Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster and Government Witness (2 page)

Las Vegas law enforcement was aware of the mob’s presence and the need to rid the streets and casinos of its influence and corruption. But the two agencies with the primary responsibility of battling the criminals—the FBI and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department—were experiencing their own difficulties. The feds had image problems due to agents accepting comped meals and shows from the casinos they were supposed to be monitoring. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was sent into chaos in 1978 when FBI wiretaps recorded two of its detectives providing information to the mobsters. But changes were on the way. The FBI began importing fresh troops from other offices to replace agents who were either reassigned or took early retirement as a result of the fallout from the comp scandal. And in November 1978, the voters of Clark County elected a new sheriff, a reformer who vowed to clean up Metro’s Intelligence Bureau and declared war on organized crime. It wasn’t long after the new sheriff took office in 1979 that the two agencies began to cooperate and launched a full-court press against their organized-crime foes.

Also in 1979, there was a personnel change on the criminal side. A career thief, arsonist, and killer from Chicago arrived in Vegas to take charge of the mob’s street crimes. That man was Frank Cullotta.

Cullotta had been invited to Sin City by the Outfit’s man on the scene, Tony “the Ant” Spilotro. Cullotta’s friendship with Spilotro dated back to their days as young toughs and thieves on the mean streets of the Windy City. His duties included assembling and overseeing a gang of burglars, robbers, arsonists, and killers. The crew Cullotta put together became known as the Hole in the Wall Gang, because of their method of breaking into buildings by making holes in the walls or roofs. In addition to stealing, the gang provided muscle in enforcement matters and otherwise did Spilotro’s bidding. For the next three years, Tony, Frank, and their crew ruled the Las Vegas underworld.

During that time the battle between law enforcement and the mobsters ebbed and flowed, with victories and setbacks for both sides and no apparent winner. But in 1982, a 1979 murder and a failed 1981 burglary contributed to a major turning point in the war: Frank Cullotta, Spilotro’s lifelong friend and trusted lieutenant, switched sides and became a government witness. Suddenly, the law had a source who not only knew the workings of the gang from the inside, but was willing to talk about it.

Having a cooperating witness with Cullotta’s knowledge could provide the government with the breakthrough it needed to bust the mob’s back, but only if his information was credible. It was a sure thing that any criminal defense attorney would challenge Cullotta’s veracity. It would certainly be brought out during any court proceedings that the government’s chief witness was a career criminal and an admitted killer, a man who had made a deal with prosecutors in order to obtain a lighter sentence. Under those circumstances, how much value would Cullotta actually be?

To address those issues, government lawyers decided not to use any information Cullotta imparted to them or their investigators as the basis for charges or in court, unless it was double- or triple-checked for accuracy. The man assigned the task of determining Cullotta’s truthfulness was Dennis Arnoldy, the FBI’s Las Vegas case agent for the Spilotro investigations.

For the next five years, Arnoldy debriefed the erstwhile gangster, obtaining the intimate details of life inside Spilotro’s crime ring, and transported him to appearances before various grand juries, courts, and commissions. During that time a personal relationship developed between the two men that continues today.

In my book
The Battle for Las Vegas—The Law vs. the Mob
, I told the story of Spilotro’s Las Vegas years primarily from the law-enforcement perspective. That book contained many insights that were disclosed to the general public for the first time. While researching
Battle
, I had the opportunity to talk with Frank Cullotta and became convinced that his life story would be a fascinating read and provide the other side of the Las Vegas mob story. It turned out that Frank had already been having the same thoughts.

Now, he has taken this opportunity to tell the tale. Some people, including his own brother and sister, might not be pleased to see it in print. But Frank believes that this is the only venue available to him to get his account on the record. In these pages, he discloses criminal activities for which he has either received immunity or the statute of limitations has long since expired. The story takes the reader beyond
Battle
and into the often dangerous, sometimes humorous, but always exciting real-life world of cops and robbers.

This book is by no means an attempt to make excuses for Frank’s conduct. He did what he did, he is what he is. It’s highly unlikely that this straight-from-the-shoulder account of his career as a criminal will make him a candidate for sainthood.

The story begins with Frank’s early years growing up in Chicago, where he embarked on his decades-long career as a criminal. As Frank advanced from juvenile crimes into burglary and armed robbery, he met and became friends with other hooligans, one of whom was Tony Spilotro. The two men again joined forces in Las Vegas, where Frank was Tony’s main man.

Although Spilotro got most of the notoriety, it will become clear here that Frank was an accomplished criminal in his own right. He planned and carried out the most daring robberies and burglaries committed by the Hole in the Wall Gang. In addition to thieving, Frank and his crew served as Tony’s enforcers, shaking down bookies and drug dealers and plotting or committing murders.

To get a feel for the two men and their relationship, Frank relates some of their individual and joint escapades in Chicago, including the true circumstances behind the so-called M&M murders. The movie
Casino
contains a scene based on those killings, in which actor Joe Pesci’s character places a man’s head in a vise and squeezes until the victim’s eye pops out.

Next Frank takes us to Las Vegas and tells the real story of life inside Spilotro’s Sin City gang, their battles with the law, and why he switched sides. Dennis Arnoldy adds insights from the law’s perspective, providing the reader with the unique opportunity of examining specific events from opposing viewpoints.

If you’re a true-crime or organized-crime enthusiast, a
Casino
fan, or simply interested in Las Vegas history, I don’t think you’ll come away disappointed from reading
Cullotta
.

At approximately 4:30 a.m. on October 11, 1979, a dead man was found floating face down in the swimming pool of his residence at 2303 Rawhide Avenue in Las Vegas. He’d been shot in the head several times by a small-caliber handgun. The corpse was that of 46-year-old Sherwin “Jerry” Lisner. His wife Jeannie, a cocktail waitress at the Aladdin, found the body. She’d left work early, after becoming concerned when her husband failed to answer her telephone calls, and made the grisly discovery.

According to investigating police officers, Lisner had put up quite a fight. Bullet holes were discovered throughout the dwelling and blood was found on the walls and floor leading from the garage, through the residence, and out to the pool. Although the house had been ransacked, the cops didn’t believe robbery or burglary was the motive. They declined to speculate on the reason Lisner was killed, but they did have a theory on how the murder went down. The killer knocked on the garage door, surprising Lisner. When he answered the knock, the shooting started. Although wounded, the victim attempted to escape his assailant, running through his home with the would-be killer in close pursuit and bullets flying. After a valiant effort to survive, Lisner’s luck ran out when he reached the pool. No murder weapon was found and no suspect named.

But the police had their suspicions on the why and who of it. They knew that the dead man had mob connections and was in legal trouble. He’d been arrested by the FBI on July 11 and charged with interstate transportation of stolen property, aiding and abetting, grand larceny, and conspiracy. Free on $75,000 bail, Lisner was scheduled to go on trial October 29 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

Lisner was also believed to have been acquainted with Chicago Outfit enforcer and Las Vegas organized-crime kingpin Tony Spilotro. And it was rumored that the deceased had been negotiating with the FBI to work out a deal in the federal cases pending against him in Washington. Could those negotiations have included providing incriminating information against Spilotro, one of the FBI’s prime targets?

Metro investigators knew all this and suspected that Spilotro might well be behind the killing. However, they couldn’t immediately prove their suspicions and kept their thoughts to themselves.

As it turned out, the cops were pretty close to the truth in their idea of what occurred at Lisner’s house that night. But they were wrong about Lisner being surprised by the arrival of his killer; he’d expected him. And the victim had drawn his last breath in his living room, not outside by the pool.

There was no error, however, in law-enforcement’s belief that Tony Spilotro was behind the murder. When the soon-to-be dead man answered his door that evening, he invited his murderer inside. In a matter of moments the visitor began to fire a total of ten bullets aimed at his host’s head, with several finding their mark. The assassin wasn’t Tony Spilotro himself, but he was there at Tony’s behest. The man was Spilotro’s trusted associate who ran a crew of burglars and robbers known as the Hole in the Wall Gang. His name? Frank Cullotta.

Frank Cullotta was born in Chicago on December 14, 1938, the son of Joseph and Josephine Cullotta. He had two siblings: older sister Jean and a younger brother Joseph. The family lived in a working-class and mostly Italian neighborhood called the Patch. His father had a unique job. He drove the work car—getaway car— for his crew of burglars and robbers. Joe Cullotta exhibited a cold businesslike demeanor to all, including his family. He also had a violent temper. Any love and warmth the children experienced in the Cullotta household came from Josephine.

Joe Cullotta, age 38, was killed when the car he was driving crashed during a high-speed police chase when Frank was about nine years old. In addition to his own memories, as Frank grew up relatives and associates of his father told him story after story of Joe’s exploits and expertise as a criminal. The elder Cullotta was considered by friend and foe to have been the best wheel man in Chicago. He was also highly dangerous, capable of mayhem and murder. Josephine Cullotta herself never discussed her husband’s criminal activities with her children, either before or after his death. She limited her comments about him to simply saying that he was a good man. But Frank witnessed his father slap his mother around on more than one occasion. And Joe’s violence toward his family wasn’t limited to his wife; the children were also victims of his anger.

One of the things that set Joe off was when one of the kids got a bad report card. Josephine made an effort to keep that kind of news from her husband, but if he did find out, there was hell to pay. On one occasion when Frank brought home a derogatory report, Joe got wind of it and went into a rage. Josephine tried to calm her husband, to no avail. Frank dove under his bed as his father headed toward him.

At that point his sister intervened. “I’m not going to let you hurt him, Dad,” she said, stepping in front of her father to block his path.

Joe Cullotta glared at his daughter in disbelief. “Oh yeah? Here,” he snarled, as he kicked her and sent her sprawling down the stairs. Although she suffered the consequences, Jean’s heroic action saved Frank from a beating.

Joe Cullotta’s ferocity wasn’t limited to his family. Young Frank personally witnessed his father in action in a situation that today would be called road rage. He was with his father driving on North Avenue when a couple of guys in another car got under Joe’s skin. One of them spit out their window and some of it got on the Cullotta vehicle. Joe flew into a maniacal rage. He chased the other car down the street and ran it up on the curb. He then dragged the two occupants out and beat them senseless.

In spite of Joe’s lack of affection and propensity for violence, he was a good provider for his family. He made sure they never wanted for anything. The Cullottas had new furniture every year and the kids had the best toys. Frank didn’t learn until later that virtually everything his father provided was stolen.

The law was often on Joe Cullotta’s tail. When the family was living on the east side near Grand and Ogden, a few doors from future Outfit boss Tony Accardo, Frank came home from school one day and found a police detective sitting in his house. His mother neither acknowledged the stranger nor provided an explanation as to why he was there. That cop stayed for several hours, then left when another one replaced him. This routine continued for several days. To add to the mystery, Joe Cullotta had apparently gone missing. If his wife knew where he was, she wasn’t saying.

After about a week, the cops stopped coming and Joe Cullotta made his appearance. It turned out that Frank’s father was a suspect in the robbery of the
Chicago Tribune
. He and his crew got away before the police arrived, but a witness had identified them. Joe was eventually captured and charged in that robbery, but he beat the case in court.

In spite of Joe Cullotta’s sometimes abusive behavior toward his wife and children, Frank came to idolize his father and admire his success as a criminal. That adoration contributed to Frank’s decision to follow in his footsteps. And once he started down that path, there was no turning back.