The Rise and Fall of a Casino Mobster by Frank Cullotta

Author:Frank Cullotta [Cullotta, Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Memoir
ISBN: 9781942266952
Goodreads: 34881166
Publisher: WildBlue Press
Published: 2017-04-25T04:00:00+00:00

13

King of the Strip

When I got into Vegas in 1979 my first stop was at Tony’s Gold Rush jewelry store on West Sahara. Tony and Herb “Fat Herbie” Blitzstein (Tony’s friend and bookie from Chicago) were standing outside the store when I pulled up. Tony walked over to the car, and we talked for a few minutes, agreeing to meet for dinner around six o’clock.

Over dinner Tony told me what my duties were going to be. He wanted me to put together a crew of guys to watch his back and provide muscle as necessary. The guys couldn’t be Outfit men or known to the local cops. They could know we were working for Tony, but they couldn’t have any direct contact with him—they’d get their orders from me.

“Who are we gonna muscle?” I asked.

“There are a lot of freelance bookies out here that aren’t kicking anything back to me. They’ve gotta be brought into line and start paying me a street tax or be put out of business. I’ll let you know who they are. The same thing goes for drug dealers. You can shake them down and make them pay me a tribute or take their drugs and money and close them up. Who the fuck are they gonna complain to?”

I nodded. “What else?”

“Anybody who steals from us or our [Outfit-controlled] casinos will have to be dealt with. And we’ll have to take care of anybody who tries to muscle in on our businesses. I might have special jobs for you to do sometimes, too. What do you say?”

“That’s fine, but these guys I get aren’t going to be getting regular paychecks. They’re going to have to earn in order to survive—they’ll have to steal.”

“They can steal. I got the okay on that from Chicago. On big scores they’ll have to kick up 10 or 20 percent, depending on the take. On small scores—say $5,000 or less—they can keep it all.”

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