Cullotta

From burglary to armed robbery and murder, infamous bad guy Frank Cullotta not only did it all, in Cullotta he admits to it -- and in graphic detail. This no-holds-barred biography chronicles the life of a career criminal who started out as a thug on the streets of Chicago and became a trusted lieutenant in Tony Spilotro's gang of organised lawbreakers in Las Vegas. Cullotta's was a world of high-profile heists, street muscle, and information -- lots of it -- about many of the FBI's most wanted. In the end, that information was his ticket out of crime, as he turned government witness and became one of a handful of mob insiders to enter the Witness Protection Program.

The Chicago organized crime family known as the 'Outfit' dates back to the reign of the infamous Al Capone and prohibition. As the years passed and prohibition was repealed, Outfit bosses had to adapt and seek new ways to make money illegally. One of those was the expanding gambling and entertainment oasis in the desert: Las Vegas. A lot of cash passed through the Vegas casinos and the mobsters devised a way to get some of it, using a process that came to be known as 'the skim.' To protect their interests, the Outfit sent an enforcer to Sin City in 1971 He was to make sure their casino operations ran smoothly and deal with interlopers, employees who were skimming the skim and other troublemakers, by any means necessary. His name was Tony Spilotro. To help him run his empire Tony imported several heavies from Chicago. Among them was his childhood friend Frank Cullotta, who would function as Tony's street lieutenant. His assignment was to assemble a crew of thieves, arsonists and killers to provide muscle for Tony as necessary, and carry out lucrative burglaries that Tony brought to their attention. Frank and his crew were dubbed by the news media as the Hole in the Wall Gang. The Spilotro era in Vegas was dramatized in the 1995 blockbuster movie Casino, in which Joe Pesci played a character based on Spilotro. Character actor Frank Vincent played 'Frankie' based on Frank Cullotta. The real Frank Cullotta was a technical consultant to the film and appeared in several scenes as a hit man. As screenwriter Nick Pileggi said, 'Without Frank Cullotta there would have been no Casino.' In 'The Rise and Fall' of Tony Spilotro, Frank tells the true story of Tony Spilotro, his rise up the ladder to become an Outfit boss, his subsequent fall from power and murder at the hands of the Outfit. Frank also talks about the many murders Tony committed, ordered or planned. In several instances Frank names the killers in cases that are officially unsolved. It's a story that only Frank Cullotta could tell.

The mobster portrayed in Casino “swaps his gun and fedora for an apron and chef’s hat and shares the recipes for some of his favorite dishes.” —Nicholas Pileggi, #1 New York Times–bestselling author and screenwriter of Casino Includes over 40 color photographs Frank Cullotta was best known for his exploits as an associate of the Chicago Outfit and his role as Tony Spilotro’s enforcer and street lieutenant in Las Vegas. However, he had another interest besides crime. He loved to cook. In this book he shares some of his favorite recipes for your eating pleasure. Dennis Griffin first met Cullotta in 2005, and the two became close friends and co-authors of four books, including the bestseller The Rise and Fall of a 'Casino' Mobster. As Cullotta’s health failed, he was determined to bring their final collaboration into the world. The result is this collection of anecdotes, photos, and recipes—from the pizza served at the Las Vegas restaurant Cullotta opened (using stolen money) in 1979 to the mostaccioli his mom made and much more. “I have known Frank Cullotta since he served as a technical consultant for the movie Casino. Frank’s reputation is primarily that of a master criminal and an enforcer for Chicago Outfit mobster Tony Spilotro. While that is true, he also had a softer side that few people knew about. He loved to cook . . . If you like to prepare and eat delicious meals, this is the book for you.” —Nicholas Pileggi

In Being Oscar,one of America’s most celebrated criminal defense attorneys recounts the stories and cases of his epic life. The Mafia’s go-to defender, he has tried an estimated 300 criminal cases, and won most of them. His roster of clients reads like a history of organized crime: Meyer Lansky, Nicky Scarfo, and “Lefty” Rosenthal, as well as Mike Tyson and boxing promoter Don King, along with a midget, a dentist, and a federal judge. After thirty-five years as a defender, he ran for mayor of Las Vegas, and America’s greatest Mob lawyer became the mayor of its sexiest city. He was so popular his image appeared on the 5, 25, and 100 chips. While mayor of Vegas, he starred on the screen in Rush Hour 2 and CSI. He is as large a character in the history of organized crime as any of his clients and as legendary a figure in the history of Las Vegas as the entrepreneurs (his friends and clients) who built the city. This is his astonishing story—the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Former Chicago police officer and mafia associate Fred Pascente is the man who links Tony Spilotro, a central character in Nicholas Pileggi's Casino and one of Chicago's most notorious mob figures, to William Hanhardt, chief of detectives of the Chicago Police Department. Pascente and Spilotro grew up together on Chicago's Near West Side, and as young toughs they were rousted and shaken down by Hanhardt. While Spilotro became one of the youngest made men in Chicago Outfit history, Pascente was drafted into the army and then joined the police department. Soon taken under Hanhardt's wing, Pascente served as Hanhardt's fixer and bagman on the department for more than a decade. At the same time, Pascente remained close to Spilotro, making frequent trips to Las Vegas to party with his old friend while helping to rob the casinos blind. Mob Cop tells about the decline of traditional organized crime in the United States, and it reveals information about the inner workings of the Outfit that have never been publicly released. Fred Pascente's positions as an insider on both the criminal and law enforcement fronts make this story a matchless tell-all. Fred Pascente was a Chicago police officer for twenty-six years and a professional thief with close ties to the mafia. He died in 2014. Sam Reaves is the author of ten novels and has served as president of the Midwest chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.

Sin City Gangsters: The Rise and Decline of the Mob in Las Vegas is a fast-paced account of how the mob created and controlled Las Vegas. It contains accounts of how the most powerful mobsters in the country built, bought, and controlled not only gambling casinos in Vegas, but also many important politicians, who did the mob’s bidding. Some of the more notorious mobsters were Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Moe Dalitz, Sam Giancana, Tony Accardo, and Nick Civella, as well as the men they chose to carry out their plans, such as Tony Spilotro, Lefty Rosenthal, and Donald Angelini. Sin City Gangsters devotes a chapter to Jimmy Hoffa, and how the Teamsters Pension Fund financed the mob’s casinos. The book also offers fascinating accounts of the roles of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley in Vegas. Another chapter is devoted to Howard Hughes, who arrived in the dead of night in a sealed, germ-free railroad car and did not leave his suite at the Desert Inn for years. During that time he bought one casino after another as if playing Monopoly. Following his exit and that of the mob, Vegas became the domain of Jay Sarno, Kirk Kerkorian, Steve Wynn, and Sheldon Adelson. They were visionaries who transformed Vegas into the entertainment capital of the world by building billion-dollars-plus resorts and hiring the most popular contemporary entertainers. Sin City Gangsters is the only book that charts Vegas from the first modest mob-owned casinos to the present billion-dollar-resorts; its cast of characters is an assembly of exceedingly ambitious risk takers who let nothing stand in their way of turning their dreams into stunning realities.