-Grout: from the Old Norse “grautr”, or the Old English pre 7th Century “Grut”, an early nickname for a person considered by neighbors to be a bit wild, rough around the edges, and someone not to be associated with.
As far as the family name, there are not many of us left. Killed off by plague, pestilence, Huns and holocaust, geneological research reveals:
The earliest recording of the name includes Steingrautr and Stengrut of Yorkshire (personal names only) in the 1086 Domesday Book.
Banished from Las Vegas by way of entrance into The Black Book in 1991, 34 year old junkie Max Steingrout needed a fix.
By 1987 Max Steingrout was a Las Vegas lifer. A hanger on, a degenerate, a chain smoker, a drunk, a drug addict and most important, to the establishment which allowed him to exist in the first place, a gambling addict.
He lost more than he won.
In spite of the smell, the sports books tolerated Max, as long as it wasn’t convention season & as long as he wasn’t bothering the girls.
In 1987, for the first time in his sordid gambling career, Max Steingrout started to win & win big.
Simultaneously, the Las Vegas Corporate Takeover had began.
Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal was the target of FBI & Las Vegas Gaming Commission investigations.
In a last ditch effort to avoid indictment, & potential entry into The Black Book, Lefty Rosenthal looked at long time associate, Dick Wheeler, pointed at Max and said: ”Make that fucking prick The Chickenhawk.”
Ceasars Palace’s Bobo the Famous Handicapping Chimp turned five and
was coming off an 8-4 NFL weekend spiriting his winning percentage to
over .600. Vegas partied like it was 1999. Don’t ask me how, Bobo knew
how to pick the winners.
Bobo made regular appearances on the Lefty Rosenthal Show, opposite
old Blue Eyes himself. Some maintain, Bobo stole the show. Bobo, was
more a member of the Rat Pack than Peter Lawford and it was unanimous:
Vegas loved Bobo & Bobo loved Vegas!
Unfortunately, Bobo also loved the sweet, banana nectar of Jack
Daniels. Disillusioned by the late nights, cigarettes, booze and
strippers, Bobo lashed out at his fans. He ripped off
his diaper and threw feces at Caesars’ patrons. Bad Bobo.
One night, long after his Las Vegas bright lights were turned off,
Bobo finished off a quart of JD, took a handful of sleeping
pills, choked on his vomit and died in his inebriated sleep.
Unlike in New York, in Las Vegas Max made friends quick.
By 1977 he was running security for Birdie’s burgeoning escort service empire which consisted of an old crack whore named Connie and a semi-retarded 17-year-old.
Security consisted of Max hiding behind the trailer with a baseball bat hoping the johns didn’t get out of line.
Between 1979 and 1985 James “Birdie” Wallace became the biggest importer and distributor of cocaine in Clark County, NV.
He helped Las Vegas become known as “Sin City.”
He supplied coke to everyone who supplied coke to everyone in Las
Vegas: dealers, valets, bartenders, taxi drivers, strippers, whores,
hotel managers, stars and performers.
Steve & Edie, Phyllis Dyller, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr., Brando, Eric Estrada, Goldie Hawn: either directly or indirectly, Max Steingrout sold cocaine to them all.
If you did blow in Las Vegas in the early ’80s it probably came from
someone who got it from someone who go it from Birdie Wallace.
Birdie Wallace’s cocaine.
Peru was the world’s leading producer of cocaine. The Colombian traffickers turned it into a dirty, bloody business and the cartel cocaine wars turned violent. This spelled the end for ’60’s pacifists like Las Vegas’ Birdie Wallace.
He didn’t have the stomach for the rough stuff.
Birdie made too many people nervous and he started to make too much money.
Birdie was fine doing the hustle, rolling a junkie or slapping around
an under-aged runaway hooker, but once he started to move mountains of
coke and make the kind of money reserved for Wayne Newton, he no longer
knew his place.
One day he flew away.
Allegedly with a bullet to the back of his head in the back of an El Dorado.
