The whale that nearly drowned The Donald

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Chaarles Rex Arbogast / AP

Donald Trump ascends the stairs with his fist raised from the genie’s lamp after opening the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in a spectacular show of fireworks and laser lights Thursday evening in Atlantic City, N.J., on April 5, 1990. Behind Trump is the 42-story hotel.

Tue, Feb 16, 2016 (3:15 p.m.)

In January 1992, a Japanese one-time billionaire named Akio Kashiwagi was found dead in his palatial home near Mt. Fuji. The scene was gruesome. The house’s white paper screens were spattered with blood. The 54-year-old had been stabbed as many as 150 times. By some reports the weapon of choice was a samurai-style sword.

The crime was never solved, though it bore the hallmarks of a killing by Japan’s criminal yakuza. Ostensibly a real estate investor, Kashiwagi was a mysterious figure reputed to have underworld connections. He was also one of the world’s top five gamblers, a “whale” in casino parlance, willing to wager $10 million in a single gaming bender.

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