Organized Crime

September 15, 2005

Tony Spilotro (Courtesy LVMPD)

The introduction to Griffin's book entitled The Battle for Las Vegas — The Law vs. the Mob. The book chronicles the wide-ranging, criminal exploits of Chicago Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro, the mobster portrayed by Joe Pesci in the movie Casino, and law enforcement's belabored efforts to oust the Mafia from Vegas. It is told in large part by the former FBI agents and detectives who fought the war against Spilotro and his Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. The book is scheduled for publication by Huntington Press in early 2006.

by Dennis N. Griffin

Introduction

Mobster "Bugsy" Siegel is generally acknowledged as being the first member of organized crime to establish a major mob presence in Las Vegas. That occurred in the 1940s, when he took control of an unfinished hotel/casino construction project located on what would become known as the Strip. That property was the Flamingo. Siegel, financed with several million dollars of organized crime money from back east, saw the Flamingo through to completion. After a shaky start, the casino began to turn a profit. But some of Bugsy's financial backers had become suspicious of how he was spending their money. And the handsome, but volatile, gangster had shot his mouth off to some very dangerous people, including New York City boss "Lucky" Luciano. The Flamingo's improving financial picture wasn't enough to save Siegel from the mob's version of early retirement. On June 20, 1947, the 41-year-old was gunned down at his girlfriend's Beverly Hills home. Bugsy was dead, but the mob knew there was the potential to make some big money in Vegas. As the oasis in the desert transitioned into the gambling and entertainment capital of the world, more mobsters and their money poured in.

During those years organized crime considered Las Vegas to be an open city. Crime families from across the country were welcome to operate there, and many did. But the dominant group was the Chicago Outfit. In the 1970s, Chicago and its colleagues in Kansas City, Milwaukee and Cleveland were using Sin City as a cash cow. Commonly referred to as the "skim," unreported revenue from certain casinos was making its way out of Vegas by the bag full, and ending up in the coffers of the crime bosses in those four locations.

June 15, 2003

This is the prologue to the book The Bullet or the Bribe: Taking Down Colombia's Cali Drug Cartel by Ron Chepesiuk, the story of the rise of the powerful Cali Cartel and the long and often frustrating campaign that U.S. and international law enforcement waged to take it down. The book details the cartel's rise to international prominence and the lifestyles of its godfathers, its efforts to buy Colombia, its death struggle with legendary Colombian drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, its brilliant strategy to portray itself as the kinder, gentler drug cartel from Colombia, and the mistakes that ultimately led to the crumbling of its well-oiled organization. The book will be published by Praeger, a member of the Greenwood Publishing Group, in the fall of 2003.

 by Ron Chepesiuk

Prologue:

"It's similar to, maybe, baking a cake."
 — David Karasiewski, Forensic Chemist, DEA 

 The call that launched the biggest drug trafficking investigation in New York State Police (NYSP) history came on April 12, 1985. Bob Sears, a DEA agent in the Albany office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), groped for the switch on the bed lamp and squinted at the alarm clock on the end table. It was a little past 2 a.m. Sears fumbled with the phone and blurted: "This better be important."

The caller was Ken Cook, a friend for years, but Cook was also an investigator assigned to the Major Crime Units of Troop Six, NYSP, and he had worked with Sears on many joint investigations. This was no social call.

"There has been an explosion at a farm house in Minden," Cook explained. "We don´t know what happened. It could be a bomb factory...a meth lab. Barrels of chemicals are all over the place. It´s a mess. Maybe the DEA needs to go out and take a look." ¹

Sears yawned and rubbed his warm bed. He had a better idea. "Come on, Ken, it´s almost morning. Can´t we sleep on it ´til tomorrow?" ²

But Cook persisted. "No, we need to go out there tonight while the scene is still hot." Sears knew well what Cook meant. Often, he would go out to a crime scene only to find that some young cop fresh out of the academy had left his hoof and paw prints all over the place. ³

July 11, 2009 Updated Feb. 23, 2010

Frank Sinatra

Both Nixon and Sinatra had deep ties to the Mafia. It was only natural that after President John Kennedy dumped Sinatra that Ole Blue Eyes hooked up with the biggest politician in the Mob’s pocket. Sinatra hung around with Nixon and Vice President Agnew so much he even acquired a Secret Service code name, “Napoleon.”

by Don Fulsom

John Kennedy banished Frank Sinatra from Camelot when the singer’s Mafia ties clashed with the President’s crackdown on organized crime. But those well-documented ties didn’t keep President Richard Nixon—a big recipient of Mob payoffs—from wooing the popular crooner away from the Democratic Party.

The courtship actually started with Nixon’s unsavory vice president, Spiro Agnew—who first got together with Sinatra during the Thanksgiving holiday in 1970. They enjoyed each other’s company so much that Agnew became a regular houseguest at Frank’s (Palm Springs) place, and made 18 visits in the months that followed. 

 The two men played golf together, dined out, talked through the night in Frank’s den, and on one occasion watched the porn movie Deep Throat together.  Frank’s guest quarters, once remodeled for John F. Kennedy, were eventually renamed “Agnew House,” according to Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan in Sinatra:  The Life.

Charles Gregory “Bebe” Rebozo and Richard Nixon

Bebe Rebozo came in and out of the Nixon White House as he pleased, without being logged in by the Secret Service. At 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he had his own private office with a telephone and a designated bedroom always at his disposal. He was both Nixon’s best friend and his bag man to the Mafia and Howard Hughes.

by Don Fulsom

When Richard Nixon was president, a disreputable character named Charles Gregory “Bebe” Rebozo (a.k.a. Charles Gregory) all but lived in the White House. Not known beyond the executive mansion at that time—or to most people even now—Rebozo had working and sleeping quarters there. And he was plugged into the White House switchboard, which knew how to reach him anywhere at any time.

Rebozo was not a high-ranking government employee who deserved or required such free space or services. In fact, the only government entity that knew much about Bebe was the FBI, which said he was cozy with Mafia biggies—especially Tampa Godfather Santos Trafficante and Alfred (“Big Al”) Polizzi of Cleveland.  Big Al was a drug trafficker associated with the Syndicate’s financial genius, Meyer Lansky.  In 1964, the Bureau of Narcotics branded Polizzi “one of the most influential members of the underworld in the United States.”

Aug 21, 2009

J. Edgar Hoover

J. Edgar’s Hoover’s homosexuality compromised him and made him vulnerable to blackmail by the Mafia.  Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s crackdown on the Mob put Hoover between a rock and a hard place.

by Don Fulsom

J. Edgar Hoover was in the hip pocket of America’s godfathers, reputedly because they had pictorial proof of his homosexuality.  So the FBI director put the Mafia on a low level of his crime-fighting priorities. That is until 1961, when John and Robert Kennedy put potent muscle behind the government’s drive against organized crime—and Hoover reluctantly began paying more than just lip service to battling the Mob.

As President John F. Kennedy’s attorney general, Robert Kennedy became a menace to the Mafia—and his take-no-prisoners tactics trickled down not only to Hoover, but also to top local and state cops, district attorneys and judges.

March 8, 2009

The Return of the Irish-American Gangster to the Silver Screen

by Steven Gerald Farrell

When The Godfather was released in the early 1970s, it effectively created a myth of the virtually unbeatable Italian crime family for the American public that endured for the remainder of the century. The film also effectively eliminated all other white ethnic organized gangs from the silver screen, as well as from the public's eye. But Hollywood had its history wrong in this case: The Italian Mafia was never as invincible nor did the "families" always have everything their own way when it came to illegal activities. It wasn't until the close of the last century that the film industry began to expose the old-time hoods as being fallible and besieged on all sides from new criminal elements connected with newly arrived immigrant groups. The Cubans, Russians and the Colombian hoods, along with the longer established black and Mexican-American gangs, had begun to nibble away at the turf long controlled by the almighty Italian mob.

As the paradigm of the urban underworld began to shift to reflect the new realities of the global economy, another look at the past by historians and Hollywood is revealing that the Italian gang never had absolute power as it was once commonly believed. The Irish hoodlums were actually engaged in gangland activities years before the arrival of the Italians and the Irish also competed with the Italians up until recently.