On this day, Oct. 4, in 1982, Las Vegas casino operator and sports bettor Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal survived a car bombing but refused to help with the investigation.

Martin Scorsese's film "Casino" is based on Rosenthal, who created the first sports book operation within a casino, the Stardust.

In 1961, Rosenthal appeared before a Senate hearing on gambling and organized crime and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination 37 times -- even to the question of whether he was left-handed.

He eventually climbed to the top of the casino industry, hosting a TV variety show in the 1970s and writing a gossip column, before he was eventually banned from Nevada's casinos in 1988 for his Mafia ties. He died in 2008 at age 79.

- Scott McCabe