The informant: I think I know who squealed on Ron Tammen to the FBI in May 1973

This is going to be a quick one, since I really didn’t plan on writing anything today and I have other things I was hoping to do. However, what I’ve recently discovered is too big to sit on plus it’s gross outside, so the other things can wait.

For today’s post, let’s all think back to the halcyon days of Sunday, February 8, 2026. Temps in my neighborhood were around 20 degrees Fahrenheit, wind gusts approached 10 mph at times, and gas prices were averaging $2.91 per gallon at the national level and $2.67 in the Midwest. Speaking of gas prices, that’s roughly $1.65 less per gallon than we’re paying now at the national level and approximately $2.09 less per gallon in Ohio, which, P.S., is one of the “top 10 most expensive gasoline markets” nationwide. Yeah, those were some good times.

Anyway, it was on that date that I posted about a second tie to Las Vegas for Ronald Tammen. The first tie had to do with Hank Greenspun, about whom we’ve been getting to know quite a bit lately. We won’t be talking about Hank today. My announcement back on February 8 had to do with a scribble on Ron Tammen’s FBI record dated 5/9/73 that matches a scribble on Ash Resnick’s FBI record dated 1/8/74. 

Ash Resnick was a greeter at Caesar’s Palace in whose parking lot someone placed a stick (or two) (or eight) of dynamite beneath Ash’s Lincoln four-door sedan. Thankfully, an informant had alerted the police before anything bad happened and three ATF agents had caught the alleged perpetrator in the act. For some reason, the FBI has elected to hide that person’s identity, but newspaper accounts have tied a couple names to the alleged bomb plot, one being James Carl whose fingerprints matched those of Donald Lee Wayton. In the end, Wayton was sentenced to six years in prison for the crime. 

The scribble in question is the number 366 followed by an “m” followed by a space and then something that looks like “hau.”

Here’s Ron’s “366 m hau” on the document in which the Cincinnati Field Office asked FBI Headquarters to compare Ron’s fingerprints to the guy from Welco Industries:

Here’s Ash’s “366 m hau” on the document describing the suspect in the attempted car bombing:

Because the timeframe is different, I don’t know if Ash’s attempted car bombing had anything to do with Ron Tammen. Here’s what I do think: I think “366 m hau” was an informant who spoke to the FBI about both cases.

Why do I think this? I think this because the FBI had a lot of informants on its rolls whom they identified with letters and numbers. They did this so that they wouldn’t put a valuable source of information in harm’s way. Generally, the first two letters were the field office’s initials, which, in the case of Las Vegas, were LV. The initials would subsequently be followed by a number. Usually the numbers were fairly low, but they could climb pretty high in the bigger cities. If the number 366 belonged to an informant in Las Vegas, they would officially be known as LV 366 perhaps followed by a PC, which would stand for “potential criminal” informant. But was there such a person?

There was!

Recently, I found a July 20, 1970, record in which informant LV 366-PC was updating the FBI on the whereabouts of a mobster named Martin (Marty) Fenster. Here’s a summary of what LV 366-PC had to say about Fenster, which you can find on page 2, paragraphs 2 and 3, of the below document (circled in red):

On 2/19/70, LV 366-PC advised that MARTY FENSTER is now working for FRANK ROGER MILANO at the Clark County Vending Company, Las Vegas, Nevada. This target stated that at one time, FENSTER operated the Grace Ranch near Tucson, Arizona for PETE LICAVOLI. The target stated that FENSTER left the Grace Ranch about a year ago, moved to Los Angeles, California and about a month ago came to Las Vegas at the invitation of MILANO.

On 4/1/70, LV 366-PC advised that MARTY FENSTER was residing at 2030 McCarran Street, North Las Vegas, Nevada, apartment 2.

Among other things, I’m looking into the Marty Fenster and Clark County Vending Company connection to see if I can learn anything more about the informant. For now, I think we can arrive at these conclusions:

• The informant is in Las Vegas, as witnessed by the use of the phrase “came to Las Vegas.”
• The informant has ties to the Mob.
• Because of the “PC” in his informant number, he may be a Mob figure himself.
• The informant likely knows Frank Roger Milano personally and does business with the Clark County Vending Company, whether as an employee or a customer.

My theory is that the scribbler left off the LV part of the informant number in order to be cryptic so that we wouldn’t catch on to its meaning. As for the “m hau” notation, it could be part of the informant’s name, also intentionally cryptic, which would be difficult to figure out. Nevertheless, I have a guess, but I don’t want to say what it is just yet.

As to whether FBI Headquarters thought the “366 m hau” notation was important, oh, they definitely did. Check out how they’ve underlined the “366 m hau” on Ron’s record with both a straight and squiggly line.

Now look at how they’ve drawn similarly straight and squiggly lines on page 2 of the 1/7/74 FBI teletype from Las Vegas in the descriptions of the bomb suspect and Resnick.

OK, that’s all for today. Interested in your thoughts.