Bramlet, Al, 1917-1977

Elmer “Al” Bramlet (1917-1977) was a prominent union leader in Las Vegas, Nevada during the middle of the 20th century. As the union leader of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, Bramlet made significant contributions to the union and its members. However, Bramlet also amassed various enemies during his time as union leader, which led to his early death in 1977 at the hands of Thomas Hanley.

Bramlet was born in Arkansas on a small farm in 1917. At the age of fourteen, Bramlet became a dishwasher in Joliet, Illinois. He went on to join the United States Navy during World War II and after some time he was discharged in Los Angeles, California. There, he found work as a bartender and would later become a business agent for the local bartender’s union. In 1946, at the age of twenty-nine, Bramlet was sent to Las Vegas, Nevada to help the Culinary Workers Local 226 and then he became the secretary-treasurer in 1954.

In the time Bramlet worked with the Culinary Workers Union, he was able to help them grow from 1,500 members to more than 20,000. Bramlet saw more success as he negotiated wage increases and other benefits through strikes throughout Las Vegas, One specific strike shut down fifteen different resorts on the Las Vegas Strip for two weeks in 1976. Bramlet had faced disputes throughout his career, one involving the parent union that was found to have ties to the Chicago mob and his refusal to centralize local health and welfare funds.

Bramlet was known to be an aggressive and powerful union leader, maintaining his role in the union by any means and steadily increasing the power of the union. To maintain the power he held, Bramlet employed the services of Thomas and Gramby Hanley, a father-son duo that specialized in bomb plantings and arson. They were contracted to target any restaurant that had labor disputes with the union. In one specific instance, two of their bombs planted on the Village Pub and Starboard Tack had failed to ignite, resulting in Bramlet refusing to pay them for their work.

The refusal to pay would eventually lead to Bramlet’s death. In February of 1977, Bramlet was returning to Las Vegas from a business trip in Reno, while the Hanleys and Clem Eugene Vaughan waited for him in the McCarran Airport parking lot. They handcuffed and gagged Bramlet and drove off into the desert, where they threatened Bramlet to pay them what they were owed. However, after Bramlet fulfilled their request and arranged the transfer of money, Thomas Hanley proceeded to shoot him a total of six times. They buried him under rocks and left him in the desert. Eventually, Bramlet’s body was found and the police arrested the Hanleys.

Sources:

Hopkins, A.D. “Al Bramlet.” Las Vegas Review-Journal, February 27, 1999. Accessed May 22, 2020. https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/al-bramlet/

Rudner, Dennis. "The murder of Al Bramlet, powerful union boss, 42 years later." Las Vegas Review-Journal, February 19, 2019. Accessed May 22, 2020.