LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A 55-year-old mystery about a Canadian woman who seemingly fell off the face of the Earth was partially solved earlier this month with the announcement from police in Las Vegas that human remains found in the desert more than half a century ago had finally been identified.
But there was a bigger surprise when police mentioned who may be responsible for the woman’s death — two names that reach back to the bloodiest days of the mob in Las Vegas. It’s the story of a father and son murder-for-hire squad.
Early in the Scorsese movie “Casino,” there’s a shot that glides across the Mojave while the narrator, Joe Pesci’s character, casually notes there are a lot of holes out there in the desert outside of Las Vegas, implying there are a lot of bodies buried out there by the mob.
Two of the most prolific killers of that era were not members of the mafia, but they handled dirty deeds for the mob and for many other powerful interests. And now their names have surfaced in connection with the remains of a Canadian woman missing since the late 60s.
“Foul play was suspected, but Anna was never located, and the investigation went cold,” a spokesperson for Calgary police said of the victim, Anna Sylvia Just, at a news conference.
Police in Calgary were poring through old missing-persons files when they spotted a clipping about Anna Sylvia Just, who was last seen as she boarded a bus in 1966. She had seemingly just vanished.
Calgary police discovered that their predecessors had long ago been in touch with detectives at Las Vegas Metro. Some of the missing woman’s possessions, including her passport, were found in the desert outside of Henderson in 1966. Two years later, and a mile away, hikers found some remains of a person whose skull had been crushed, clearly a murder victim.
Police did not have DNA as a tool back then, so the dots remained unconnected. But Metro homicide preserved the evidence, which allowed the new breakthrough.
What Metro shared with Calgary police was chilling.
“There was reports from police down there that she had potential ties to the mob,” the spokesperson said.
Somewhere in Metro’s cold case files, detectives found a connection between Anna Sylvia Just, the missing woman, and one of the most notorious killers in Las Vegas history — Tom Hanley. One tipster told Metro back in the early 70s that she may have asked Hanley for a loan, which might have been a bad decision.
But who was Hanley? He’d been a key figure in several Las Vegas labor unions dating back to the 40s, and had tried to unionize casino dealers.
But to homicide detectives, Hanley was a notorious assassin, one half of a murder-for-hire team. His partner was his son, Gramby Hanley. They reportedly carried out contract killings for the mob, casino owners, and union bosses.
“[They] were total cold-blooded killers for money,” the late Metro Homicide detective Dave Hatch said during a 2001 interview. “They were two of the most active contract killers in the western states. They were up for hire as enforcers.”
Hatch took over cold case files late in his career. In 2001, he opened up to Nexstar’s KLAS for a TV special about the Hanleys titled “In The Company of Killers.” Hatch said Metro files show the Hanleys were the prime suspects in at least seven murders, but the true number might be three times that.
Tom Hanley is believed to have killed James Hartley, a Las Vegas union leader. Another labor figure, Ralph Alsop, participated in that slaying. Alsop later met the same fate, most likely at the hands of Tom Hanley, who brazenly served as one of Alsop’s pallbearers.
Hanley was arrested multiple times over the years, but charges were mostly dropped because key witnesses were themselves murdered before the cases could get to trial. One witness who heard the Hanleys discuss many of their bloody plans was Wendy Hanley, Tom’s common-law wife.
Wendy, who was 40 years younger than her husband, lived with Tom and Gramby. Years ago, she escorted Nexstar’s KLAS out to a desert area where one of the Hanley victims was found, which she called “one of their favorite dumping areas.”
Wendy said Tom and Gramby would stash bodies in old mining shafts or desert spots where humans rarely tread. The recent news about Anna Sylvia Just would seem to fit that pattern.
The death that brought an end to the murder-for-hire enterprise was that of culinary union boss Al Bramlet, Nevada’s most powerful union official. Bramlet and Tom Hanley were close. Tom and Gramby were suspected of firebombing several Las Vegas restaurants that tried to go non-union, and law enforcement suspected they were hired for the job by Bramlet.
Then the head of the mob-infested international culinary union, ironically named Ed Hanley, tried to seize control of the local union and its lucrative health and welfare fund. When Bramlet resisted, a mafia contract was put out on him. Bramlet turned to the toughest guy he knew, Tom Hanley, for protection.
Tom Hanley became his bodyguard, even though the Hanleys had already accepted the contract to kill Bramlet. The Hanleys kidnapped Bramlet, and drove him out to the desert west of Mountain Springs.
“Tom took Al Bramlet out of the van, gave him a shot of whiskey, then shot him in the head,” Wendy explained.
A two-week search for the kidnapped Bramlet failed to find him until a tipster revealed where the body was buried under a pile of rocks. That set off a multi-state search for the Hanleys, who were eventually found hiding in Arizona. When Tom was flown back to Las Vegas to stand trial, he said this to waiting reporters: “Al Bramlet was one of the best friends in my life.”
Police in Calgary were effusive in their praise of Metro homicide for helping to identify Anna Sylvia Just. Calgary cops tracked down the woman’s 97-year-old sister and used her DNA to confirm the connection. As for how the ill-fated Anna ended up in Las Vegas, and worse, fell into the clutches of the Hanleys, is not something they are able to discuss.
Tom and Gramby eventually entered witness protection and gave testimony to several grand juries about contract killings and their knowledge of organized crime. Both died, one in a hospital, the other in prison. Wendy Hanley co-wrote a book about her time with the father and son.
The 2001 special, “In The Company of Killers,” can be found in two parts here and here on YouTube.