Who remembers the name William Lee Bergstrom ?
He was commonly known as The Suitcase Man or The Phantom Gambler.

Back in the high flying prosperous years of the 80s, me and several fellow contractors had a great propensity to head to Vegas a way to often. So when the William Lee Bergstrom situation came about, I was right in the middle of watching and reading about it unfolding.

Following is the Wikipedia version of what transpired:
Bergstrom was born in Austin, Texas and attended Austin High School graduating in 1969. He attended UT, but dropped out in 1974. His brother Alan Bergstrom described their childhood as marred. Their parents were divorced and Bill constantly desired the respect and affection of his father.

After dropping out Bergstrom made a living selling real estate and owning property in Texas. (I think I remember reading that an Aunt left him an apartment house in her will)

On September 24, 1980 Bergstrom arrived at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada with two suitcases: one containing $777,000 in cash, the other empty. Benny Binion had a policy of honoring a bet of any size if it is the player’s first bet placed at the casino.

Bergstrom, who remained anonymous at the time, placed the full amount on a single bet of dice which he won. Binion helped Bergstrom stack his winning into the empty suitcase, which Bergstrom took and disappeared.

Bergstrom disappeared for three and a half years before returning on March 24, 1984 to place a $538,000 bet again on a single roll of dice. He won again, took his mother to a Willie Nelson show, and won an additional $117,000 on three more craps bets.

Then on November 16 he returned and placed a $1,000,000 bet with a suitcase filled with $550,000 in cash, $140,000 in gold Krugerrands, and $310,000 in cashier’s checks. He lost the bet.

According to Ted Binion, Bergstrom had borrowed most of the money for the first bet and intended to commit suicide if he lost. Instead he won and traveled the world for several years before returning in 1984.

Bergstrom never recovered from his million dollar loss and committed suicide on February 4, 1985, by swallowing pills. The reason for his suicide remains unknown. Friends and family believed that he was not broke at the time of his death and was still $647,000 in the black.

His suicide note suggested his sexual orientation as a possible cause of suicide which was triggered by a breakup with a man 10 years his junior.

Bergstrom’s story remains in Las Vegas lore and has inspired awards and prize giveaways throughout Las Vegas

BTW: From what I was told – he was related to the Bergstrom that the Air Force Base / Austin airport is named after. (More on this below)

The Naming of Bergstrom Air Force Base – Austin, Texas
(From the City of Austin Maintained Website)

On Dec. 8 1941, Capt. John August Earl Bergstrom, 34, was serving as an administrative officer with the 19thBombardment Group, stationed at Clark Field, the Philippines. In tandem with the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese air attacks were carried out against Clark field and other military areas in the Philippines.

Capt. Bergstrom was killed during the Dec. 8 bombing at Clark Field. A graduate of Texas A&M University, Capt. Bergstrom was the first native Austinite to be killed in action during World War II. At the urging of his former employer, the Austin National Bank, Lyndon B. Johnson, who at the time was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas’s 10th District, prevailed upon the U.S. Army Air Force to rename a base recently opened in Austin after its fallen son.

On March 3, 1943, the Del Valle Airfield was officially renamed the Bergstrom Army Airfield. When the Air Force split from the Army to become its own military branch in 1948, the base was renamed Bergstrom Air Force base. It would have this name until it was decommissioned in the early 1990s, with all military aviation ceasing in 1995, after more than 50 years of faithful service.

ABIA stands on the foundations of the base named after Capt. Bergstrom some 70 years ago. Opening in 1999, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport carries on the legacy of Bergstrom Air Force Base.

Adventurer Cal Rodgers started it all by landing “Vin Fiz,” a Wright Brothers biplane, in 1911 while undertaking a transcontinental flight. He landed in a Ridgetop subdivision field in the vicinity of 51st and Duval.

In 1917, U.S. Army DeHaviland biplanes practiced take-offs and landings at Penn Field, a small dirt strip south of St. Edward’s University, Austin’s first landing field, named for the first pilot from Central Texas to lose his life in WWI aerial combat.

In the late 1920s, Austin City Council requested that Army Corps at Kelly Field in San Antonio send a pilot over Austin to identify a suitable site for a municipal airport. Claire Chennault, who later became famous with the World War II “Flying Tigers,” recommended the Matthews farm tract four miles NE of downtown Austin. This became Robert Mueller Municipal Airport, owned by the City of Austin and honoring a City Council Member who died while in service. Officially dedicated on October 14, 1930, the main terminal building was dedicated on May 27, 1961, then expanded in 1983. The east terminal was dedicated in April 1990. The Federal Inspection Station, located near the terminal, was completed in 1995.

Like many older airports, Mueller was on the outskirts of town in1930. Austin’s population grew rapidly, becoming a high tech hotspot, and regularly featured in national magazines as a desirable place to live, work, and do business. Flights into the city increased substantially, as more businesses sprang up, both import and export cargo soared. Mueller sat landlocked on 711 acres in the middle of Austin, with urban growth on all sides.

Eight miles from the Capitol was Bergstrom Air Force Base, slated for closure in 1990 by order of Congress. This turned out to be an opportunity for the Capital of Texas to meet air travel needs well into the future.

At the time, Bergstrom Air Force Base was still a fully operational military facility. But when the Base Realignment and Closure Commission finally decided to decommission the base, the land was returned to the City of Austin. It was evident it would be ideal for a new airport. In May 1999, Robert Mueller Municipal Airport was closed to commercial passenger traffic and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport opened to the public on May 23, 1999. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the first to be built under the Base Realignment and Closure Commission was officially off the ground. What might have been an economic blow, not to mention the ongoing problem of caring for an abandoned military facility, had been deftly averted. As Mayor Kirk Watson said at the time, “Austin turned lemons into lemonade.”

Adjacent to the city, the site was large enough to meet growing needs, runways and other facilities already existed and the surrounding area was sparsely populated. COA officials pledged that no tax dollars would be used to build Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Even though the City of Austin owns the facility, the airport is not supported by the City’s general fund. The people and businesses that use the airport pay the entire ongoing budget. Any revenue generated from the airport goes back into its operations, covering its operating expenses.

ABIA has been named one of the best airports in the world according to Airport Service Quality Awards. Among its numerous awards, 2011 marked the fifth consecutive year to earn a ranking in the top five airports in North America and the world for excellence in customer service.