Update: Body found in barrel at Lake Mead identified as Edward “Buddy” Jackson

Las Vegas police and the Clark County coroner’s office may be one step closer to turning the page on one chapter of the mystery of a body found in a barrel four years ago at Hemenway Harbor at Lake Mead.

Speculation has lingered for years that the death may be mob-related.

At one point, experts had opined that the dead person could be slot cheat George “Jay” Vandemark, William Crespo — a drug smuggler who turned state witness after being busted for cocaine — or Johnny Pappas.

The mob theory even speculated that the body could have been the work of noted mob enforcer Tony Spilotro. However, details released two years ago about the clothing the victim was wearing and that the body may have been dumped in the 1980s have complicated that theory.

Now, the coroner’s office announced Wednesday that an identification has been made and will be announced at a news conference.

County and police officials are scheduled to discuss the identity at 3 p.m. Thursday at Metropolitan Police Department headquarters, 400 S. Martin Luther King Blvd. Speakers will include Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse; Metro homicide Lt. Robert Price; Dr. Jason Beaman of the School of Forensic Sciences at Oklahoma State University; and Clark County Commission Chairman Michael Naft.

Police said at the time that they believed the body found in a barrel May 1, 2022, was a man who died from a gunshot wound.

Officers discovered the shoes the man was wearing were sold at Kmart and manufactured in the middle and late 1970s.

NamUs, a federal program and website that tries to solve missing persons cases, previously indicated the man might have been between 27 and 61 years old, between 5 feet 6 inches and 6 feet 1 inch tall. It was not possible to estimate his weight, according to authorities.

Geoff Schumacher, the Mob Museum’s vice president of exhibits and programs, previously said the clothing reflected the late 1970s era, when the mob was active in Las Vegas and law enforcement was trying to eliminate it.

Some people became informants or witnesses, according to Schumacher, and those who did would have been people mob leaders would have wanted to eliminate.

“It definitely suggests this person could’ve been a victim of the mob,” he said.

There’s even a similar, mob-related case from the ’70s. In 1976, mobster Johnny Roselli was found in a barrel in Florida’s Dumfoundling Bay after testifying to the Senate about his involvement in CIA plots to kill Fidel Castro.

There are some issues with the theory that the homicide victim was a mobster, however.

Schumacher said that because police have speculated that the clothing was not expensive, it suggests someone without means or that the clothing was put on the body by the killers.

The size of the clothing — like pants with a 46-inch waist — also suggests a large person, he said, which “somewhat narrows the options.”

And while at least some of the clothing may be from the ’70s, police have previously said the body may have been dumped in the 1980s. If that’s true, it changes the story, Schumacher said.

By the ’80s, the mob was starting to move on. If the killing was as late as 1984, it might not be related to the mob at all.

Schumacher said it was “equally possible,” compared with the mob theory, that the victim could have been involved in a “drug deal gone bad or a love triangle gone bad.”

Contact Tony Garcia at tgarcia@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307. Follow @TonyGLVNews on X.