Mafia, corpses and sordid secrets… Lake Mead dries up and reveals its disturbing past

On the floor of what is supposed to be the largest water reservoir in the United States, dead fish, cracked earth, shipwrecks and… corpses. For several months, Lake Mead, located between Nevada and Arizona, has seen its water level drop considerably due to intense drought. As a result of this extreme climate, several bodies have come to the surface since last May, including a fourth on Saturday. The find was reported late morning at the lake’s National Recreation Area, the National Park Service said in a statement quoted by NBC News. Little information has been revealed about this corpse, the causes of death of which remain to be determined and which is added to the list of the first three dead found in recent months.

According to the “Daily Mail”, the corpse discovered on Saturday could belong to Daniel Kolod. His son, Todd, told the British tabloid he was 3 years old in 1958 when his father drowned on a boat trip with a friend. Todd Kolod thinks it could be his father due to missing teeth and a prosthesis present on the found bones, which would match the description of Daniel Kolod. In addition, the medical examiner announced that the body could be that of a person between 23 and 28 years old, which would be closer to the 22 years old his father was when he died. But the police have not confirmed anything and DNA analyzes have yet to be done.

“The underworld tended to put people in cans”

These different dramas come to highlight the troubled past of the area which would have been used in the past by the mafia to get rid of undesirable characters. 1^er May, a metal barrel in which was a corpse with a bullet wound, resurfaced on the edge of the bank. The investigation revealed that this crime probably dates back to the 70s or 80s. Seven days later, another body was found, also in a barrel. Then, on July 25, partial human remains were recovered.

From mafia to drowning, all tracks are open. Lt. Jason Johansson told CNN that rumors about organized crime are “mere speculation” at this time. He added, however, “Any time you have a body in a barrel, it’s obvious that someone else is involved.” “The underworld had a tendency to put people in cans, whether to put them in the lake or throw them in a field,” Geoff Schumacher, vice-president of the Mob Museum, the “Museum of the underworld” , from Las Vegas. He himself has some theories regarding the identity of the very first victim found in the cask. CBS says it may be Jay Vandermark, who worked at the Stardust Hotel, run by Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal on behalf of the Chicago mob. Rosenthal – played by Robert De Niro in the film ‘Casino’ – was transferring the money to his bosses, until he caught the attention of local authorities. Some time later, Jay Vandermark disappeared.

Another possible victim: Harry Pappas, who also worked for the Chicago underworld. “One of the added perks for visitors to Las Vegas, if you were a high roller…was that they took you by boat to Lake Mead. The Stardust had a boat there and Harry Pappas was in charge of this whole operation. Just before he disappeared, he told his wife he was going to have lunch with someone who was interested in buying his boat. We never saw Harry Pappas again,” says Geoff Schumacher. “The Mafia played a fairly large role in the development of Las Vegas from the 1940s through the 1980s. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes activity where they controlled the management of casinos, but also built and expanded those casinos.” It was after World War II that this small town in Nevada became the gambling capital of the world. “The reality is that these guys were cold-blooded killers, thieves. If you crossed paths with the mafia for one reason or another, there were definitely consequences,” says Geoff Schumacher.

Another name has surfaced in the media as one of the possible Lake Mead victims. Jimmy Hoffa, known for his Mafia ties and listed as a prime suspect for the masterminds behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy, mysteriously disappeared on July 30, 1975, when he was due to meet Anthony “Tony Jack” Giacalone , a well-known Detroit mob henchman, and alleged New Jersey mob figure Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano at a restaurant in suburban Detroit. His body was never located and he was pronounced dead in 1982. The investigation into his death is still ongoing today, and rumors regarding the whereabouts of his corpse emerge regularly in the American media, including lately about Lake Mead. But Oscar Goodman, mob lawyer and eccentric former mayor of Las Vegas, joked to CBS that “I’m relatively certain that body doesn’t belong to Jimmy Hoffa.” However, he added more seriously that some of his former clients – he notably defended Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro – were particularly invested in “climate control”, in particular in order to keep the water level of the lake at a level. high level. “Not a bad place to dump a body,” he commented.

“I can say that there is a good chance that with the water going down, we will find new human remains”, had warned last May Ray Spencer, lieutenant of the police of Las Vegas. In addition to the bodies discovered, the lake also recently released a WWII boat. The boat would have been used during the landing in Normandy before surveying the Colorado River and then being sold and sinking in Lake Mead. A B-29 plane that crashed in 1948 is still submerged but could soon resurface, reports 8NewsNow. The western United States has been plagued for several years by a historic drought which threatens the water supply of a large part of the population and has caused the level of lakes and rivers to drop dramatically. Fed by the Colorado River, Lake Mead, a gigantic reservoir attached to the Hoover Dam, has reached its lowest level since 1937.