Read Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster and Government Witness Online
Authors: Dennis N. Griffin
ered by federal funds.
“On November 2, 1992, Gary Shapiro, Criminal Chief, United
States Attorney’s Office, Chicago, Illinois, and David Capp, United
States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Indiana, Dyer, Indiana, advised that they are both in agreement that at that time,
there was no viable prosecution in either the Northern District of
Indiana or Newton County, Indiana.
“Chicago Division is awaiting (redacted).
“Chicago will notify Headquarters upon the completion of the
above and will then re-contact the United States Attorney’s Office,
NDI, for a final prosecutive opinion on this matter.”
As additional years passed with no apparent progress in the investigation, it appeared that the murders of the Spilotro brothers
would remain another unsolved gangland mystery.
• • •
Frank got off probation in 1986, soon after Tony’s murder. He moved once again and sent the U. S. Marshals a letter telling them he was out of the program. Witness Protection had served its purpose, but as soon as he could he ditched it and became himself again.
Free of the constraints of Witness Protection, Frank’s wife, stepdaughter, and granddaughter rejoined him. That was good news for Frank. The bad news was about the baby. Ashley suffered from a congenitally weak liver and spleen. She had one medical problem after another, putting her mother and grandparents through hell.
Frank and his family struggled for several years with the girl’s health problems and the related costs for treatment. While that was going on, Frank experienced a devastating loss in 1990 when Josephine Cullotta, his mother and best friend, passed away.
And then the FBI called. This time, however, they didn’t want Frank to testify or to interview him in conjunction with some investigation. Instead, the feds were conveying a job offer.
At a time when money was in short supply, the message the FBI gave Frank was that an author had contacted them concerning a book he wanted to write about Las Vegas and the casinos run by Lefty Rosenthal. The author was looking for technical help with the project and if Frank was interested, he should call the writer, Nick Pileggi.
Frank met with Pileggi several times, always flying to different places to talk. After about a year and a half, Pileggi produced a book, then hooked up with movie director Martin Scorsese for a screenplay resulting in the film
Casino
. Frank worked as a technical consultant on the movie. He tried to instill as much reality as he could in regard to personalities and incidents. He even appeared in six or seven scenes; it was a lot of fun for him.
Frank was in Las Vegas for around four months working on the movie. Eileen and the kids were worried about his safety and his in-laws, who were still living in Vegas, didn’t have much to do with him. He understood that some people still resented him for rolling on Tony, so it didn’t bother him. He wasn’t very worried himself, though. He knew how much of an effort it would take to off him, especially with the number of people working on a movie set and the security that was in place. Unless it was a suicide mission, it wasn’t going to happen.
Frank did get an opportunity to have a little extra protection, however. One of the private security people was a nice attractive girl named Rebecca. One day she told him she’d like to be his bodyguard and, if he requested it, she’d be able to get authorization to carry a concealed weapon.
As a convicted felon, Frank wasn’t allowed to carry a gun himself. He considered what Rebecca had said and thought:
If she can carry one gun, she can carry two. One for her and one for me
. He requested that she be assigned to guard him, then had her carry two snub-nosed .38s. She asked why she had to have two guns. Frank didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so he didn’t tell her that if anything did happen, he’d feel much better if he could take care of himself.
The fact that Frank was in Vegas was no big secret. The newspapers wrote about him and the son of one of his old partners came to see him. He hugged Frank and said that both he and his father respected him. Some of the wiseguys showed up on the set, too. They told Frank he didn’t have to explain what he’d done; it was over. He was even able to get a couple of them spots in the movie.
Only one wiseguy made any waves. He knew one of the stars and mouthed off about Frank. But that was the end of it.
One other guy tried to cause a problem. The driver for one of the stars, he was also the son of an Outfit guy. Frank was using the name Joe Russo, but the driver knew his real identity. He started telling people who Frank was, but it backfired. Instead of trouble, it resulted in Frank becoming a celebrity on the set. He got along well with all the stars and they treated him with respect. As far as Frank was concerned, Martin Scorsese was a real gentleman, a great man. Even with the former hit man on the set, Scorsese never once got nervous.
After the movie wrapped, Frank returned home. A liver donor became available for his granddaughter and he used the money he’d made from the movie to pay for the operation. The transplant was a success and Frank considered it the best money he ever spent.
Ashley, who’d lugged an oxygen tank around with her for over nine years and never had a childhood, enjoyed several good years after the liver transplant. But her health problems returned. Complications developed during the 19-year-old’s treatment, and the light of Frank’s life dimmed forever in October 2005.
Today, Frank Cullotta resides in an undisclosed location and runs a legitimate small business. He makes an occasional appearance in public as himself. But for the most part, he lives his life out of the spotlight and is at peace with himself.
Dennis Arnoldy retired from the FBI in 1997. He and his family remained in Las Vegas where he worked as a private investigator. Today he has his own polygraph business, Arnoldy & Associates.
Tony Spilotro
“It’s my belief that beyond putting criminals in jail, the FBI’s Spilotro investigations were important in removing the public image of his invincibility. For years he and his men were the faces of organized crime in Vegas and appeared to be above the law. They were able to operate as they pleased, attesting to the strength of their operation and the apparent weakness of law enforcement. I think the public had come to believe the law was incapable of bringing them to justice.
“As the law-enforcement pressure increased, that facade began to crumble; we dismantled Spilotro’s organization piece by piece. His Chicago bosses eventually found him to be expendable, leading to his murder in 1986.”
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
“The first time I ever worked on a task force with a local police agency was during the Spilotro investigations. I found the Metropolitan Police Department’s Intelligence Bureau, under the direction of Commander Kent Clifford, to be an outstanding organization. I worked closely with detectives Gene Smith and David Groover. They were two of the best investigators I ever dealt with. It was a pleasure working with them and I learned a lot.”
Sal Romano
“In my opinion, three major incidents during the Spilotro in vestigations contributed to the end of Spilotro’s reign. They were the murder of Jerry Lisner, the Bertha’s burglary, and the turning of Frank Cullotta. Sal Romano was an invaluable asset to us, because he was able to infiltrate Spilotro’s organization and furnish up-to-date information on their activities. Without him, the arrests at Bertha’s and the resultant prosecutions wouldn’t have happened.”
Frank Cullotta
“When Frank first became a government witness, I looked at him as just another tool to use in our effort to arrest and convict criminals. In fact, that’s the only way to view that type of cooperating witness; to do otherwise is asking for trouble. During the
debriefing process, I developed a respect for Frank’s commitment to tell the truth. We knew his credibility would be an issue in any prosecution in which he was involved, and double- or triplechecked whatever he told us. Some people in Frank’s position will tell you whatever they think you want to hear, believing they’ll make themselves more valuable as witnesses. In Frank’s case, if he didn’t have information about a specific incident, he’d say he didn’t know. When he did provide information, we were able to independently verify its accuracy. I never lied to him and he was honest with me.
“I worked closely with Frank while he was in custody and when he testified in various venues around the country. Even after his obligations as a witness had been fulfilled, we remained in contact.
Over the years a friendship developed between us that continues to this day.”
It has been many years since Frank made the decision that turned his life around. Today he runs a successful small business and continues to enjoy a very close relationship with Eileen and his stepchildren.
Gene Smith
“Gene Smith was a tough guy. I think in some ways we were similar. We were both dedicated to what we did and would do whatever we had to in order to get the job done. I think if he’d become a criminal instead of a cop, he’d have been good at that, too. He had the guts and determination to be successful at whatever he decided to try.”
Sal Romano
“There was a big difference between Sal and me. I rolled as a matter of self-preservation; he became an informant because he liked it. The guy should have been an undercover cop, wearing a wire and setting people up. I may have testified against people, but I never wore a wire; I never trapped anybody. I don’t wish Sal any bad luck. However, I don’t respect him and we could never be friends.”
The Outfit
“I never wanted to become too involved with those guys and I’m glad I didn’t. If I’d taken Tony’s route, I’m sure I could have become a main man. If nobody whacked me, I might even have been one of the bosses. I have absolutely no regrets that I decided to be a renegade, though. “The Outfit bosses were usually pretty sharp. But they weren’t right all the time, like when John Kennedy ran against Richard Nixon. Sam Giancana made a real miscalculation on that one. It was common knowledge in the Chicago underworld that Joe Kennedy reached out to the Outfit through Frank Sinatra. Giancana put out the word that it was important to get Kennedy elected, because he’d be a friend to the Outfit if he got into office. We did a big get-out-the-vote thing concentrating on the Italians. We figure we got Kennedy about a hundred thousand votes in Chicago. That helped him carry Illinois and got him into the White House. Then he made his brother Bobby the top cop. Bobby went after the Outfit big-time, trying to lock up all the dagos. A lot of guys were pissed off at Giancana over that deal. They said he never should have gotten involved with those goddamn Irishmen.”
Larry Neumann
“From a crook’s perspective, I felt that Larry was an honorable man. He was loyal, but a little tough to control as far as his taste for violence. Tony Spilotro was a dangerous guy, but Larry was much more dangerous. He was smart, almost a genius. I think he could have been a professor if he’d wanted to. He had money and didn’t need to be a criminal. He did it because he liked it.”
Oscar Goodman
“I thought there were several lawyers in Vegas better than Os car. Tony really liked him, though, and paid him a lot of money over the years. I remember one day I was riding with Tony when he stopped at Oscar’s office. When we pulled up, Tony said, ‘See that building, Frankie? I paid for it.’
“One thing Oscar was good at was getting delays. In Tony’s case he prolonged things until everything piled up. And I know that the government offered Tony a deal before the first Bertha’s trial. As I remember it, their first proposal was for him to do ten years, and then I think they lowered it to five. But Oscar wouldn’t go for it; he kept telling Tony they could beat the case. If Tony had taken that deal, he’d have been out of the picture and there would have been a lot less pressure on him. He may have gone to prison, but he’d probably be alive today.
“I understand that a defense lawyer has to fight for his client. He has to say what he has to say and do what he has to do. Be that as it may, I don’t have much use for Oscar Goodman.”
Bertha’s
“I’d say this was the most important event that led to my rolling. We’d always been a step ahead of the cops and FBI. But when they got Sal Romano working with them, we lost that edge. They used him well and put a nice operation together to get us that night. I’ll say this, though, and I believe it with all my heart. If it hadn’t been for Sal, we’d have gotten away with it. They’d have suspected us of doing the job, sure. And they’d have put the heat on. But I know in my soul that they would never have been able to prove it.”
Tony Spilotro
“I always liked Tony from the time we were kids in the same neighborhood in Chicago. I know that he wanted to have me killed, but I understand the spot he was in and I can forgive him for that. I’m still bothered today about the way they killed him. It showed total disrespect for him and his brother. They could have done it another way. Tony and I each had choices to make back then and we did what we did. It happened, and now it’s over.”
Dennis Arnoldy
“To this day, I consider Dennis to be my best friend. When I was going through the toughest time of my life, he was there. He treated me fairly and with respect. He never lied to me and I came to trust him completely. Until you’ve been between the proverbial rock and a hard place like I was, you might not be able to appreciate how important it is to find someone you can trust and have confidence in. In my opinion, he’s a great man.”
Frank Cullotta