Quote:
Originally Posted by Bilbo
I'm interested in all I can find out about Guy Mcafee - a one-time LAPD vice squad commander - and all round "bent" policeman who was connected to the "City Hall Gang".
He had two spells with the LAPD - being dismissed for running craps games in the police locker room - and skimming from the kick-backs from the gambling ships in Santa Monica Bay. I'm not sure of the dates of employment in the LAPD but it was at least during the 1920s.
At the time he was married to Marie - a high profile Hollywood "madam" who he probably met through Albert Marco - she sadly died 8th May 1932 but I don't know the reason.
The 1926 L A Directory shows Guy and Marie living in the "Merrill Appartments" at 1026 Ingraham Street - and the 1926 voters list shows their occupations as - Guy - hotelier and Marie - appartment housekeeper.
As they were both into the prostitution racket at this time - is it possible the Merrill Appartments were a "brothel" ?
How could I find out who owned the appartments at that time ?
How could I find out who was behind the "Chateau Sunset Corporation" ?
Living in the U K I'm not sure what information like this I can access -
thanks for reading this.....
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Hi Bilbo!
Guy Mcafee was indeed an interesting character. He seems to have gotten away with a lot of dastardly deeds over the decades, and came through it rather unscathed!! Here is a blurb about him from our friends at LAPL:
"Guy McAfee (1888-1960) was once a vice squad captain of the Los Angeles Police Department. Seeing he could make more money catering to crime, than fighting against it, he decided to leave the LAPD and soon became a reputed gambling "baron", establishing himself as a businessman on the Sunset Strip. In 1930, he arrived in Las Vegas and was licensed to run a business with restricted legal gambling. That became the start of a successful and fruitful venture for years to come. In 1931, McAfee was briefly detained following a double-homicide of two rival businessmen, newspaper reporter Herbert S. Spencer and Los Angeles politician Charles H. Crawford. McAfee denied any involvement and was never charged with a crime. After a 1939 grand jury investigation into local crime, headed by then-mayor Fletcher Bowron, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and U.S. Attorney General Frank Murphy, McAfee and his wife, former film actress June Brewster moved to Las Vegas. McAfee's first major purchase was the Pair-O-Dice Nightclub and Casino (renamed the 91 Club - after Highway 91), which he paid $20,000 for. In 1940, he opened a small casino he named the Frontier Club, and soon after, opened the Mandalay Lounge nightclub. In 1942 he bought the Pioneer Club on Fremont, and in 1945 he acquired the SS Rex (later renamed Benny Binion's Horseshoe). In 1946 McAfee opened the Golden Nugget Saloon, the largest casino in Las Vegas at the time. In 1951, he and two partners bought the Last Frontier for $5.5 million, and sold it in 1955 for an undisclosed amount. Less than a decade after moving to Las Vegas, McAfee had become the city's veritable gambling kingpin; he died on February 20, 1960 at the age of 71."
As far as the Merrill Apartments I will keep sleuthing, but miraculously, the building still stands like an island in sea of newer construction.
Google Streetview
I am now obsessed with finding all I can on Guy and the ill-fated Marie. Stay tuned....
~Jon Paul