My parents were gonna take me to a juvenile home.
So I ran away.
NARRATOR: Wendy Mazaros is attracted to more
than just the glitz of Las Vegas.
WENDY: I went in the Horseshoe Club, because
Teddy Binion was a nice-looking guy.
NARRATOR: But fate deals her a bad hand.
WENDY: The owner of the brothel took me and put me in this room.
I didn't know where I was.
JOE: Teddy told him she would be like breaking in a new horse.
WENDY: I was used horribly.
[sighs heavily]
NARRATOR: Now she must play her cards right...
WENDY: He kissed me,
and then it just went from there.
...before a mobster cashes in on her life.
WENDY: They said, "He's one of the most
prolific killers of all time."
LARRY: What kind of psychotic person has
his wife write a suicide note?
WENDY: He pulled out the gun,
and he had it at the back of my head,
and he said, "Start digging."
[theme music playing]
WENDY: I've lived the life of a 200-year-old woman.
I'm surprised I'm still alive.
I probably could say I had a daddy wound,
because my father was absent all the time.
But I was always looking for that male figure to protect me.
NARRATOR: It's 1968, and Wendy Mazaros is 13 years old,
running wild in rural Nevada.
WENDY: Las Vegas was a great place to grow up
during the '60s and '70s.
Vegas was sort of a Hollywood playground.
The Rat Pack was here, Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe.
But meanwhile, it was
a small town with small town friendliness.
WENDY: My parents did the best they could with what they had.
My mother was gone from 5:30
in the morning until 6 o'clock at night.
She had top security clearance to Area 51.
NARRATOR: Area 51 is a U.S. Air Force military installation
in southern Nevada and the birthplace
of the nuclear bomb.
My mother always kept a tight lip on what she did,
and she would always make sure
and call home to tell us when a bomb was gonna go off,
because the entire house would rattle.
My father was a truck driver.
He was an absent father, because he was on the road
so much.
We probably saw him once a week, if that.
NARRATOR: When they do see their dad,
he is often drunk and abusive to Wendy and her siblings.
The dad, I think probably due to his drinking,
picked on one particular kid, her brother, Michael.
One time, Michael snuck me out of the window,
and we went out for a little bit,
came back, and my father started calling me
horrible names.
He called me a whore.
[glass shattering]
At one point,
he had my brother up in the corner.
He had his hands around his neck,
and he was choking him.
And my mother had just walked in the house,
and she'd taken off her shoe,
and she started hitting my father with the heel
on his head to make him get off Michael.
NARRATOR: Wendy dreams of escaping the abusive household
and turns to the glamour of downtown Las Vegas.
I was about 14 when we started
taking the bus down to Fremont Street.
JOE: Fremont Street was where the Horseshoe was,
the Pioneer Saloon, and there was
a Woolworth store, uh, at one of the corners
where she and her friends would hang out.
WENDY: One day, we took a trip in to Las Vegas.
We went in the Horseshoe Club, because Teddy Binion
was a nice-looking guy,
and he walked up to us and offered us some ice cream.
He immediately had his arm around her waist.
He obviously focused on her, because she's very beautiful.
She loved that attention and this sort of sense
of respect that she felt she hadn't gotten anywhere before.
NARRATOR: Teddy is the 26-year-old son of Benny Binion,
the owner of the Horseshoe Casino.
Benny Binion was maybe the most famous, at
that time, casino owner in all of Las Vegas.
The Horseshoe was renowned for
basically no limit betting, and he took all bets.
WENDY: I was hanging out with Teddy till late in
the evening, and eventually
it led into a romantic time.
NARRATOR: Wendy is 15 at this point,
but she looks much older,
and soon, her relationship with Teddy turned sexual.
WENDY: Thought I was an adult, and I thought I could
do it on my own,
and I would go home, and my parents would
be very upset, because it was way past curfew, and my parents
had enough, and they were gonna take me to a juvenile home.
I ran, and I called Teddy.
Teddy hid me up in the casino.
He started buying me nice clothes, jewelry,
sent me to the beauty salon, and he started sitting me with
gamblers, high rollers, that would fly in.
I would sit at the million dollar poker tournaments.
It definitely made me feel that I was finally wanted.
NARRATOR: Wendy becomes known as Teddy's girl and is on top of
the world, until Wendy's mother finds out
and reports it to the police.
A detective started coming into the Horseshoe Club, asking
about me and if anyone had seen me.
Teddy told me the heat's getting too hot.
We're gonna have to move you to keep you safe.
And so he introduced me to this good friend
of theirs out of Texas.
And he said, "Go with him for
a couple of weeks until the heat dies down."
Before I left,
Teddy says, "Oh, you'll love Texas.
"You'll ride some of his horses,
"drink some lemonade, and just kick back in the sun
and enjoy yourself."
And it wasn't at all what I expected.
NARRATOR: Teddy's friend takes her to a seedy Texas motel.
Well, he said, "Now you need to work."
He told her, "Teddy told me you'd be like breaking in
a new horse."
I didn't know what he was talking about until they
took me back into a room with about three other girls.
They were trying to calm me down.
I was crying. I didn't know where I was.
It was very, very scary.
NARRATOR: Wendy realizes she's been forced into the sex trade.
NARRATOR: Well, the girls started telling me that when the phone rings,
we take turns, and I went to the room.
A man started telling me what to do and what he wanted.
And I didn't really understand everything.
I was used horribly.
[sighs heavily]
NARRATOR: Wendy is forced to have sex with
oil rigger and cowboys for three weeks.
My feeling at the time was I need to get myself
through this so I can...live.
There was one gal there that really cared about me.
She showed me a little window in the bathroom.
It was just a little tiny one, but I was so skinny
then anyway.
And so she helped me escape.
And when I got to the highway and the cowboy
with the white hat and the pickup truck pulled over,
I felt relieved.
I felt I'm in good hands now.
NARRATOR: A few days later, Wendy arrives back in Vegas,
shattered, homeless, and broke.
WENDY: It felt good that I was back in Las Vegas,
but I couldn't go home in fear
I was gonna be placed in juvenile home.
So I called Teddy, and then Teddy took me back to the club.
I truly believed Teddy never knew that was going to happen.
NARRATOR: Wendy is a problem for Teddy.
She's still underage, and her mother might call
the police again if he continues their relationship.
But he has a solution.
WENDY: Teddy said, "I'm gonna get you a job
"with another good friend of ours here
"in Vegas, and we're going to make sure that nothing like
this happens to you again."
NARRATOR: Teddy makes a few phone calls and then takes Wendy
to a restaurant to meet one of his business associates.
Teddy said, "That's him right there.
Go up and introduce yourself."
Tom had his very own booth.
All the waitresses knew who he was.
I said, "Mr. Hanley?" And he said,
"Yep, what's left of him."
[laughs]
He was distinguished, and he had this
great smile that made me feel warm.
I looked into his eyes.
They were stark blue, like they just jabbed right through you,
and it gave me chills down my spine.
He was a nice older gentleman.
NARRATOR: Tom is the owner of an air conditioning company
and also does work for the Culinary Union
that represents Las Vegas workers.
WENDY: We sat down and talked a little bit.
People in the restaurant treated him with
utmost respect,
and that impressed me.
He started telling me he needed
a receptionist to just answer the phone.
No pressure, no nothing.
So I said, "I can do that.
That's great." Could have been a little job,
but it still made me feel good about myself.
Teddy did ask him, "Now, she's going to be in good hands,
right, Tom?"
Tom said, "Of course she will."
And that began her relationship with one
of the most notorious hitmen in Las Vegas history.
NARRATOR: Wendy Mazaros is thankful for her new job with businessman
Tom Hanley, who has taken her under his protective wing.
The following day, I rode with him in the truck.
He took me to the business, and there was no one there.
It was just Tom and I, and I sat there and waited
and waited, but the phone never rang,
and it was a pretty boring job,
but I was still happy to have it.
NARRATOR: Tom seems pleased to have company.
Only three months earlier,
he lost his wife of 40 years
to a suspicious overdose of sleeping pills.
His 36-year-old son, Gramby, lives
nearby and works with Tom, who lives alone.
Tom's house was an older home, but it was a nice home.
NARRATOR: The job comes with room and board,
so Wendy moves in with her new boss.
WENDY: He made me feel comfortable.
I thought he was a gentleman.
I felt good inside.
I felt good inside about the whole situation.
I felt like Tom was definitely giving me
a chance to straighten out my life.
NARRATOR: Wendy settles into a routine far from the abuse
she suffered at her parents' and in the Texas brothel.
But before long, she learns the true nature
of Tom's work and why the phone never rings.
His air conditioning company is
a cover for something far less cool.
One day, Tom took me to a restaurant on
Marilyn Parkway, which everyone in Vegas knew
the gangsters hung out.
And when we left, I said, "What are you doing in
a restaurant like that?"
He says, "I work for the mob."
I was floored.
I really didn't know what to say, because one minute he has
the air conditioning business, and the next minute,
he's working for the mob.
Tom Hanley's connection to the Culinary Union and to
mobsters made him a powerful force in Las Vegas,
a feared force, actually, more than respected.
And suddenly, it started making sense why
Tony Spilotro would show up at our home.
Tony Spilotro people will know basically as Joe Pesci from
the movie "Casino."
Go get my money or I'll put your [bleep] brain to sleep.
JOE: He was considered like an enforcer.
People feared him for that.
NARRATOR: Tom's son, Gramby, works with Tony Spilotro
in the infamous Hole in the Wall Gang,
burglarizing jewelry stores.
WENDY: Gramby was a heroin addict.
He was just very unpredictable and scary.
One time, Tony Spilotro
and his brother came out to the office.
They wanted something from Tom, and Tom said, "You want
something, here's something you little..."
And he started shooting at Tony and his brother's feet
and telling them to dance,
and then they turned around and ran to their car,
screaming at Tom,
"You crazy old man. You crazy old man."
NARRATOR: Wendy realizes that even violent mobsters
are fearful of Tom.
And while she is under his protection,
no one will ever mess with her again.
Tom made me feel very stable.
He had a knack for that.
He gave me lots of pretty jewelry.
One day, he asked if he could kiss me,
and then it just went from there.
Finally, I just gave in to Tom,
because he did make me feel secure.
He was taking care of me,
and he was looking out for my best interest.
NARRATOR: Tom is 58 and Wendy is 19.
When he asks her to marry him in 1976.
He said, you know, "We really need
to get married and get married Western style."
And I said, "Okay, that sounds great."
When Tom proposed to me, I felt a little bit more secure.
I know how sick that sounds, but I felt more secure, because
I figured if I was his wife,
then he wouldn't hurt me.
You know, you've heard of sort of the Oedipus complex.
He was the father
she never had, and she was
this incredibly beautiful young woman to him.
We went and got a marriage license down in Las Vegas.
We went to a ranch in Colorado.
NARRATOR: Wendy is not on great terms with her family,
and none of them are invited to the wedding.
WENDY: He had some clergyman come in, and I was dressed in
a red square dancing outfit, and he was dressed in his
Western attire.
We set our vows, and we were married.
It was nice.
After we got back from being married,
Tom scooped up all the beautiful gowns
I had, and he burned them.
An overwhelming feeling came over me that, wow.
Maybe he does care.
Maybe he's doing it for a reason.
Maybe that life that I was living prior,
I'll never go back to.
NARRATOR: But this was not done with good intentions.
In fact, this is the first sign that Tom will not be
Wendy's protector but her new controller.
WENDY: I had left to go up to meet an old friend,
and he had followed me.
When I got back,
I walked through the front door, and he was there with
his fist clenched, and he was shaking, screaming.
"Where have you been?
"I'm gonna knock your head off
if you don't tell me the truth."
That was one of the first times that
I saw Tom in such a fit of rage.
I felt this guy's really gonna kill me.
He's really going to kill me.
It just terrified me.
She couldn't really have friends, because he didn't want
her talking to anybody about anything that happened.
WENDY: After that, he never let me out of his sight.
I was always with him or I was with someone he knew.
NARRATOR: Tension escalates one day when Wendy notices
some jewelry Tom has given her is missing.
Tom's son, Gramby, the jewel thief, is her first suspect.
WENDY: I stormed out of the house,
walked over to Gramby's, knocked on the door.
I said, "Where's my jewelry?
I know you took it."
He said, "I don't know what you're talking about."
And I said, "I'm gonna call the cops,"
and that was the worst thing I could have said.
He was going to kill me right then and there,
and he jumped on top of me, and he was literally strangling me.
I was going in and out, and I couldn't breathe.
I thought I was dead.
And the next thing I knew, Tom was there,
knocking Gramby off of me.
And Tom said that I better be quiet and not talk to anyone,
not say anything, or he's gonna come and get me.
It put chills down my spine, and it literally terrified me.
NARRATOR: Wendy Mazaros's marriage to Las Vegas mobster,
Tom Hanley, has become an exercise in survival.
I felt more and more trapped.
I felt like I was digging a deeper and deeper hole.
NARRATOR: And Wendy's ties to Tom are about to be made deeper.
WENDY: When I found out I was pregnant...
I felt relieved again -- if I'm pregnant, he's --
he's not gonna threaten to kill me anymore.
Tom was very, very happy that I was pregnant.
He said, "Oh, you're gonna have a little gooser, I'm so happy.
I'm so happy for us," and it made me feel good
that he felt good.
NARRATOR: But Wendy is reminded that no one is safe from Tom,
not even the mother of his child,
when she stumbles on a keepsake from his past.
I was rearranging Tom's suits, and I found this note.
It was his first wife's suicide note.
NARRATOR: Officially, Tom's first wife died
from an overdose of sleeping pills.
But does this note tell another story?
Wendy's gut reaction is to give the note to Tom,
but she immediately regrets this.
WENDY: Tom sat me down and said,
"Now you're gonna write yours."
And I said, "Why are you having me do this?"
He said, "Just write it."
And so he told me what to say.
"Sorry Tom, I can't go on anymore.
Make sure our little gooser is well taken care of."
What was going through my head at the time
was wow -- I immediately went into survival mode again.
I felt extremely insecure.
What kind of psychotic person does that,
has his wife write a suicide note?
The suicide note was used to keep me under control.
I was like his prisoner,
and I would always have it in the back
of my head that he has that suicide note.
He can kill me at any minute.
NARRATOR: In the winter of 1976,
Wendy gives birth to a baby girl
they name Amy.
WENDY: I thought having a daughter,
he would change a little bit, but he didn't.
["Rock-a-Bye Baby" plays on mobile]
Tom started going to the deep end then.
He started acting out, started just walking around
like no one could touch him,
started being mean to the people that he was around.
We were at the Safeway store shopping.
We were up at the cash register.
Some guy had let me in, because I had a new baby.
He said, "Please go first."
Tom took that completely wrong,
pulled out his gun, stuck it to the guy's head,
and said, "Don't talk to my wife."
And the next thing I knew, we were
running out of the store with this little baby.
NARRATOR: Tom is quickly arrested and taken to
the station while police conduct a search at the house.
One detective said, "Are there any more guns in the house?"
And I said, "Yeah, there's a lot," and I took him in,
and they loaded up like 56 guns out of our room alone.
Tom was up at the sheriff's office.
They had not put him in a cell.
They had not booked him.
He called, and he was screaming at the detective,
"Leave my guns alone.
"I want my guns, and I'll be home
in a minute," and they let him go.
That made me think that Tom was very powerful
with the sheriff's office, and he had connections there.
They didn't even book him.
They gave him back all of his guns,
and they let him come home.
All I wanted to do was take the baby and run.
But at that point, I felt it was impossible, because
he would hunt me down, and he would kill me.
He had the suicide note, and he carried it
around in his wallet.
NARRATOR: Soon, Wendy will be digging her own grave...
literally.
JOE: He tells her "Dig more,
make it deeper," and she is frightened.
He is renowned as a killer.
You know this now for a fact.
And you think you're digging your own grave.
What else could you think other than he's gonna
put bullets in the back of her head?
NARRATOR: Hitman Tom Hanley's powerful influence over the police
and the mob turns his wife Wendy into a prisoner.
Wendy tries to normalize her life
by focusing on happier moments.
She relishes the times they spend
with their close friends, Al and Barbara Bramlet.
WENDY: We went to Barbara's house and had dinner.
I liked Al, too.
I thought he was nice,
making sure my pregnancy went okay
and always asking questions, how I felt.
He seemed like a pretty genuine gentleman.
NARRATOR: Al is the head of the Culinary Union,
and its members are 25,000 strong.
Al Bramlet was the top person for Culinary 226.
That's the most powerful union
in Las Vegas representing casino workers.
He also uses that position to exert enormous influence
and power to enrich himself,
and also to inflict violence on people
who didn't bow to his will.
Al Bramlet also used Tom Hanley
to threaten people who didn't unionize.
WENDY: It seemed to me that Tom really liked Al.
He was one of his best friends of 36 years.
NARRATOR: In late February 1977,
Tom comes home unusually late one night.
He came in,
gave me a big hug, and said, "I love you."
Then he walked to the laundry room,
took off his clothes, and put them in the washer.
You could see little spits of blood on him.
Then he pulled out this jewelry,
and one was a tiger ring.
[phone ringing]
Later on, we got a call from
Al Bramlet's wife, Barbara.
Barbara was asking Tom,
"Have you seen Al?
He didn't get off the plane."
NARRATOR: When the media learns Al Bramlet is missing,
it's big news.
We have checked with a number of
persons who were closely associated with Mr. Bramlet.
We have been unable to come up
with any reason as to his disappearance.
WENDY: I saw it on the news, that
Al Bramlet didn't come home -- at that point...
I thought, tiger ring.
That scared me right there.
Could have Tom gone and hurt Al?
Where was he gone for so long?
I thought to myself, he couldn't have.
He couldn't have killed one of his best friends of 36 years.
He couldn't have hurt him. What did he do?
The following day, when we woke up,
there was a detective from the sheriff's department
at the door and tipped off Tom.
NARRATOR: Tom leaves Wendy to deal with Las Vegas
investigators by herself.
I let them in, they sat in
the front room, and we're looking for Al Bramlet.
Do you know where he's at?
And I said, "No, I don't, I'm at home here with my baby."
And they said,
"Do you know what in the hell you're living with?"
And I said, "No," and he said, "Your husband is a killer."
It was the detective that came over earlier in
the day that told Tom what was going on.
That moment, I didn't trust anyone.
I couldn't trust the cops.
I couldn't trust Tom.
Who was I to trust?
If police know about the things that he's doing
and even they don't try to stop him,
what are they gonna do for her?
Just another example of how trapped
she was in this whole nightmare.
WENDY: Tom turned up at home,
and I told him about all the police,
and Tom just said, "Oh,
he'll show up, he'll show up, don't worry."
And then we started getting calls,
calls from Benny Binion,
calls from other union leaders.
I mean, that's the first time I've ever seen
the phone ring off the hook.
NARRATOR: Over the next two weeks,
the police question Tom multiple times,
but he continues to deny any involvement.
I thought they were protecting Tom.
They're surely not asking him where Al Bramlet is.
That's what kind of mindset I was in.
Tom again leaves the city, and he goes to Arizona.
Tom's very worried.
He told Wendy that she would have
to leave the house and never come back.
He had me so brainwashed at that point.
Do what Tom tells you to do.
I loaded up a bunch of boxes
and documents and stuff, and they went into storage.
NARRATOR: When Tom returns, he tells Wendy to arrange
a sitter for Amy.
He is taking Wendy for a drive in the desert.
And he kept assuring me everything was gonna be okay,
but I better keep my mouth shut.
NARRATOR: Tom has a stash of clothes and jewelry
he wants to get rid of.
We had a little ranch out in Pahrump,
and he dug a hole, and he said, "Always remember where this is."
I said, "Okay."
He dropped the jewelry in the hole.
NARRATOR: Then Tom plants a tree to mark the location
WENDY: In my mind, I'm thinking,
is this really Al's jewelry?
All I wanted was for Al to be okay.
We got back in the vehicle.
He pulls along the side of one of the canyons, and he said,
"Come follow me."
He says, "Start digging a hole," and he pulled out the gun,
and he had it at the back of my head, and he said,
"Start digging."
So I got on my hands and knees, and I was digging with
my hands.
NARRATOR: By this time, Wendy has seen too much,
and she is a liability for Tom.
WENDY: And he cocked the gun,
and I thought he was gonna kill me.
NARRATOR: Tom Hanley
is about to pull the trigger on his wife, Wendy Mazaros.
I started begging him,
"Please let me be with our daughter.
"She needs a mother.
"She needs a father.
Please let me be with my daughter."
And he let me up.
And he let me get back up and walk to the --
to the truck.
He turned to me, and he said, "You're probably right.
Amy does need someone to be with her."
And then we just started driving.
All I could think to myself is the clothes that
he had put in the hole smelt like Al Bramlet.
NARRATOR: Three weeks after Al Bramlet disappears,
hikers near Nevada's Potosi Mountain come across
a gruesome sight.
REPORTER: The search for Al Bramlet has ended here
in the desert just two weeks from the night he disappeared.
NARRATOR: An autopsy shows he was executed,
with multiple gunshots to the head.
My heart sunk, because I always in the back of my mind thought
that Al was just gonna show up,
that maybe they had him tied up somewhere
or something, and everything was gonna be okay.
But it wasn't -- he was gone.
NARRATOR: After the news breaks, police pay another visit
to Wendy.
They said, "Do you know who your husband is
and what he does?"
And I said, "He owns the air conditioning business."
They said, "No, he's one of
the most prolific killers of all time."
It was so shocking to hear that come
out of homicide detectives' mouths.
Was I in denial?
Probably yes. Was I brainwashed?
Yes -- it was just a horrible, horrible life.
He was thought of to have killed an FBI agent,
William Coltart.
He was thought to have bombed two restaurants,
the Alpine Village and the Starboard Tack.
The rationale was the Culinary Union wanted them
in the union, and they didn't want to unionize.
NARRATOR: Tom has gotten away with murder before.
But this time, a tipster gives police
a break in the Al Bramlet murder case.
An informant came to them and said that he was there
when Al Bramlet was killed
and that he was also with Tom and Gramby Hanley,
who actually did the killing.
The Hanleys were upset because a couple of bombs
they had planted didn't go off
at businesses in Las Vegas that Bramlet wanted
blown up, so according to the Hanleys,
Bramlet didn't pay them for that, $10,000.
So they go to shake down Al Bramlet.
NARRATOR: Bramlet was kidnapped from the airport parking lot.
LARRY: They go into the desert outside of Las Vegas.
At some point,
Tom says, "Hey, Al." Al turns around,
and he shoots him in the head.
He ended up getting shot six times,
including once in each ear.
All his clothes were taken off of him.
He was buried under a pile of rocks in the desert
with his hand sticking up to wave goodbye to the world.
NARRATOR: A warrant is put out for the father
and son fugitives, and on April 29th, 1977,
Gramby and Tom are arrested in Phoenix, Arizona.
It was a media frenzy, and it was
a frenzy at the Hanley house, as well.
WENDY: It was astonishing news.
It felt good.
It really did, but it took a few days for it to sink in.
Were they gonna let him go again?
Was he locked up for good?
Tom really did kill one of his best friends.
He took him out, and he killed him,
just like he was gonna do to me.
NARRATOR: Tom and Gramby are flown from Phoenix to
Las Vegas to be tried for murder.
When they land,
Tom gives a statement while in handcuffs.
I never had any animosity towards Al Bramlet.
He was one of the best friends I ever had.
NARRATOR: After Tom's arrest,
a mobster friend convinces Wendy to tell him
what she knows.
I went out to the little ranch in Pahrump, and I pointed
to the tree that Tom had dug and buried.
NARRATOR: Underneath the tree,
they find Al Bramlet's jewelry.
And then everything just went crazy.
A helicopter came down.
All kinds of police came from everywhere.
We were pulled over,
and the homicide detective said, "You're under arrest, baby."
I did not realize that he was
an informant and working undercover with the police.
I'm thinking, I didn't kill anyone.
I didn't do anything.
NARRATOR: Wendy is charged with receiving stolen property
and for murder.
When you're charged with such a substantial charge like that,
your whole life flashes ahead of you.
And then on one day, workers in the jail stopped the elevator,
and then they pulled Tom in there in the elevator with me,
and then he started telling me, "Don't you say anything.
Everything's gonna be all right."
So he had connections all the way inside the jail, too.
There was never any escape, because
the environment that I lived in with Tom,
all of his problems came on me.
That's what happens when you live with somebody like that.
You get blamed too.
How do I get rid of this guy?
He's still gonna haunt me.
He still knows people.
He's gonna hurt me one way or another.
I went to court,
and the charge was reduced to accessory to murder,
and eventually, the charge was dropped.
I still had to do a year probation,
but I felt a tremendous relief when they knew I didn't have
anything to do with it.
NARRATOR: By early 1978, the trial creates a media circus,
with Wendy trapped
defending Tom for fear of reprisal.
Do you think that Tom can get a fair trial here in Las Vegas?
-No, he can't. -Why is it?
-Publicity. -Have you, um...
The publicity is destroying him.
NARRATOR: On March 2nd, 1978, Tom and Gramby plead guilty
to the murder of Al Bramlet and the restaurant bombings.
They are sentenced to life without parole.
WENDY: He was found guilty, and just
a big sigh of relief came over me again.
If Tom would have walked out of that courtroom a free man,
there would have been a lot of people dead,
a lot of people.
NARRATOR: In return for them giving information on the mob,
Tom and Gramby are placed into
witness protection within the prison system.
WENDY: I felt bad for our daughter, Amy.
I was able to disassociate myself with him
and stand back and see everything he put me through.
NARRATOR: After the trial, Wendy moves to California
and attends college to try and start a normal life.
She is only 22 years old.
There is no depths to a man like Tom Hanley.
Once you're in their world, it's very hard to escape,
and it was for me -- I had to learn the hard way.
NARRATOR: Years after escaping
Tom Hanley, Wendy finds the courage to tell her story.
She publishes a book about her experience
as a mob wife called "Vegas Rag Doll."
Today, Wendy has been happily married for 25 years, and unlike
many men in her life, this one is special.
She definitely had guardian angels,
probably one on each shoulder.
WENDY: We're complete opposites, but he does love
and he protects me.
He's a true husband.
Wendy's a very loving, strong person with
convictions that will carry to the end.
WENDY: He accepts me for who I am.
He's taught me how to trust a little bit more.
Yeah, she met me, and I guess I was like the savior
of her life for real, because I'll never let anything
happen to her.
WENDY: He truly loves me, and I love him,
and I searched and searched, and I finally found
the right man, a good man.