August 12, 2025 • 60 mins
The True Story Behind The Hit Film 'Casino' From An ‘Enforcer’ Who Lived It
Tony Spilotro was the Mob’s man in Las Vegas. A feared enforcer, the bosses knew Tony would do whatever it took to protect their interests. The “Little Guy” built a criminal empire that was the envy of mobsters across the country, and his childhood pal, Frank Cullotta helped him do it. But Tony’s quest for power and lack of self-control with women cost the Mob its control of Vegas; and Tony paid for it with his life.
”I was a little nervous before my first meeting with former mobster Frank Cullotta. It turned out we had a pleasant conversation that ended with an agreement for me to write his book. As I drove home, I realized I had made a deal with a career thief and killer on a handshake. What was I thinking?”--Dennis N. Griffin, author of SURVIVING THE MOB
https://amzn.to/3Ja2OKd
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.
Tony Spilotro was the Mob’s man in Las Vegas. A feared enforcer, the bosses knew Tony would do whatever it took to protect their interests. The “Little Guy” built a criminal empire that was the envy of mobsters across the country, and his childhood pal, Frank Cullotta helped him do it. But Tony’s quest for power and lack of self-control with women cost the Mob its control of Vegas; and Tony paid for it with his life.
”I was a little nervous before my first meeting with former mobster Frank Cullotta. It turned out we had a pleasant conversation that ended with an agreement for me to write his book. As I drove home, I realized I had made a deal with a career thief and killer on a handshake. What was I thinking?”--Dennis N. Griffin, author of SURVIVING THE MOB
https://amzn.to/3Ja2OKd
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
It's the Opperman Report.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Join digital forensic Investigator in PI at Opperman for an
in depth discussion of conspiracy theories, strategy of New World
Order resistance, hi profile court cases in the news, and
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Speaker 1 (00:23):
It's the Opperman Report.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And now here is Investigator Ed Opperman.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Okay, welcome to the Opperman Report. I'm your host, Private
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along with Phoebe Sod also to got a brand new
(01:16):
sponsor just about to sign up I think he mailed
me to check her ready, so I'm gonna give him
a benefit of the doubt. It's Red we met, who's
an FBI in formant, wrote the book Nobody Cares and
What I did about it. A fascinating guy from the Chicago.
He might even know our guests today because he's got
a great show today, great show today. We have a
returning guest, Danny Griffin and Frank Colatta, a couple of
(01:40):
local guys from Vegas here, and they just wrote a
book about Frank's life, The Rise and Fall of a
Casino Mobster, The Tony Spilantro Story through a hit Man's Eyes.
Frank Claude is the guy you see in Casino. The
movie Casino is about him, and he's actually acted in
the movie Casino running around with a gun, shooting people Casino.
(02:00):
I'm not a character for Frank, but they ex picked
them for that part anyway. So our guests are Denny
Griffith Griffin and Frank Colatta. So Denny, are you.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
There, I'm here, ed, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Thank you for coming back, Thank you for coming back.
So you got the new book out? Tell us about yourself. Danny,
who is Denny Griffin.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Okay, I am in my second career. I retired as
a police officer an investigator back from New York State,
and I started writing in nineteen ninety four, and so
I've got a little over twenty years and now on
my second career and our latest my latest book came out,
(02:42):
which I wrote with Frank, And in fact, the paperback
came out yesterday and the kindle version came out two
days prior to that, so I'm quite excited about it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
In that book, you can find it on Amazon or
Wild Blue Press, and it's called The Rhymes and of
a Casino Mobster, The Tony Spilantra Story through a hit
Man's Eyes. So, Danny, how old are you now?
Speaker 4 (03:08):
I'm seventy one, seventy.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
One years old. Why you're humming along there? Man? How
many books you got written?
Speaker 5 (03:14):
No?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
No, really really good? How many books you wrote?
Speaker 4 (03:17):
This one just came out as number seventeen.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Seventeen books, seventy one. Look at that. That's gotta be lucky, right, Okay,
Frank Colotta, Frank Colotta, are you there, Frank you're wake?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah? Yeah, how you doing? I'm doing good?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Thanks for coming back on the show Man. We really
enjoyed you last time, but for the brief amount of
time we have to hold you onto the show. It's
kind of late at night, So tell us about yoursel.
Who is Frank Colotta.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Well, Frank Kalada now is a legitimate person, and I'm
retired from what I used to be. And what I
used to be was I was involved with organized crime.
I did everything criminal you could think of. I don't
want to go into it because we'd be talked to
her a whole hour. But I am now an author.
(04:02):
I've written them with Denny, three books, and I have
my own business out here in Las Vegas. I do
private tours and it's doing rather well. It's called Frank
Colados Casino Tours, and basically that's it.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Ed.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I'm getting these calls over I got a hiding my
other phone.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Well, Frank, how old are you now?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, I'm I'm a little older than Denny.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I'm like seventy eight, seventy eight, I think my dad's age. Yeah,
my dad's seventy seven. And you're still working. How are
you still working full time?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You know, when you stop working, you'd wind up sitting
home watching TV, growing old and Diane.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Now, these these private tours
you take, right, what do you show people on the
private tours?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I show them around. I show them where the movie
Casino was shot. I tell them the history of the movie.
I told them about movie stars that were in it,
the part I played. I show them murder spots, FBI
locations where they followed us around, where they put cameras
and transponders on cars. It's a two and a half
(05:15):
hour tour and I've gotten fifty nine reviews, five star
reviews from trip Advisor.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Okay, see, resident you pick up these tours, you take
them in your car on a private tour. How do
they know they're going to get out of that car?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Well, you know, they're a little hesitant at first before
they sign up for the tour because they heard my reputation.
And then after they read my reviews on trip Advisor,
they called. And when they called, they're still a little nervous.
But once they meet me, after being with me five
minutes in the car, everything is cool. They loved me.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yeah, because even Denny said he was a little nervous
about going into business with you.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
His wife was even more nervous. She ran out of
the back door when I came into front lower.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
So, you know, you know, Frank, the last time I
had you on the show. The next day I had
my daughter had a banquet for her basketball team, and
then later on that day I was I was hosting
the debate, the Sheriff's Debate. Everybody I talked to all
day long, from the basketball team to these guys running
for sheriff, to these people on the Newspeople, I said, yeah,
you know, I interviewed Frank Colatto last night. Every single
(06:28):
person said, yeah, I know Frank Colotta, like everybody knows
you well.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
You know. I hear that myself. People come up to
me and say, he I met so and so. He said,
he knows you. I don't know what they're talking about,
you know. So I have a lot of people that
claim they know me, and I only wish I know
all these people. I would be even much more famous.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah that's true. You get a dollar from each of them. Right,
If everyone who said they knew you bought your book,
it A'll be rich.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
They give me a dime, I'd be in good, yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
He man.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Okay, So if they want to book you on this
tour they're gonna call seven oh two six two two
eight five oh seven oh two six two two eight
five Oh you call it Frank Colotto, who's in the
movie Casino. This is the guy the movie's about, get
their private tour of all the spots. You can't beat that,
all right, gentlemen, tell me the Rise and Fall of
(07:23):
the Casino Mobster. What can we find in this.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Book, Well, you'll find things that actually warrant into my
our other two books written that I've written with Denny
about me. This is actually all about Tony splot show
things that people didn't know what he'd done on life,
(07:45):
or they were curious, or they assumed he'd done these things.
And I've revealed everything he's done. I've uh uh silent.
I think I silenced a lot of people on some
things they thought he'd down that were completely ridiculous. You know,
I set the records straight. In other words, I let
(08:06):
you know what type of guy he was. I didn't
uh completely slaughter him. I Todya's good parts and his
bad parts. Uh you know, it's it's I think it's
a very interesting book. And from what I just heard
a little while ago from Denny, it's gotten Uh, Denny
will tell you the reviews already. I mean it's they're
(08:28):
supposed to be great. So you know, when you write
a book, you never really think it's the great because
you're doing it. But then when you hear other people
telling you what they thought about it, then you know
you wrote a good book.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yeah, five star reviews on Amazon. Right now, What are
some of the things that the misconceptions about Tony Spilato,
things that people got wrong.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Well, you know, some of them, they accused him of
so many different murders and stuff. You know, they almost
it's like what they do with me. Also, you know,
they they think you got seven heads or eleven heads
on your shoulder, you know. And a lot of them
think he was very mean all the time what she
(09:12):
was and he was some most of the time. He
was very gracious people with his friends. He he was
just a roundabout guy. I don't forget he was a
street guy. So basically, I think I want to leave
the rest up to the people to read the book.
(09:34):
I really see what I said, you know, I don't
want to reveal all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Now, let me ask a question. How many murders was
he responsible for you that you could tell.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Us it's totally I think it was around thirteen or fourteen.
You know. I could talk all day you know about that,
you know, But like I said, it's all in the book.
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
At how about yourself? How how many murders you responsible for?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
None of your business? You're writing a book.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Let me ask you this, because you know you said
you're seventy eight years old, right, and you know you've
been out there, You've done a lot of things. Do
you ever, do you have regrets at all?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Well? You know now thinking back, of course, you know,
But at the time I didn't have any regrets. It
was I was a product of my I was a
product of my environment, you know, at that time. And
it was an exciting life and had its downfalls also.
But it wasn't the right thing to do. But did
(10:36):
I know any better? No, I didn't know any better.
This is the environment I came out of. Everybody I
hung with or grew up with was the same type
of person I wanted to be and became. But I
do I now, thinking back at it, none of it
was right, you know. But as I tell people on
(10:56):
my tour, they'll say, don't you, uh, you know, don't
you feel bad about things you've done? I tell them,
you know, like say such as murder, and I tell them,
you know, I put it like this to them. I
don't know how else to put it. I told them,
you know, I was like in the military. I'll say,
you know, the outfit was like a military. So you
(11:16):
get an order, you got to do it. If you
don't do it, you're gonna die. So you got to
follow orders in the military. If you don't shoot somebody,
they aw, what do they do? They put you in
a stockade or something, you know, and you're taking orders,
but they don't even know what they are killing. You know,
they're shooting bullets in the air and killing everybody. And
now a lot of people don't like the way I
(11:36):
put that and said, But my thought is I was
like involved with in a group of guys that ran
a big organization and we were all loyal to this
the bosses. So if they came to you and told
you they wanted you to do X, Y and Z,
you're going to do it because you figure they know
what they're talking about. You did not question them. They
(11:58):
wouldn't come to you to do something something if they
thought you would say no.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Now, guys, guys in the military, you know, they come
out they have PTSD. You know, do you ever have
any kind of experiences like that?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
No, I haven't. I don't know. I don't wake up
at night cold sweats and everything. I just I put
it off in my head. You know, you can't think
about that stuff. It'll drive you nuts. But I don't
have any thoughts afterwards.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Now, what about like your kids, your nephews, you know,
like that. They must look up to you and say, boy, man,
you know Uncle Frank. You know what he did. Man,
you know I want to do the same thing. Do
you smack him and tell him no, don't do it?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Or what? You know? My nephews and nieces and all
of them, you know, they're very good. They're very very
intelligent kids. And their environment was a lot different than
mine growing up. And so they respect and admire me
not for what I'd done. They expect and remire me
for what I've done now to myself, I've changed and
(13:00):
I have plenty of love and respect out of them,
my nephews and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Now, when you first got to Vegas, right, it was
like a small town the casinos were small. They were
small and friendly. Did you ever in your wildest dreams
I think it would turn into what it is today?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Not really, not really, I always Actually I wish, you know,
it was much better facing that they you know, they
talk about organized crime this and that. Well, listen, we
were robbing any people, you know, we were just taking
the money out of the casinos or muscling bookmakers and
(13:40):
so on, and we weren't bothering tourists. We more or
less took care of a lot of people in this
non working people, you know, like we had the culinary
reunion locked up, and we were able to put people
in jobs. You know, man, this wasn't for money. Everything
is a favor. You give me a favor, I give
(14:01):
you a favor. It's all about favors. So you don't
get that right now. You couldn't get a comp for
a cup of coffee and a casino.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Now, yeah, what do you think about this paying for
parking nonsense?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, they got a little crazy. They just raised their
prices again. I mean, pretty soon they're going to have
empty parking facilities. You know, it's it's gotten awful. You know, well,
they're not doing good nobody gambles. That's why the room
rates are. Hey, these kids do not gamble. They come
out of the party.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah. Now what about are there any still casinos or
places where you still hang out? Now?
Speaker 1 (14:39):
No, I don't. I don't like to go on the
strip or going to casinos myself. Yeah, because there's too
much walking involved, right you know, I mean, come on,
they're like walking. I'm not a I'm walking blocks now,
I ain't walking miles no more. You understand what I'm saying.
I'm older. Yeah, I just can't handle all that walking.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Here, you man, it's crazy right from from the parking
lot to just to get inside.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
By the time I get there.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
I know, where's the fun in that?
Speaker 1 (15:09):
You know? I have to sit down on a fifteen
spots before where I'm going.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
There's no place to sitting there to give me even
a chair. Let me ask the question, Danny, are you there?
Speaker 4 (15:19):
I'm here now.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
When you got started on this book with Frank, what
was the stuff that surprised you the most?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (15:29):
I think in the as Frank mentioned, the earlier books
I wrote with Frank were pretty much his story. I mean,
Tony was part of it. Because Tony was part of
the deal. But we concentrated on Frank's slave, and I
didn't get into or we didn't get into Tony and
what Tony was really like Tony DeMay and Tony de
(15:49):
myth and uh, this book we did that. We we
concentrated on Tony and who and what he was. And
I learned quite a bit that I didn't know from
my previous research on Tony, such as I always thought
(16:11):
of Tony just as the Vegas guy, you know, Chicago
and then Las Vegas. But when he was in Vegas,
he also had things going in California, especially southern California
and Arizona, so he his reach didn't end at the
Las Vegas city line. He was much more powerful than that.
(16:31):
He had more things going on than that. His realm was,
what's much larger than I thought. And like Frank mentioned
when you asked him about murders, I think we ended
up with fourteen. You read in most books about Tony,
you mentions of Tony that he was a suspect up
(16:52):
to twenty four murders. What we concentrated on were there
when I using the fourteen are murders that are definitely
attributed to Tony and Frank. You know, Frank did some
prison time when he wasn't with Tony or hanging with Tony.
(17:15):
Tony had his own deals going, especially starting out with
different crews in Chicago. And it's entirely possible that he
murdered more than fourteen. I mean, you know, who knows
what his total count might be. So we didn't want
to just speculate and you know, make make him a
murderer of thirty or forty people. So the fourteen figures
(17:38):
a solid figure from Frank's perspective. Were there more, I
wouldn't be at all surprised what Tony probably did with
other gangs or when Frank wasn't around and so forth,
maybe maybe kill some more people. And Tony was I
think a great strategist actually if you want to call
(18:01):
him a businessman or the business might have been crime,
but he was very good at what he did.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
And what I think.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
The thing that's one of the things that stood out
for me was why with all he had going for
him with the Chicago people, with the outfit, why they
ended up killing him. And he had a couple of
weaknesses that really brought him down. Uh, he had a
(18:33):
lot going for him, but he had a couple of
chinks in his armor, and in the end, I think
that's what got him.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
And what were the big weaknesses drugs and women.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
Drugs, not that I'm aware of, women certainly was a
was a factor. He had a difficult time controlling himself
around women and he I think anybody who saw the
movie Casino know that to Peshi's character who's based on
(19:03):
Tony got involved with de Niro, who was Lefty Rosenthal's wife,
and that was all actually happened, and that was not
a good thing. And Tony had other women he was
involved with a well.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
His family and brother.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
What was that, Frank.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Something else really was the demise of Tony. And I
would say that there was his brother, the one that
he got murdered with.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Him, and what was his brother doing?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Well? His brother was his brother was a cocky individual,
showed no respect for people of authority, only because he
thought he had his brother with power on the back
of him, and that proved to proved to be the
(19:54):
wrong choice he made. So I think he got my
belief you'll see in the book. I think that had a
lot to do with Tony being murdered plus he wasn't
of any more value in Las Vegas, and everybody was
going to jail, and they may have thought he you know,
I mean there's a possibility that they thought he might
be getting a little weak. Don't forget this guy that
(20:17):
bypass you know, heart attacks. So he really didn't want
to go to jail, you know. So who knows what
the outcome would have been there if he had got killed.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Did you have any problems with the brother?
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Did I walk?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Did you have any problems with the brother?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Everybody had problems with the brother he was I had
a little bit of problems, but he was scared of
me because there's incidences with the kid. I straightened him out,
you know. And Tony didn't want any problems with me,
uh because he knew my capabilities and he knew how
honorable I was. Also, so I didn't go out of
(20:54):
my way to uh get involved with the brother. He
stood away from me, but I knew everything he was doing,
you know. He was just a cocky little pup, a
little cocky man. You know.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Now, Is it true when they killed Tony and his
brother that they were still alive? They buried him alive?
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Oh that's nonsense. They were when they went in the whole,
they were dead when they got buried. They were beating
the death. Tony died rather easily because he just had
open two weeks or three weeks before that, he had
open heart surgery, so it only took a couple of
punches in the chest and he choked the dead on
his blood. You know.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
What was your reaction when you found out about that?
They got it well.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
I was asked originally from the FBI. They called me.
I was in a motel room in Mobile, Alabama, and
they asked me, Uh, whe do I think Tony ran
off to him and his brother because they didn't show
up for a court area And I said, they didn't run,
they're dead. And he said, how do you know that?
And I said, as I know Tony wouldn't run. I
(22:02):
said'd rather get visits from his family than leave to
go to another country, because he always said, they'll get
you sooner or later, no matter where you run to.
And then when they located their bodies, they take them
back and told me how they were, how they were killed,
And you know I didn't I really didn't like that idea.
(22:25):
The two brothers were beating it done in front of
each other. Uh, that's shown, that was shown no respect
towards them to start with. And Uh, it just I
didn't like it. I mean, but I can understand why
they did that in that particular location. It wasn't done
(22:45):
in a cornfield, as I told him. I said, I
had have been done in a basement of some house
in a suburb, which I was right, And I even
told him the suburb, which I was right on, because
they couldn't shoot a gun in the residentidential area. You know,
he got to kill two pipy be shooting bullets everybody,
all the neighbors are there. There was in the daytime,
(23:06):
first near evening. I guess, so that I understand, But
I don't understand, you know, I just don't. I didn't
like the idea that I'm getting beaten duh like that,
And it got me a very upset.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
In the movie, did they portray you as being one
of the guys who turned on Tony and beat him
the death?
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yet there's a reason, Frank Vincent played me. There's a
reason for that. And then a lot of people don't
on it. And we tried to make that clear through
the movie because I was a consultant. I told him
that your enemy is not going to be the one
that's going to bring you to get killed. It's going
to be your best friend that's going to lead you
to the trap. You're not gonna go at an enemy,
(23:49):
You're gonna go with your best friend because you're gonna
think this problem could be straight now your best friend
knows what he's talking about. Or so they portrayed me
as because I was his best friend, that I was
the one who was part of the killing of it,
you know. So that's all that we're trying to lose.
Portray that a friend would do it. Now, bring it
(24:13):
to your slaughter, your demise, And that's what it was.
But people still don't understand. I don't even know if
you'll understand what I just said.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
I understand, I understand, But let me ask a question.
And in real life, who was it that brought him,
who lured him out to the spot? Well, I don't know,
you don't know.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I wasn't there.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
You weren't there. Now, out of everybody in this story,
you're the only one who's You're the last man standing, right, yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yuess?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
So how does that feel?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Pretty soon I might be in a wheelchair to where
where I'm going. But yeah, I'm still around.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
But how does it feel thought to be the last
guy out of all this?
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Well, you know, I often wonder why I'm still here myself. Yeah,
you know, but it's weird, you know, because everybody's dead
and I'm still alive, and I'm doing these tours. And
you have no idea how many people are so interested
in organized crime, how it was and Howard ran And
(25:14):
there's no hate. They just want to know more about history.
And I don't guess I'm telling them about it, you know,
I don't know. I'm the relayer. I'm delivering the message.
Sort of strange, but that's the way, that's the way
it appears to mayor. I mean, I don't know so now.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
So if I'm coming from a guy who ran this town,
you ran the place, Yeah, untouchable, right, no one, no
one think of no one better. And now you're you're
you're you're waning years. You know what are they called
your winter years? I guess right? Yeah, And you know
you're giving these tours and stuff like that, you're writing
(25:52):
a book. This is all great stuff, but still you're
not the king of the town. Anymore. Do you feel
like you lucked out? You made it, you survive this longer?
Do you feel like you got chipped and you should
be the king of the thing. You should be mayor.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
You know what, do you think some guy wanted to
put me up to run for mayor? I say, you
nuts me, me run for may and they said you'd
be a good mayor. I said, I ain't gonna run
for mayor. They said, alascrit dinter, why couldn't you. I
ain't gonna do that.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
But but me being.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Charge of the police department, Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Yeah, right, But do you think do you think like,
do you think you were a success? You think it
was successful living this loan, from making through it? Or
do you think, oh, man, I blew it. I could
have been I could have really ran this town.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
You know, no, I never, I really never thought that
because I always knew I never really wanted to be
a connected guy to the I never wanted to be
a boss in the outfit. Never. Okay, I got involved
with that when I moved out here. I always avoided that.
I worked for them doing things, don't get me wrong,
but I never had to answer to them. Uh to
(26:56):
do this and do that and do this. I'd like
to keep my own money when I made it. I
didn't want to be told high I could spend my money,
and by being on my own, I was able to
do that. But I still had to do things for
them when they called upon me. You know, I mean
every boss goes to jail, all right, except Riccardo. Tony
(27:20):
Ricara is the only boss that never went to jail.
Think about it. And I know who run the outfit
from nineteen sixty two to nineteen seventy two. It was
Rica even he was in jail, but Tony O Carl
never was in jail. So out of all them guys,
he's the only one that didn't get murdered or go
(27:42):
to jail.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
And what do you think that is? What do you
think that is?
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Maybe he was super lucky and super smart. You got
to have both of them things going for.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
You in the case I Whitey Bulger. Do you think
it's more it's more frequent that a lot of these
guys that reached a certain place in an organized crime
that they're like they're working with the fans and the cops.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Yeah, yeah, I do, Because I'll tell you some there
were things that I'd done that, only like I know
that only two other guys would know, and the cops
will find out not they find out, Well, maybe these
two other guys told somebody else they trusted, and they
got on the phone and called the cops, and they
(28:27):
were like involved with everybody. So I always believed there
was there was a rat within, you know. I called yeah,
as I tell Denny, and I told the world when
I talked to him wherever I'm at, I teld him.
There's a big difference between being an informant and a
government witness. I'm not an informant, nor was I ever
(28:52):
an informant. The witness just testifies the things that they'd done,
crimes there were involved them. They don't go out and
try to frame people or make up stories about people
or put wires on them. I mean they that's what
the informants do. They were wires, you know. I don't
believe in that. So there's a yeah, that's I think
(29:15):
that's actually part of the whole problem that brought unorganized
crime was informants. So when you had a test, we
had one again on us, and I knew the guy
was a rat. But Tony wouldn't listen to me.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Now, when you had to testify, did that cause problems?
Like did they put a contract out on you and say, okay,
you're out? You know, we worried I had.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
A contract out on me before I uh, before I uh,
right after I rolled, they put a contract down on
me for a half million dollars. I guess that wasn't
that important for half a million, but they talk about me.
Nobody's going to pay a million dollars to whack somebody,
let alone five hundred time. You know, that's all movies.
(30:04):
You don't get rewarded by money. You get rewarded by
ranking the outfit you know and the organization that you
belong to.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
So once you know that they want to kill you,
what kind of precautions do you take in your everyday life?
Speaker 4 (30:18):
No?
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Not, then.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
What do you mean precautions? You don't want to make
new friends. You only stay with the friends you got.
And you never trust really anybody, and that includes females.
A lot of guys get weak and wrong women and
they brag right, you know, and they shouldn't break you
should never even your wife is never supposed to know
what you're doing. If you're married to a solid woman.
She's not going to ask you. She's going to know
(30:42):
you're doing something wrong. But the last thing you want
to do is tell her what you're doing wrong, because
now you involved her. You know, they're your kids.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Whatever, And what about today? You have no concerns today
at all?
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Did do I have any friends.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
No concerns, any kind of concerns about people taking back?
Speaker 1 (31:00):
They're all they're all dead, they're all buried.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
There's only one guy that's still alive, and he was
he was the boss at the very end, but he's
dying to he's in prison, and from what I understand,
he doesn't have long to live. He has lung cancer.
He's in a wheelchair. I think he's about eighty five
or eighty six. And he would be the only guy.
But he don't have an army anymore to it. There's
no more there's no more crews. There's no more the
(31:26):
guys in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Speaking of Chicago, this guy read we mean, I had
him on the show a couple of times. You ever
heard of him?
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Well, met, Yeah, I don't know the guy.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
The guy.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
The guy was an informat. Yeah, yeah, I don't know
the guy, but I know I know the guys he was.
I think he was involved with Rocky in Phelies and
and uh he had he had these massage parlers. They're
dirty stories, and I think I think that's the guy.
I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he has some kind of porn business.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Yeah, yeah, I'm surprised you found a guy like that.
You know a lot of guys we were doing a
thing out there called Mobkin and it was hard getting
guys to get on this mob kind you know, guys
like me, remember, and we've got guys, but their all
phonies want to be gangsters.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Will Yeah, Red is still kind of in hiding.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
He sent me the check, you know, it's like a
money order in the mail that he doesn't want me
to know where he is. But he wrote a book
and he's been on the show at least once. I'm
going to have him back. I think he said he
kind of knew some of you guys from Chicago, who
I don't know if you mentioned your name personally.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
I didn't know him personally, but I know who you're
talking about.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Okay, yeah, yeah, he's trying to get into the mob Museum. Now,
you guys going to have an event coming up at
the mob Museum coming up.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Well, as then he said, we're gonna check. I always
do events there. They called me for speaking engagements solid time. Uh.
And of course you know they got my pictures all
over that place. A lot of people think I got
a piece of it. No, I don't. The club's cleared
the record. I don't get any any money from their
their money that they make there. I wish I did.
(33:07):
I wish I got one tenth of the Uh. I
just I get paid to do speaking engagements and stuff
like that. But as then he said, we're trying to
We're gonna work with the publisher, so just on this
new book, so we could do a big book signing
in there.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Yeah, that would seem like a no brainer, right.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Well yeah, but you know, I don't know this new
publisher is good. He's really good. So I can't they
know a lot more than me about that business.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yeah, yeah, no, wild Boo Boo Press. Yeh, we've had
him on before. Wile Blue Press is a good publisher.
Got you guys got lucky there. Let me ask a question. Now,
you's still friends with Uscin Goodman?
Speaker 5 (33:46):
You know?
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Uh, No, we never were friends. He was my attorney.
He'll never admit it because I gave him ten G
and of course you never filed taxes on it or
showed it on the record. But ask her. He's retired,
he's not the mayor ID nomore, and I think the
thing rascal. He doesn't look good when you see him
(34:06):
on TV and stuff. Now he looks awful. He looks awful.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Yeah, ever since his wife took over the office. Year,
ever since his wife took over the office. He looks
like he aged like twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Oh, he looks awful. He does. He looks awful. Watches
on a SOURAA. Yeah, must have all that alcohol in
his liver.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Yeah, what about you? Did you ever get involved in
that drinking too much?
Speaker 4 (34:31):
Like that?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Oh? Yeah, I'm not a I'm not a socialized or
like maybe one drink that would be my limit. And
it's not on a daily basis either, And I have
wine and maybe one wine and dinner and stuff like that.
I never Yeah, I didn't. I didn't like to drink.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
I just swing on TV recently with Jake Taffer. But
they were that show where they uh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
You know what they called me, And then I said, yeah,
I'll be on your show. And then the guy said,
the girl said, okay, will you be here tomorrow. I said,
wait a minute, I said, do you pay? She said,
well no, I sapill. Then you don't need me on
your show? She said no, no he need you. I said,
well I need some money. So then they came back
and offered me money, and then I didn't like it.
(35:23):
Then they offered me more money, and I did the show,
and I thought I was only going to be, you
know a little bit the wind ups. I was on
there for a good portion of the that hour that
they were on. Yeah, And I guess I'd done a
good job because I know a lot of my customers
that I take on my door tell me that they've
(35:44):
been to that place Champagnes they visited. See that place
used to be called UI's years ago, all right, and
that was an after hour joint that we used to
go in and Frank Sinachra and all the movie stars
used to go on there. And the reason why they
went there is because after their shows they didn't want
to be bothered by their fans signing autographs, so they'd
(36:07):
sneak off and they'd go to his place. Shoeies and
it's still there, but it's not called Champagnes.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
And then what about when you were in town one
of the things did you say? Hang on with Sinatra?
Speaker 1 (36:20):
I sat at the table a them. I talked to
him and stuff. They I think I was a lot
younger than him. And with Tony, and he was all right.
He just didn't like people. He didn't like people pestering him.
You know, he lost track too, like most movie stars,
that these people are the same ones that made you famous,
(36:40):
you know, but just comeback would be man, He said,
I got a piece of I'm out on this jack.
You know, he'd come over here to bottom and just
sign a napkin. You know, he'd run them out of her,
so you could understand that part. But yeah, I spoke
on him. He was all right.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
And what about people talking his organized crime connections? Was
it all just uh show? Or for real?
Speaker 1 (37:05):
That's true? Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's very true.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
What about Bob Mayhew?
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Oh, that's see. I go by passed by his house
when I do the tour, you know, to sound the
country club or a golf course. So I don't know nothing,
but I know who he is, but I don't have none.
That was what's his names? Guy?
Speaker 3 (37:32):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Okay, so no connections with Mayhew. What about Elvis when
Elvis was in town?
Speaker 1 (37:41):
No, no, I don't. I didn't know Elvis, and then
I was never into music. Everybody that I knew, oh
el was. I thought it was ridiculous. I'm not a
music guy.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Got in my car, so I didn't hear the rattles, you.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Know, sit in in those days. What was an average
day like for you? Wake up in the morning, what
do you do?
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Wake up probably in the afternoon, and you go meet
your friends. You might play cards bullshit, you go have
something to lunch, dinner. Then you might go out different nightclubs,
you know. Like I said, I didn't drink maybe one
drink and I got nursed that all night, and uh
(38:26):
maybe I would roads you know.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Did you get Did you have your own loan shark business?
You had to go run my collections?
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Yes, I did. I did it for one year. I
didn't like it. Okay, it's actually Sam Sam Vistefano. Tony
was working for him at the time, and Tony got
me involved putting some money out and I didn't want
to do it, but he convinced me, you know, that
Robin was going to have to end sooner or later
(38:56):
and I should do this, And I said, ny, I
tried it, and I didn't like hollering at people and
threatening their lives and their wives. And you know, it's
got to be sickening because people will tell you anything
to get money, and then they got all the good
intentions of paying you back, but they usually always come
up blame. Yeah, you know, because they're gambling. They don't
(39:17):
want their wives to know their gambling. They're hiding them
from check to check. Yeah. So I did it for
a year and then I just sold my thing out
to Tony.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Now, what about that? We have a gambler.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
I never was a gambler, a social gambler, you know,
but I never I played cards and Mike beg going
to a football pool and stuff like that. I played
the crafts out here in town for a while, but
I used the casino's money and I used to draw
(39:51):
markers because we had connections then, you know, and we'd
use their money to gamble and never pay them back.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Now, what about it? But your your main living though,
was the hole in the wall. Crew used to bust
in the wall, and these jewelry stores and the robber
right we.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Got labeled at when we got caught because of our
method of breaking in places. You know, we could shut
off alarms, but not always uh as the alarm back
in them days, the raised keys. They were usually on
the front door or wherever you were going in uh
industrial or residential, so sometimes you couldn't shut the alarm
(40:32):
off because you would be seen doing that picking a lock.
So then that we've decided to start going in the
backyard and going through the wall into the right into
the master bedroom because that's usually where all the jewelry
is at, or the money or whatever. They always people
just have a habit. And it wasn't actually it went
we're going robbing houses that we didn't know was in there.
(40:54):
We used to get information from insurance people. They used
to write the policies, would give them twenty percent. Oh really,
of course, you know, we didn't go in the house
to take TVs and radios. We went in there strictly
for jewelry and cash and for guns. We take the guns.
Speaker 3 (41:17):
When you went to a job like this, how would
you go dressed? Would you put on your liked work
clothes of course.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Yeah. When we were doing the movie, I told the
one guy they were making the hole in the wall
and he didn't want to wear a hat. I sput
a hat on your head. Oh, oh, I gotta be seen.
I want you know this is I'm doing the movie.
I sput a head on your head. No like that.
What's the matter for you? So Marty says, listen to them,
just so you put a had on.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Would you bring like a thermost to coffee and sandwiches
and stuff?
Speaker 1 (41:48):
No, only if we're gonna spend the now, we wouldn't
bring no fool with us. I've been in places for
a day working on opening, going your floors and uh
going into vaults where it took a whole day. So
you just starved the debt. You don't smoke, you don't
be you don't do nothing. DNA even bag, that's my
(42:10):
friend DNA.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Now, while you're in there, if you're working on a
safe all day long, are you nervous?
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Maybe the first hour because you're wondering if they heard it,
even if though you got the radio, the police calls
and you still don't know if if you are right
in there. But after an hour you just want to
get it over with and you don't even think about
being caught anymore.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Okay, what you know, you're out, you're doing stuff. Some
guy gets shot. Now you go home, you go to bed.
Are you Are you nervous when you're in bed that
night saying, but I just you know what happened? You know,
we don't know.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
No, no, I never affected me. You just get shot.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
So once it's over, you just forget about it. Once
it's over, you just forget about it.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Well, you have to, you unless you want to wind
up in a fucking sand asylum. You know.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
Now, what about the cops, the local cops? Did you
have them on the payroll? Had that work?
Speaker 1 (43:09):
All the cops are on a payroll? I'd say the
majority of them that pulled me over in Chicago, it
was you know, back then, fifty dollars one hundred dollars
was big money. You know, it was always fifty or
a hundred, and you didn't have to get locked up
for three four hours, and you give them them money. See,
anytime you get run in the station, they got a
(43:30):
book that goes down and booking and it goes on
your rest record, you know what I mean. So when
you go in front of a judge. He says, oh, this,
you've been pulled over, You've been locked up fifty sixty times.
Does that means you're active? That don't look too good,
you know when you go in front of a judge.
So this is how they build cases against you. So
you try to give the cop fifty dollars, a hundred
(43:50):
dollars not to run yet, And that's that's what they wanted. Actually,
So I had three sheets, rush sheets, three of them.
They had to go to three sheet each.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Was ever a time where they wouldn't take the money,
and it took it anyway.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
If somebody knew somebody that didn't take money, you know,
they see they were a good cop, bad cop, you
know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Right?
Speaker 3 (44:16):
And what about here in Vegas? Were you paying off
the comps here in Vegas?
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Nah? How comes the cowboys out there?
Speaker 3 (44:25):
What do you think about these cops here? They get
away with all these murders. They're shooting these unarmed people.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
You know, I don't know, you know, I'm not defending
them or talking bad about them, but you know they
got a rough job. How would you like a guy
standing in the front of you calling you all kinds
of frigging names and spinning in your face. You know.
But if I was one, I'd probably shooting everybody, you
know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
I guess you can say that too.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Respect, you know. I mean, listen, in my days, these
kids now, they don't know what shit is. I've been
beat up by cops, haven't hung out of windows, eleven
stories by cops, had cut of cattle, proms, used on me, everything, everything,
you know, And of course they were wrong and doing it,
and they hated their guts. But you know this, kids
(45:12):
they start they look for trouble. They start screaming at
him and hollering not on. And they got these phones
now you know, everybody's on, everybody's taping you. You know,
it's a crazy world we're living though.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
Yeah, it really is. It really is. And what's the
biggest change you've seen in your life?
Speaker 1 (45:30):
The biggest change? Yeah, the high tech technology that's out here.
You know, they're so far ahead when technology. If a
guy thought he could be a criminal, nowadays, he he's nuts.
This is Jill. You you can't unless you're do something
(45:50):
with the internet, you know, with it's like a waste.
Speaker 3 (45:55):
It's backing your day and it was a little cash,
you know, and you just had to worry about your telephone.
You know, tap in your phone lines. You can get
some scramblers or something, right, these have those scramblers back
in the eighties, right, I so tap?
Speaker 1 (46:05):
But I think I'm listening to your calls. They just
use traceable numbers in order to see you were contact.
And what now they could do it all already. Let's
say they do it all.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
All right? You know what, this might be good time
to you know what. We only got fifteen minutes left.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
Uh, a little bit. I'm tired of talking to you.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Okay, let Danny talk for a while. You take a rest. Hey,
do you still smoke?
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Frank smoke cigars?
Speaker 3 (46:32):
You smoke cigars? Okay, I used to smoke cigars. I quit.
I feel a lot better since I quit.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Boy, you don't them?
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Yeah, I know. But in the hell a little bit,
you know, and the nicotine and stuff like that, kind
of where has he done? I feel a lot better.
I'm a whole different story. But so, Danny, you were
talking about how there's some new unsolved murders in Chicago
that's coming out in his book. Yes, what do you
(47:00):
what can you tell?
Speaker 4 (47:01):
Us. Well, again, these were.
Speaker 5 (47:06):
Murders that a lot of them were Tony was did
or was involved in, and uh, Frank, Uh, Frank knew
who the other participants were. Uh, if Tony was a participant,
he knew who also was involved.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
And these these.
Speaker 5 (47:27):
Are old murders or gain Land murders, but they're still
on the books as as unsolid thmics. Sides and cleared
up some things where Tony was a suspect and uh,
Frank knows that Tony did not commit certain murders and
but knows who did. So we straightened us, I believe
(47:49):
Frank said earlier. He set the record straight. And another
thing he set the record straight on was, uh were
some of the things?
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (47:59):
For example, Well, there's a there was a.
Speaker 5 (48:02):
Book written by a former REFBEI agent who is now deceased,
but he said some things in there about Tony that.
Speaker 6 (48:09):
Uh weren't true, and uh like what well that uh
that Tony was that he challenged Tony to a fistfight
and Tony was afraid of him, and wouldn't.
Speaker 5 (48:24):
You know it, wouldn't go for it and so so on,
and uh that didn't happen Tony, So Frank straightened that out.
Another another book that's out there, a lady claims her
husband had Tony on his knees begging for his life,
and that is uh is phony. Also, so Frank addresses
(48:45):
that issue. And a book written by a former Chicago
cop who is now deceased. He claimed that he and
Tony were tight and that he was a crooked cop
and so forth, and that, uh, he took some liberties
with his book in describing his relationship with Tony.
Speaker 4 (49:06):
The other thing that I didn't.
Speaker 5 (49:11):
There's one book out now that says that when Tony
was and his brother Michael were murdered in nineteen eighty six,
they were on their way. They were awaiting a second
trial what was called the birth Is trial. It resulted
from the birth Is burglary, and that they had been
(49:34):
acquitted in Chicago and then we're going to be retried
in Las Vegas, and Tony and his brother were murdered
before the trial started.
Speaker 4 (49:46):
That book gets a lot of reads.
Speaker 5 (49:51):
Unfortunately, that most people know that in this country, if
you're acquitted at trial, well, there is no retrial once
once you've been trying to quit it, it's done. The
and the the trial that uh, this book refers to
the first birth. His trial took place in Las Vegas.
(50:13):
It did not take place in Chicago, so there were
some issues with the accuracy of that information.
Speaker 4 (50:20):
But we.
Speaker 5 (50:23):
I found out what really happened at that birth is trial,
and it was it was quite a quite a story.
And the former UH Justice Larry Lovett at the time,
he was a worked for as a federal prosecutor.
Speaker 4 (50:42):
He was handling the case for.
Speaker 5 (50:43):
The prosecution and UH and what that trial consisted of,
and what happened and UH and how it how it
ended up in a mistrial and so forth.
Speaker 4 (50:52):
So that that to me, as.
Speaker 5 (50:54):
UH somebody interested in the history of these things, was
very very interesting and a story I had never heard before.
So I was really thrilled about about getting into the
bottom of that, knowing what truly happened there. And again
some of the myths that were out there about Tony,
(51:14):
UH were able to straighten them out.
Speaker 4 (51:18):
And another thing that.
Speaker 5 (51:23):
Frank had a chance encounter with Tony Spilatro's wife within
the last couple of years, and we talked about that
in the book and how that you know, how that
encounter or that meeting came out. So there's a lot
of stuff that I wasn't aware of before that has
happened relatively recently in the case of Frank meeting Nancy
(51:49):
and all that stuff. To me, it was very interesting
and very enlightening.
Speaker 3 (51:54):
Was it a pleasant meeting or was it hostile?
Speaker 5 (51:58):
It turned out to be pleasant, I think. I think
Frank wasn't quite sure that started how it was going
to go.
Speaker 3 (52:07):
Now, these these murders, these unsolved, these cold cases in
Chicago where he names the real uh murderers.
Speaker 1 (52:15):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (52:15):
Have you reached down to the families or the local
detectives or anything like that to share your information and
just threw it in the.
Speaker 4 (52:20):
Book, just in the book, just in the book.
Speaker 3 (52:23):
So so you don't even know if they've read about
it yet or if they're even aware of this.
Speaker 4 (52:28):
No, I haven't heard from anybody.
Speaker 5 (52:29):
I assume that as the word gets out there, there
probably will be some some contact.
Speaker 3 (52:35):
Now, these uh, the actual murderers, are they still alive
or they're all gone?
Speaker 4 (52:42):
Most are gone?
Speaker 3 (52:43):
Most are gone. But there's a couple of guys who
may get charged. Aren't you worried that Frank might get
called into testify?
Speaker 4 (52:51):
H Frank isn't worried so I'm not.
Speaker 3 (52:54):
Frank, you're not you're not concerned that they might subpen
you to go down and testify in another case.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Uh, I'm not concerned.
Speaker 3 (53:05):
You're not concerned because you don't mind going Listen.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
I have done nothing wrong. I'm not concerned. If they
wanted to talk to me, I would be willing to
talk to them. I haven't withheld anything. Uh, I haven't
seen these you know, ex immerged being committed by myself
or was I involved in them? So I am. I
(53:30):
got a clear conscience.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
But even just the hassle. You want the hassle if
they want to fly you down or you gotta testify,
it's third time. You don't mind that? All right? Great, Okay,
that's a free trip, right, go back to the old
What about Chicago? You got any problems in Chicago? You
get along with everybody back there?
Speaker 1 (53:48):
Yeah, I have no problems back there. Okay, back there recently?
Speaker 3 (53:52):
Okay, so he's still traveling.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
Huh of course?
Speaker 3 (53:56):
Okay, all right, great man? And when how did it
go with the Splotch's wife?
Speaker 1 (54:02):
They went all right? You know, at first I thought
she might slap me, you know, she spotted me and
I turned around, and I looked at her. I said,
I think you got the wrong guy, and she says, no, no,
I know, I know your voice. So I didn't want
to make a scene out of it because we were
in a drug store. And I said, oh, yeah, I Nancy,
(54:25):
and she started crying and she kissed me on my
cheek and then she told me that Tony was right
there with her watching us, and I thought, oh, you know.
And then she says, he understands, you know, what happened
and this and that. And I try to help her
out financially, you know, because she's got nothing. Sort of sad,
(54:50):
you know, Yeah, that is sad.
Speaker 3 (54:55):
So she still lives here in the town.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
Yeah, you know, Tony I believe was the glue and
the foundation of that whole family. So, uh, you know,
it's sort of sad. You know. I felt bad. I
still feel bad for her. And then they lost their
adopted son, you know, he just passed away. So now
she has nobody but herself.
Speaker 3 (55:20):
What did he pass from?
Speaker 1 (55:22):
Well, it's in the book, you know, you can read
it in the book. I'm giving you the whole booker.
Nobody will buy the fucking thing.
Speaker 3 (55:28):
No, trust me, they'll buy the book, that people listen
to my show, they buy the books. They'll they'll buy
the book if it's a Yellow Pages. If I tell
them about the book, that people buy books for my show,
I promise you're gonna sell books. What about Tony's kids,
his other kids, how they turned out they're were doing well?
Or what other kids did well in the movie. Didn't
he have more than one kid?
Speaker 1 (55:49):
Oh? He only had one.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
Only had one kid and the kid passed. Okay, all right, okay,
so listen went down to the last couple of minutes. Guys,
anything you want to leave me with, fine.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
Then he's doing good. I'm relaxing.
Speaker 3 (56:04):
How about you, Danny, what do you want to leave
us with? Won't go down to the last couple of minutes.
Speaker 4 (56:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (56:09):
I just think, you know, for your listeners who are
organized crime fans and you know, perhaps saw the movie
Casino and want to get the full story and what
it was really like and what the real Tony Spilatro
and what really went on in Vegas, I recommend they
give give the new book to read. I think they
(56:30):
might learn some things. I think they'd enjoy it. And
I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity
to be back on your show and chat.
Speaker 3 (56:37):
With you anytime. Both of you guys are welcome back
anytime you promote.
Speaker 1 (56:42):
There's one guy that I mentioned, and Denny should just
say tell him the guy's name that they never knew
was it? Man? Sure, there's one guy that law enforcement
nobody who ever existed because he died the twenty six
and he uh put a few people in the hall,
(57:05):
you know, and uh he died at twenty six. He
was a friend of mine. I used to still with him,
and then he went to work with Tony. Tony took
all my guys from me. He seemed potential and you know,
the guys that were working for me, so he went
and he put them in the outfit. And the one
guy died at twenty six. So you'll read about his
(57:27):
name in the book. And I guess I even put
we put a picture of him in there, too, didn't we.
Speaker 3 (57:32):
Yes, All right, guys, great, if anybody wants to you know, listen,
you can get ahold of a. Uh. Frank Colta got
a private tour seven oh two six two two eight five. Oh,
you call him up and book a tour. And I
probably some of these books out of the trunk too.
You can't have any books to get in the trunk, Frank.
Speaker 1 (57:55):
You know I didn't that with all the other books.
You can't. This is a different publisher. Okay, it's gotta
be old on the street. Once the book's out there
three years, then I'm able to get them.
Speaker 3 (58:04):
You know, I got you, all right, guys, listen, guys,
thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
Man.
Speaker 3 (58:08):
Anytime you want to come back, you want to promote something,
whatever it is, you give me a call, put you
right on the air. Okay.
Speaker 1 (58:13):
And the check.
Speaker 3 (58:14):
Okay, let me a check. I want to cut these books.
Thank you. Danny, all right, you latter Frank by all right, Okay,
they had it, Denny Griffin and Frank Colotta. The real uh,
this was the real casino guy, man, the real guy.
And you listen, he says, because after I had him
(58:36):
on the show the next day, one of the women
I was telling him was an FBI agent. You know,
the people at the sheriff's thing, they were all, you know,
running for sheriff. So you know, these weren't guys just
making up stories. Everybody know. Everybody knows frankntown. It's the
most incredible thing. The guy's still hung by the balls
here in town. Unfortunately, we're gonna have to bleep out
(58:57):
some of those curse words or said it as don't.
If you like the show, please Oppermanreport dot com you
go there and become a member member section. Keep an
eye out on the Mob Museum too. They're gonna have
a book signing there. I think here's a piece Oppermanreport
(59:18):
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great new content constantly being updated in the member section.
You can't beat it for the value that you get.
Plus it supports what we have going on here on
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(59:42):
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(01:00:02):
but on it so it goes through a striper square
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so much, I'll talk to you soon.
It's the Opperman Report.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Join digital forensic Investigator in PI at Opperman for an
in depth discussion of conspiracy theories, strategy of New World
Order resistance, hi profile court cases in the news, and
interviews with expert guests and authors on these topics and more.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It's the Opperman Report.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And now here is Investigator Ed Opperman.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Okay, welcome to the Opperman Report. I'm your host, Private
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(01:16):
sponsor just about to sign up I think he mailed
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a benefit of the doubt. It's Red we met, who's
an FBI in formant, wrote the book Nobody Cares and
What I did about it. A fascinating guy from the Chicago.
He might even know our guests today because he's got
a great show today, great show today. We have a
returning guest, Danny Griffin and Frank Colatta, a couple of
(01:40):
local guys from Vegas here, and they just wrote a
book about Frank's life, The Rise and Fall of a
Casino Mobster, The Tony Spilantro Story through a hit Man's Eyes.
Frank Claude is the guy you see in Casino. The
movie Casino is about him, and he's actually acted in
the movie Casino running around with a gun, shooting people Casino.
(02:00):
I'm not a character for Frank, but they ex picked
them for that part anyway. So our guests are Denny
Griffith Griffin and Frank Colatta. So Denny, are you.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
There, I'm here, ed, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Thank you for coming back, Thank you for coming back.
So you got the new book out? Tell us about yourself. Danny,
who is Denny Griffin.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Okay, I am in my second career. I retired as
a police officer an investigator back from New York State,
and I started writing in nineteen ninety four, and so
I've got a little over twenty years and now on
my second career and our latest my latest book came out,
(02:42):
which I wrote with Frank, And in fact, the paperback
came out yesterday and the kindle version came out two
days prior to that, so I'm quite excited about it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
In that book, you can find it on Amazon or
Wild Blue Press, and it's called The Rhymes and of
a Casino Mobster, The Tony Spilantra Story through a hit
Man's Eyes. So, Danny, how old are you now?
Speaker 4 (03:08):
I'm seventy one, seventy.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
One years old. Why you're humming along there? Man? How
many books you got written?
Speaker 5 (03:14):
No?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
No, really really good? How many books you wrote?
Speaker 4 (03:17):
This one just came out as number seventeen.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Seventeen books, seventy one. Look at that. That's gotta be lucky, right, Okay,
Frank Colotta, Frank Colotta, are you there, Frank you're wake?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah? Yeah, how you doing? I'm doing good?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Thanks for coming back on the show Man. We really
enjoyed you last time, but for the brief amount of
time we have to hold you onto the show. It's
kind of late at night, So tell us about yoursel.
Who is Frank Colotta.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Well, Frank Kalada now is a legitimate person, and I'm
retired from what I used to be. And what I
used to be was I was involved with organized crime.
I did everything criminal you could think of. I don't
want to go into it because we'd be talked to
her a whole hour. But I am now an author.
(04:02):
I've written them with Denny, three books, and I have
my own business out here in Las Vegas. I do
private tours and it's doing rather well. It's called Frank
Colados Casino Tours, and basically that's it.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Ed.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I'm getting these calls over I got a hiding my
other phone.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Well, Frank, how old are you now?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well, I'm I'm a little older than Denny.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I'm like seventy eight, seventy eight, I think my dad's age. Yeah,
my dad's seventy seven. And you're still working. How are
you still working full time?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You know, when you stop working, you'd wind up sitting
home watching TV, growing old and Diane.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Now, these these private tours
you take, right, what do you show people on the
private tours?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I show them around. I show them where the movie
Casino was shot. I tell them the history of the movie.
I told them about movie stars that were in it,
the part I played. I show them murder spots, FBI
locations where they followed us around, where they put cameras
and transponders on cars. It's a two and a half
(05:15):
hour tour and I've gotten fifty nine reviews, five star
reviews from trip Advisor.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Okay, see, resident you pick up these tours, you take
them in your car on a private tour. How do
they know they're going to get out of that car?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Well, you know, they're a little hesitant at first before
they sign up for the tour because they heard my reputation.
And then after they read my reviews on trip Advisor,
they called. And when they called, they're still a little nervous.
But once they meet me, after being with me five
minutes in the car, everything is cool. They loved me.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yeah, because even Denny said he was a little nervous
about going into business with you.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
His wife was even more nervous. She ran out of
the back door when I came into front lower.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
So, you know, you know, Frank, the last time I
had you on the show. The next day I had
my daughter had a banquet for her basketball team, and
then later on that day I was I was hosting
the debate, the Sheriff's Debate. Everybody I talked to all
day long, from the basketball team to these guys running
for sheriff, to these people on the Newspeople, I said, yeah,
you know, I interviewed Frank Colatto last night. Every single
(06:28):
person said, yeah, I know Frank Colotta, like everybody knows
you well.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
You know. I hear that myself. People come up to
me and say, he I met so and so. He said,
he knows you. I don't know what they're talking about,
you know. So I have a lot of people that
claim they know me, and I only wish I know
all these people. I would be even much more famous.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah that's true. You get a dollar from each of them. Right,
If everyone who said they knew you bought your book,
it A'll be rich.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
They give me a dime, I'd be in good, yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
He man.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Okay, So if they want to book you on this
tour they're gonna call seven oh two six two two
eight five oh seven oh two six two two eight
five Oh you call it Frank Colotto, who's in the
movie Casino. This is the guy the movie's about, get
their private tour of all the spots. You can't beat that,
all right, gentlemen, tell me the Rise and Fall of
(07:23):
the Casino Mobster. What can we find in this.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Book, Well, you'll find things that actually warrant into my
our other two books written that I've written with Denny
about me. This is actually all about Tony splot show
things that people didn't know what he'd done on life,
(07:45):
or they were curious, or they assumed he'd done these things.
And I've revealed everything he's done. I've uh uh silent.
I think I silenced a lot of people on some
things they thought he'd down that were completely ridiculous. You know,
I set the records straight. In other words, I let
(08:06):
you know what type of guy he was. I didn't
uh completely slaughter him. I Todya's good parts and his
bad parts. Uh you know, it's it's I think it's
a very interesting book. And from what I just heard
a little while ago from Denny, it's gotten Uh, Denny
will tell you the reviews already. I mean it's they're
(08:28):
supposed to be great. So you know, when you write
a book, you never really think it's the great because
you're doing it. But then when you hear other people
telling you what they thought about it, then you know
you wrote a good book.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yeah, five star reviews on Amazon. Right now, What are
some of the things that the misconceptions about Tony Spilato,
things that people got wrong.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Well, you know, some of them, they accused him of
so many different murders and stuff. You know, they almost
it's like what they do with me. Also, you know,
they they think you got seven heads or eleven heads
on your shoulder, you know. And a lot of them
think he was very mean all the time what she
(09:12):
was and he was some most of the time. He
was very gracious people with his friends. He he was
just a roundabout guy. I don't forget he was a
street guy. So basically, I think I want to leave
the rest up to the people to read the book.
(09:34):
I really see what I said, you know, I don't
want to reveal all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Now, let me ask a question. How many murders was
he responsible for you that you could tell.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Us it's totally I think it was around thirteen or fourteen.
You know. I could talk all day you know about that,
you know, But like I said, it's all in the book.
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
At how about yourself? How how many murders you responsible for?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
None of your business? You're writing a book.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Let me ask you this, because you know you said
you're seventy eight years old, right, and you know you've
been out there, You've done a lot of things. Do
you ever, do you have regrets at all?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Well? You know now thinking back, of course, you know,
But at the time I didn't have any regrets. It
was I was a product of my I was a
product of my environment, you know, at that time. And
it was an exciting life and had its downfalls also.
But it wasn't the right thing to do. But did
(10:36):
I know any better? No, I didn't know any better.
This is the environment I came out of. Everybody I
hung with or grew up with was the same type
of person I wanted to be and became. But I
do I now, thinking back at it, none of it
was right, you know. But as I tell people on
(10:56):
my tour, they'll say, don't you, uh, you know, don't
you feel bad about things you've done? I tell them,
you know, like say such as murder, and I tell them,
you know, I put it like this to them. I
don't know how else to put it. I told them,
you know, I was like in the military. I'll say,
you know, the outfit was like a military. So you
(11:16):
get an order, you got to do it. If you
don't do it, you're gonna die. So you got to
follow orders in the military. If you don't shoot somebody,
they aw, what do they do? They put you in
a stockade or something, you know, and you're taking orders,
but they don't even know what they are killing. You know,
they're shooting bullets in the air and killing everybody. And
now a lot of people don't like the way I
(11:36):
put that and said, But my thought is I was
like involved with in a group of guys that ran
a big organization and we were all loyal to this
the bosses. So if they came to you and told
you they wanted you to do X, Y and Z,
you're going to do it because you figure they know
what they're talking about. You did not question them. They
(11:58):
wouldn't come to you to do something something if they
thought you would say no.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Now, guys, guys in the military, you know, they come
out they have PTSD. You know, do you ever have
any kind of experiences like that?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
No, I haven't. I don't know. I don't wake up
at night cold sweats and everything. I just I put
it off in my head. You know, you can't think
about that stuff. It'll drive you nuts. But I don't
have any thoughts afterwards.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Now, what about like your kids, your nephews, you know,
like that. They must look up to you and say, boy, man,
you know Uncle Frank. You know what he did. Man,
you know I want to do the same thing. Do
you smack him and tell him no, don't do it?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Or what? You know? My nephews and nieces and all
of them, you know, they're very good. They're very very
intelligent kids. And their environment was a lot different than
mine growing up. And so they respect and admire me
not for what I'd done. They expect and remire me
for what I've done now to myself, I've changed and
(13:00):
I have plenty of love and respect out of them,
my nephews and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Now, when you first got to Vegas, right, it was
like a small town the casinos were small. They were
small and friendly. Did you ever in your wildest dreams
I think it would turn into what it is today?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Not really, not really, I always Actually I wish, you know,
it was much better facing that they you know, they
talk about organized crime this and that. Well, listen, we
were robbing any people, you know, we were just taking
the money out of the casinos or muscling bookmakers and
(13:40):
so on, and we weren't bothering tourists. We more or
less took care of a lot of people in this
non working people, you know, like we had the culinary
reunion locked up, and we were able to put people
in jobs. You know, man, this wasn't for money. Everything
is a favor. You give me a favor, I give
(14:01):
you a favor. It's all about favors. So you don't
get that right now. You couldn't get a comp for
a cup of coffee and a casino.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Now, yeah, what do you think about this paying for
parking nonsense?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, they got a little crazy. They just raised their
prices again. I mean, pretty soon they're going to have
empty parking facilities. You know, it's it's gotten awful. You know, well,
they're not doing good nobody gambles. That's why the room
rates are. Hey, these kids do not gamble. They come
out of the party.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah. Now what about are there any still casinos or
places where you still hang out? Now?
Speaker 1 (14:39):
No, I don't. I don't like to go on the
strip or going to casinos myself. Yeah, because there's too
much walking involved, right you know, I mean, come on,
they're like walking. I'm not a I'm walking blocks now,
I ain't walking miles no more. You understand what I'm saying.
I'm older. Yeah, I just can't handle all that walking.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Here, you man, it's crazy right from from the parking
lot to just to get inside.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
By the time I get there.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
I know, where's the fun in that?
Speaker 1 (15:09):
You know? I have to sit down on a fifteen
spots before where I'm going.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
There's no place to sitting there to give me even
a chair. Let me ask the question, Danny, are you there?
Speaker 4 (15:19):
I'm here now.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
When you got started on this book with Frank, what
was the stuff that surprised you the most?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (15:29):
I think in the as Frank mentioned, the earlier books
I wrote with Frank were pretty much his story. I mean,
Tony was part of it. Because Tony was part of
the deal. But we concentrated on Frank's slave, and I
didn't get into or we didn't get into Tony and
what Tony was really like Tony DeMay and Tony de
(15:49):
myth and uh, this book we did that. We we
concentrated on Tony and who and what he was. And
I learned quite a bit that I didn't know from
my previous research on Tony, such as I always thought
(16:11):
of Tony just as the Vegas guy, you know, Chicago
and then Las Vegas. But when he was in Vegas,
he also had things going in California, especially southern California
and Arizona, so he his reach didn't end at the
Las Vegas city line. He was much more powerful than that.
(16:31):
He had more things going on than that. His realm was,
what's much larger than I thought. And like Frank mentioned
when you asked him about murders, I think we ended
up with fourteen. You read in most books about Tony,
you mentions of Tony that he was a suspect up
(16:52):
to twenty four murders. What we concentrated on were there
when I using the fourteen are murders that are definitely
attributed to Tony and Frank. You know, Frank did some
prison time when he wasn't with Tony or hanging with Tony.
(17:15):
Tony had his own deals going, especially starting out with
different crews in Chicago. And it's entirely possible that he
murdered more than fourteen. I mean, you know, who knows
what his total count might be. So we didn't want
to just speculate and you know, make make him a
murderer of thirty or forty people. So the fourteen figures
(17:38):
a solid figure from Frank's perspective. Were there more, I
wouldn't be at all surprised what Tony probably did with
other gangs or when Frank wasn't around and so forth,
maybe maybe kill some more people. And Tony was I
think a great strategist actually if you want to call
(18:01):
him a businessman or the business might have been crime,
but he was very good at what he did.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
And what I think.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
The thing that's one of the things that stood out
for me was why with all he had going for
him with the Chicago people, with the outfit, why they
ended up killing him. And he had a couple of
weaknesses that really brought him down. Uh, he had a
(18:33):
lot going for him, but he had a couple of
chinks in his armor, and in the end, I think
that's what got him.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
And what were the big weaknesses drugs and women.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
Drugs, not that I'm aware of, women certainly was a
was a factor. He had a difficult time controlling himself
around women and he I think anybody who saw the
movie Casino know that to Peshi's character who's based on
(19:03):
Tony got involved with de Niro, who was Lefty Rosenthal's wife,
and that was all actually happened, and that was not
a good thing. And Tony had other women he was
involved with a well.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
His family and brother.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
What was that, Frank.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Something else really was the demise of Tony. And I
would say that there was his brother, the one that
he got murdered with.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Him, and what was his brother doing?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Well? His brother was his brother was a cocky individual,
showed no respect for people of authority, only because he
thought he had his brother with power on the back
of him, and that proved to proved to be the
(19:54):
wrong choice he made. So I think he got my
belief you'll see in the book. I think that had a
lot to do with Tony being murdered plus he wasn't
of any more value in Las Vegas, and everybody was
going to jail, and they may have thought he you know,
I mean there's a possibility that they thought he might
be getting a little weak. Don't forget this guy that
(20:17):
bypass you know, heart attacks. So he really didn't want
to go to jail, you know. So who knows what
the outcome would have been there if he had got killed.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Did you have any problems with the brother?
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Did I walk?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Did you have any problems with the brother?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Everybody had problems with the brother he was I had
a little bit of problems, but he was scared of
me because there's incidences with the kid. I straightened him out,
you know. And Tony didn't want any problems with me,
uh because he knew my capabilities and he knew how
honorable I was. Also, so I didn't go out of
(20:54):
my way to uh get involved with the brother. He
stood away from me, but I knew everything he was doing,
you know. He was just a cocky little pup, a
little cocky man. You know.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Now, Is it true when they killed Tony and his
brother that they were still alive? They buried him alive?
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Oh that's nonsense. They were when they went in the whole,
they were dead when they got buried. They were beating
the death. Tony died rather easily because he just had
open two weeks or three weeks before that, he had
open heart surgery, so it only took a couple of
punches in the chest and he choked the dead on
his blood. You know.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
What was your reaction when you found out about that?
They got it well.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
I was asked originally from the FBI. They called me.
I was in a motel room in Mobile, Alabama, and
they asked me, Uh, whe do I think Tony ran
off to him and his brother because they didn't show
up for a court area And I said, they didn't run,
they're dead. And he said, how do you know that?
And I said, as I know Tony wouldn't run. I
(22:02):
said'd rather get visits from his family than leave to
go to another country, because he always said, they'll get
you sooner or later, no matter where you run to.
And then when they located their bodies, they take them
back and told me how they were, how they were killed,
And you know I didn't I really didn't like that idea.
(22:25):
The two brothers were beating it done in front of
each other. Uh, that's shown, that was shown no respect
towards them to start with. And Uh, it just I
didn't like it. I mean, but I can understand why
they did that in that particular location. It wasn't done
(22:45):
in a cornfield, as I told him. I said, I
had have been done in a basement of some house
in a suburb, which I was right, And I even
told him the suburb, which I was right on, because
they couldn't shoot a gun in the residentidential area. You know,
he got to kill two pipy be shooting bullets everybody,
all the neighbors are there. There was in the daytime,
(23:06):
first near evening. I guess, so that I understand, But
I don't understand, you know, I just don't. I didn't
like the idea that I'm getting beaten duh like that,
And it got me a very upset.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
In the movie, did they portray you as being one
of the guys who turned on Tony and beat him
the death?
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yet there's a reason, Frank Vincent played me. There's a
reason for that. And then a lot of people don't
on it. And we tried to make that clear through
the movie because I was a consultant. I told him
that your enemy is not going to be the one
that's going to bring you to get killed. It's going
to be your best friend that's going to lead you
to the trap. You're not gonna go at an enemy,
(23:49):
You're gonna go with your best friend because you're gonna
think this problem could be straight now your best friend
knows what he's talking about. Or so they portrayed me
as because I was his best friend, that I was
the one who was part of the killing of it,
you know. So that's all that we're trying to lose.
Portray that a friend would do it. Now, bring it
(24:13):
to your slaughter, your demise, And that's what it was.
But people still don't understand. I don't even know if
you'll understand what I just said.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
I understand, I understand, But let me ask a question.
And in real life, who was it that brought him,
who lured him out to the spot? Well, I don't know,
you don't know.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I wasn't there.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
You weren't there. Now, out of everybody in this story,
you're the only one who's You're the last man standing, right, yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yuess?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
So how does that feel?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Pretty soon I might be in a wheelchair to where
where I'm going. But yeah, I'm still around.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
But how does it feel thought to be the last
guy out of all this?
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Well, you know, I often wonder why I'm still here myself. Yeah,
you know, but it's weird, you know, because everybody's dead
and I'm still alive, and I'm doing these tours. And
you have no idea how many people are so interested
in organized crime, how it was and Howard ran And
(25:14):
there's no hate. They just want to know more about history.
And I don't guess I'm telling them about it, you know,
I don't know. I'm the relayer. I'm delivering the message.
Sort of strange, but that's the way, that's the way
it appears to mayor. I mean, I don't know so now.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
So if I'm coming from a guy who ran this town,
you ran the place, Yeah, untouchable, right, no one, no
one think of no one better. And now you're you're
you're you're waning years. You know what are they called
your winter years? I guess right? Yeah, And you know
you're giving these tours and stuff like that, you're writing
(25:52):
a book. This is all great stuff, but still you're
not the king of the town. Anymore. Do you feel
like you lucked out? You made it, you survive this longer?
Do you feel like you got chipped and you should
be the king of the thing. You should be mayor.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
You know what, do you think some guy wanted to
put me up to run for mayor? I say, you
nuts me, me run for may and they said you'd
be a good mayor. I said, I ain't gonna run
for mayor. They said, alascrit dinter, why couldn't you. I
ain't gonna do that.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
But but me being.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Charge of the police department, Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Yeah, right, But do you think do you think like,
do you think you were a success? You think it
was successful living this loan, from making through it? Or
do you think, oh, man, I blew it. I could
have been I could have really ran this town.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
You know, no, I never, I really never thought that
because I always knew I never really wanted to be
a connected guy to the I never wanted to be
a boss in the outfit. Never. Okay, I got involved
with that when I moved out here. I always avoided that.
I worked for them doing things, don't get me wrong,
but I never had to answer to them. Uh to
(26:56):
do this and do that and do this. I'd like
to keep my own money when I made it. I
didn't want to be told high I could spend my money,
and by being on my own, I was able to
do that. But I still had to do things for
them when they called upon me. You know, I mean
every boss goes to jail, all right, except Riccardo. Tony
(27:20):
Ricara is the only boss that never went to jail.
Think about it. And I know who run the outfit
from nineteen sixty two to nineteen seventy two. It was
Rica even he was in jail, but Tony O Carl
never was in jail. So out of all them guys,
he's the only one that didn't get murdered or go
(27:42):
to jail.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
And what do you think that is? What do you
think that is?
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Maybe he was super lucky and super smart. You got
to have both of them things going for.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
You in the case I Whitey Bulger. Do you think
it's more it's more frequent that a lot of these
guys that reached a certain place in an organized crime
that they're like they're working with the fans and the cops.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Yeah, yeah, I do, Because I'll tell you some there
were things that I'd done that, only like I know
that only two other guys would know, and the cops
will find out not they find out, Well, maybe these
two other guys told somebody else they trusted, and they
got on the phone and called the cops, and they
(28:27):
were like involved with everybody. So I always believed there
was there was a rat within, you know. I called yeah,
as I tell Denny, and I told the world when
I talked to him wherever I'm at, I teld him.
There's a big difference between being an informant and a
government witness. I'm not an informant, nor was I ever
(28:52):
an informant. The witness just testifies the things that they'd done,
crimes there were involved them. They don't go out and
try to frame people or make up stories about people
or put wires on them. I mean they that's what
the informants do. They were wires, you know. I don't
believe in that. So there's a yeah, that's I think
(29:15):
that's actually part of the whole problem that brought unorganized
crime was informants. So when you had a test, we
had one again on us, and I knew the guy
was a rat. But Tony wouldn't listen to me.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Now, when you had to testify, did that cause problems?
Like did they put a contract out on you and say, okay,
you're out? You know, we worried I had.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
A contract out on me before I uh, before I uh,
right after I rolled, they put a contract down on
me for a half million dollars. I guess that wasn't
that important for half a million, but they talk about me.
Nobody's going to pay a million dollars to whack somebody,
let alone five hundred time. You know, that's all movies.
(30:04):
You don't get rewarded by money. You get rewarded by
ranking the outfit you know and the organization that you
belong to.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
So once you know that they want to kill you,
what kind of precautions do you take in your everyday life?
Speaker 4 (30:18):
No?
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Not, then.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
What do you mean precautions? You don't want to make
new friends. You only stay with the friends you got.
And you never trust really anybody, and that includes females.
A lot of guys get weak and wrong women and
they brag right, you know, and they shouldn't break you
should never even your wife is never supposed to know
what you're doing. If you're married to a solid woman.
She's not going to ask you. She's going to know
(30:42):
you're doing something wrong. But the last thing you want
to do is tell her what you're doing wrong, because
now you involved her. You know, they're your kids.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Whatever, And what about today? You have no concerns today
at all?
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Did do I have any friends.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
No concerns, any kind of concerns about people taking back?
Speaker 1 (31:00):
They're all they're all dead, they're all buried.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
There's only one guy that's still alive, and he was
he was the boss at the very end, but he's
dying to he's in prison, and from what I understand,
he doesn't have long to live. He has lung cancer.
He's in a wheelchair. I think he's about eighty five
or eighty six. And he would be the only guy.
But he don't have an army anymore to it. There's
no more there's no more crews. There's no more the
(31:26):
guys in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Speaking of Chicago, this guy read we mean, I had
him on the show a couple of times. You ever
heard of him?
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Well, met, Yeah, I don't know the guy.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
The guy.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
The guy was an informat. Yeah, yeah, I don't know
the guy, but I know I know the guys he was.
I think he was involved with Rocky in Phelies and
and uh he had he had these massage parlers. They're
dirty stories, and I think I think that's the guy.
I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he has some kind of porn business.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Yeah, yeah, I'm surprised you found a guy like that.
You know a lot of guys we were doing a
thing out there called Mobkin and it was hard getting
guys to get on this mob kind you know, guys
like me, remember, and we've got guys, but their all
phonies want to be gangsters.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Will Yeah, Red is still kind of in hiding.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
He sent me the check, you know, it's like a
money order in the mail that he doesn't want me
to know where he is. But he wrote a book
and he's been on the show at least once. I'm
going to have him back. I think he said he
kind of knew some of you guys from Chicago, who
I don't know if you mentioned your name personally.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
I didn't know him personally, but I know who you're
talking about.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Okay, yeah, yeah, he's trying to get into the mob Museum. Now,
you guys going to have an event coming up at
the mob Museum coming up.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Well, as then he said, we're gonna check. I always
do events there. They called me for speaking engagements solid time. Uh.
And of course you know they got my pictures all
over that place. A lot of people think I got
a piece of it. No, I don't. The club's cleared
the record. I don't get any any money from their
their money that they make there. I wish I did.
(33:07):
I wish I got one tenth of the Uh. I
just I get paid to do speaking engagements and stuff
like that. But as then he said, we're trying to
We're gonna work with the publisher, so just on this
new book, so we could do a big book signing
in there.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Yeah, that would seem like a no brainer, right.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Well yeah, but you know, I don't know this new
publisher is good. He's really good. So I can't they
know a lot more than me about that business.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yeah, yeah, no, wild Boo Boo Press. Yeh, we've had
him on before. Wile Blue Press is a good publisher.
Got you guys got lucky there. Let me ask a question. Now,
you's still friends with Uscin Goodman?
Speaker 5 (33:46):
You know?
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Uh, No, we never were friends. He was my attorney.
He'll never admit it because I gave him ten G
and of course you never filed taxes on it or
showed it on the record. But ask her. He's retired,
he's not the mayor ID nomore, and I think the
thing rascal. He doesn't look good when you see him
(34:06):
on TV and stuff. Now he looks awful. He looks awful.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Yeah, ever since his wife took over the office. Year,
ever since his wife took over the office. He looks
like he aged like twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Oh, he looks awful. He does. He looks awful. Watches
on a SOURAA. Yeah, must have all that alcohol in
his liver.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Yeah, what about you? Did you ever get involved in
that drinking too much?
Speaker 4 (34:31):
Like that?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Oh? Yeah, I'm not a I'm not a socialized or
like maybe one drink that would be my limit. And
it's not on a daily basis either, And I have
wine and maybe one wine and dinner and stuff like that.
I never Yeah, I didn't. I didn't like to drink.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
I just swing on TV recently with Jake Taffer. But
they were that show where they uh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
You know what they called me, And then I said, yeah,
I'll be on your show. And then the guy said,
the girl said, okay, will you be here tomorrow. I said,
wait a minute, I said, do you pay? She said,
well no, I sapill. Then you don't need me on
your show? She said no, no he need you. I said,
well I need some money. So then they came back
and offered me money, and then I didn't like it.
(35:23):
Then they offered me more money, and I did the show,
and I thought I was only going to be, you
know a little bit the wind ups. I was on
there for a good portion of the that hour that
they were on. Yeah, And I guess I'd done a
good job because I know a lot of my customers
that I take on my door tell me that they've
(35:44):
been to that place Champagnes they visited. See that place
used to be called UI's years ago, all right, and
that was an after hour joint that we used to
go in and Frank Sinachra and all the movie stars
used to go on there. And the reason why they
went there is because after their shows they didn't want
to be bothered by their fans signing autographs, so they'd
(36:07):
sneak off and they'd go to his place. Shoeies and
it's still there, but it's not called Champagnes.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
And then what about when you were in town one
of the things did you say? Hang on with Sinatra?
Speaker 1 (36:20):
I sat at the table a them. I talked to
him and stuff. They I think I was a lot
younger than him. And with Tony, and he was all right.
He just didn't like people. He didn't like people pestering him.
You know, he lost track too, like most movie stars,
that these people are the same ones that made you famous,
(36:40):
you know, but just comeback would be man, He said,
I got a piece of I'm out on this jack.
You know, he'd come over here to bottom and just
sign a napkin. You know, he'd run them out of her,
so you could understand that part. But yeah, I spoke
on him. He was all right.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
And what about people talking his organized crime connections? Was
it all just uh show? Or for real?
Speaker 1 (37:05):
That's true? Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's very true.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
What about Bob Mayhew?
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Oh, that's see. I go by passed by his house
when I do the tour, you know, to sound the
country club or a golf course. So I don't know nothing,
but I know who he is, but I don't have none.
That was what's his names? Guy?
Speaker 3 (37:32):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Okay, so no connections with Mayhew. What about Elvis when
Elvis was in town?
Speaker 1 (37:41):
No, no, I don't. I didn't know Elvis, and then
I was never into music. Everybody that I knew, oh
el was. I thought it was ridiculous. I'm not a
music guy.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Got in my car, so I didn't hear the rattles, you.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Know, sit in in those days. What was an average
day like for you? Wake up in the morning, what
do you do?
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Wake up probably in the afternoon, and you go meet
your friends. You might play cards bullshit, you go have
something to lunch, dinner. Then you might go out different nightclubs,
you know. Like I said, I didn't drink maybe one
drink and I got nursed that all night, and uh
(38:26):
maybe I would roads you know.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Did you get Did you have your own loan shark business?
You had to go run my collections?
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Yes, I did. I did it for one year. I
didn't like it. Okay, it's actually Sam Sam Vistefano. Tony
was working for him at the time, and Tony got
me involved putting some money out and I didn't want
to do it, but he convinced me, you know, that
Robin was going to have to end sooner or later
(38:56):
and I should do this, And I said, ny, I
tried it, and I didn't like hollering at people and
threatening their lives and their wives. And you know, it's
got to be sickening because people will tell you anything
to get money, and then they got all the good
intentions of paying you back, but they usually always come
up blame. Yeah, you know, because they're gambling. They don't
(39:17):
want their wives to know their gambling. They're hiding them
from check to check. Yeah. So I did it for
a year and then I just sold my thing out
to Tony.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Now, what about that? We have a gambler.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
I never was a gambler, a social gambler, you know,
but I never I played cards and Mike beg going
to a football pool and stuff like that. I played
the crafts out here in town for a while, but
I used the casino's money and I used to draw
(39:51):
markers because we had connections then, you know, and we'd
use their money to gamble and never pay them back.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Now, what about it? But your your main living though,
was the hole in the wall. Crew used to bust
in the wall, and these jewelry stores and the robber
right we.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Got labeled at when we got caught because of our
method of breaking in places. You know, we could shut
off alarms, but not always uh as the alarm back
in them days, the raised keys. They were usually on
the front door or wherever you were going in uh
industrial or residential, so sometimes you couldn't shut the alarm
(40:32):
off because you would be seen doing that picking a lock.
So then that we've decided to start going in the
backyard and going through the wall into the right into
the master bedroom because that's usually where all the jewelry
is at, or the money or whatever. They always people
just have a habit. And it wasn't actually it went
we're going robbing houses that we didn't know was in there.
(40:54):
We used to get information from insurance people. They used
to write the policies, would give them twenty percent. Oh really,
of course, you know, we didn't go in the house
to take TVs and radios. We went in there strictly
for jewelry and cash and for guns. We take the guns.
Speaker 3 (41:17):
When you went to a job like this, how would
you go dressed? Would you put on your liked work
clothes of course.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Yeah. When we were doing the movie, I told the
one guy they were making the hole in the wall
and he didn't want to wear a hat. I sput
a hat on your head. Oh, oh, I gotta be seen.
I want you know this is I'm doing the movie.
I sput a head on your head. No like that.
What's the matter for you? So Marty says, listen to them,
just so you put a had on.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Would you bring like a thermost to coffee and sandwiches
and stuff?
Speaker 1 (41:48):
No, only if we're gonna spend the now, we wouldn't
bring no fool with us. I've been in places for
a day working on opening, going your floors and uh
going into vaults where it took a whole day. So
you just starved the debt. You don't smoke, you don't
be you don't do nothing. DNA even bag, that's my
(42:10):
friend DNA.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Now, while you're in there, if you're working on a
safe all day long, are you nervous?
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Maybe the first hour because you're wondering if they heard it,
even if though you got the radio, the police calls
and you still don't know if if you are right
in there. But after an hour you just want to
get it over with and you don't even think about
being caught anymore.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Okay, what you know, you're out, you're doing stuff. Some
guy gets shot. Now you go home, you go to bed.
Are you Are you nervous when you're in bed that
night saying, but I just you know what happened? You know,
we don't know.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
No, no, I never affected me. You just get shot.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
So once it's over, you just forget about it. Once
it's over, you just forget about it.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Well, you have to, you unless you want to wind
up in a fucking sand asylum. You know.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
Now, what about the cops, the local cops? Did you
have them on the payroll? Had that work?
Speaker 1 (43:09):
All the cops are on a payroll? I'd say the
majority of them that pulled me over in Chicago, it
was you know, back then, fifty dollars one hundred dollars
was big money. You know, it was always fifty or
a hundred, and you didn't have to get locked up
for three four hours, and you give them them money. See,
anytime you get run in the station, they got a
(43:30):
book that goes down and booking and it goes on
your rest record, you know what I mean. So when
you go in front of a judge. He says, oh, this,
you've been pulled over, You've been locked up fifty sixty times.
Does that means you're active? That don't look too good,
you know when you go in front of a judge.
So this is how they build cases against you. So
you try to give the cop fifty dollars, a hundred
(43:50):
dollars not to run yet, And that's that's what they wanted. Actually,
So I had three sheets, rush sheets, three of them.
They had to go to three sheet each.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Was ever a time where they wouldn't take the money,
and it took it anyway.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
If somebody knew somebody that didn't take money, you know,
they see they were a good cop, bad cop, you
know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Right?
Speaker 3 (44:16):
And what about here in Vegas? Were you paying off
the comps here in Vegas?
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Nah? How comes the cowboys out there?
Speaker 3 (44:25):
What do you think about these cops here? They get
away with all these murders. They're shooting these unarmed people.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
You know, I don't know, you know, I'm not defending
them or talking bad about them, but you know they
got a rough job. How would you like a guy
standing in the front of you calling you all kinds
of frigging names and spinning in your face. You know.
But if I was one, I'd probably shooting everybody, you
know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
I guess you can say that too.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Respect, you know. I mean, listen, in my days, these
kids now, they don't know what shit is. I've been
beat up by cops, haven't hung out of windows, eleven
stories by cops, had cut of cattle, proms, used on me, everything, everything,
you know, And of course they were wrong and doing it,
and they hated their guts. But you know this, kids
(45:12):
they start they look for trouble. They start screaming at
him and hollering not on. And they got these phones
now you know, everybody's on, everybody's taping you. You know,
it's a crazy world we're living though.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
Yeah, it really is. It really is. And what's the
biggest change you've seen in your life?
Speaker 1 (45:30):
The biggest change? Yeah, the high tech technology that's out here.
You know, they're so far ahead when technology. If a
guy thought he could be a criminal, nowadays, he he's nuts.
This is Jill. You you can't unless you're do something
(45:50):
with the internet, you know, with it's like a waste.
Speaker 3 (45:55):
It's backing your day and it was a little cash,
you know, and you just had to worry about your telephone.
You know, tap in your phone lines. You can get
some scramblers or something, right, these have those scramblers back
in the eighties, right, I so tap?
Speaker 1 (46:05):
But I think I'm listening to your calls. They just
use traceable numbers in order to see you were contact.
And what now they could do it all already. Let's
say they do it all.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
All right? You know what, this might be good time
to you know what. We only got fifteen minutes left.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
Uh, a little bit. I'm tired of talking to you.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Okay, let Danny talk for a while. You take a rest. Hey,
do you still smoke?
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Frank smoke cigars?
Speaker 3 (46:32):
You smoke cigars? Okay, I used to smoke cigars. I quit.
I feel a lot better since I quit.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Boy, you don't them?
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Yeah, I know. But in the hell a little bit,
you know, and the nicotine and stuff like that, kind
of where has he done? I feel a lot better.
I'm a whole different story. But so, Danny, you were
talking about how there's some new unsolved murders in Chicago
that's coming out in his book. Yes, what do you
(47:00):
what can you tell?
Speaker 4 (47:01):
Us. Well, again, these were.
Speaker 5 (47:06):
Murders that a lot of them were Tony was did
or was involved in, and uh, Frank, Uh, Frank knew
who the other participants were. Uh, if Tony was a participant,
he knew who also was involved.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
And these these.
Speaker 5 (47:27):
Are old murders or gain Land murders, but they're still
on the books as as unsolid thmics. Sides and cleared
up some things where Tony was a suspect and uh,
Frank knows that Tony did not commit certain murders and
but knows who did. So we straightened us, I believe
(47:49):
Frank said earlier. He set the record straight. And another
thing he set the record straight on was, uh were
some of the things?
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (47:59):
For example, Well, there's a there was a.
Speaker 5 (48:02):
Book written by a former REFBEI agent who is now deceased,
but he said some things in there about Tony that.
Speaker 6 (48:09):
Uh weren't true, and uh like what well that uh
that Tony was that he challenged Tony to a fistfight
and Tony was afraid of him, and wouldn't.
Speaker 5 (48:24):
You know it, wouldn't go for it and so so on,
and uh that didn't happen Tony, So Frank straightened that out.
Another another book that's out there, a lady claims her
husband had Tony on his knees begging for his life,
and that is uh is phony. Also, so Frank addresses
(48:45):
that issue. And a book written by a former Chicago
cop who is now deceased. He claimed that he and
Tony were tight and that he was a crooked cop
and so forth, and that, uh, he took some liberties
with his book in describing his relationship with Tony.
Speaker 4 (49:06):
The other thing that I didn't.
Speaker 5 (49:11):
There's one book out now that says that when Tony
was and his brother Michael were murdered in nineteen eighty six,
they were on their way. They were awaiting a second
trial what was called the birth Is trial. It resulted
from the birth Is burglary, and that they had been
(49:34):
acquitted in Chicago and then we're going to be retried
in Las Vegas, and Tony and his brother were murdered
before the trial started.
Speaker 4 (49:46):
That book gets a lot of reads.
Speaker 5 (49:51):
Unfortunately, that most people know that in this country, if
you're acquitted at trial, well, there is no retrial once
once you've been trying to quit it, it's done. The
and the the trial that uh, this book refers to
the first birth. His trial took place in Las Vegas.
(50:13):
It did not take place in Chicago, so there were
some issues with the accuracy of that information.
Speaker 4 (50:20):
But we.
Speaker 5 (50:23):
I found out what really happened at that birth is trial,
and it was it was quite a quite a story.
And the former UH Justice Larry Lovett at the time,
he was a worked for as a federal prosecutor.
Speaker 4 (50:42):
He was handling the case for.
Speaker 5 (50:43):
The prosecution and UH and what that trial consisted of,
and what happened and UH and how it how it
ended up in a mistrial and so forth.
Speaker 4 (50:52):
So that that to me, as.
Speaker 5 (50:54):
UH somebody interested in the history of these things, was
very very interesting and a story I had never heard before.
So I was really thrilled about about getting into the
bottom of that, knowing what truly happened there. And again
some of the myths that were out there about Tony,
(51:14):
UH were able to straighten them out.
Speaker 4 (51:18):
And another thing that.
Speaker 5 (51:23):
Frank had a chance encounter with Tony Spilatro's wife within
the last couple of years, and we talked about that
in the book and how that you know, how that
encounter or that meeting came out. So there's a lot
of stuff that I wasn't aware of before that has
happened relatively recently in the case of Frank meeting Nancy
(51:49):
and all that stuff. To me, it was very interesting
and very enlightening.
Speaker 3 (51:54):
Was it a pleasant meeting or was it hostile?
Speaker 5 (51:58):
It turned out to be pleasant, I think. I think
Frank wasn't quite sure that started how it was going
to go.
Speaker 3 (52:07):
Now, these these murders, these unsolved, these cold cases in
Chicago where he names the real uh murderers.
Speaker 1 (52:15):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (52:15):
Have you reached down to the families or the local
detectives or anything like that to share your information and
just threw it in the.
Speaker 4 (52:20):
Book, just in the book, just in the book.
Speaker 3 (52:23):
So so you don't even know if they've read about
it yet or if they're even aware of this.
Speaker 4 (52:28):
No, I haven't heard from anybody.
Speaker 5 (52:29):
I assume that as the word gets out there, there
probably will be some some contact.
Speaker 3 (52:35):
Now, these uh, the actual murderers, are they still alive
or they're all gone?
Speaker 4 (52:42):
Most are gone?
Speaker 3 (52:43):
Most are gone. But there's a couple of guys who
may get charged. Aren't you worried that Frank might get
called into testify?
Speaker 4 (52:51):
H Frank isn't worried so I'm not.
Speaker 3 (52:54):
Frank, you're not you're not concerned that they might subpen
you to go down and testify in another case.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Uh, I'm not concerned.
Speaker 3 (53:05):
You're not concerned because you don't mind going Listen.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
I have done nothing wrong. I'm not concerned. If they
wanted to talk to me, I would be willing to
talk to them. I haven't withheld anything. Uh, I haven't
seen these you know, ex immerged being committed by myself
or was I involved in them? So I am. I
(53:30):
got a clear conscience.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
But even just the hassle. You want the hassle if
they want to fly you down or you gotta testify,
it's third time. You don't mind that? All right? Great, Okay,
that's a free trip, right, go back to the old
What about Chicago? You got any problems in Chicago? You
get along with everybody back there?
Speaker 1 (53:48):
Yeah, I have no problems back there. Okay, back there recently?
Speaker 3 (53:52):
Okay, so he's still traveling.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
Huh of course?
Speaker 3 (53:56):
Okay, all right, great man? And when how did it
go with the Splotch's wife?
Speaker 1 (54:02):
They went all right? You know, at first I thought
she might slap me, you know, she spotted me and
I turned around, and I looked at her. I said,
I think you got the wrong guy, and she says, no, no,
I know, I know your voice. So I didn't want
to make a scene out of it because we were
in a drug store. And I said, oh, yeah, I Nancy,
(54:25):
and she started crying and she kissed me on my
cheek and then she told me that Tony was right
there with her watching us, and I thought, oh, you know.
And then she says, he understands, you know, what happened
and this and that. And I try to help her
out financially, you know, because she's got nothing. Sort of sad,
(54:50):
you know, Yeah, that is sad.
Speaker 3 (54:55):
So she still lives here in the town.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
Yeah, you know, Tony I believe was the glue and
the foundation of that whole family. So, uh, you know,
it's sort of sad. You know. I felt bad. I
still feel bad for her. And then they lost their
adopted son, you know, he just passed away. So now
she has nobody but herself.
Speaker 3 (55:20):
What did he pass from?
Speaker 1 (55:22):
Well, it's in the book, you know, you can read
it in the book. I'm giving you the whole booker.
Nobody will buy the fucking thing.
Speaker 3 (55:28):
No, trust me, they'll buy the book, that people listen
to my show, they buy the books. They'll they'll buy
the book if it's a Yellow Pages. If I tell
them about the book, that people buy books for my show,
I promise you're gonna sell books. What about Tony's kids,
his other kids, how they turned out they're were doing well?
Or what other kids did well in the movie. Didn't
he have more than one kid?
Speaker 1 (55:49):
Oh? He only had one.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
Only had one kid and the kid passed. Okay, all right, okay,
so listen went down to the last couple of minutes. Guys,
anything you want to leave me with, fine.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
Then he's doing good. I'm relaxing.
Speaker 3 (56:04):
How about you, Danny, what do you want to leave
us with? Won't go down to the last couple of minutes.
Speaker 4 (56:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (56:09):
I just think, you know, for your listeners who are
organized crime fans and you know, perhaps saw the movie
Casino and want to get the full story and what
it was really like and what the real Tony Spilatro
and what really went on in Vegas, I recommend they
give give the new book to read. I think they
(56:30):
might learn some things. I think they'd enjoy it. And
I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity
to be back on your show and chat.
Speaker 3 (56:37):
With you anytime. Both of you guys are welcome back
anytime you promote.
Speaker 1 (56:42):
There's one guy that I mentioned, and Denny should just
say tell him the guy's name that they never knew
was it? Man? Sure, there's one guy that law enforcement
nobody who ever existed because he died the twenty six
and he uh put a few people in the hall,
(57:05):
you know, and uh he died at twenty six. He
was a friend of mine. I used to still with him,
and then he went to work with Tony. Tony took
all my guys from me. He seemed potential and you know,
the guys that were working for me, so he went
and he put them in the outfit. And the one
guy died at twenty six. So you'll read about his
(57:27):
name in the book. And I guess I even put
we put a picture of him in there, too, didn't we.
Speaker 3 (57:32):
Yes, All right, guys, great, if anybody wants to you know, listen,
you can get ahold of a. Uh. Frank Colta got
a private tour seven oh two six two two eight five. Oh,
you call him up and book a tour. And I
probably some of these books out of the trunk too.
You can't have any books to get in the trunk, Frank.
Speaker 1 (57:55):
You know I didn't that with all the other books.
You can't. This is a different publisher. Okay, it's gotta
be old on the street. Once the book's out there
three years, then I'm able to get them.
Speaker 3 (58:04):
You know, I got you, all right, guys, listen, guys,
thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
Man.
Speaker 3 (58:08):
Anytime you want to come back, you want to promote something,
whatever it is, you give me a call, put you
right on the air. Okay.
Speaker 1 (58:13):
And the check.
Speaker 3 (58:14):
Okay, let me a check. I want to cut these books.
Thank you. Danny, all right, you latter Frank by all right, Okay,
they had it, Denny Griffin and Frank Colotta. The real uh,
this was the real casino guy, man, the real guy.
And you listen, he says, because after I had him
(58:36):
on the show the next day, one of the women
I was telling him was an FBI agent. You know,
the people at the sheriff's thing, they were all, you know,
running for sheriff. So you know, these weren't guys just
making up stories. Everybody know. Everybody knows frankntown. It's the
most incredible thing. The guy's still hung by the balls
here in town. Unfortunately, we're gonna have to bleep out
(58:57):
some of those curse words or said it as don't.
If you like the show, please Oppermanreport dot com you
go there and become a member member section. Keep an
eye out on the Mob Museum too. They're gonna have
a book signing there. I think here's a piece Oppermanreport
(59:18):
dot com. Become a member. I got all kinds of
great new content constantly being updated in the member section.
You can't beat it for the value that you get.
Plus it supports what we have going on here on
the show. I want to advertise, like read we met
and like when his book just came out, nobody cares
on what I did about it. And also two with
(59:42):
pscoco dot com, you want to get some chocolate. You
know you support the sponsors supports it. The show gets
the work out there. You know that we're doing here,
which is no joke. All right, guys, thank you so much.
If you want to send a donation Opermanreport at gmail
dot com, send a little paper donation. Also, you can
a donation at operadreport dot com is a little donate
(01:00:02):
but on it so it goes through a striper square
space one of those kind of wacky things. Thank you
so much, I'll talk to you soon.
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