My Afternoon with a Vegas Hitman

WARNING: Violence

The individuals addressed in this article were the subjects of the 1995 movie Casino, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone.

In 2012, I had the unique opportunity of meeting Frank Cullotta, the leader of the infamous “Hole in the Wall Gang” and a hitman for the mob in Las Vegas. At the time, I was the Director of the Nevada Council for History Education. Our group was organizing a seminar for teachers and community members called “The Las Vegas Mob Connection.” A friend of mine was related to Dennis Arnoldy, the FBI agent who busted Cullotta at a major robbery in Vegas in 1981 and spent the next five years debriefing him as a witness for the government when Cullotta became an informant for the feds. In the process, FBI agent Dennis Arnoldy and mob hitman Frank Cullotta became close friends, and they both agreed to speak at our event.

The day of the seminar, I was warned to expect anything, as Frank could be moody. Either he would put on a great show or be a cranky participant. I got lucky. Frank arrived in a good mood and was absolutely charming. He enthusiastically discussed his criminal activities in Chicago and Las Vegas with the attendees at the Nevada State Museum and then hosted a bus tour of key mob sites in Las Vegas.

FRANK CULLOTTA AND TONY SPILOTRO: THE MAIN GUYS IN THE VEGAS MOB

In 1979, Frank Cullotta moved to Las Vegas at the request of kingpin Tony Spilotro, who answered to the mob in Chicago, known as the “Outfit.” Cullotta became Spilotro’s right-hand man. Later, the relationship soured when Cullotta found out that Spilotro was having an affair with Geri Rosenthal, the wife of Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, the man who managed the Stardust, Fremont, Hacienda, and Marina casinos for the mob. The bosses in Chicago did not look kindly on hooking up with another associate’s wife. When Geri eventually confessed to her husband about her affair with Spilotro, Lefty warned her not to tell Tony that he knew about it, because he feared that Tony would kill them both.

After Cullotta and other members of the “Hole in the Wall Gang” got busted by the feds while burglarizing Bertha’s Gifts and Home Furnishings, the Outfit put out a contract on Cullotta at Spilotro’s request. Rather than take the bullet, Frank Cullotta agreed to turn state’s evidence and cooperate with the feds. He entered the Witness Protection Program after serving his time. To this day, Frank Cullotta remains one of the top three mob turncoats in U.S. history.

A FAMILY OF THIEVES

Frank Cullotta was born in Chicago on December 14, 1938. His father Joe was a killer who drove getaway cars for a crew of burglars and was considered to be “the best wheel man in Chicago.” He was a violent man who physically abused his wife and kids, but also provided them with a comfortable home furnished with stolen goods. Frank witnessed an incident where a man spit out his window while driving next to the Cullotta’s vehicle and when the saliva landed on the car, Joe Cullotta beat the shit out of both driver and passenger in front of his young son. When Frank was nine years old, Joe died in a high-speed crash while being chased by the cops. Despite the violence, Frank idolized his father and became determined to follow in his footsteps.

From an early age, Frank got into trouble. The structure of school was not a good fit. Frank got expelled from public school, trade school, and reform school, before being placed in a residential reform facility. Finally, at age 16, Frank dropped out entirely.

Frank’s criminal career began by stealing the paperboy’s pick-up envelopes. He then got a job shining shoes where he competed for business with another kid his age, Tony Spilotro. They began as rivals, but when Tony found out that Joe Cullotta was Frank’s father, his attitude changed. Joe had helped out Frank’s dad. When some petty criminals demanded protection money from Tony’s dad’s restaurant, Joe killed the men. The boys became fast friends. While in the same reform school, Frank and Tony stole cars to get to and from school and beat up Black gang members.

CAREER CRIMINALS

Frank graduated from juvenile crimes to burglary (breaking into a place), armed robbery, arson, and assassination. After dropping out of school, Frank’s uncle got him a job at a newsstand where he took envelopes of cash from bookies. Once the weather got cold, Frank partnered with a guy to rob bars. They made good money and were careful to avoid mob-affiliated joints. As their crew expanded, Frank began driving the getaway vehicle — just like his old man.

By then, Tony Spilotro was working for the Outfit. He encouraged Frank to get involved, but Frank had no interest in answering to the mob. Still, Frank would assist Tony on outside jobs: shaking down bookies, drug dealers, and independent burglars. They had a profitable run robbing bank messengers who carried bags of cash, until a witness identified Frank’s license plate. He was taken in, and some ambitious cops beat him up badly, even using a cattle prod in his testicle region. Still, Frank refused to confess, which earned him more respect from Tony and the Outfit.

In 1956, after robbing a warehouse for spark plugs, Frank got busted and served a year. In the early 1960s, he got locked up again. This time, he was serving with Chicago mob boss, Sam Giancana, who took a liking to him. By age 22, counting his time in juvenile facilities, Frank had spent five and a half years incarcerated. He was just getting started.

Frank figured out that if you keep pulling the same type of gigs, you’re going to get caught. So he regularly changed his modus operandi (M.O.). He switched from home robberies to breaking into payphones to boosting jewelry stores, wherein while someone distracts the salesclerk, their partner exchanges the real jewels with fakes.

Frank was living lavishly — driving fancy cars and throwing money around. He was popular with the ladies in part thanks to the cash, but also due to his charm and sincerity. He knew how to treat a lady. He preferred hanging out with women, because men were always getting into brawls. This life did not come cheap. Money was needed for lawyers and bail bondsmen. He had to pay off tipsters and the Outfit. In addition, Frank always took care of his friends and family.

Frank continued to explore new types of criminal activity. Tony encouraged him to try out loan sharking, but for Frank, chasing down guys and beating them up to get cash was too much of a hassle. He and his crew hit up rapid transit booths, post offices for stamps, and large supermarkets. Sears stores proved to be quite profitable. One guy would hide under a bed before the store closed and then let in the crew. Frank was a “car guy,” who often purchased three or four luxury cars each year. His salesman actually gave him a tip about hitting the dealership’s safe, and he received 15% of the haul.

Tony Spilotro continued to work his way up through the ranks of the Outfit. He studied under “Mad Sam” De Stefano — an “accomplished torturer and killer.” By the early 1960’s, Tony became a made man.

Frank was open to practically anything, but only engaged in murder “as a last resort” or if ordered to by the Outfit. Things got complicated after two of Frank’s crew members — Billy McCarthy and Jimmy Miraglia — whacked two brothers they had a beef with and the waitress who was with them. The father of the brothers was friends with mob boss, Tony Accardo. Spilotro pressured Frank to give up his buddies. Frank felt bad, but had no choice; it was either him or them. Tony participated in the assassinations, which became known as the M & M Murders; they would come back to haunt Tony Spilotro.

Following the hits on his crew members, Frank became understandably paranoid. He purchased a $800 remote car starter, which was a big investment back in the mid-1960s. He had an open invitation to join the Outfit, but continued to refuse. Instead, Frank stayed on the outside, but whenever he scored big, he was expected to kick some cash back to the Outfit.

Frank was organized. He modified cars with compartments for hiding weapons and utilized the going technology: police radios, CB radios, and walkie-talkies. He also learned that cops could be bought off — even special criminal units. His new ventures included hijacking trucks and armored cars and engaging in home invasions. Frank gladly took leads from insurance salesmen who sold policies for jewelry and coin collections.

SERVING TIME AND PLAYING IT STRAIGHT

Hijacking trucks of color televisions generally provided a good haul. However, Frank had to be careful of ripping off interstate shipments, which were a federal offense. In 1968, Frank got popped. The combination of charges could have led to a 35-year sentence. Frank was lucky to get 15 years at a state prison. His work assignments included shoveling coal and working as a barbershop clerk, before he finally got a position as a member of the psych-ward goon squad passing out meds and managing the crazies who threw everything from sinks yanked off the wall to feces. The guards generally stayed out of it when the goon squad beat the shit out of the crazies.

Paroled by the state in 1972, Frank was sent to a federal prison where he worked on a farm for the remainder of his sentence. His living conditions improved substantially. After 18 months, Frank was sent to a halfway house.

In 1974, at age 36, Frank was finally free. At his get-out-of-jail party, Tony offered him a job in Las Vegas, but Frank’s intention was to go straight for the sake of his mother, who had always stood by him. Frank opened an upscale restaurant by Wrigley Field, but it didn’t work out, because the cops were constantly harassing him and driving away legitimate customers. He sold that restaurant and bought a lounge that he later sold for what he paid for it. The unrelenting harassment from the cops persuaded Frank to take Tony up on his offer to be his “eyes, ears, and muscle” in Vegas.

VEGAS DAYS

The Outfit sent Tony Spilotro to Las Vegas in 1971 to protect Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal who was overseeing “the skim” at the Stardust Casino and the other Argent properties. The haul was huge. Every month, a million dollars got skimmed from the slot machines and $75,000 came from the table games. Tony opened a jewelry and gift shop at the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino. He later relocated to the Dunes Hotel, then the Las Vegas Country Club, and finally opened up a jewelry store called the Gold Rush on West Sahara Avenue as a front for stolen “merch.” The store was well-armed with security systems, round-the-clock surveillance, and four cops on the payroll. Tony made a big impact in the community. “In Tony’s first three years in Vegas, there were more gangland-style murders there than in the past 25 years combined.”

During the early Vegas “Mob Era,” the local feds and cops (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department aka Metro) were not effective and did not cooperate. FBI agents assigned to monitor casinos for mob activity were accepting comped meals and shows, and Metro had officers who were on the mob’s payroll. But things were about to change. In 1978, Sheriff John McCarthy was elected on a platform of cleaning up corruption in Metro and destroying organized crime. A fresh group of FBI agents arrived, the feds bugged the Gold Rush, and Tony Spilotro’s name was added to Nevada’s Black Book, which barred him from entering any Nevada casino. Veteran detective Kent Clifford was appointed to take charge of Metro’s Intelligence Bureau. By 1979, the FBI and Metro were finally cooperating, and they wanted Tony Spilotro dead, in prison, or at least out of Vegas.

Frank Cullotta arrived in Vegas during a challenging time. He assembled a crew that came to be known as the “Hole in the Wall Gang,” due to their tendency to bust through walls and roofs to evade security systems. Frank’s crew burglarized three to four houses each week. Frank felt no guilt about these break-ins. Like in Chicago, he got tips from insurance agents, and his victims collected handsomely from insurance company payoffs.

Frank and one of his crew members — Leo Guardino — opened a pizza joint called the Upper Crust on Maryland Parkway, by the University of Nevada—Las Vegas. The bar next door — My Place — was also frequented by Tony’s crew. On January 1, 1980, Frank married his waitress, Eileen, who was the mother of two children. Eileen’s father was a mob associate, so she was trustworthy and comfortable with the nature of Frank’s lifestyle.

FEDERAL INFORMANTS AND POLICE HARASSMENT

Frank got tipped off that Jerry Lisner — an associate of Spilotro’s — had become an informant. Lisner was arrested by the FBI on July 11, 1979, and was out on $75,000 bail. After being informed, Tony told Frank that the Outfit had authorized the hit on Lisner. Frank and Wayne Matecki — a crew member — went to Lisner’s house to do the job. Frank went to the door, while Matecki waited in the car. Not suspecting anything, Lisner invited Frank inside. As soon as Lisner turned around, Frank unleashed multiple shots into the back of Lisner’s head with his .22 handgun and was shocked when they didn’t bring him down. The bullets were “half-loads,” created by removing some of the gunpowder from the bullets to lessen the noise. Frank chased Lisner around his house, knocked him down, and tied a water cooler electrical cord around his neck to finish him off, then the cord broke. Concerned that things were taking too long, Matecki came inside with an extra magazine of ammo. Frank reloaded, put a couch pillow on Lisner’s head, and emptied the chamber. To destroy any fingerprints on the body, they dragged Lisner to his swimming pool and pushed him in. They wiped down the house and searched it for anything connected to Tony or Frank.

Sal Romano — a crook from Chicago — was working in Tucson, Arizona. He was known as a “good alarm and lock guy.” He got busted and agreed to cooperate with the feds. When he moved to Las Vegas, the feds followed him. He’d show up to meetings with Tony, Frank, and the crew wired by the feds. Although Frank and Eileen expressed their suspicions about Sal Romano, Tony repeatedly blew them off.

The cops and the feds became more brazen. They installed a camera and microphone in the air shaft at the Upper Crust. The devices were found in less than 24 hours and the feds actually came by to ask for the return of their equipment. The camera was returned, but Eileen had flushed the microphone down the toilet.

In addition to hanging around the Upper Crust, Metro officers placed tracking devices on the crew’s vehicles and tailed crew members around town. According to Clifford, “We were up against people who weren’t required to play by the rules; we were. Everything we did was legal, but sometimes we went right up to the edge.”

After the police shooting of Spilotro-associate Frank Bluestein, who was aggressively tailed after leaving the Upper Crust with a pizza, mob attorney Oscar Goodman, filed a “class action lawsuit alleging police harassment.” Goodman said the police were “un-American,” used “Gestapo-like tactics,” and had turned the community into “a police state in this country.” When a mob contract was put out on the cops who gunned down Bluestein, Kent Clifford flew out to Chicago to meet with the Outfit bosses, and the contract was lifted.

Oscar Goodman gained fame as the chief attorney to the Las Vegas mob. He effectively represented Frank Rosenthal, Tony Spilotro, Frank Cullotta, and many others. Goodman actually played himself in the movie Casino, and he ended his career as the mayor of Las Vegas from 1999 to 2011. He was succeeded in the office by his wife, Carolyn Goodman.

In the meantime, the Cullotta family moved to a larger house, which Frank furnished with stolen goods. A tip from an informant led to a raid on the house on November 20, 1980. In addition to the stolen furniture, the cops were excited to find some stolen radios that Tony had pressured Frank into accepting. Since the radios had been taken in Illinois, it was an out-of-state theft — a felony.

According to custom, as boss, Tony was expected to assist his crew with legal fees, but after Frank’s arrest, no money came. Tony Spilotro was happy to take his cut from Frank Cullotta and the Hole in the Wall Gang, but refused to contribute on his end when things went bad. The crew noticed and brought it up to Frank.

THE HEIST AT BERTHA’S

Desperate for cash to pay his legal fees, Frank decided to organize a theft at Bertha’s, a high-end jewelry, furniture, and antique store. A million-dollar score was anticipated. Frank had scouted Bertha’s when he first got to Vegas. Convinced that the alarm system was wired directly to Metro, Frank decided to plan the break-in for July 4, 1981, when the police would be busy and the noise of fireworks would disguise the sound of busting through the roof to get to the vault inside.

Two dirty cops from Chicago who were vacationing in Vegas stopped in to see Frank at the Upper Crust. They told him that Sal Romano had been busted at O’Hare Airport with stolen furs from Vegas, which qualified as an interstate crime. He was turned over to the feds and was suspected to have become an informant. Frank got the cops’ rooms comped and gave them each $500. When he told Tony about the tip, Spilotro not only blew it off, he placed Romano on the crew with Frank for the break-in at Bertha’s.

Before the job, Tony sent Frank to Chicago to deliver kickback money to the Outfit. The bosses questioned Frank about all the murders in Vegas — including hits that Tony told Frank the mob had been approved. This raised concerns, but Frank refused to believe that Tony would burn him.

The Bertha’s crew was well-equipped with scanners, walkie-talkies, a CB radio, ladders, a sledge-hammer, saws, picks, drills, torches, and acetylene tanks. The feds were also ready, and with Romano wired up and on the job, they knew everything. While Wayne Matecki, Leo Guardino, and Ernie Davino did the actual break-in, the lookouts included Frank, Larry “Lurch” Neumann, former Metro cop Joe Blasko, and Sal Romano. The crew arrived at 9:00pm and by 10:40 they had broken through the roof and into the safe.

FBI Agent Dennis Arnoldy was in charge. Arnoldy had been sent to Vegas in 1980 and was assigned to the unit overseeing Spilotro’s street crimes. When the crew penetrated the roof — it was officially burglary. While the crew was breaking in, Romano — who was riding with Neumann — left on the pretext of relocating a vehicle and never returned. Frank immediately knew that something was up. Neumann, Blasko, and Cullotta had been separately tailed all night; after the break-in, they were immediately pulled over and taken in. All were arrested except Sal Romano, who went into the Witness Protection Program.

Frank struggled to make his legal fees. Yet again, Tony did not assist with bail. Oscar Goodman agreed to represent Frank for $10,000 and successfully got him numerous continuances. Tony told Frank to whack both Blasko and Romano, but later backed off the Blasko hit. Frank sold the Upper Crust for $15,000, which he had bought for $65,000. Like in Chicago, police presence and harassment had ruined his legitimate business, and he had been operating in the red for months.

By the time Frank got convicted for possessing stolen property on April 20,1982, Eileen was already suspicious of Tony Spilotro. Given his previous felony convictions, Frank was facing a possible life sentence and needed an additional $10,000 for attorney fees. When approached, Tony finally agreed to contribute $6,000.

TURNING STATE’S EVIDENCE

On April 30, 1982, the feds learned that a contract had been put out on Frank by the Outfit, and as was their policy, they informed him. On May 3, Frank called the FBI to make a deal. The feds advised him to drop his current attorney — John Momot — who represented other mob guys and get a public defender. Next, Frank contacted his wife, mother, and brother, who all supported his choice to become an informant. This was not an easy decision. Frank was overcome with self-hatred and contemplated suicide. His wife and stepson went into the Witness Protection Program, but his stepdaughter refused.

Frank was immediately released from jail and went into the custody of Metro. Every few days, they moved him to a different hotel, where he was debriefed daily from 9:00am to 6:00pm. Frank outed casino employees who had provided tips — including executives. Thanks to Frank, 50 unsolved local burglaries were cleared. After a month, he was switched over to FBI custody and moved to a federal lockup in San Diego for two years with other protected witnesses aka turncoats. For the next five years, Dennis Arnoldy met with Frank hundreds of times. Everything Frank said was confirmed by two or three additional sources. Cullotta earned Arnoldy’s respect, because of his honesty and accuracy. Many individuals in Frank’s position try to tell the feds what they want to hear. Frank’s refusal to lie or embellish made him an ideal source and witness.

The feds would not let Frank get off scot-free. He plead guilty to all his pending cases, and in July 1982, he was sentenced to a concurrent eight years, which included his time served in San Diego. Over the coming years, Frank testified against virtually everyone he had ever known and had to face them in court. “They called him a serpent, a rat, and a devil.”

Thanks to Frank, between 1982 and 1988, nineteen men were indicted on federal racketeering-related charges, four men were indicted on murder charges in Illinois, and five men were indicted on Nevada burglary charges. In the end, fourteen of the fifteen federal convictions were connected to Tony Spilotro. Ultimately, Frank confessed to 200 burglaries, 50 armed robberies, and 25 arsons. He committed two murders and organized two others. In 1986, Frank Cullotta was a free man at age 48. Frank Cullotta’s agreement to turn state’s evidence effectively put an end to the mob in Las Vegas.

THE END OF TONY SPILOTRO

Because of Frank’s testimony, Tony Spilotro was indicted on the 1962 “M & M Murders.” Oscar Goodman represented Spilotro and was concerned when Tony insisted on a bench trial rather than a jury trial. But since the case was being determined by corrupt judge, Thomas J. Maloney, Spilotro had little to fear. In 1993, based on a different trial, Maloney became the “only Illinois judge ever convicted of fixing a murder case.”

In June 1986, Tony Spilotro had three open Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) cases: the Jerry Lisner murder, the break-in at Bertha’s, and casino skimming. The trial on the Bertha’s case was scheduled for June 16, 1986. A few days before, Tony got a call from his brother Michael in Chicago. Tony had been summoned for a meeting on June 14 by an associate of Joe Ferriolo, the Outfit’s main boss. A few days later, Tony and Michael’s badly beaten bodies were discovered in a shallow grave in an Indiana corn field. The brothers died of asphyxia, due to blunt-force trauma to their head, neck, and chest areas. They may have been buried while they were still alive. Frank knew that Tony had it coming for mismanaging his affairs in Vegas and stealing from the Outfit, but he was shocked at the brutality of the Spilotro murders. The Outfit could have shot the brothers or slit their throats, instead of beating them to death.

Photo of a terracotta-colored house with a white garage door, white entry gate, and a red-brick fireplace.

THE RETIREMENT OF FRANK “LEFTY” ROSENTHAL

Rosenthal got his nickname for being a left-handed hitter in baseball when he was young, and matured to become what Sport’s Illustrated called “the greatest living expert on sport’s gambling.” Born and raised in Chicago, Rosenthal’s genius at calculating odds got the attention of the Outfit. He was a meticulous sports researcher and was not adverse to fixing games. In 1961, Rosenthal was called to testify at a Senate subcommittee on gambling and organized crime, where he took the Fifth Amendment 37 times. In 1963, Rosenthal suffered a conviction after bribing a college basketball player to shave points off a game.

In 1968, the Outfit sent Rosenthal to Vegas to manage the Argent properties: the Stardust, Fremont, Hacienda, and Marina casinos. Rosenthal worked out of the Stardust, where his titles ranged from Food and Beverage Manager to Entertainment Director. His criminal past, prohibited him from having any connection to the gaming aspect of the casinos, even though he was actually running them. He also hosted his own local television show: The Frank Rosenthal Show. His first guest was Frank Sinatra.

Rosenthal was a visionary. In 1976, he opened the first sports book in a casino at the Stardust. He was among the first to hire female Blackjack dealers, which doubled income at the table games.

After surviving an attempt on his life in October 1982, when a bomb exploded while he started his Cadillac at Tony Roma’s Restaurant on East Sahara, Rosenthal was done with Vegas. Six months later, he moved to California and then to Florida, where he continued to work as a gaming consultant and operated a sports betting website. In 1988, his name was added to Nevada’s Black Book.

Rosenthal died of a heart attack in 2008. Following his death, the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper disclosed that both Frank Rosenthal and his wife Geri had been informants for the FBI.

THE MOVIE CASINO AND THE FUTURE OF FRANK CULLOTTA

Frank finally went straight. He reunited with his wife Eileen and his step-kids. In November 1985, his stepdaughter had a baby girl named Ashley, who became the light of Frank’s life. Sadly, the child had a “congenitally weak liver and spleen” and would be challenged with health issues the rest of her life.

Author and screenwriter, Nicholas Pileggi, hired Frank as a consultant on a book he was writing about Lefty Rosenthal and Vegas mob activities, called Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. Afterward, director Martin Scorsese hired Frank to be a technical consultant on the 1995 movie Casino. Frank spent four months on the movie set with a personal bodyguard. When word got out who he was, Frank became a celebrity. He was treated with respect by director Martin Scorsese and the entire cast including Robert De Niro (Frank Rosenthal), Joe Pesci (Tony Spilotro), and Sharon Stone (Geri Rosenthal).

In the movie, actor Frank Vincent played the role of Frank Cullotta. During the scene portraying the murder of Jerry Lisner, Martin Scorsese questioned Frank about how such a crazy murder actually went down. Scorsese asked Frank to recreate the scene and had it filmed. This turned out to be the actual footage in the movie. The money Frank made while working for Pileggi and Scorsese helped him pay for his granddaughter’s liver transplant, which allowed her to have a few good years before she passed away in October 2005 at age 19.

MY TIME WITH FRANK CULLOTTA

Frank was a pleasure. He arrived with Dennis Arnoldy while the seminar attendees were having lunch. He and Dennis joined me and my daughter at our table and we enjoyed a pleasant conversation. After lunch, Frank signed books before his presentation. He put on an entertaining and engaging show at the Nevada State Museum. Frank had an unapologetic edge. He had lived an interesting life and made the most of his post-crime days. After lunch, Frank signed more copies of his book, before hosting a bus tour of the hot spots of the Las Vegas mob.

In the following years, Frank wrote a few more books, began conducting mob tours on his own, hosted a YouTube channel called “Coffee With Cullotta,” and regularly spoke at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. He passed away in August 2020 — a casualty of COVID.

All of the quotes in this article came from Griffin, Dennis N. and Frank Cullotta, Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster, and Government Witness. Las Vegas, Nevada: Huntington Press, 2007.

Presentation by Frank Cullotta and Dennis Arnoldy at the Nevada State Museum on October 20, 2012.

Mob Tour of Las Vegas hosted by Frank Cullotta on October 20, 2012.

(C) Joyce O'Day 2023. All Rights Reserved.

AI was NOT used in the creation of this article.

This article was originally published at joyceoday.com on November 16, 2023.