Gangster "Dandy Phil" Kastel Dies
August 16, 1962

In 1928, Phillip "Dandy Phil" Kastel went to work for New York mobster Frank Costello and later moved to New Orleans to establish gambling operations, primarily slot machines, during the mid-1930s. Between 1935 and 1937, the Costello-Kastel partnership earned an income of over $2.4 million from slot machines alone according to federal authorities. Although both were charged in 1939 for tax evasion, Kastel and Costello were both acquitted. By the 1940s, with control over the majority of gambling in Louisiana, both legal and illegal, Kastel and Costello began to expand their operations opening high class gambling casinos in Jefferson Parish and earning millions of dollars.   The  October 1, 1951 edition of Life Magazine included, “Things are tougher for gamblers in Jefferson Parish where Frank Costello and Phil Kastel once operated one of America's finest gambling clubs, [The Beverly]. Sheriff Frank Clancy who piously agreed with Senator Tobey [at Senator Estes Kefauver's federal Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce] in Washington hearing that gambling was evil and promised the committee he would close down his kingdom”.  This was not done and Kastel continued to run the organization throughout the 1950s without interference from city or parish officials, most notably Jefferson Parish Sheriff Frank Clancey.  In 1956  Kastel's fine Old Metairie home was up for auction. – he was busy preparing for the opening of the $15 million Tropicana casino in Las Vegas.  Back at home, gambling operations declined and were eventually taken over by Carlos Marcello.  On August 16, 1962, in failing health, having lost his sight in one eye and worsening vision in the other, Kastel died an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at his his apartment in the Claiborne Towers (later renamed  Grand Palace Hotel which was demolished July 22, 2012 to make way for the new University Medical Center, a replacement for Charity Hospital). 

Barbara George (16 August 1942, Smithridge, Louisiana - 10 August 2006, Chauvin, Louisiana) was an American R&B singer and songwriter. Born Barbara Ann Smith, she was raised in New Orleans and began singing in a church choir. She was discovered by singer Jessie Hill, who recommended her to record producer, Harold Battiste. Her first record on Battiste's AFO (All For One) record label, "I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)", which she wrote, was issued in late 1961, and both topped the R&B chart and made #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was later recorded by many other artistes, including Freddie King, the Merseybeats, Ike and Tina Turner, and Bonnie Raitt. Two subsequent releases, "You Talk About Love" and "Send For Me (If You Need Some Lovin')", both on AFO, reached the Hot 100 later in 1962, but failed to match the national success of her first hit. (Wiki)