Pellicano With Farah

Anthony Pellicano

 Chicago Outfit  street boss  Tony  Spilotro and  lawyer

A member of Nevada’s list of ecluded persons better known as the Black Book, Masterana was born in Canton, Ohio Jan. 26, 1929, and moved to Las Vegas to work for “Doc” Stacher in the early 1950s.   read more 

Arrests in Naples as Italian police seek to weaken organized crime

Italian police have arrested at least 41 alleged members of a mafia-like crime ring in the southern city of Naples

Several bosses from the Sarno clan, a top local crime family, and dozens of other suspects were arrested Wednesday and charged with drug trafficking, extortion and illegal weapons possession.

The group forced businesses to pay protection money, or pizzo, and sold cocaine smuggled from Spain, according to Angelo Mazzagatti, of the Carabinieri paramilitary police.

The suspects were also accused of creating a mafia-like association.

Mazzagatti described the Sarnos as a “very invasive” clan, adding that they had exerted control in the city “not with a mafia war but with strategic alliances.”

Wednesday’s arrests are part of larger crackdown conducted over the last few months targeting the Sarno, ‘Ndrangheta, and the Amato-Pagano clans.

hf/AFP/AP  thanks rob mudge

Anti-mafia sentiment has led to demonstrations in Naples

 

Joe   Pesci      mob groupie    Las Vegas Review-Journal
Actor  Joe Pesci, who won an Oscar for his supporting role in the mob classic “Goodfellas,” is going into business in Las Vegas with convicted racketeer Rick Rizzolo.

They’ll be slicing up the profit from a string of pizza joints called “Pesci’s Pizza.”

They’re doing the paperwork” and could be in business in four or five months, said longtime Pesci associate Tommy DeVito of Las Vegas.

Pesci is a producer of the “Jersey Boys,” a musical based on the lives of the Four Seasons. A spinoff of the Broadway hit has been a hit at The Palazzo since it opened a year ago.

Pesci and DeVito are such close friends that Pesci called DeVito a couple of months before filming began on Martin Scorcese’s “Casino” to say he was taking the name Tom DeVito for his character, a mob thug based on Las Vegas hit man Anthony “The Ant” Spilotro

Pesci, who has played criminal figures in some of his biggest movies, including Las Vegas-set “Casino,” was pulled into the 2003-2006 “G-Sting” investigation into Rizzolo’s alleged underworld connections

During the “G-Sting” federal trial, Stan Hunterton, a former prosecutor with the Justice Department’s Organized Strike Force, told the court, “Not since the reign of Anthony Spilotro and his associates has there been a more infamous hoodlum than Rick Rizzolo.”

Rizzolo was among 17 defendants, including city officials, found guilty on various charges. He served 11 months of a sentence of one year and one day before his release last year.

He also was ordered to sell the Crazy Horse Too. Rizzolo, 50, was placed under three years of supervised release and fined 250.,000

Pesci was  running  around with a Genovese Crime Family Capo   named   Joe Dente.  They both  checked into  the Golden Nugget and Steve Wynn told them both  to take a hike.  

Anthony “the Animal” Fiato

Upcoming BTR Shows

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dennisngriffin

April 8  @ 9 pm EDT  – Juror Thirteen, the Phil Spector trial

April 15 @ 9 pm EDT – Las Vegas and the Mob, guests Paul Scharff and Holly Hager

April 16 @ 9 pm EDT – Las Vegas and the Mob, guest Tony Napoli

April 22 @ 9 pm EDT – Juror Thirteen, the Haleigh Cummings case

John Ambrose is charged with leaking info on Nick Calabrese, a hit man he was protecting.

Nick Calabrese

Mob boss, James Marcello.

FAMILY SECRETS | Marcello will take stand vs. U.S. marshal charged with leaking to Outfit

The details about the key witness, mob killer Nicholas Calabrese, were allegedly coming from the man assigned to protect Calabrese from the mobsters who wanted him dead — deputy U.S. Marshal John Ambrose.

Now, in a stunning reversal, Michael Marcello, once his imprisoned half-brother’s eyes and ears on the street, will testify against Ambrose next month, a prosecution filing shows

Ambrose is charged with leaking important information about Nick Calabrese to the Outfit. Marcello could provide key testimony about how the information allegedly made its way from Ambrose to Ambrose’s friend with Outfit connections to reputed mobster John “Pudgy” Matassa to Michael Marcello to James Marcello. Matassa has not been charged in the case.     thanks  STEVE WARBIR 

Michael Marcello pleaded guilty in the Family Secrets case in June 2007, admitting he ran an illegal video-poker business.

He didn’t agree to cooperate then and got 8½ years in prison.

It’s unclear what prompted the turnaround. Prosecutors would not comment, and an attorney for Marcello did not return a message. Such cooperation often results in less prison time.

Prosecutors secretly recorded Michael Marcello’s conversations when he visited James Marcello in prison.

The Marcellos were intent on finding out what Nick Calabrese had revealed about James Marcello’s involvement in the 1986 killings of mobsters Anthony and Michael Spilotro.

James Marcello drove the Spilotros to a Bensenville area home, where the two men believed they were going to get promotions in the mob, according to testimony in the Family Secrets case. Instead, several mobsters, including Nick Calabrese, pounced on them and beat them to death.

thanks to John L Smith

Tony Spilotro (right) and his brother, Michael.

monster madoff

Anthony Spilotro, the late Las Vegas gangster and hitman, was something of a street-corner philosopher according to those who knew him well. Spilotro, played so dramatically by Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese’s “Casino,” had favorite sayings that served as gentle reminders to his associates. For some reason, they almost always focused on the nature of greed

      Tough Tony the philosopher liked to say, “You can only eat one steak at a time.” … Ironically, it was Tony whom some mob historians have suspected was killed in part because he failed to share his lucrative Vegas scores with his bosses in Chicago. He brought too much heat on the bosses through his organization of a burglary ring that got busted and made big headlines. In 1986, Spilotro and his brother, Michael, were murdered by their friends

               Tony was a ragged street kid who dared to dream too big. Bernard Madoff, on the other hand, was a limousine guy who circulated with millionaires and billionaires. His Ponzi scheme took investors for $86 billion, a record organized crime would have envied, and this week we found out he’s personally still worth $826 million. He’s also on his way to federal prison.       

 Saint Mark Twain of Missouri .. once observed, “Nothing incites to money-crimes like great poverty or great wealth.”

I guess it’s too late to remind Madoff that he can only eat one steak at a time. Too late for Tony, too, come to think of it.

Tony  did  love a good  steak , and  Cash  was  his favorite dessert.

 I  chopped up a drug score  with  Tony  over a  New York  Steak dinner  in  the  Flame. a  Steakhouse  in  Las  Vegas.

Anthony  Fiato aka “The Animal”

Cullotta                      http://www.lvrj.com/news/40412047.html

I’m going to be a guest on the True Crimes show on Outlaw Crime this Saturday at 2 pm PST. You can listen live at http://outlawcrime.com. We’ll be talking about my books Policing Las Vegas, The Battle for Las Vegas, and CULLOTTA.

I hope you can join me.

Denny

Authorities in McHenry County, Illinois, may be closer to solving a pair of 1981 killings thanks to a former mobster’s biography. For details please read http://www.lvrj.com/news/39633437.html.

Authorities in McHenry County, Illinois, may be closer to solving a pair of 1981 killings thanks to a former mobster’s biography. For details please read http://www.lvrj.com/news/39633437.html.

Moe Sedway playing cards

“Ant Man” Spilotro

So I says to Oscar the Mayor, I says: What was you thinking admitting publicly the Las Vegas Mob Museum is a mob museum?

                   Officially it’s known as the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. You didn’t even give the G-men top billing. Even the Web site winks and adds “a k a ‘The Mob Museum.’” So much for the subtle approach

              Maybe you should have given it a more mainstream moniker, like the Las Vegas Pistol-Packing Pioneer Museum, or the Gats ‘n’ Spats Guggenheim.

                            You couldn’t resist stressing that thing of yours, the mob. In doing so, you violated the first rule of Las Vegas (and Wall Street, for that matter): Never be on the square with squares. Don’t treat ‘em like grownups.

Never give ‘em the straight story. Never reveal the real odds. Feed ‘em a story line that plays in the Heartland.

            While you’re at it, make sure your story also plays in Washington, D.C., where crime is so organized you get a secretary and a pension.

              That was your first mistake, mayor. Candor

                  Now you’re paying the big price for it. Because like a bunch of frat boys sobering up after an eight-year kegger, Washington is breaking a fevered sweat to sweep up the shabby state of the union. Politicians are finding religion from the halls of Congress to the Lincoln Memorial, and that means only one thing: Billions for Wall Street and major banks, but not $50 million or even a dime for the mob museum.

Senate Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky recently blasted the mob museum idea with both barrels, saying it had no place in the bailout funds meant to apply battery cables to the exhausted Diehard that is our economy. I can see why McConnell would be sensitive, coming from a party that until a recent conviction boasted a certain Alaska senator who funneled $223 million to his home state for a project later dubbed the “Bridge to Nowhere.” Adds political watchdog Web site FactCheck.org, “The bridge was not the only or the most expensive project attached to the transportation bill, and it may not have been the most frivolous. But it became a symbol for government pork.”

Even the mayor’s friend Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to rub out funding for the mob museum, which surveys show would generate thousands of visitors to downtown.

Is that because it sends the wrong message?

After pushing the American people so close to a Depression they don’t have to squint to see the soup lines, now they’re worried about the message they’re sending from Washington.

So tell me, senators, who are the bigger gangsters?

The Murder Inc. guys who brought green felt and neon to Las Vegas, or the murderous crew at Bear Stearns? They nicked the taxpayer for $29 billion.

American International Group, A.I.G. for short and P.I.G. for sure, was approved for $85 billion in guarantees. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who were stuck with those names because “Bonnie and Clyde” were already taken, absconded with a cool $200 billion – and didn’t even have to draw a weapon.

So I can see how members of Congress are sensitive about being perceived as playing the willing patsy for members and associates of organized crime. Don’t want to send the wrong message to the nation’s lowly working stiffs. The people might get the crazy idea the Senate and House are wasting tax dollars.

Sorry, Oscar. Your museum caught two behind the ear and was stuffed into a trunk in the name of politics. Maybe you should have called it the Stock Market Heritage Museum. It could have made a score.

The Great American Bailout, which now runs a taxpayer tab of approximately $800 billion with hundreds of billions more being contemplated, makes carnival rubes out of mugs with the names Lansky, Siegel, Giancana, and Spilotro. Goodman’s old clients were pikers next to the Wall Street Mob and the Big Bank Crime Family.

Talk about being replaced by a better class of criminal.

It’s enough to make a contract killer blush.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/38442514.html

John L. Smith’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith/.

I’m pleased to announce that Paul Scharff and Holly Hager will be my guests on my Blog Talk Radio show at 7 pm Central on January 5th. Paul’s father, tavern owner Ronald Scharff, and his barmaid Patricia Freeman were murdered in McHenry County, Illinois in June 1981.

The killings remained unsolved for over 27 years. And then this past summer Holly Hager, Paul’s one-time baby-sitter, read a former mobster’s biography in which the murders were described and the killer named. Since then McHenry County has renewed their investigation; and the story has received attention from Chicago and McHenry County media.

Paul and Holly will explain the status of efforts to have the alleged killer officially named as the murderer and the cold cases closed out.

You can catch the broadcast live at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dennisngriffin. Listeners can call in with questions or comments at 646 478-0982.

I’m pleased to announce that Paul Scharff and Holly Hager will be my guests on my Blog Talk Radio show at 7 pm Central on January 5th. Paul’s father, tavern owner Ronald Scharff, and his barmaid Patricia Freeman were murdered in McHenry County, Illinois in June 1981.

The killings remained unsolved for over 27 years. And then this past summer Holly Hager, Paul’s one-time baby-sitter, read a former mobster’s biography in which the murders were described and the killer named. Since then McHenry County has renewed their investigation; and the story has received attention from Chicago and McHenry County media.

Paul and Holly will explain the status of efforts to have the alleged killer officially named as the murderer and the cold cases closed out.

You can catch the broadcast live at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dennisngriffin. Listeners can call in with questions or comments at 646 478-0982.

Chicago Channel 5 and the Chicago Sun Times have broken stories that deceased mobster Larry Neumann may have been the killer in a pair of 27-year-old McHenry County, Illinois murders.

You can see the article at http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/1339456,mchenry-cold-case-holly-hager-121808.article or view the video at http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Was_Small_Town_Mob_Murder_Covered_Up__Chicago.html

Las Vegas radio station KDWN has posted an interview of Frank Cullotta on its site. Please visit http://www.kdwn.com/index.php?page=0&sid=ibnvdupv2a62r4s4fmgksa2mu3030r00, scroll down and click on the Cullotta interview.

The Biography Channel schedule shows the new Tony Spilotro bio will debut at 9 pm Eastern on December 5th.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I thought I’d throw this out in case any of you might be interested in cases other than Caylee’s. I’m currently actively involved in three additional cases that interest me. The first is a 27-year-old double homicide case that occured in Lakemoor, Illinois. It happened that over the summer a reader recognized the scenario described in one of my true crime books as being the 1981 murders of tavern owner Ron Scharff and his barmaid Pat Freeman. In the book I identify the killer. Paul Sharff – Ron’s son – is now attempting to get the authorities to close our their cold case. This story will be aired on a Chicago TV station within the next couple of weeks; and has a good chance of getting national attention. Paul has formed a group on Facebook called McHenry County 1981. You can visit http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=33678349794 to get more details and updates.

The other two cases involve the deaths of two young men that were ruled as a suicide or accident. But substantial information exists that both deaths may very well have been murders. Each of the mothers is  fighting an uphill battle to get the authorities to take another look at the evidence.

Ricky Dyer was found dead of gunshot wounds near Sparks, Nevada in 1993. You can see his atory at http://www.realcrimes.com/Dyer/rickydyer.htm.

Josh Whittier’s body was found on a Florida beach in 2007 and was ruled an accidental drowning. There is evidence that contradicts that finding, however. Josh’s story can be found at http://www.realcrimes.com/Whittier/Whittier.htm

George Knapp in front of TV monitors showing footage of Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal after his car bombing. Photo by Duane Prokop/Review-Journal

From Norm’s Vegas Confidential Column October 31, 2008:

As fashion statements go, George Knapp’s 1982 Halloween costume was definitely smoking hot.

He has Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal to thank for the inspiration. Their paths had crossed three years earlier.

Knapp, new in town and driving a cab to make ends meet, often stopped in to see his girlfriend, who served cocktails at Fred Glusman’s Oz. “The hottest nightclub in town,” Knapp recalled.

Glusman, who went on to own the at-times-infamous Piero’s Italian Cuisine, “knew all the wiseguys since he had a clothing store in the Stardust,” said Knapp, who months earlier had left the Bay Area and his position as a debate coach at UC Berkeley.

Knapp and his girlfriend were ready to move. After meeting some Las Vegas bartenders in East Bay, they decided to flip a coin — heads Hawaii, tails Las Vegas.

They headed for Sin City.

One night at Oz, Knapp’s girlfriend introduced him to one of the club’s more colorful patrons. One of them was “Lefty,” whose friends were Tony and Joey. Knapp didn’t know it, but Rosenthal, Tony Spilotro and Joey Cusumano were notorious for their mob associations. All three ended up in Nevada’s Black Book of persons excluded from entering casinos.

Knapp had just landed a part-time job at KLVX-TV, Channel 10, where he spent his time doing odd jobs and bugging the news department to give him a tryout as a cameraman/reporter for the station’s biweekly news shows.

Every so often, Knapp would wander back to the archives and flip through clippings.

“I was drawn to the mob stories and read everything I could since organized crime was still very much alive here,” Knapp said.

To his amazement, he quickly realized that some of the people he met — “I was introduced and that was about it” — were the same men mentioned in the news stories.

Later, when he joined KLAS-TV, Channel 8 in 1981, those introductions would serve him well.

“It gave me an ‘in’ with them, albeit on a very low level,” he said.

It wasn’t long before he was covering mob stories and casino stories, “which were often one and the same in those days,” Knapp said.

His mentors were Ned Day, the Review-Journal’s mob-baiting columnist who became an anchor at KLAS, and Bob Stoldal, who was running the station.

“This was a dramatic time,” for the Mafia, “the beginning of the end for them,” Knapp said.

Spilotro, the mob hit man who had turned into a loose cannon, “was under incredible pressure, along with his crew, and Rosenthal was at the center of the storm,” Knapp said. Both had annoyed the mob for bringing so much unwanted attention.

It didn’t help that the mob was hearing rumors that Spilotro was having an affair with Rosenthal’s wife, Geri. Her character was portrayed by Sharon Stone in the 1995 classic “Casino,” with Robert DeNiro cast as Rosenthal and Joe Pesci as Spilotro.

“It blew up,” Knapp said, when Geri “went crazy, caused a big scene outside her house in the Las Vegas Country Club, then went to the bank and carted off a pile of cash and jewelry.”

Publicity generated by that “very public scene was, in my mind, the final nail in the coffin,” he said.

On Oct. 4, 1982, Rosenthal, the mob’s frontman for their string of casinos, stepped into his 1981 Cadillac Eldorado outside Tony Roma’s, 620 E. Sahara Ave. A bomb ripped through the car, leaving Rosenthal scorched, bruised and in shock. But he caught a lucky break: It was later theorized that a metal plate Cadillac placed under the driver’s seat of that model absorbed the brunt of the explosion.

Two nights after the assassination attempt, Rosenthal invited three reporters, including Day and Knapp, to his home.

“Lefty held court, and it was a weird little episode. He cruised in, bandaged up, with scrapes or burn marks on his face and hands. He spoke for a brief period, then took a few questions, but he didn’t say much of anything.”

When Knapp asked Rosenthal whether he had any ideas about who was behind it, he replied, “Well it certainly wasn’t the Boy Scouts of America.”

Someone asked whether he thought his lifelong friend, Spilotro, might be behind it. Rosenthal’s response, Knapp said, was something like “I hope not.”

Asked if the FBI had contacted him, Rosenthal said yes but emphasized he had no intention of cooperating with the government.

Day and Knapp left convinced they were invited to the mini-news conference because Rosenthal wanted to use the media “to assure his associates that he wasn’t going to rat them out.”

Rosenthal left Las Vegas and resurfaced in Boca Raton, Fla., where he eventually returned to his suit: sports handicapping for an online company.

Knapp called occasionally with a request to get Rosenthal in front of a camera. The last attempt, several years ago, was for a news series on “the bad old days.”

Rosenthal “responded — characteristically — in third-person vernacular: ‘Frank Rosenthal is not interested in participating in a local news series. Frank Rosenthal might be interested in a prime-time special, a two-hour program, something that would air on one of the major networks.’ “

It didn’t happen. The man who is credited with bringing sports betting to Las Vegas died October 13, 2008 in Florida. He was 79.

Four weeks after the Rosenthal car bombing, Knapp was invited to a Halloween party. He didn’t have a costume, but with the Rosenthal interview still on his mind, he had an idea.

“I took an old polyester suit — something Frank would never even think about wearing — and I tossed it into the fireplace, lit a match and let it burn a bit. Then I put a bandage around my head, some fake blood, and presto, I was ‘Lefty’ Rosenthal for the party.

“It wasn’t much of a costume, but I won some sort of prize. Maybe it was in the bad taste category.”

The Biography Channel plans to air Tony’s bio on their Mobster show on Friday, December 5.

Denny

On November 5 at 7 pm Central time, I’ll be doing a special edition of my Las Vegas and the Mob show on Blog Talk Radio. The topic will be a double murder that occurred in Lakemoor, Illinois, in 1981. My guests will be Paul Scharff, son of one of the victims, retired FBI agent Dennis Arnoldy, and former Chicago Outfit mobster Frank Cullotta. You can listen to the program live, or play it back later as a podcast, at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dennisngriffin.

Below is some background on the case.

Murder in Lakemoor

On the morning of June 2, 1981, two people were found shot to death in the living room of an apartment at the rear of the P.M. Pub, located at 238 West Rand Road in Lakemoor, Illinois. The victims were the tavern’s owner, 37-year-old Ronald Scharff , and barmaid Patricia Freeman, who had worked her first shift at the bar the previous evening. Lakemoor was a community of around 800 at the time, and is situated about 45 miles northwest of Chicago. These were the first reported homicides there since its incorporation in 1952.

Shortly after the killings, McHenry County Sheriff’s investigators had a couple of suspects in the slayings. Jim Hager — a friend of Ron Scharff — advised them that if they wanted to solve the murders they should look at  either Freeman’s boyfriend or a guy named Larry Neumann The latter was a McHenry County native then living in Las Vegas. Neumann, a burglar, robber, arsonist and all around tough guy, was working for Chicago Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro in Sin City. Neumann had previously been convicted of a 1956 triple murder in Illinois. And although he received a sentence of 125 years, he had miraculously been paroled after serving only about 16 years. Hager had thrown Neumann’s name into the mix because he had witnessed an altercation between Scharff and Neumann’s ex-wife in which Scharff threw the woman out of his bar. Hager felt that to a guy like Neumann, that incident could be construed to be a personal insult demanding redress.

It is unclear exactly what the police did with that information. But they reportedly put most of their focus on Freeman’s boyfriend, who had allegedly been seen across the street from the lounge on the night of the killings. The man was questioned and submitted to several lie detector tests, the results of which were inconclusive.

At any rate, no charges were filed and the case was still open the following year when what seemed like a major breakthrough with a Las Vegas connection took place. In May 1982, Tony Spilotro’s childhood friend and lieutenant flipped and became a government witness. Frank Cullotta — who had been running Spilotro’s  crew of thieves and killers known as the Hole in the Wall Gang prior to defecting — told the FBI agents and Las Vegas police who were debriefing him, that Neumann had killed two people in a McHenry County tavern the previous June. McHenry County authorities were notified and interviewed Cullotta at the federal lockup in San Diego.

Cullotta confirmed Hager’s suspicion of the motive for the murders. He stated that Neumann had received a call from his ex-wife regarding her altercation with Scharff. The killer had become enraged. He considered the incident to have been a sign of disrespect to him; and felt he had no choice but to return to Illinois and get revenge. Not long afterward Neumann said he was heading for Chicago. Another Cullotta associate named Tommy Amato went with him. Amato went along to share the driving and get out of Vegas for a while. He had no knowledge of Neumann’s plans for retribution. When Neumann returned to Vegas he admitted the murders to Cullotta.

In addition to Cullotta’s statement, a Las Vegas police detective provided details of an interview he did with Tommy Amato regarding the Scharff and Freeman murders. David Groover said Amato told him that he had driven Neumann from Chicago to Lakemoor in Neumann’s Thunderbird. Neumann told Amato to park near the pub and wait in the car for him. A few minutes later Amato heard two gunshots, followed seconds later by two more. Neumann returned to the car, and after driving around for a while threw the murder weapon into a lake. Although Amato later retracted his story, Groover memorialized Amato’s statement in a sworn affidavit.

Further information that seemingly corroborated the accounts of Cullotta and Amato was contained in McHenry County police records. The night after the killings, Tommy Amato was in a car operated by Neumann’s brother-in-law when it was stopped by a police patrol. Amato was detained briefly and then released. 

In spite of all this information, Neumann was not charged and the murders remained unsolved.

In 2008, 27 years after his father’s murder, Paul Scharff received a phone call from Jim Hager. He was told that Holly Hager — Jim’s daughter and Paul’s one-time babysitter — had read a book that she believed included a segment on Ron Scharff’s killing. Although the names of the victims and the specific location of the crimes weren’t included, she felt everything else matched. Jim agreed and reached out to Paul.

The book Holly read was CULLOTTA — The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster, and Government Witness. On page 130 of that book she found Cullotta’s account of what turned out to be the Ron Scharff murder. For Paul, who was a young boy in 1981, this was the first time he’d heard the story about Larry Neumann being his father’s killer. After talking with Jim Hager and reading the book himself, Paul is convinced Neumann was the man who took the lives of his father and Pat freeman. That acceptance has brought him a certain amount of closure.

But now he’d like the police to name Neumann —who died in prison in January 2007 — as the perpetrator and close out the cold case. He’d also like an explanation as to why the police seemingly never seriously went after Neumann all those years ago. Frank Cullotta and his former FBI handler Dennis Arnoldy, have agreed to assist Paul in his efforts if needed.

For the sake of Paul and his family, I hope he’s successful.   

On November 5 at 7 pm Central time, I’ll be doing a special edition of my Las Vegas and the Mob show on Blog Talk Radio. The topic will be a double murder that occurred in Lakemoor, Illinois, in 1981. My guests will be Paul Scharff, son of one of the victims, retired FBI agent Dennis Arnoldy, and former Chicago Outfit mobster Frank Cullotta. You can listen to the program live, or play it back later as a podcast, at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dennisngriffin.

Below is some background on the case.

Murder in Lakemoor

On the morning of June 2, 1981, two people were found shot to death in the living room of an apartment at the rear of the P.M. Pub, located at 238 West Rand Road in Lakemoor, Illinois. The victims were the tavern’s owner, 37-year-old Ronald Scharff , and barmaid Patricia Freeman, who had worked her first shift at the bar the previous evening. Lakemoor was a community of around 800 at the time, and is situated about 45 miles northwest of Chicago. These were the first reported homicides there since its incorporation in 1952.

Shortly after the killings, McHenry County Sheriff’s investigators had a couple of suspects in the slayings. Jim Hager — a friend of Ron Scharff — advised them that if they wanted to solve the murders they should look at  either Freeman’s boyfriend or a guy named Larry Neumann The latter was a McHenry County native then living in Las Vegas. Neumann, a burglar, robber, arsonist and all around tough guy, was working for Chicago Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro in Sin City. Neumann had previously been convicted of a 1956 triple murder in Illinois. And although he received a sentence of 125 years, he had miraculously been paroled after serving only about 16 years. Hager had thrown Neumann’s name into the mix because he had witnessed an altercation between Scharff and Neumann’s ex-wife in which Scharff threw the woman out of his bar. Hager felt that to a guy like Neumann, that incident could be construed to be a personal insult demanding redress.

It is unclear exactly what the police did with that information. But they reportedly put most of their focus on Freeman’s boyfriend, who had allegedly been seen across the street from the lounge on the night of the killings. The man was questioned and submitted to several lie detector tests, the results of which were inconclusive.

At any rate, no charges were filed and the case was still open the following year when what seemed like a major breakthrough with a Las Vegas connection took place. In May 1982, Tony Spilotro’s childhood friend and lieutenant flipped and became a government witness. Frank Cullotta — who had been running Spilotro’s  crew of thieves and killers known as the Hole in the Wall Gang prior to defecting — told the FBI agents and Las Vegas police who were debriefing him, that Neumann had killed two people in a McHenry County tavern the previous June. McHenry County authorities were notified and interviewed Cullotta at the federal lockup in San Diego.

Cullotta confirmed Hager’s suspicion of the motive for the murders. He stated that Neumann had received a call from his ex-wife regarding her altercation with Scharff. The killer had become enraged. He considered the incident to have been a sign of disrespect to him; and felt he had no choice but to return to Illinois and get revenge. Not long afterward Neumann said he was heading for Chicago. Another Cullotta associate named Tommy Amato went with him. Amato went along to share the driving and get out of Vegas for a while. He had no knowledge of Neumann’s plans for retribution. When Neumann returned to Vegas he admitted the murders to Cullotta.

In addition to Cullotta’s statement, a Las Vegas police detective provided details of an interview he did with Tommy Amato regarding the Scharff and Freeman murders. David Groover said Amato told him that he had driven Neumann from Chicago to Lakemoor in Neumann’s Thunderbird. Neumann told Amato to park near the pub and wait in the car for him. A few minutes later Amato heard two gunshots, followed seconds later by two more. Neumann returned to the car, and after driving around for a while threw the murder weapon into a lake. Although Amato later retracted his story, Groover memorialized Amato’s statement in a sworn affidavit.

Further information that seemingly corroborated the accounts of Cullotta and Amato was contained in McHenry County police records. The night after the killings, Tommy Amato was in a car operated by Neumann’s brother-in-law when it was stopped by a police patrol. Amato was detained briefly and then released. 

In spite of all this information, Neumann was not charged and the murders remained unsolved.

In 2008, 27 years after his father’s murder, Paul Scharff received a phone call from Jim Hager. He was told that Holly Hager — Jim’s daughter and Paul’s one-time babysitter — had read a book that she believed included a segment on Ron Scharff’s killing. Although the names of the victims and the specific location of the crimes weren’t included, she felt everything else matched. Jim agreed and reached out to Paul.

The book Holly read was CULLOTTA — The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster, and Government Witness. On page 130 of that book she found Cullotta’s account of what turned out to be the Ron Scharff murder. For Paul, who was a young boy in 1981, this was the first time he’d heard the story about Larry Neumann being his father’s killer. After talking with Jim Hager and reading the book himself, Paul is convinced Neumann was the man who took the lives of his father and Pat freeman. That acceptance has brought him a certain amount of closure.

But now he’d like the police to name Neumann —who died in prison in January 2007 — as the perpetrator and close out the cold case. He’d also like an explanation as to why the police seemingly never seriously went after Neumann all those years ago. Frank Cullotta and his former FBI handler Dennis Arnoldy, have agreed to assist Paul in his efforts if needed.

For the sake of Paul and his family, I hope he’s successful.   

From 1967 through 1982, Frank Rosenthal was a main player in the mob-controlled casinos of Las Vegas. He was the real power behind the Chicago Outfit’s front man Allen Glick, calling the shots from the Outfit’s headquarters at the Stardust Hotel & Casino. Rosenthal’s role in Sin City was dramatized in the 1995 movie Casino, in which actor Robert DeNiro played a character based on him. DeNiro’s co-star, Joe Pesci, portrayed Rosenthal’s buddy-turned-enemy, Chicago Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro.

Although Lefty died of natural causes at his Florida home on October 13, his life had nearly been claimed by violence on at least two occasions during his Vegas heyday. He knew about one of those instances for sure, and may or may not have been aware of the other.

I’ll talk about those incidents shortly. But I’ll begin with a little background on Mr. Rosenthal.

This is my first gig with him and I’m anticipating a fun time.

Denny

Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal was born in Chicago in 1929, the son of a produce wholesaler. However, his father’s business didn’t appeal to young Frank, who, as he grew up, became more interested in what was going on at racetracks and ballparks than in the price of oranges. His innate talent for sports wagering caught the attention of professionals, and at the age of 19 Frank was offered a job as a clerk with Bill Kaplan of the Angel-Kaplan Sports Service in Chicago.

Lefty developed his oddsmaking skills with the help of Kaplan and some illegal bookmakers, and he did so quickly. He was a natural when it came to formulating betting lines on sporting events. As the years passed, Rosenthal gained a reputation as one of the premier handicappers in the country, and a top earner for the Chicago Outfit’s illegal gambling operations. Lefty was on top of his game, but fame and fortune had their price.

In 1960, Rosenthal’s name appeared on a series of lists of known gamblers produced by the Chicago Crime Commission, and he decided it was time to get out of town. The following year Frank moved to Miami, hoping to keep a lower profile.

But his reputation and known affiliation with organized-crime had preceded him to Florida.  It wasn’t long before the numbers guru came to the attention of the Senate’s McClellan Committee on gambling and organized crime.

In 1961, Attorney General Robert Kennedy asked the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to look into illegal gambling activities. Lefty was called to testify before Senator McClellan’s committee. During his appearance, the bookmaker was less than candid, invoking the Fifth Amendment 37 times. A few months later, Rosenthal was among a large number of bookies and players arrested as part of an FBI crackdown on illegal gambling. The Miami police then got in on the act and were soon arresting the 32-year-old on a regular basis. The same cops who had initially turned a blind eye to his bookmaking activities were now putting on some big-time heat.

Things got worse for Rosenthal in 1962, when he was indicted for attempting to bribe a college basketball player. Although he maintained his innocence, he eventually pled no contest to the charges.

Despite his altercations with the law, Lefty persevered, and was still in Miami when his old buddy, Tony Spilotro, arrived in 1964. However, the FBI was keeping an eye on Rosenthal and the presence of Spilotro, a suspect in multiple murders in Chicago, only increased the gambler’s unwanted visibility and made his public life more difficult.

By 1966, Lefty had his fill of Miami and decided to move to a location where people in his line of work were treated with a little more respect. He settled on the booming gaming city in the desert, Las Vegas. Not long after his arrival in1967, he bought into the Rose Bowl Sports Book, later relocating on to the Strip and the mob-controlled Stardust. Lefty was moving up fast and his future looked bright. But in 1968, something happened that had a major impact on his life, and eventually the lives of several others. He fell in love.

Geri McGee moved from California to Las Vegas in the late 1950s. An attractive woman, she worked as a topless showgirl at the Tropicana and Dunes and as a cocktail waitress and hustler around the casinos. When Lefty met her it was love at first sight, at least on his part. He was in a hurry to tie the knot, but Geri had reservations about settling down. Her concerns faded when Lefty placed a hefty stash of cash and jewelry in a safe deposit box for her to keep if the marriage didn’t work out. The two were wed the following year.

Initially, everything went well for the newlyweds. Geri liked to spend money and her husband made plenty of it. But in 1970, Lefty was indicted again for bookmaking. This was the kind of thing that could jeopardize his eligibility to be licensed as a casino manager. His links to organized-crime figures posed a similar threat, since the Nevada Gaming Control Board was likely to deny licensing upon learning of such relationships.

Consequently, in 1971, as Lefty ascended to a manager’s position at the Stardust and struggled to keep his nose clean, it came as an unwelcome shock when his lifelong pal, the increasingly notorious Chicago gangster Tony Spilotro, moved into town.

Spilotro’s function in Vegas was to serve as Rosenthal’s muscle should anyone threaten the mob’s casino interests, including the lucrative cash-skimming operations that provided millions of dollars to the crime bosses. However, Tony was an ambitious guy and wasn’t satisfied to just hang around until Lefty needed his help. In short order he became involved in street crimes ranging from loansharking, robbery, burglary, and arson for hire, to murder.

As Tony’s power grew, he brought in other heavies to give him a hand. One of those was Frank Cullotta, an accomplished thief, arsonist and killer, from Chicago. Cullotta assembled a crew of crooks and murderers that became known as the Hole in the Wall Gang. Tony and his boys ruled the Las Vegas underworld.

As Tony’s influence expanded, so did his ego. He wanted even more power and sought Rosenthal’s support; but the bookie refused. That was a sure way to get on Spilotro’s bad side. And a rift developed between the two men. The situation became even more complicated when Tony began having an affair with Lefty’s wife, Geri. As time passed, Tony came to despise Lefty.

And Rosenthal was having other problems as well. He was locked in a battle with the Nevada Gaming Control Board over obtaining a gaming license. The Board was aware of his associations with organized crime figures—including Spilotro—and didn’t want to grant him a license. Lefty tried to bypass the licensing requirements by using various job titles, such as the Director of Food & Beverage and Entertainment Director. Those moves bought him some time, but would eventually be unsuccessful and end his career as one of the most powerful casino men in Las Vegas.

While this was going on, the relationship between Tony and Lefty deteriorated to a critical point. Tony told Cullotta that if not for Rosenthal’s standing with the mob bosses he’d “whack the Jew bastard.” However, as Lefty’s problems with the gaming regulators increased, his value to the Outfit decreased. Tony became more serious about getting rid of Lefty and began preparations.

Frank Cullotta recalls the conversation in which Tony informed him that he might want Rosenthal hit:

“I’ve got a job I might need to have done,” Tony said. “I want you to prepare for it. Make sure Larry [gang member Larry Neumann] is ready to go and get one other guy. Who else can you get?”

“What’s the job?”

“I might want to get rid of the Jew [Rosenthal].”

“For something like that, I can have Wayne [gang associate and killer Wayne Matecki] come in from Chicago.”

“I’m not sure right now I want to do this, so don’t do anything until I tell you. I’m going to bring in a couple of other guys, one from California and the other from Arizona. They’re going to dig a big hole in the desert. They’ll cover it with plywood and dirt. You’ll know where the hole is, because I’ll take you there and show you. When I’m ready to get rid of the Jew, I’ll tell you. Then you scoop him up from the street. Don’t kill him on the street, Frankie. Kill him when you get to the grave we’re going to dig. Then dump him in and cover him up. That will be the end of that.”

For reasons unknown to Cullotta, Tony never gave the final order. Lefty knew Spilotro detested him and was capable of killing him. But it is doubtful that he knew his erstwhile friend had actually set a plan in motion.

However, Lefty had a near death experience that he was painfully aware of on October 4, 1982, when he left Tony Roma’s restaurant on East Sahara. He got into his Cadillac and turned the key in the ignition. In the past, this action had always resulted in the Caddy’s engine coming to life and settling into a smooth purr. Things were a bit different this time, though. A charge of C-4 explosive had been placed under the trunk next to the gas tank and wired to the ignition. When Lefty turned the key the bomb ignited. Had he been in any other car, the gambler would no doubt have been killed instantly. But the Caddy was built with a steel plate under the driver’s seat as standard equipment. The steel barrier diverted the blast toward the passenger side of the vehicle and gave Lefty a chance to jump out of the car before the interior became fully engulfed. The gas tank exploded seconds later, sending the car’s roof 60 feet into the air. The lucky Lefty escaped the inferno with only some singed clothes and minor injuries. He was alive, but someone had sent a strong message.

Who was responsible for the attempt on Lefty’s life? The theories vary. Those who believe Tony Spilotro was behind the incident admit that the Tony wasn’t known for using explosives. But they argue that he had motive and could have brought in an outside expert to handle the bombing. Others think the Chicago bosses, with pressure from their Kansas City colleagues, ordered the hit because they felt Lefty might turn on them and begin cooperating with the authorities. Those who support this idea point out that car bombings were common in assassinations by mob families throughout the Midwest. 

Others attribute the bombing to Geri Rosenthal’s biker-gang and drug friends in California. Their rationale is that Geri—who had fled to California after cleaning out the safety deposit boxes loaded with cash and jewelry—was rapidly going through the loot she’d left Las Vegas with. Her new associates no doubt believed she stood to gain a windfall from Lefty’s estate should he suffer a premature demise. In that case, the free-spending Geri would be able to support their bad habits for the foreseeable future. Therefore, it made sense that these unsavory characters would attempt to knock Lefty off.

Not long after the bombing, the gambler departed Las Vegas for California, and eventually Florida. Like so many of the killings and attempted killings in the realm of the mobsters, no one was ever charged in the attack.

The late Lefty Rosenthal has been described by many who dealt with him as having been extremely egotistical with an abrasive personality. He was not a very nice guy, according to them. With his passing, another chapter of Vegas history comes to a close.

From 1967 through 1982, Frank Rosenthal was a main player in the mob-controlled casinos of Las Vegas. He was the real power behind the Chicago Outfit’s front man Allen Glick, calling the shots from the Outfit’s headquarters at the Stardust Hotel & Casino. Rosenthal’s role in Sin City was dramatized in the 1995 movie Casino, in which actor Robert DeNiro played a character based on him. DeNiro’s co-star, Joe Pesci, portrayed Rosenthal’s buddy-turned-enemy, Chicago Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro.

Although Lefty died of natural causes at his Florida home on October 13, his life had nearly been claimed by violence on at least two occasions during his Vegas heyday. He knew about one of those instances for sure, and may or may not have been aware of the other.

I’ll talk about those incidents shortly. But I’ll begin with a little background on Mr. Rosenthal.

This is my first gig with him and I’m anticipating a fun time.

Denny

Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal was born in Chicago in 1929, the son of a produce wholesaler. However, his father’s business didn’t appeal to young Frank, who, as he grew up, became more interested in what was going on at racetracks and ballparks than in the price of oranges. His innate talent for sports wagering caught the attention of professionals, and at the age of 19 Frank was offered a job as a clerk with Bill Kaplan of the Angel-Kaplan Sports Service in Chicago.

Lefty developed his oddsmaking skills with the help of Kaplan and some illegal bookmakers, and he did so quickly. He was a natural when it came to formulating betting lines on sporting events. As the years passed, Rosenthal gained a reputation as one of the premier handicappers in the country, and a top earner for the Chicago Outfit’s illegal gambling operations. Lefty was on top of his game, but fame and fortune had their price.

In 1960, Rosenthal’s name appeared on a series of lists of known gamblers produced by the Chicago Crime Commission, and he decided it was time to get out of town. The following year Frank moved to Miami, hoping to keep a lower profile.

But his reputation and known affiliation with organized-crime had preceded him to Florida.  It wasn’t long before the numbers guru came to the attention of the Senate’s McClellan Committee on gambling and organized crime.

In 1961, Attorney General Robert Kennedy asked the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to look into illegal gambling activities. Lefty was called to testify before Senator McClellan’s committee. During his appearance, the bookmaker was less than candid, invoking the Fifth Amendment 37 times. A few months later, Rosenthal was among a large number of bookies and players arrested as part of an FBI crackdown on illegal gambling. The Miami police then got in on the act and were soon arresting the 32-year-old on a regular basis. The same cops who had initially turned a blind eye to his bookmaking activities were now putting on some big-time heat.

Things got worse for Rosenthal in 1962, when he was indicted for attempting to bribe a college basketball player. Although he maintained his innocence, he eventually pled no contest to the charges.

Despite his altercations with the law, Lefty persevered, and was still in Miami when his old buddy, Tony Spilotro, arrived in 1964. However, the FBI was keeping an eye on Rosenthal and the presence of Spilotro, a suspect in multiple murders in Chicago, only increased the gambler’s unwanted visibility and made his public life more difficult.

By 1966, Lefty had his fill of Miami and decided to move to a location where people in his line of work were treated with a little more respect. He settled on the booming gaming city in the desert, Las Vegas. Not long after his arrival in1967, he bought into the Rose Bowl Sports Book, later relocating on to the Strip and the mob-controlled Stardust. Lefty was moving up fast and his future looked bright. But in 1968, something happened that had a major impact on his life, and eventually the lives of several others. He fell in love.

Geri McGee moved from California to Las Vegas in the late 1950s. An attractive woman, she worked as a topless showgirl at the Tropicana and Dunes and as a cocktail waitress and hustler around the casinos. When Lefty met her it was love at first sight, at least on his part. He was in a hurry to tie the knot, but Geri had reservations about settling down. Her concerns faded when Lefty placed a hefty stash of cash and jewelry in a safe deposit box for her to keep if the marriage didn’t work out. The two were wed the following year.

Initially, everything went well for the newlyweds. Geri liked to spend money and her husband made plenty of it. But in 1970, Lefty was indicted again for bookmaking. This was the kind of thing that could jeopardize his eligibility to be licensed as a casino manager. His links to organized-crime figures posed a similar threat, since the Nevada Gaming Control Board was likely to deny licensing upon learning of such relationships.

Consequently, in 1971, as Lefty ascended to a manager’s position at the Stardust and struggled to keep his nose clean, it came as an unwelcome shock when his lifelong pal, the increasingly notorious Chicago gangster Tony Spilotro, moved into town.

Spilotro’s function in Vegas was to serve as Rosenthal’s muscle should anyone threaten the mob’s casino interests, including the lucrative cash-skimming operations that provided millions of dollars to the crime bosses. However, Tony was an ambitious guy and wasn’t satisfied to just hang around until Lefty needed his help. In short order he became involved in street crimes ranging from loansharking, robbery, burglary, and arson for hire, to murder.

As Tony’s power grew, he brought in other heavies to give him a hand. One of those was Frank Cullotta, an accomplished thief, arsonist and killer, from Chicago. Cullotta assembled a crew of crooks and murderers that became known as the Hole in the Wall Gang. Tony and his boys ruled the Las Vegas underworld.

As Tony’s influence expanded, so did his ego. He wanted even more power and sought Rosenthal’s support; but the bookie refused. That was a sure way to get on Spilotro’s bad side. And a rift developed between the two men. The situation became even more complicated when Tony began having an affair with Lefty’s wife, Geri. As time passed, Tony came to despise Lefty.

And Rosenthal was having other problems as well. He was locked in a battle with the Nevada Gaming Control Board over obtaining a gaming license. The Board was aware of his associations with organized crime figures—including Spilotro—and didn’t want to grant him a license. Lefty tried to bypass the licensing requirements by using various job titles, such as the Director of Food & Beverage and Entertainment Director. Those moves bought him some time, but would eventually be unsuccessful and end his career as one of the most powerful casino men in Las Vegas.

While this was going on, the relationship between Tony and Lefty deteriorated to a critical point. Tony told Cullotta that if not for Rosenthal’s standing with the mob bosses he’d “whack the Jew bastard.” However, as Lefty’s problems with the gaming regulators increased, his value to the Outfit decreased. Tony became more serious about getting rid of Lefty and began preparations.

Frank Cullotta recalls the conversation in which Tony informed him that he might want Rosenthal hit:

“I’ve got a job I might need to have done,” Tony said. “I want you to prepare for it. Make sure Larry [gang member Larry Neumann] is ready to go and get one other guy. Who else can you get?”

“What’s the job?”

“I might want to get rid of the Jew [Rosenthal].”

“For something like that, I can have Wayne [gang associate and killer Wayne Matecki] come in from Chicago.”

“I’m not sure right now I want to do this, so don’t do anything until I tell you. I’m going to bring in a couple of other guys, one from California and the other from Arizona. They’re going to dig a big hole in the desert. They’ll cover it with plywood and dirt. You’ll know where the hole is, because I’ll take you there and show you. When I’m ready to get rid of the Jew, I’ll tell you. Then you scoop him up from the street. Don’t kill him on the street, Frankie. Kill him when you get to the grave we’re going to dig. Then dump him in and cover him up. That will be the end of that.”

For reasons unknown to Cullotta, Tony never gave the final order. Lefty knew Spilotro detested him and was capable of killing him. But it is doubtful that he knew his erstwhile friend had actually set a plan in motion.

However, Lefty had a near death experience that he was painfully aware of on October 4, 1982, when he left Tony Roma’s restaurant on East Sahara. He got into his Cadillac and turned the key in the ignition. In the past, this action had always resulted in the Caddy’s engine coming to life and settling into a smooth purr. Things were a bit different this time, though. A charge of C-4 explosive had been placed under the trunk next to the gas tank and wired to the ignition. When Lefty turned the key the bomb ignited. Had he been in any other car, the gambler would no doubt have been killed instantly. But the Caddy was built with a steel plate under the driver’s seat as standard equipment. The steel barrier diverted the blast toward the passenger side of the vehicle and gave Lefty a chance to jump out of the car before the interior became fully engulfed. The gas tank exploded seconds later, sending the car’s roof 60 feet into the air. The lucky Lefty escaped the inferno with only some singed clothes and minor injuries. He was alive, but someone had sent a strong message.

Who was responsible for the attempt on Lefty’s life? The theories vary. Those who believe Tony Spilotro was behind the incident admit that the Tony wasn’t known for using explosives. But they argue that he had motive and could have brought in an outside expert to handle the bombing. Others think the Chicago bosses, with pressure from their Kansas City colleagues, ordered the hit because they felt Lefty might turn on them and begin cooperating with the authorities. Those who support this idea point out that car bombings were common in assassinations by mob families throughout the Midwest. 

Others attribute the bombing to Geri Rosenthal’s biker-gang and drug friends in California. Their rationale is that Geri—who had fled to California after cleaning out the safety deposit boxes loaded with cash and jewelry—was rapidly going through the loot she’d left Las Vegas with. Her new associates no doubt believed she stood to gain a windfall from Lefty’s estate should he suffer a premature demise. In that case, the free-spending Geri would be able to support their bad habits for the foreseeable future. Therefore, it made sense that these unsavory characters would attempt to knock Lefty off.

Not long after the bombing, the gambler departed Las Vegas for California, and eventually Florida. Like so many of the killings and attempted killings in the realm of the mobsters, no one was ever charged in the attack.

The late Lefty Rosenthal has been described by many who dealt with him as having been extremely egotistical with an abrasive personality. He was not a very nice guy, according to them. With his passing, another chapter of Vegas history comes to a close.

Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal has gone the way of many of his former friends and associates. With his passing he’s joined deceased Chicago Outfit figures such as Tony Spilotro, Joey Aiuppa, and Joe Feriola. Even his former Las Vegas headquarters – the Stardust – is no longer with us, imploded last year to make room for something bigger and better.

As far as is known, whatever secrets Lefty knew about the mob will go to his grave with him.

There were some very dangerous organized crime figures plying their trade in Las Vegas during the late 1970s and early ‘80s. Tony Spilotro and Frank Cullotta were among them. But one of their associates, although not as well known, may have been the most dangerous of them all. His name was Larry Neumann. Like Spilotro and Cullotta, Neumann was a native of the Chicago area. He was a burglar, robber, and arsonist; but his forte was murder. Larry Neumann loved to kill people.

Nicknamed “Lurch” because of his physical build, Neumann’s story is far different from the many young men forced into lives of crime due to economic hardship. On the contrary, Larry’s family was actually quite well off. In fact, when his father passed away he left his son a trust that produced a substantial monthly income. No, Larry Neumann wasn’t a criminal out of necessity. He robbed and killed because he liked it.

Larry’s first three known murders took place in single incident in Chicago in 1956. On that occasion he used a shotgun to kill the bartender and a waitress in a Chicago tavern. As he left the bar he encountered a young man delivering newspapers and killed him too. The local papers reported that the slayings inside the bar were the result of a dispute in which Neumann thought he had been short-changed in the amount of $2. After the dispute he left the bar, returned with the shotgun and opened fire. The newspaper man was slain simply because he happened to be walking by. Lurch was convicted and sentenced to 125 years. For all practical purposes that should have been the end of Neumann’s criminal career. But incredibly, the killer was paroled after serving only about 11 years of his prison term.

While in Illinois’ Statesville penitentiary, Larry met Frank Cullotta when both men were working in the prison’s psychiatric ward. This unit was home to convicts that couldn’t be housed in general population. They included those with mental problems, stool pigeons, and baby rapists. Known as the “goon squad” by the other inmates, Larry and his co-workers did many of the things the guards didn’t like to do. They dispensed medications, monitored the ward as part of the suicide prevention program and—the most fun of all—rolled in on unruly prisoners and beat them into submission. After Frank was transferred to the federal facility in Terre Haute to finish that portion of his sentence, Larry received his miraculous parole.

Following his release from prison in 1974, Frank returned to Chicago where he and Larry reunited. The former cellmates partnered up on a couple of scores, but didn’t work together regularly. In 1979, Frank accepted Tony Spilotro’s invitation to move to Las Vegas. However, that move didn’t end his relationship with Neumann.

Upon arriving in Sin City, one of the assignments Spilotro gave Frank was to put together a crew of top-notch criminals to operate his street rackets and provide muscle as necessary. Although Larry still lived in Chicago, Frank figured he’d be a good man to have come into town for special jobs. Frank made his proposal and Neumann agreed to help him out as needed. And he said that if Frank had any good leads for robberies in Chicago, he and his partner Wayne Matecki would gladly do the job and give Frank a cut of the profits. A short time later Frank gave Larry a tip on a guy in Chicago who was a prime target for a stickup.

The score Frank turned Neumann and Matecki onto was the robbery of a jeweler. Frank had information that this individual likely had between a hundred-fifty and two-hundred thousand dollars worth of jewelry on hand at any given time.

Frank remembers the caper this way:

“The guy’s name was Bob Brown. He was a friend of Allen Dorfman, who was involved in arranging Teamster loans to the Outfit. It turned out that Wayne knew Brown and wouldn’t be able to do the robbery himself, but he thought he could enter the store under the pretext that he was looking to buy a ring. After he got inside Larry could come in and stick the place up. That seemed like a possibility that might work. Wayne and Larry pulled the robbery, but not exactly in the way we’d discussed.

“Thirty-six hours after the job Larry was at my door in Vegas; he was carrying an attaché case. I said things must have gone well. He said there had been a change in how the robbery went down. I asked him what he meant. He said, ‘I had to kill him.’

“He told me that it started with Wayne going in the store as planned. But it had been in the back of his mind that the Outfit might figure out that Wayne had been in on the robbery and come after him. Larry said, ‘When I got in the store I said fuck it. I put my gun down and grabbed a machete that was hanging on the wall. I started stabbing him and Wayne broke a vase over his head.’

“I couldn’t believe he turned a simple robbery into a murder. I told him he was nuts. I didn’t dare say too much, though. Larry was a very dangerous individual; he feared absolutely no one. If I pissed him off he was liable to kill me, too. Even Tony came to be afraid of him. I sold all the merchandise to a Jew in Las Vegas. By the time I paid all the overhead we got about twenty-five thousand each. It was hardly worth anyone’s life.

“Larry went back to Chicago right afterward. Within thirty days he moved to Las Vegas.”

Shortly after arriving in Vegas, Frank Cullotta and fellow burglar Leo Guardino used the proceeds from their first three scores to open a restaurant called the Upper Crust, located on Maryland Parkway at Flamingo Road. The eatery became a hangout for Frank’s crew and other Vegas wiseguys. The motivation for Neumann’s next two killings began with a phone call he received while at the bistro talking with Frank and Leo.

“One day Larry, Leo, and I were sitting in the Upper Crust when Larry got a phone call,” Cullotta remembered. “He went to the phone and when he came back he was violent. He said some guy had gotten in a beef with his ex-wife in a lounge back in Chicago and grabbed her by the throat. I said she wasn’t hurt and they weren’t married any more, so he shouldn’t get so upset. Larry said, ‘What he did was a sign of disrespect to me. I’ve got to go back and kill the bastard.’

“I told Larry he couldn’t do that; it wasn’t right. For the next hour and a half I talked to him about it, trying to convince him not to do anything. When we finished, I felt in my heart that I’d succeeded.

“About ten days later Larry said he had to go to Chicago. I asked him if he’d take this kid named Tommy along with him. I had something in the works that I was going to use Tommy as an alibi for. I figured if he was out of town there would be less chance that someone would connect us. And in case Larry still had bad intentions about that thing with his ex-wife, he probably wouldn’t do anything foolish with Tommy around.

“I got a call the next day telling me about a big killing in McHenry County. A guy and his girlfriend were shot in the head in a lounge. I called Tommy to find out what was going on, but he didn’t want to say anything on the phone. I told him to have Larry call me. When he called he said he’d be back in a week. In the meantime he was going to keep Tommy under wraps so nobody could talk with him.

“The following week Larry was back. I asked him if he’d killed those two people; he said he had. I told him I thought he’d promised me not to do it. He explained it this way: ‘I thought about what you said, but I couldn’t control myself. I found out the tavern this guy was in and went there; I left Tommy outside in the car. I asked the guy why he grabbed my ex-wife’s neck. I was getting more and more pissed off. I pulled my gun and shot him in the forehead. And then I shot the broad. The guy gurgled, so I shot them both again.’

“I told Larry that the girl was innocent and supposedly had a couple of kids. All he said to that was that the kids were probably better off now.”

Neumann’s homicidal tendencies weren’t lost on Tony Spilotro. According to Frank, Spilotro, considered by some to be the most dangerous man in Las Vegas at the time, once said of Neumann: “Jesus, don’t ever unleash that bastard on me, whatever you do.”    

In addition to these six known murders Neumann committed, he wanted to kill or participate in the killing of two more people. One was a member of Cullotta’s crew suspected of being a police informant. The other was the wife of a man who had made a deal with federal prosecutors to testify against Spilotro and Cullotta. Tony Spilotro nixed both hits. He wasn’t convinced the suspected informant was guilty; and he didn’t want to bring on the additional heat that would have resulted from killing the witness’ wife. The fearless Neumann wasn’t happy with Spilotro’s decisions and threatened to do the murders anyway; but Frank managed to talk him out of it.

When Cullotta flipped and became a government witness in 1982, he was required to testify against his former associates, including Larry Neumann. He remembers his court appearance regarding the murder of Chicago jeweler Bob Brown:

“As they were taking me to the courtroom we had to walk by two holding cells. Larry Neumann was in one of them. The cops ordered him to turn his back as I walked by. Larry said, ‘Fuck you, you cocksuckers! I know who you’ve got there.’ They told him again to turn his back; he said the same thing. He didn’t say anything to me directly, but when our eyes met I had the impression he was thinking, ‘What the fuck are you doing to me?’

Neumann was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He died behind bars of natural causes in January 2007. His unclaimed body was cremated at state expense.