John Paul Fadgen

John P. Fadgen was regarded as one of the leading criminal defense attorneys in Las Vegas during the 1970s. Born April 27, 1938, in Clinton, Massachusetts, he came to Las Vegas in 1965, where he initially worked as a law clerk in federal court. At 27 he was appointed assistant North Las Vegas city attorney just before Christmas 1965, and a year later he became the city attorney - the first of two terms he would serve in that office. He left the post in April 1968 to join a local private law firm of which future U.S. Senator Harry Reid was a partner, and he returned to the North Las Vegas city attorney position in November 1976.

Fadgen built a reputation as a formidable trial lawyer. In 1977 he was appointed to defend James Ray Houston - a silver dealer and 1974 Independent American Party gubernatorial candidate accused of conning investors out of $3 million through his Western Pacific Gold and Silver Exchange - and won acquittal on all 24 fraud counts on September 5, 1978. He also secured an acquittal for Wilbur Kolberg in a 1970s mail fraud case, and in more recent years defended Robert Panaro, one of the defendants in the slaying of Herbert 'Herbie' Blitzstein; Panaro was acquitted in 1999 of the charges related to the killing. Fellow Las Vegas attorney John Momot remembered him as 'a great lawyer' who was 'even-handed and very competent.'

Beyond the courtroom, Fadgen represented North Las Vegas police and firefighters in wage contract negotiations and served as attorney for the Air Pollution Control Board. A resident of Las Vegas for 36 years, he once described his work itself as his hobby, saying, 'I'm in the business to have a little fun.' He died on March 9, 2001, at the age of 62.