Vegas Mobster Frank Cullotta, Lawman Dennis Griffin Casino The Real Story
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Vegas Mobster Frank Cullotta, Lawman Dennis Griffin
Casino The Real Story
Guest: Frank Cullotta
Frank Cullotta was born in Chicago in 1938. As a youth he embarked on a decades-long criminal career, hanging around with some of the toughest kids on the Windy City’s streets. Frank and several of his associates went on to become accomplished thieves, arsonists, and killers. One of those was Frank’s friend, Tony “the Ant” Spilotro, who gained notoriety as a ruthless Chicago Outfit enforcer. Tony was the mob’s top man in Las Vegas during the 1970s and through the mid-1980s. Frank was his main man for much of that time. Together, they and their gang ruled the Vegas underworld.
In 1982, the two men had a falling out that resulted in Frank rolling and becoming a government witness. His testimony was instrumental in putting a number of mobsters behind bars and causing the Outfit to lose its control over Las Vegas. Although the mob issued a contract on his life, Frank survived his time in prison and the Witness Protection Program. He is now a free man. His tell-all biography, Cullotta, is due to be released in May 2007.
Las Vegas mafia
Guest: Dennis N. Griffin
Dennis N. Griffin retired in 1994 after a twenty-year career in investigations and law enforcement in New York State, and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada later that year. In 1996 he wrote his first novel, The Morgue, based on an actual case he investigated. He currently has six mystery/thriller books in print.
In 2002, Dennis turned his attention to non-fiction. Policing Las Vegas (Huntington Press, April 2005) follows the evolution of law enforcement in Las Vegas and Clark County from 1905 thru 2005. That successful debut was followed by The Battle for Las Vegas – The Law vs the Mob (Huntington Press, April 2006).
This latest book tells the inside story of Chicago Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro’s reign in Vegas, and the war law enforcement waged to remove him. The Hollywood version of that era was reflected in the 1995 movie Casino, in which actor Joe Pesci played a character based on Spilotro.
Mr. Griffin is an active member of the Henderson Writers Group, Wizards Of Words, and the Public Safety Writers Association.
Locked Up Abroad: Vegas Mobster Commentary/Review
The newest installment of the National Geographic show Locked Up Abroad was decidedly not abroad, unless you consider Las Vegas another country, which isn't much of a stretch. Frank Cullotta was the Vegas mobster, and burglarizing was his lucrative trade. Cullotta and his crew made over a million dollars in the late '70s busting through walls and ceilings in order to snatch jewelry and cash. However, as is the case with many thieves and robbers, even the successful ones, they got greedy, or in this case the head Chicago Outfit mobster in Vegas Tony Spilotro was the rapacious clunkhead.
Despite Cullotta's words of wisdom about a narc in their midst Spilotro made Cullotta go ahead with their proposed million dollar heist, and the entire crew was taken down because of it. Why do people, in this instance a mobster, that already have more than they need, i.e. cars, houses, clothes, and piles of money in the bank risk it all for one more score or an additional mountain of dough? Will nothing slake their thirst for more?
A similar decision making process plays out in the non criminal world as well. The high paid consultant or lobbyist that makes enough money to retire on, and then some, but keeps working themselves to the bone for more.
Greed can more than cloud someone's decision making process, it can render it limp. The truism gleaned from this episode is that at least some, if not most, mobsters will eventually slit their own wrists.
Frank Rosenthal & Allen Glick Interview
This is a very short interview clip of Frank Rosenthal & Allen Glick Short. This clip is taken from a documentary called Mob On The Run
Argent Corp. purchased the Hacienda in 1974 and obtained a Nevada gaming license. Argent then purchased the Recrion Corporation, which owned the Stardust and Fremont. The purchase was financed by a $62 million dollar loan from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund through Allen Dorfman to Glick. Glick held no real power as he subsequently discovered, he was a front man for the Kansas City mafia. After Argent purchased the Stardust, Frank Rosenthal was installed as a manager, although he did not have a Nevada gaming license. The Nevada Gaming Commission refused to license Rosenthal because of his criminal past, thus Rosenthal began changing job titles to positions that did not require licensing. His story was partly fictionalized in the movie Casino, where he is played by Robert De Niro. During the time that Argent owned the four casinos, between $7 million and $15 million is estimated to have been skimmed from the casinos and sent to organized crime members in Kansas City. Argent was forced out the casino industry in the late 1970's by the Kansas City mafia. Glick denied any wrongdoing and was never charged with a crime. He became a cooperating witness, immunized from prosecution in a criminal case in 1983 against 15 individuals charged in the skimming operation. The 15 individuals indicted included many people in the top echelon of organized crime: Joseph Aiuppa, Jackie Cerone, Joseph Lombardo and Anthony Spilotro from the Chicago Outfit; Frank Balistrieri and his two sons John and Joseph Balistrieri of the Milwaukee crime family; and Carl Civella from the Kansas City crime family.
Mob Assassins Kill Fat Herbie Blitzstein In This Las Vegas Home
VEGAS NOIR: In January 1997, mob assassins killed Herbert Fat Herbie Blitzstein execution style in his attached townhouse on Mt. Vernon Avenue in Las Vegas.
Blitzstein, a former enforcer for crime boss Tony The Ant Spilotro in Las Vegas, was shot three times in the head, according to published accounts. Nevada gaming regulators, seeking to bar him from entering casinos in the state, had said his life read like a crime novel.
It was thought that Blitzstein, operating independently, was managing street rackets in Las Vegas about a decade after Spiloto and his brother were brutally killed and buried one on top of the other in their underwear in an Indiana cornfield about 50 miles south of Chicago. Tony Spilotro was the Chicago mob's overseer in Las Vegas.
Prosecutors claimed that Los Angeles Mafia-connected figures killed Blitzstein in a plot with Buffalo operatives to take over Blitzstein's lucrative rackets, including loan-sharking and insurance fraud. In the murder plot, four suspects pleaded guilty in exchange for reduced sentences.
I shot this video of Blitzstein's townhouse with my iPhone in December 2015.
Vegas And The Mob - Full Documentary
Gambling has always been a very important business in the Mafia. From card games to betting on horses and other sports, the Mafia has earned cash from all of them. They operated many illegal and luxurious gambling operations throughout the United States. Police officers and law enforcement agencies were in the payroll of the Mafia Bosses and ignored the gambling operations. However, a major event occurred which forever changed the history of gambling and casinos in the United States. The state of Nevada legalized gambling in 1931.
Even though gambling had been legalized, no one paid much attention except the local cowboys and some men from nearby military bases. Las Vegas was a dirty town in the middle of the desert with a few gas stations, greasy junk food diners and a few slot machine emporiums. Las Vegas in the early 1940s was not an attractive place to do business or live. The Mafia didn’t catch onto the huge moneymaking potential of Las Vegas until after World War II ended. Al Capone had eyed the town with great interest but never got onto completing his plans of turning it into a hotel and casino haven for tourists and travelers.
Las Vegas remained Mafia free until the Mafioso Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel realized the potential for Las Vegas. The timing could not have been better. Before the formation of Las Vegas, American tourists looking for a great time had to go all the way to Cuba. In Cuba gangsters were welcomed by the corrupt Batista regime, casinos were plentiful, and the profits were huge. Around a decade after the opening of the first casino in Las Vegas, Fidel Castro’s Revolution swept Cuba. So, the people were left with no other alternative for legal gambling than going to Las Vegas.
Frank Rosenthal
Frank Lawrence Lefty Rosenthal (June 12, 1929 – October 13, 2008) was a professional sports bettor, former Las Vegas casino executive, and organized crime associate. The 1995 Martin Scorsese film Casino is based on his career in Las Vegas.
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The Mob Museum in Las Vegas Nevada 2017
The Mob Museum in Las Vegas Nevada 2017
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The Real History of Las Vegas : Documentary on the Alternate History of Las Vegas
Geraldine McGee - Life Story Digital Film
Life Story Funeral Homes present the life of Geraldine McGee of Kankakee, IL. To read the obituary of Geraldine McGee, to read the full Life Story, or to leave a memory or comment, please visit
Casino (8/10) Movie CLIP - The Feds Run Out of Gas (1995) HD
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CLIP DESCRIPTION:
With Nicky (Joe Pesci) playing a round of golf, an FBI plane lands on the course just as Ace (Robert De Niro) meets with the Control Board.
FILM DESCRIPTION:
The inner-workings of a corrupt Las Vegas casino are exposed in Martin Scorsese's story of crime and punishment. The film chronicles the lives and times of three characters: Ace Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a bookmaking wizard; Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), a Mafia underboss and longtime best friend to Ace; and Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone, in a role she was born to play), a leggy ex-prostitute with a fondness for jewelry and a penchant for playing the field. Ace plays by the rules (albeit Vegas rules, which, as he reminds the audience in voiceover, would make him a criminal in any other state), while Nicky and Ginger lie, cheat, and steal their respective ways to the top. The film's first hour and a half details their rise to power, while the second half follows their downfall as the FBI, corrupt government officials, and angry mob bosses pick apart their Camelot piece by piece.
CREDITS:
TM & © Universal (1995)
Cast: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent
Director: Martin Scorsese
Producers: Barbara De Fina, Joseph P. Reidy
Screenwriters: Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese
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