Frank Cullotta: Las Vegas Mobster Turned Legit

Frank Cullotta is one of the few mobsters that was lucky enough to spend some time in the criminal underground world with success and also make it out alive and spend some time in a legit world with success. Frank was part of the "The Whole Wall Gang" formed in Las Vegas ran by the notorious gangster Tony "The Ant" Spilotro.

Tony Spilotro and Frank Cullotta were both portrayed in the movie "Casino", a movie about the mob and how it effected Las Vegas. Spilotro was arrested in real life and charges were brought on him for murder among many other things. He was not left to chance, the Mafia had him and his brother beat with bats and tossed in a shallow grave where they were left to die. The Mafia bosses were scared that Spilotro was going to flip and start to talk; they were also not happy with the rules that he broke set forth by the Mafia and he broke a lot of them; so they made an example of him and his brother.


Frank on the other hand was picked up while trying to commit the biggest robbery of "The Whole in the Wall Gang's" career. While sitting in prison he learned that the bosses of the Chicago outfit where planning on having him rubbed out as well to keep him from talking, so he decided to flip. Frank stayed in witness protection for a while but dropped out and decided to take his chances.

Most mobsters who get put in witness protection usually drop out because they can't stand the boring lifestyle and end up back in trouble, dead, or substance abuse user and homeless. Great examples of this is "Sammy The Bull" and Henry Hill. Sammy The Bull ended up getting involved in a Ecstasy ring where he squandered his freedom and is now serving life in prison. And Henry Hill died just recently from many complication stemming from his smoking and alcohol abuse and was known to be homeless for quite a long time.

Frank found a way to use his time out of prison useful. After leaving witness protection he enjoyed spending time writing a book that sold quite well. Frank also put a lot of time on the set helping producers with the movie "Casino" even playing a part as a hitman. A lot of people attribute the Mafia authenticity of the movie due to the help of Frank and his know how of the true ins and outs of the Mafia mentality and slang.

Till this day Frank is a regular figure in Las Vegas and still does interviews, public speaking and has his hands in a lot of cookie jars, all legal of course. But he is one of very few Mafia figures that enjoyed success in the Mafia before being caught, and then transforming himself to find success and live a normal life on the other side of the law. 

Joseph Colombo -- The Colombo Family Boss

Joseph Colombo was born on June 16, 1923, and was the boss of the Colombo crime family, one of the Cosa Nostra in New York. A very influential boss to say the least. The only boss that fought against the FBI. He formed the Civil Rights League for Italians and was able to get tens of thousands of people involved, even including actors and politicians.
"Five Families" of the

Colombo became the boss of the family from somewhat of some odd circumstances.  Joseph Magliocco, the boss of the Profaci Family wanted to take out the boss of bosses, Carlo Gambino. Gimbino ran the biggest crime family in New York city and had enough power to go to war with three different families at the same time, taking him out would be like a kiss of death.

For this job Magliocca turned to the mid level gangster Joe Colombo. Joe Colombo actually grew up under the wing of Gambino and was mentored by him. This is mostly why Magliocca chose Colombo, he figured Colombo would be able to get close to him without raising any suspicion. There was one problem with this plan, Colombo was not going for it. Instead of seating himself up for death, Colombo double crossed Magliocco and gave Gambino the heads up.

This double cross would put Magliocco out of business, luckily avoiding a death sentence. Gambino and the commission would send Magiocco with his bags packing and decided to put Colombo in charge of the Profaci family as a reward for his loyalty to Gambino, thus renaming the Profaci Family to the Colombo Crime family.

Through the years Colombo would show he face in public way more then any other crime boss, yes even more then John Gotti. This was mainly due to his creation of the Civil Right League that he was the head of. He often gave speeches and held events that would poke back at the FBI for labeling all Italian Americans part of the mafia. He also was able to play a big part in the world famous movie the The God Father. Halting production in New York until certain script demands were meet, which included the deletion of the works like "The Mafia" and the "Cosa Nostra".

Through the years, the Colombo's had a big problem on his hands by the name of Crazy Joe Gallo. He was a mid level gangster who had his own crew. With a violent past Gallo wanted control of the Profaci family and went to war with them ultimately losing. He ended up going to jail and spent 9 years in prison, most of that time was spent in prison when Colombo was boss. The problem for Colombo was Gallo never lost his lust for power of the family, even if the name had changed from Profaci to Colombo.

Through the years a lot of high ranking mafia members were undoubtedly getting fed up with Colombo's political agenda. In 1970 with the FBI fed up with this fight against law enforcement arrested him and another high ranking member of his family. After being arrested a search of his car turned up a breif case that held info of all the Colombo Families rackets and info on other high ranking Mafia members including Carlo Gambino. This was not good for Colombo.



He would eventually pay the price for his loyalty to his Civil Rights League. In June 1971, at the second Italian unity rally, which had a showing of about 50 thousand less people than the first rally due to the other crime families disapproval, Colombo was shot twice. The shooter was shot dead right after the initial shooting and Colombo was rushed to the hospital where he laid in a comma for 8 years before dying in 1978.

No one was ever prosecuted for the crime and speculation pointed at either Crazy Joe Gallo or soldiers of Carlo Gambio. It didn't really matter, in the last years of boss of the Colombo family, Colombo gain a lot of enemies and most believe that his shooting was a joint effort by many different people who would benefit from him being dead.

Colombo was quite the character. He was the head of the Civil Rights League of Italian Americans aimed at taking away the stereo type that all Italian Americans were criminals and some how connected to organized crime. On the other hand Colombo was the boss of the second largest crime family in New York, skimming money from donation giving to the Civil Rights League to support his criminal origination. What a great guy.

The Movie "Casino" The Mafia's Strong Hold on Vegas

Robert De Niro - Joe Pesce - Sharon Stone

Director- Martin Scorsese and Phil Marco

One of my most favorite movies about the mob. A very informative look at how the mob secretly ran and swindled millions of dollars out of Vegas. Probably the most informative and factually correct movie out of all the mob flicks.


As a MOB enthusiast, I have watched all of the documentaries on the this time in Mafia history and read the book of the Casino story. There were facts changed, obviously to make the story Hollywood, but it still remains as an extremely close replica to what happened back in those days when the MOB was running things in Las Vegas.

A great movie for the history of Las Vegas and the history of the MOB.
Recommended for anyone who loves movies about Money, Greed, Sex Scandals, Murder, Organized Crime and Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro

Synopsis

Sam "Ace" Rothstein, the consummate bookie who can change the odds merely by placing a bet, has risen through the ranks of the Midwestern mob to be picked by the bosses to front their entree into Vegas. Ace lives and breathes the odds. He eventually doubles the mob's take and changes the rules of how the casinos are run. But he can't control the odds when it comes to Ginger McKenna, the chip-hustling vamp who charms Ace and becomes his wife. His infatuation with Ginger turns to obsession as she rises with him to the upper crust of society, then turns to the bottle and pills for consolation in her gilded cage. The third member of this triangle of greed and obsession is Nicky Santoro, Ace's best friend and fellow graduate of the city streets. Together, they run the perfect operation, with Ace in charge and Nicky providing the muscle. But as Nicky expands his interests and each man gains power, their lives become entangled in a story of hot tempers, obstinacy, money, love and deception. 

Mafia Hit-man: Joseph “The Animal” Barboza

Joseph “The Animal” Barboza was born September 20, 1932  and lived until February 11, 1976. Like most mobster he was taken out by 4 gun shot wounds by his own people turned enemies. But while Barboza was alive he was a very feared hit-man who claimed to commit about 29 murders. All 29 murders are yet to be confirmed and some are thought to be Barboza's glorifying himself for the sake of respect, but one thing's for sure, he was a hit-man and does have proven killings under his belt.


Joe found a talent in boxing and pursued a professional career as a light heavyweight boxer and became a member of the United States Boxing Association for a short period of time having his first boxing match on April 18, 1949 against Rocky Lucero in El Paso, Texas and his last fight on September 23, 1961 against Don Bale in Boston, Massachusetts. He fought with an weird stance and boxed under the name "The Baron". His boxing record shows Joseph winning about 75% of his fights with most of them ending in knockouts. He was classified as a powerhouse fighter who may not make it the distance but could end the fight early with power punches.

Joe was first sent to a Massachusetts prison in 1950  to serve five years. Three years into his prison time he and fellow inmates planned and succeeded the biggest prison break in Massachusetts history. After drinking Whiskey and popping amphetamine tablets, seven men overpowered the guards and made a break to two different cars. After drinking, fighting, bar hopping, beating random people on the streets and some more crazy mayhem, Barboza was captured and taken back to prison just short of 24 hours of the break.

It is thought that he first met figures of Boston organized crime while incarcerated at Walpole, and it is thought that they arranged to have him paroled in 1958. He became a recognized figure in East Boston's organized crime circles and was a regular habituate of a bar on the corner of Bennington Street and Brook Street which became known among local criminals as "Barboza's Corner". His crew of small-time burglars and thieves consisted of Joseph W. Amico, Patrick Fabiano, James Kearns, Arthur Bratsos, Thomas DePrisco, father and son team Joseph Dermody and Ronald Dermody, Carlton Eaton, Edward Goss and Nicholas Femia. All of his crew would all later be murdered by rival mobsters including himself. The crew was officially supervised for the Patriarca crime family by Stephen Flemmi. He was never officially inducted into the Patriarca crime family because of his Portuguese heritage but within eight years during the escalation of gangland warfare he earned a reputation as one of Boston's most prolific contract killers and sidewalk soldiers. He had a reputation of being absolutely fearless.

It was widely believed in law official circles that Barboza had performed contract killings for Raymond L.S. Patriarca. By January 1966, Barboza was considered a powerful crime figure in the Boston underworld and was often represented by F. Lee Bailey which proved to be a huge mistake-But he was also facing major problems. The authorities were constantly on his heels. For disturbing the peace one night at the same Revere nightclub where he chewed the ear off, he slugged a Boston Police Department Detective and received a six-month sentence. After his release from prison and his graduation from an expensive cooking school he was shipped out on the S.S. President Wilson to the Orient.

In his 1975 autobiography "Barboza" written by true crime writer Hank Messick he admitted to murdering at least seven men, although he bragged to his friends that the total was closer to twenty nine because he wanted to be respected and feared—nobody really knew the truth.He loved children and animals and was known to take neighborhood children to the park or zoo. He would often buy popcorn for children in the movie theater that didn't have any and his young daughter wanted for nothing. A few notorious victims on his murder roster while involved with organized crime included Edward McLaughlin and both Cornelius Hughes and Stevie Hughes, who Barboza hunted down in a fit of rage after receiving news that his best friend Vincent Flemmi was badly wounded in a 1967 shootout with them. Barboza aligned himself with the Winter Hill Gang in part because James "Buddy" McLean was an ally of James Flemmi. Barboza trusted Steven and James Flemmi, and as early as 1965 H. Paul Rico, was using that trust to drive Barboza in becoming an informant. Joe drove a 1965 Oldsmobile Cutlass which was referred to by law enforcement as "the James Bond car" because it had a sophisticated alarm system and a device for making thick black smoke come out of the tailpipe.

After a while Barboza starting stepping on the wrong people's toes. This was no good for him since he was not a made man in anyone's family and was not going to become one due to his Portuguese back round. After being picked up on weapon charges in 1966 he was jailed and a bond was put up at $100,000.00. When no one cane to his aid to produce the bail Barboza started to think maybe his organized crime friends were no longer supported of him and his crew and he was right. When two people from his crew, Arthur C. Bratsos and Thomas J. DePrisco, rised $59,000 they were stoped died in thier track by soldiers of  Ralph "Ralphie Chong" Lamattina, who served in the crew of Ilario Zannino. Bratsos and Deprisco got the money stolen from them and then they were murdered, their bodies were later dumped in Boston in the hopes to blame the whole thing on the Irish mob.

After realizing the Mafia was no longer on his side and hearing that most of his crew and associate's were being murdered, Barboza would become the first person the government would offer the witness protection program to. Barbazo stood up and testifed aginst Raymond Patriarca, Sr., the crime family boss and many other high ranking members of the family. The mafia would offer Barboza $25,000.00 to stop talking and Barboza upped the ante to $50,000.00, neither offer was settle on and the testimoma would head to trial. In the end the trial would found guilty and sentenced to death were Peter J. Limone, Louis Greco, Henry Tameleo and Ronald Cassesso. Sentenced to life in prison were Joseph Salvati and Wilfred Roy French.

After trail Barboza got out of town and headed to San Fransisco where he attended culinary arts school. He also supposedly killed ten more men. This was also never proven, but he was charged and convicted of one murder and sentenced to one year in Folsom  prison. After his release, is whereabouts were leaked and this is when he would be found and taken out by the same people that he worked for and worked with.

While working with the corrupt FBI agent H. Paul Rico, he helped to frame Mafia associates Joseph Salvati, Peter Limone, Louis Greco as well as his former mob superior, Henry Tameleo for the murder of a small time criminal named Edward "Teddy" Deegan in Chelsea, Massachusetts, protecting the real culprit. Deegan was the maternal uncle of Gerry Indelicato, future aide to Governor Michael Dukakis. Deegan had been marked for death by the New England family in 1965 for several burglaries which he had committed with future Winter Hill Gang heavyweight, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi.

Out of the six people convicted for the murder, only Ronald "Ronnie the Pig" Casseso and Wilfred Roy French were actually involved and present in the alley where the murder took place. FBI agent Paul Rico had offered French and Casseso leniency if they would corroborate Barboza's false testimony. Both French and Casseso refused the offer and when French was threatened with the death penalty he responded by telling Rico to "warm up the electric chair." Cassesso died in prison 30 years later. French was finally freed 34 years later.

Winter Hill enforcer John Martorano became a government witness in 1999 after learning that both Steven Flemmi and James "Whitey' Bulger were FBI informants and have been delivering information about the Mafia and the Winter Hill Gang to them. In his plea agreement, he told the Drug Enforcement Administration agent that Barboza had admitted to lying about the men convicted of killing Teddy Deegan. Barboza allegedly said that the Patriarca crime family had "screwed me and now I’m going to screw as many of them as possible."



Martorano also revealed that Vincent "Jimmie the Bear" Flemmi, the brother of Stephen Flemmi, had admitted to murdering Deegan. Vincent Flemmi and his brother were both acting as informants to the FBI. Instead of arresting Vincent Flemmi, the FBI knowingly let four men go to prison for a crime they didn’t commit. Barboza used this opportunity to settle some old grudges with some local North Enders and Mafia associates who he felt had not shown him the proper respect.

Tameleo and Greco died in prison after serving almost 30 years, and Salvati and Limone were finally released in 1997 and 2001, respectively. Lawyers representing the families of Greco, Tameleo, Salvati and Limone currently have lawsuits totaling in excess of one billion dollars filed against the Federal government.

"Crazy" Joe Gallo: Mafia Hitman

Joseph Gallo, not a famous name, not even a boss in mafia's history, but he was an important mafia enforcer from the Profaci crime family, based in New York. Like most crazy mafioso, he killed when he wanted rather when he needed or was ordered, and was thought to be a hitman doing contract killings on the orders of boss Joe Profaci. Ironically, his nickname "Crazy" had nothing to do with his murderous reputation. Many gangsters labelled him for his habit of reciting lines of dialogue from gangster movies and impersonating fictitious mob characters. Although never convicted of the crime from authorities it was a well known rumor that he was the killer of the famous mob boss Albert Anastasia.

Gallo was not happy with the leadership of the Profaci family, current ran by Boss Joseph Profaci so he tried to take over. The attempt was unsuccessful and many  members of Gallo's gang, friends and relatives were systematically wiped out by Profaci’s soldiers. To further weekend Gallo's chances of moving up in the mafia ladder, in 1961 he was convicted of extortion and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. While in prison he continued his murderous ways by politely inviting prisoners into his cell and then giving them food laced with strychnine. Many inmates became extremely ill though none died. Far from being rehabilitated he was paroled after serving 8 years of his sentence.

After his release, Gallo became determined to kick Joe Colombo off is thrown as boss of the Colombo crime family. In 1971 an African-American gangster shot Colombo three times in the head on Gallo’s orders, Colombo would survive for seven more years but would never gain consciousness. However, Gallo would soon get his own violent death from the mafia for precautions against him for murdering with no OK from anyone . In 1972, when he was eating at a seafood restaurant with his family and bodyguard, a lone gunman burst through the rear entrance and shot Gallo five times in the chest. He staggered into the street and collapsed dead. The responsible party for the slaying was Carlo Gimbino for killing his friend Joe Colombo, but this has never been proving because there was speculation that Gimbino himself had a hand in the killing of Colombo.

" The IceMan” Richard Kuklinski - The Mafia Hit-Man

As a confessed contracted killer, The IceMan is said to have knocked off around 200 people or more. He worked with the Gambino Crime family, working under another crazed made member of the Mafia, Roy DeMeo. Together they worked out of a social club nicked named "The House of Horrors". A fitting name for a place that held the event of murder on a regular basis.

Like most Mafia hitmen, Kuklinski also worked alone. His murdering was not just business, but also personal. In-fact, some of his first murders had nothing to do with the Mafia. Some of which that include burning a guy to death outside of a bar for mouthing off to him and whacking people that owed him money for playing him in games of pool.


Kuklinski was true hitmen material, he lived a double life where his family knew nothing about what he did for money. His wife did say, "she did not know what he was up to, but knew not to ask."

The FBI would eventually catch up to him by wiring him and getting him to accept a contract deal. He was later was convicted of 5 counts of murder and sentence to life +.

In his years in prison he enjoyed some fame by telling his story. He was documented not once but twice by HBO and was able to tell his story to a second party for a book.

Kuklinski's confessions, may be the closest the FBI would ever get to knowing what happen to the most suspicious disappearance in America history. Kuklinski claims he an five other men abducted Hoffa and killed him, but there is not enough evidence to put any proof to he's claims.

In Kuklinski's confessions, he blames his ability to detach emotionally from his victims, because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father.

In fact, the only time Kuklinski's showed any emotion throughout the confessions of his life of murdering was when he talked about his wife and kids.

Kuklinski died in prison of naturally causes at the age of 70. His death till this day is a little bit of a mysteries, some actually believed he was whacked due to the fact that he was supposed to take the stand against the famous Sammy the Bull for murder, in turn those charges were dropped. 

A 6 foot 5 inch crazy sociopath, with an a abusive father and temper. The Iceman was a perfect hitman.

The Gambino's Family Muscle: Roy Demeo

Although not a boss or an under boss, Roy DeMeo is an important part of the Gambino Family.  During the 1970s, he was Paul Castellano's most trusted hit man; an ex-butcher who had the murder and disposal of "problems" down to an exact science. 

He was so good at his job even Castellano feared him, only meeting with him in person only if it was a must.  While he was a contract killer, he was also a legit nut job, and possibly a serial killer, as his and his crews 200+ victim body count stood to prove no remorse. 

Not only did he kill mobsters, he also killed those who were in the way.  He took real pleasure in killing, and dismembering bodies.  Another thing which made DeMeo a likely candidate for the "Serial Killers Hall of Fame" was his MO.  He would seldom deviate from his "assembly-line" methods, which he had converted from those of the butcher shop.  DeMeo would first shoot his victims in the head or stab them in the heart,  bleed them in the shower, then he would cut up the bodies into smaller "manageable" chunks, shove them into boxes to be disposed of at random locations.   

Roy DeMeo and his crew would carry out these gruesome killings in a clubhouse nicknamed "The Horror Hotel", sometimes eating their dinner while the bodies were being drained of blood in the shower.  But this type of activity that got more and more violent, and erratic, murdering for just about any reason they saw fit and it would eventually bring heat from his superiors, mainly Big Paul Castellano. 

Paul realized that DeMeo was drawing too much attention on from authorities so he put out a contract on him asking Nino Gaggi, DeMeo's closest friend and "collaborator", to take care of things.  Shortly thereafter, Roy DeMeo's body was found stuffed in the trunk of his car. Not since Albert Anastasia had the Gambino Family had such a vicious individual within its ranks, for DeMeo was not only a hit man, he was the authority on contract killing.

DeMeo was the muscle for Paul Castellano, his crew knew how to get get rid of people, they knew how to get the job done, get the job done right and make people disappear. But like with most mobster hit men, Demeo turned out to be more then what Paul could control and needed him gone to protect his family and himself. 

"Blown Money" Mob Edition--Pro- Mod

Thomas DeSimone (Two-Gun Tommy - Tommy-D) LUCCHESE FAMILY

Probably one of the most unphotographed mobsters

Portrayed by Joe Pesci, in the well known gangster flick "The Godfellas",  Tommy DeSimone ( Two-Gun Tommy or Tommy-D) was part of the Lucchese crime family and worked under a capo Paul Vario in the Lucchese family. Just like in the movie he was close friends with Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke, and between the three of them they joined together to lead criminal activities in New York for most of their life. 

From the words of Henry Hill, who the movie "The Goodfellas" was documented after, the FBI, ex-wife of Henry Hill and many other crime family associates all had the same thing to say about DeSimone, "Tommy was a nut job sociopath." Although he was always dressed in the most expensive clothes and drove flashy cars his family and himself lived in what most mobsters portrayed as a slum. Like a lot of low level mobsters he had more muscle than brains.





Tommy grew up as a gangster, his whole family was involved in the underworld one way or another. His sister was Dolores and his two brothers were Gambino crime family associate Robert DeSimone and Gambino associate Anthony DeSimone, murdered by mobster Thomas Agro in 1979. He was the brother-in-law of mobster Joseph "The Barber" Spione, who was slain for refusing to help kill DeSimone in the late 1970s. His sister Phyllis was Jimmy Burke's mistress since she was sixteen years old. He is the ex-father-in-law of Gambino crime family associate Salvatore DeVita.

His father owned and lost a printing shop due to a compulsive gambling addiction. Both DeSimone's grandfather, Rosario DeSimone, and uncle, Frank DeSimone, were bosses of the Los Angeles crime family. DeSimone's paternal grandfather Rosario DeSimone was the boss of the Los Angeles crime family after Vito Di Giorgio was killed in Chicago in 1922. DeSimone's paternal uncle, Frank DeSimone, was a criminal attorney-turned-mobster; "Uncle Frank" (as he was known) replaced Jack Dragna in 1956 after the latter's death, becoming the second DeSimone family member to become Los Angeles crime family boss.

DeSimone was alleged to have taken part in the December 1978 Lufthansa heist from JFK International Airport, the largest robbery in U.S. history at the time. The loot is reputed to have amounted to almost $6,000,000, of which only a fraction was recovered. DeSimone was spotted because he had very well-polished shoes, too well polished for an airport employee. He was the one who suggested recruiting his ex-cell mate Angelo Sepe for the heist.


DeSimone then murdered Parnell "Stacks" Edwards. DeSimone was a good friend of Stacks and was disappointed to hear that he had failed to get rid of the truck used in the Lufthansa Heist in New Jersey, where the evidence would be destroyed. When DeSimone was told by a ranking mafioso that he could become a made man because of this hit, he agreed. Once he found out where Stacks was hiding, he visited Stacks and shot him six times in the chest and head with a silenced pistol.


The sad truth is about Tommy is that if he was not such a nut job, with as many family ties in he had in the underworld,  he probably could have eventually took the rank of a capo after he was made. But in the end the famous John Gotti order someone from his crew to set up Tommy and had him whacked. As crazy as Tommy was he stepped over the line when he helped kill a made man in the Gambino family that was part of John Gotti's crew. With the approval of capo Paul Vario, Tommy was set-up to think he was going to earn the honor of being a made men in the mafia, but instead was shot once in the back of the head and in the face for the murder of a made man with no permission, the murder of another man part of Gotti's crew and being for identifiable in the Lufthansa heist. 


Although Burke and Henry, were both also involved in the Killing of William "Billy Batts" Bentvena, the made member that was killed from Gotti's crew that got Tommy killed, there life's were spared because they were making a lot of money for the mob.

Tommy's body has has yet to be recovered, there is two different theories to what happened to him, both of which have yet to be confirmed. One thing is for sure, everyone seems to have the same opinion of him. He was a bad egg. A sociopath with no conscience.  He was a foul mouth, unpredictable, dangerous individual with the shortest of tempers. If anything, the mob did themselves a favor by getting rid of the hot head and if they would have got to Henry before the FBI did then Jimmy Burke and Paul Vario probably would have died on the outside and not in prison.