Favors

Excerpted from CULLOTTA – The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster and Government Witness. 

Frank’s duties working for Tony Spilotro included helping connected guys moving to Las Vegas from Chicago, find employment. He also made sure visiting wiseguys had a good time.

 

Tony had been black-booked from the casinos. Acting in his stead, Frank took over the responsibility of getting new arrivals from Chicago jobs in the Outfit-controlled joints. He didn’t take care of just anybody from Chicago, though. They had to either be Outfit guys or their friends or relatives. He’d tell them which dealer school to go to and when they finished their training, he sent them downtown to the Fremont to apply. Working through the casino manager, Frank’s referrals were hired and dealt at the Fremont until they became proficient, then many of them transferred to the Stardust on the Las Vegas Strip. Neither Frank nor Tony charged for this assistance; it was done strictly as a favor.

 

In addition to connected guys moving to Vegas, many of them went there for vacation. In those cases Frank got them comped into the Stardust through the casino manager. These wiseguys did a lot of gambling and most of the time would drop $20,000 or so during their stay, so the casino wasn’t really giving up anything. The visitors were well taken care of and went back to Chicago feeling like big shots.

 

An Easy Score

Excerpted from CULLOTTA – The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster and Government Witness. 

Prior to marrying Eileen, Frank had a girlfriend named Janet, who moved in with him for a short time. Janet was good looking and self-sufficient financially. She made her money as a hooker, a fact that didn’t bother Frank in the least. She wanted to give Frank some of her money, but he told her no way; he wasn’t a pimp, had never been a pimp, and had no intention of becoming one. But she was free to do whatever she wanted. The only promise he made to her was that he’d bail her out if she ever got busted. Janet went out every night and made between five hundred and a thousand dollars turning tricks. She screwed about every guy in town, and there were some big names on her list of clients.

One night she called Frank and said she was with a man in a casino. “We’ve been gambling all night and this guy has an attaché case with him loaded with money. Do you think we should rob him?”

“You’re damn right. Take the guy to a room somewhere. After he goes to sleep, give me a call and I’ll come over.”

Janet and her customer wound up in a high-rise not far from the Marie Antoinette. She called Frank with the address and room number. She let him in the room and showed him the case. As she was getting dressed the guy woke up and saw Frank standing by the bed holding his attaché case. He started to say something and Frank whacked him in the head three or four times with his own money, then he and Janet ran out. There was $20,000 in the case and they split it down the middle.

Not long after the robbery, Janet told Frank she wanted to change her line of work. She was interested in becoming a card dealer in one of the casinos. Frank contacted Tony and discussed the matter. Tony said, “Tell her to go to a dealer school. When she finishes, we’ll give her the names of three casinos to apply at. One of them will hire her.” She did as instructed and was hired by the Dunes.

Janet later became involved with an older man who had money. She told Frank about her new interest and asked if he would mind if she moved out.

Frank wasn’t in love with her; to him she was just a piece of ass. He understood that she was like just about every other broad in Vegas: driven by money. He told her to go ahead and move.