They were once on street corners, at bus stops, in convenience stores, courthouses and casinos.

In the pre-cell phone era, everyone from executives to children to criminals used them.

But the golden age of the payphone ended many years ago as cell phones took hold, becoming ubiquitous and affordable.

Today, few remain and even fewer are in use. A recent Las Vegas Review-Journal search for payphones in the Las Vegas area found five: one at Centennial Hills Hospital, another at the Clark County detention center, two at Jerry’s Nugget and one on display at the Mob Museum.

Early history

The first time the phrase “pay phone” appeared in the Review-Journal, at least according to the digitally searchable archives, was February 12, 1931.

The story was a brief about a pay phone stolen by thieves “evidently bent upon taking from it whatever money there might be in the machine.” It ran under a photo of a remodeled gas station and next to an article about a peddler of a “narcotic weed” called “marihuana.”

The payphone’s history stretches back to 1889, when the first one was installed on a corner in Hartford, Connecticut after being invented by William Gray.

Ron Knappen, who wrote a book about payphone history and owns a Wisconsin-based company called Phoneco that sells payphones to customers like a prop company and a museum, said early payphones were bulky wooden machines called “pay stations.” In rural areas, people might have to turn a crank to contact the operator.

A call cost a nickel in the 1910s and 20s, he said, increased to a dime in about 1940 and eventually jumped to a quarter.

The survivors

At Centennial Hills Hospital, there’s still a payphone near the emergency department. A four minute call costs $1, which one can pay with coins or a credit card.

Hospital spokeswoman Gretchen Papez said its intended users include people who don’t have cell phones or whose phone batteries have died. The phone is owned by WiMacTel, which didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Officer Robert Wicks, a Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson, said the Clark County detention center has a non-working payphone in the booking area.

Next to the restrooms at Jerry’s Nugget Casino in North Las Vegas, there’s a payphone that’s missing its receiver and has an out-of-order sticker covering part of the coin slot. A second payphone in an entryway appears to be in better shape, but no longer has a dial tone. A WiMacTel label advertises local calls at a rate of 50 cents for 15 minutes.

Martha Diaz, a casino manager, can remember when people made calls on the phones frequently, but said she hasn’t seen someone use them in about eight or nine years.

But at the Mob Museum, a payphone is still a popular attraction.

The museum has a phone booth that was once in the Four Deuces, the Chicago headquarters of Al Capone, said Claire White, the museum’s director of education. The museum acquired it from a collector in 2019 for an amount she said she could not disclose. The booth contains a 1920s payphone, but not the original one.

“There’s always been a connection between payphones and organized crime,” White said. Using a payphone was a way to avoid wiretapping, she said.

Most of the museum’s artifacts are behind glass, but visitors are allowed to get in the booth and open and close the door.

“It’s definitely one of the most unique artifacts we have on display,” she said.

It’s also one of the museum’s most popular sites for photos.

Big business

Before they were relics of the pre-digital age, payphones were lucrative.

“They made obscene amounts of money and then all of a sudden, they didn’t,” said Las Vegas attorney Robert Bolick, who represented a payphone company called Pay Phones of Nevada.

Gregory Balelo, who is still listed as an officer of a company called Interwest Payphone in state records, said his small company once had about 150 to 200 payphones, mostly in indoor locations like casinos, taverns and convenience stores. Interwest was incorporated in 1987.

Most of its income came from casinos, he said, but business was also good in the employee areas of hotels and in sportsbooks. Long distance calls were lucrative too.

The business began declining around 2000 as cell phones became cheaper and more reliable. He got rid of his last payphone in about 2008 and thinks it was probably at the South Point.

“It was part of my life for a long time and it was very good to me,” Balelo said of the payphone business.

And payphones can still inspire nostalgia.

Posters on Las Vegas Reddit threads have attempted to track down payphones and share sitings. Some of the suggestions for where a person might find payphones are tongue-in-cheek: “in jail” or “Back in the 1990s.”

Balelo said he still has some payphones that he hasn’t scrapped and recently found some handsets in storage.

“I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away,” he said.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com, especially if you know of a payphone we missed. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.

Deobra Redden, the 31-year-old who attacked a Nevada judge in a courtroom earlier this year, has pleaded guilty but mentally ill to multiple charges, including attempted murder, according to reports.
Courtroom chaos
On January 3, a video captured Redden leaping over the bench and attacking Judge Mary Kay Holthus as she was about to address his sentencing, reported Fox News.The incident, which began with Redden’s request for probation, escalated into a violent confrontation. The judge was attacked, and court personnel intervened, resulting in injuries to several individuals, including a dislocated shoulder for a marshal and cuts for the court clerk.
Guilty plea and mental illness
Redden initially pleaded guilty to six charges but later modified his plea to guilty but mentally ill. This change could impact his placement and treatment within the prison system. The charges include battery of a protected person aged 60 or older, intimidating a public officer, and battery by a prisoner, among others.

Judge’s testimony
During the court proceedings, Judge Holthus described the terrifying experience, recounting how the attack left her with a headache and stiffness. “He was so determined and so violent—it was scary. I didn’t think I was going to get out of there,” she said, visibly emotional.
Upcoming court dates
Redden’s case was scheduled for a jury trial, but with the plea change, the jury was dismissed. Redden is expected to appear in court again on November 7, 2024. His criminal history, including prior convictions for violent offenses, adds a complex layer to his case as it proceeds through the legal system.

A Nevada coroner’s office ruled that an inmate who was pepper-sprayed, shackled and restrained with his face to the ground was killed by prison guards.

An autopsy report revealed that 39-year-old Patrick Odale’s death at the Southern Desert Correctional Center on Dec. 28, 2023 was ruled a homicide, The Associated Press reported.

The autopsy report was finalized in late August after a nearly nine-month investigation by the Clark County coroner’s office into Odale’s death at the mostly medium security prison near Las Vegas.

The report said Odale died of “positional and mechanical asphyxia in the setting of law enforcement restraint.”

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Oregon-based forensic pathology expert Michael Freeman, who was not involved in the investigation, told The Associated Press “mechanical and positional asphyxia” typically happens when someone is restrained face down with their hands behind their back, while pressure is placed on their torso, arms or neck.

The report also noted that Odale had low levels of methamphetamine and xylazine, an animal sedative, in his system, which the coroner’s office described as a “major contributor” to his death.

When the Nevada Department of Corrections announced Odale’s death in a January news release, it did not reveal details suggesting the inmate was restrained.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Nevada Department of Corrections for comment.

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The agency told The Associated Press it had no comment because the matter is still an “active investigation.”

It is not clear how many officers were involved in Odale’s death, if any of the officers were disciplined, or how Odale was able to gain access to drugs while in custody.

In May, a corrections officer was arrested as part of the agency’s so-called “crack down on contraband,” after allegedly bringing cigarettes, lighters, cellphones, vape pens, tobacco and liquid spice into the facility, court records obtained by The AP show.

Odale was sentenced in early 2023 to up to two years in prison for being in possession of a stolen credit card and attempting to carry a concealed weapon.

The night that he died, officers reported that Odale was “erratic and growling” at them, the autopsy showed.

The report said the guards pepper-sprayed Odale and put him in a storage room with yard tools for several minutes until he started “thrashing in the room.”

Officers then allegedly pulled him to the ground, restrained him and took him to the prison infirmary.

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During the ordeal, medical and prison staff administered Narcan to Odale several times.

The coroner’s office reviewed video of the incident in order to determine the cause and manner of death, and the autopsy report indicates there could be a gap in the video footage.

The medical examiner said the footage shows Odale groaning as he is taken to the infirmary. Odale was also seen face-down with his hands shackled behind his back.

Then, the medical examiner said, “after a gap, video coverage resumes,” and staff is seen performing CPR on Odale, who was unresponsive.

“When the video resumes, the inmate is face-up with hands shackled anteriorly,” the autopsy stated, meaning that his hands were no longer shackled behind him but were in front of his body.

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Odale was pronounced dead shortly after.

The medical examiner ruled that Odale died because he was restrained in a way that prevented him from breathing, along with the effects of recent drug use.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.