Morris A. Shenker (January 10, 1907 – August 9, 1989) was an American lawyer best known for his connections to labor leader Jimmy Hoffa and Teamster funding of Las Vegas in the 1960s.
Shenker was a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in St. Louis in 1922 with limited English. He was educated at Washington University School of Law, and set up law practice in 1932. Shenker built a reputation as a successful defense attorney, raised money for the Democratic Party and for Israel, and co-founded the Dismas House charity in St. Louis.
Shenker first came to national attention during the Kefauver Hearings in the early 1950s, in which he represented a number of underworld figures. From 1962 Shenker represented Jimmy Hoffa, and in 1966 became Hoffa's chief counsel.
In 1970 a year-long Life Magazine investigative report accused him, as head of the St. Louis Commission on Crime and Law Enforcement, along with the city's mayor Alfonso J. Cervantes, of both having "personal ties to the underworld."[1] The magazine alleged that Shenker controlled the massive $700 million Teamsters Union Pension Fund and its investments, most notably in Las Vegas but also in San Diego (through developers Louis Lesser and Irvin Kahn), New York City, Kansas City, and elsewhere. Shenker himself assumed part ownership of the Dunes Hotel and Casino from the 1970s to 1985.[2] Shenker tried to develop a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, also called the Dunes Hotel and Casino, but it was never completed.[3]
During the 1970s, Shenker borrowed more than $200 million from the pension funds of labor unions that he influenced. He borrowed more than $160 million from the Teamsters pension fund, $43 million from the Culinary Workers pension fund, and $23.5 million from Pipefitters Local 562.[4] In 1984, Shenker filed for bankruptcy after a $34 million court judgment against him by the Culinary Workers pension fund. In February 1989, Shenker was indicted by a grand jury, but was not tried because of his health.[5]
On a local level, Shenker and Mayor Cervantes were part-owners of the mid-town St. Louis landmark Continental Life Building, along with businessman Harold Koplar, owner of independent television station KPLR-TV and Shenker's brother-in-law. Shenker's wife, Lillian Koplar Shenker, had also attended law school at Washington University in St. Louis, and became a judge in her own right in the St. Louis Court of Criminal Corrections.
Shenker died of pneumonia, at his daughter's house in Santa Monica, California, after a long illness. Fictionalized versions of Shenker appear in the 1961 film Hoodlum Priest (as "Louis Rosen", founder of a fictionalized Dismas House), and in the film Casino.
^A Two-Faced Crime Fight In St. Louis Life Magazine, May 29, 1970, pages 24-31 [1]
^Las Vegas Casino's Owner Thriving In A High-Risk, High-Stakes Setting New York Times February 21, 1984 [2]
^Hoffa's former counsel moving into Atlantic City Beaver County Times May 11, 1979 [3]
^Blakey, G. Robert and Goldstock, Ronald, "On the Waterfront": RICO and Labor Racketeering Notre Dame Law School Scholarly Works[4]
^Morris Shenker, 82; Hoffa Attorney, Ex-Dunes Owner Los Angeles Times August 10, 1989 [5]
Morris A. Shenker (January 10, 1907 – August 9, 1989) was an American lawyer best known for his connections to labor leader Jimmy Hoffa and Teamster funding...
Shenker is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Israel Shenker, scholar and reporter for The New York Times MorrisShenker, American lawyer...
pension fund had made unsafe loans, primarily to MorrisShenker, totaling over 60% of the fund's assets. Shenker was the owner of the Dunes (hotel and casino)...
from the Dunes hotel and casino in Las Vegas, which was owned by MorrisShenker. Shenker arranged for Agron and a dozen of his underlings to visit the Dunes...
convictions. Appeals filed by his chief counsel, St. Louis defense attorney MorrisShenker, reached the U.S. Supreme Court. He began serving his aggregate prison...
the Dunes hotel and casino (which was controlled by Hoffa's attorney, MorrisShenker), the Four Queens, the Aladdin Hotel & Casino, Circus Circus, and Caesars...
Louis mayor Alfonso J. Cervantes, prominent St. Louis defense attorney MorrisShenker, and Harold Koplar of KPLR-TV. At some point in the 1970s the building...
Louis mayor Alfonso J. Cervantes and nationally known defense attorney MorrisShenker, who was also Koplar's brother-in-law. Harold and Marie Lauer Koplar...
commercial trial lawyer in St. Louis at the law offices of famed attorney MorrisShenker, whom he represented in various matters from 1978 to 1984. In 1984 he...
computing and data science initiatives, making him and colleague Scott Shenker two of Berkeley's largest benefactors. Ion Stoica author profile page at...
acquired by the Royale Investment Company, the hotel was sold to attorney MorrisShenker in 1965. It was known as the Ambassador for many years until it was...
nearby Dismas House], established by Father Charles "Dismas" Clark and MorrisShenker. In 1964, Schilling's was assigned to teach at Holy Angels Catholic...
promise. With the help of prominent St. Louis criminal defense lawyer MorrisShenker, Clark created Dismas House. In the next decades half-way houses were...
through Lessor's relationship with MorrisShenker, who was the gatekeeper for the Pension Fund's investments. Shenker arrange a $10M mortgage from the Mercantile...
most influential casino owners in Las Vegas, including Cliff Perlman, MorrisShenker, Ed Torres, Steve Wynn, and Barron Hilton. During this time, he held...
Walfish, Jeremy Stribling, Maxwell Krohn, Hari Balakrishnan, Robert Morris, and Scott Shenker (2004). "Middleboxes No Longer Considered Harmful" (PDF). 6th...
Frank (New York Times, 1963) Zero Mostel's Book of Villains [with Israel Shenker, photographs by Alex Gotfryd] (Doubleday, 1976) Heller, Brad. "Approach"...
ISBN 978-1-4503-0033-9. S2CID 10006932.. Karp, R. M.; Papadimitriou, C. H.; Shenker, S. (2003), "A simple algorithm for finding frequent elements in streams...
Professional. p. 583. ISBN 9780321122445. Zhang, L., Deering, S., Estrin, D., Shenker, S., and D. Zappala, "RSVP: A New Resource ReSerVation Protocol", IEEE...
Security (WEIS), joint with Thomas Eisenbach, Joan Feigenbaum, and Scott Shenker. 19. “The Financing of Innovation”, 2005, RAND Journal of Economics, 36...
Palgrave Advances in Samuel Beckett Studies (London: Palgrave, 2004). Shenker, Israel. "Moody Man of Letters; Portrait of Samuel Beckett, Author of the...
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