

"After the fire was brought under control, Skinny toured the smoking ruins. The roof had caved in, the rear wall had collapsed. He moved throught the muddy debris, shaking his head in disbelief at the skeletal remains. Then he stopped and stared in astonishment at a charred wall where he had hung a lifesize photograph of Sinatra. There it was, untouched by the flames. He took faltering steps toward it to make certain. How was it possible? The heat had been so intense that steel girders lay twisted in the ruins. He reached up and touched the photograph. Yes, it was true. It had survived. This had to be a good omen. God's way of assuring him that the future was secure. It was miracle......"

At the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, after a 24 minute standing ovation, Bobby Kennedy brought them to tears with his eulogy to JFK, which was put off until the last night because LBJ feared Bobby would be spontaneously drafted to lead the party.

You should be able to ride by the Downbeach home of Carroll Rosenbloom – where LBJ actually stayed that week, using his hotel room for business. Rosenbloom was the owner of the Baltimore Colts NFL football team, and partners with Mike McLaney in the Hotel National Casino in Havana, which they purchased from Meyer Lansky just before Castro took over Cuba on New Year’s Day, 1959.

END OF ARCHIE BLACK'S - 500 CLUB -


ASSASSINS CULINARY TOUR Atlantic City

Only a few of the most popular restaurants have survived the influx of the casinos, but when you're in the town, there's a few places that you really have to experience or else you really haven't been to Atlantic City.

First off there's Angelo's.

Angelo’s Fairmount Tavern – One of the last of the old Italian joints in Ducktown.

Baltimore Grill – Open all night, 7 days, Tony’s Baltimore Grill has inexpensive meals, spaghetti, pizza, sandwiches, and they seem to get better as the night, or morning wears on.

White House Sub Shop – Using fresh rolls from the bakery next door, the White House hoagies and cheesteaks are the best anywhere, as all the celebrities – including Sinatra and the Beatles, could attest.

Dock’s Oyster House – Now over a century old, Dock’s is just Jersey Shore seafood.

Los Amegos. – An old German bar now Mexican, is a steady standby.

Knife & Fork - Only classic Five Star restaurant outside of casinos.

Tun Tavern – Near the train station, the Tun Tavern is brewpub named after the Philadelphia tavern where the U.S. Marine Corp was founded in 1776. For me, it’s the last stop before boarding the train, and first place where I head when I get back in town, have a beer, hit the head and make a few phone calls while awaiting my ride.

SITES:

Boardwalk Hall opened in 1929, the same year that the organized crime syndicates met in Atlantic City.

Kennedy Plaza – the area in front of the Boardwalk Hall, where JFK was eulogized by RFK. Lifelike bust of JFK stands at the front of the plaza.

President Hotel – An original meeting place for the April, 1929 conclave, promoted the fact in later years. Mentioned in Scott Deutch’s bio of Santo Trafficante, as the where his power was solidified by the mob bosses, the President was demolished with the advent of the new casino era. Now a vacant lot. Visit the Knife & Fork period restaurant across street.

Chalfonte-Haddon Hall – Resorts International – Atlantic City’s first legal casino after New Jersey adopted the Havana model in only permitting casinos in Atlantic City in hotels with over 500 rooms or more, thus ensuring the control of the development of casinos in the hands of a select few.

Bally/Caesars – The second and third casinos in Atlantic City, both controlled by the syndicate that began in Atlantic City in 1929. Near 500 Club Lane.

Atlantic City Country Club – Where Al Capone is said to have hid out while the Atlantic City police were looking for him during the 1929 meetings. Later purchased by with money from Carroll Rossenbloom.

Hutton Estate – Lake’s Bayside Spanish Revival style mansion of Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress whose estate became a local icon.

Studebaker Building – Up the Pike and across the street. Still has the Studebaker engraving in front of the building.

Kentucky Ave. – The old jazz clubs.

500 Club – Missouri Avenue, now 500 Club Way.

Steel Pier – A shell of its former self, but still there across boardwalk from Resorts.

Masonic Lodge – Once used as police station.

Tunn Tavern – at AMTRACK and NJTRANSIT train station and new Convention Hall.

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