Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Murrieta mob

Hot Springs history features different kind of mob

Some commentators say that last week a "mob" of Murrieta protesters blocked immigrants seeking to enter the United States.

If you go back 40 to 50 years, Murrieta was known for a different kind of mob — the kind associated with shattered knee caps and dirty Teamsters Union money.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Murrieta Hot Springs is a resort that in 2002 was annexed to the City of Murrieta. The city was taking on the hot springs' dubious past, which was intimately tied to San Diego's tainted real estate transactions of yore.

The resort was owned by Irvin Kahn, the controversial developer who at one time may have controlled 25 percent of San Diego's developable land. Beginning in the mid-1960s, Kahn financed his developments with money from the notorious Teamsters' Central States, Southeast and Southwest Area Pension Fund. As a result, Kahn was under constant scrutiny of both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service, as well as investigative reporters. Kahn developed Rancho Peñasquitos, much of Clairemont, and parts of La Mesa, Chula Vista, and University City. He developed two hotels on Shelter Island and had 11 bowling alleys in the county.

And he owned Murrieta Hot Springs resort, which was once raided for illegal gambling on the premises. Teamsters' leader and ruffian Jimmy Hoffa was a guest of Murrieta Hot Springs shortly before his disappearance in 1975.

Kahn died suddenly in 1973, and ownership passed to his associate, St. Louis attorney Morris Shenker, a lawyer for Hoffa and a thoroughly mobbed-up Midwesterner. In 1977, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Shenker with fraudulently obtaining a $28.5 million loan for Murrieta from union pension funds. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter wrote that Shenker "was a financial genius of the calibre of [notorious mob financier Meyer] Lansky. It was Shenker who tapped the Teamsters Union's Central States Pension Fund to finance much of the mob's penetration of Las Vegas casinos."

Murrieta Hot Springs subsequently went into bankruptcy several times. At one point, San Diego ponzi schemer Gary Naiman, who wound up in prison, had control of the resort but couldn't keep it as his empire collapsed in scandal. It is now a religious retreat.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Now what can they do with Encinitas unstable cliffs?

Make the cliffs fall, put up more warnings, fine beachgoers?

Some commentators say that last week a "mob" of Murrieta protesters blocked immigrants seeking to enter the United States.

If you go back 40 to 50 years, Murrieta was known for a different kind of mob — the kind associated with shattered knee caps and dirty Teamsters Union money.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Murrieta Hot Springs is a resort that in 2002 was annexed to the City of Murrieta. The city was taking on the hot springs' dubious past, which was intimately tied to San Diego's tainted real estate transactions of yore.

The resort was owned by Irvin Kahn, the controversial developer who at one time may have controlled 25 percent of San Diego's developable land. Beginning in the mid-1960s, Kahn financed his developments with money from the notorious Teamsters' Central States, Southeast and Southwest Area Pension Fund. As a result, Kahn was under constant scrutiny of both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service, as well as investigative reporters. Kahn developed Rancho Peñasquitos, much of Clairemont, and parts of La Mesa, Chula Vista, and University City. He developed two hotels on Shelter Island and had 11 bowling alleys in the county.

And he owned Murrieta Hot Springs resort, which was once raided for illegal gambling on the premises. Teamsters' leader and ruffian Jimmy Hoffa was a guest of Murrieta Hot Springs shortly before his disappearance in 1975.

Kahn died suddenly in 1973, and ownership passed to his associate, St. Louis attorney Morris Shenker, a lawyer for Hoffa and a thoroughly mobbed-up Midwesterner. In 1977, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Shenker with fraudulently obtaining a $28.5 million loan for Murrieta from union pension funds. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter wrote that Shenker "was a financial genius of the calibre of [notorious mob financier Meyer] Lansky. It was Shenker who tapped the Teamsters Union's Central States Pension Fund to finance much of the mob's penetration of Las Vegas casinos."

Murrieta Hot Springs subsequently went into bankruptcy several times. At one point, San Diego ponzi schemer Gary Naiman, who wound up in prison, had control of the resort but couldn't keep it as his empire collapsed in scandal. It is now a religious retreat.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Escondido planners nix office building switch to apartments

Not enough open space, not enough closets for Hickory Street plans
Next Article

Drinking Sudden Death on All Saint’s Day in Quixote’s church-themed interior

Seeking solace, spiritual and otherwise
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader