May 19, 1938 - Anthony Spilotro
His assignment in Las Vegas was ostensibly managerial — overseeing the flow of skimmed casino profits back to Chicago — but he became known for conducting a parallel operation of robbery, extortion, and violence that eventually embarrassed the very organization that had sent him. The combination of financial misconduct and uncontrolled brutality made him a liability to the Outfit, which resolved the problem in its customary manner. His career has since become one of the more thoroughly documented windows into how organized crime functioned inside the legitimate casino industry during that era.
From Wikipedia
Anthony John Spilotro (May 19, 1938 – June 14, 1986), nicknamed "Tony the Ant", was an American mobster and high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit who operated in Las Vegas during the 1970s and '80s. Spilotro managed the Outfit's illegal casino profits (the "skim") when four of the casinos, the Stardust, the Fremont, the Hacienda and the Marina, were managed by Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, replacing Outfit member John Roselli. He was also the leader of the "Hole in the Wall Gang", a burglary crew he formed when he moved to Las Vegas in 1971.
Spilotro eventually ran afoul of his superiors in Chicago over his handling of their Las Vegas concerns, and they arranged his murder on June 14, 1986. Spilotro's criminal career was detailed in Nicholas Pileggi's true crime book Casino and served as the basis for the character Nicky Santoro in Martin Scorsese's adaptation of that book by the same title in 1995.
Further reading
- The Enforcer
A veteran FBI agent chronicles Tony 'The Ant' Spilotro's rise from Chicago hitman to the Chicago mob's powerful Las Vegas boss, ending with his 1986 murder.
View on Amazon → - The Rise and Fall of a 'Casino' Mobster
Frank Cullotta, Spilotro's childhood friend and fellow mobster, gives a firsthand account of the real criminal empire behind the film Casino.
View on Amazon → - Casino
Nicholas Pileggi's bestselling true crime account draws on extensive interviews to detail how Frank Rosenthal and Anthony Spilotro helped organized crime loot Las Vegas casinos.
View on Amazon →
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