# FBI Los Angeles reports of 1963 on Joseph Stacher and the Sands Hotel

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/fbi-vault-stacher-p01-los-angeles-reports-1963/

FBI Los Angeles reports of 1963 on Joseph Stacher (Los Angeles file 92-386), including the Las Vegas Office's statement that the owner of record of 6.87 percent of the Sands Hotel "now appears to be a front for Joseph Stacher and the Gerardo Catena group."

The FBI Vault's file titled "Joseph Stacher (Gdale Oistaczer)," Part 01 (Final), has 44 pages of Los Angeles Division reports and FD-302 interview forms from 1963, Los Angeles file 92-386, with about seven deleted pages and heavy redaction. The cover report covers an investigative period from June 18 to September 16, 1963, and is titled "Joseph Stacher, aka." This page was filed from the OCR text of the Vault viewer, which is imperfect. The page image of scan 6, the cover page of the report, is now stored here; the wording below is as far as the OCR can be read and has not been compared with the other scans.

The report states that on September 4, 1963 the Las Vegas Office advised the Bureau that information had been received indicating that Carl Cohen, "Vice President of the Sands Hotel," contemplated leaving Las Vegas to attend a meeting between "Joseph Stacher, top hoodlum of the Los Angeles Division; Gerardo Catena, Newark top hoodlum and an individual from Miami," and that "the purpose of the meeting was to decide future plans for the Sands Hotel." The phrase "top hoodlum" appears to be the Bureau's program label and is not a rank in any organization. The Las Vegas Office also stated that Aaron Weisberg, "owner of record of 6.87% in the Sands Hotel, Las Vegas," "now appears to be a front for Joseph Stacher and the Gerardo Catena group," and that Weisberg was acquainted with persons in the New York and Newark areas, among them Vincent Alo.

Scan 19 records a source's account of Stacher's movements on August 30 and 31, 1963: he checked into a room at the Flamingo Hotel, went to the Fremont Hotel and the Horseshoe, and was observed gambling at the Dunes and at the Desert Inn and visiting the Stardust. A visit to a casino is not an interest in it, and the report does not say he held one in those places. The statements are the Bureau's record of what informants and offices reported, not findings. The Second Circuit's later account of the government's investigation of Stacher is on the page for [United States v. Cole](/items/courtlistener-us-v-cole-463-f2d-163/).

## Sources

- FBI Records: The Vault: https://vault.fbi.gov/joseph-stacher-gdale-oistaczer/Joseph%20Stacher%20%28Gdale%20Oistaczer%29%20Part%2001%20%28Final%29/view