Sun File Photo
Mobster Tony Spilotro, left, and his attorney, Oscar Goodman, walk side by side after a session of the Spilotro trial in 1986. Goodman is writing his memoirs, including his days representing alleged mobsters and three terms as mayor of Las Vegas.
Monday, Jan. 30, 2012 | 6 p.m.
There is no title, but “Oscar Being Oscar” might well fit.
We speak of the upcoming memoirs of the former “mob lawyer” and three-term mayor of Las Vegas. There is no such title yet and no publisher lined up. But the man Goodman has been working with on his tantalizing life story is best-selling author David Fisher, who most recently served as the ghost writer of financial analyst Harry Markopolos’ tale of exposing Bernie Madoff, "No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller."
Fisher has for three decades focused on a wide array of subjects, including iconic celebrities, mafia hit men and Nobel Prize-winning biochemists. Fisher also co-authored William Shatner’s 2008 autobiography "Up Till Now" and "Gracie," a story of George Burns’ life with Gracie Allen.
Goodman is quoted talking of the upcoming memoir in the New York Daily News Gatecrasher gossip column as promising the book will disclose lively moments from his days as an attorney representing purported mob figures and his long tenure as “The Happiest Mayor in the Universe.”
In the Daily News column, Goodman recounts the time he tossed a prominent East Coast businessman from his City Hall office when the magnate “demanded he get his way” in Vegas. As the visitor complained that the mayor’s practices were not how things were done “back East,” Goodman says, “I threw his ass out of my office.”
Goodman also recounts how he came within a layup of securing an NBA franchise in Las Vegas, convincing NBA Commissioner David Stern to agree that any existing team that wanted to move to Vegas would not be restricted from doing so by the league. That move never happened, as the economic downturn quelled the effort to build the suitable arena needed to lure an NBA franchise to the city, but Goodman says his wife, current Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, “will be able to do it” during her tenure.
Goodman says in the coming couple of weeks, a publisher will be known. Sounds like a page-turner in the works.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.
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