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Authors: Gordon Kerr
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jewellery store and ‘electronics factory’, but was mainly a place for the trio to fence stolen goods. It became the HQ of a gang Spilotro put together with his boyhood friend Frank Culotta, which became known as the Hole in the Wall Gang, due to their habit of stealing jewellery from stores by drilling a hole in the wall. The gang consisted of Spilotro, his brother Michael, Samuel and Joseph Cusumano, Ernesto ‘Ernie’ Davino, Lawrence ‘Crazy Larry’ Neumann, Wayne Matecki, Salvatore ‘Sonny’ Romano, Leonardo ‘Leo’ Guardino, Frank Culotta, Herbert ‘Fat Herbie’ Blitzstein and former Las Vegas detective Joseph Blasko. Culotta, Blasko, Guardino, Neumann and Matecki were all arrested while carrying out a robbery on Bertha’s Household Products in July 1982.
Another of Spilotro’s hits was brutal in the extreme. William ‘Action’ Jackson worked as a loan-shark enforcer for Sam DeStefano. Following his indictment on a hijacking charge, he was seen with FBI agents in a Milwaukee restaurant and DeStefano surmised that he had cut a deal with the FBI in return for a lighter sentence. Spilotro was enlisted to deal with Jackson and he abducted him, driving him to a meat-packing plant in Chicago. There, he hung him by a meat-hook which had been inserted in his rectum. Spilotro tortured him further by smashing both his knees with a hammer and prodding his genitals with an electric cattle prod. Jackson was left to die and it took him three days.
By the early 1980s, however, drugs were beginning to play an increasing role in Spilotro’s life. He had also been having an affair with Frank Rosenthal’s wife, Geri. In addition to the troubles piling up around him, testimony by Aladena ‘Jimmy The Weasel’ Fratianno, following his arrest in 1977, ensured that the name of Anthony Spilotro was registered in the Black Book. This was the list of people who were legally banned from casinos, either because they were known to be associated with organised crime or because they were known gambling cheats. When Spilotro’s name was put in the book and he was no longer able to set foot in any of Vegas’s casinos, he was furious. Not as furious, however, as the new boss of the Chicago crime family, Joe Ferriola. The blacklisting from the casinos he was supposed to be supervising, the high profile jewel robberies, the drugs, sleeping with an associate’s wife – these were not the type of activities the Mob condoned.
Ferriola decided that it was time that Tony ‘the Ant’ was taken care of.
Sam ‘Wings’ Carlisito called Spilotro and his brother Michael to a meeting at a hunting lodge in Indiana, owned by Joey Aiuppa. There, the Spilotros were savagely beaten and buried in a cornfield.
In September 2007, after a trial lasting three months, Joey ‘the Clown’ Lombardo, 78, James ‘Little Jimmy’ Marcello, 65, Frank Calabrese Sr, 70, and Paul ‘The Indian’ Schiro, 70, were found guilty of the murder of Anthony Spilotro. The convictions, which also included racketeering, loan sharking, extortion and 17 other murders, followed the admission of Nicholas Calabrese that he had helped to kill Spilotro 30 years previously.
In the film Casino , the Spilotro brothers are buried alive after being severely beaten. In reality, said Calabrese, the brothers were killed before being buried. He told the trial about Spilotro’s demise: ‘He came into the basement and there were a whole bunch of guys who grabbed him and strangled him and beat him to death . . . Tony put up a fight. He kept saying, “You guys are going to get in trouble, you guys are going to get in trouble”.’
Roy Demeo And The Gemini Crew
A recipe for murder:
First take your victim. Make him feel relaxed by plying him with booze in the Gemini Lounge. Then lure him through the side door – game of poker, bit of food, women; anything will do, most people are weak for something – and into the apartment that joins on to the building out back.
Another of Spilotro’s hits was brutal in the extreme. William ‘Action’ Jackson worked as a loan-shark enforcer for Sam DeStefano. Following his indictment on a hijacking charge, he was seen with FBI agents in a Milwaukee restaurant and DeStefano surmised that he had cut a deal with the FBI in return for a lighter sentence. Spilotro was enlisted to deal with Jackson and he abducted him, driving him to a meat-packing plant in Chicago. There, he hung him by a meat-hook which had been inserted in his rectum. Spilotro tortured him further by smashing both his knees with a hammer and prodding his genitals with an electric cattle prod. Jackson was left to die and it took him three days.
By the early 1980s, however, drugs were beginning to play an increasing role in Spilotro’s life. He had also been having an affair with Frank Rosenthal’s wife, Geri. In addition to the troubles piling up around him, testimony by Aladena ‘Jimmy The Weasel’ Fratianno, following his arrest in 1977, ensured that the name of Anthony Spilotro was registered in the Black Book. This was the list of people who were legally banned from casinos, either because they were known to be associated with organised crime or because they were known gambling cheats. When Spilotro’s name was put in the book and he was no longer able to set foot in any of Vegas’s casinos, he was furious. Not as furious, however, as the new boss of the Chicago crime family, Joe Ferriola. The blacklisting from the casinos he was supposed to be supervising, the high profile jewel robberies, the drugs, sleeping with an associate’s wife – these were not the type of activities the Mob condoned.
Ferriola decided that it was time that Tony ‘the Ant’ was taken care of.
Sam ‘Wings’ Carlisito called Spilotro and his brother Michael to a meeting at a hunting lodge in Indiana, owned by Joey Aiuppa. There, the Spilotros were savagely beaten and buried in a cornfield.
In September 2007, after a trial lasting three months, Joey ‘the Clown’ Lombardo, 78, James ‘Little Jimmy’ Marcello, 65, Frank Calabrese Sr, 70, and Paul ‘The Indian’ Schiro, 70, were found guilty of the murder of Anthony Spilotro. The convictions, which also included racketeering, loan sharking, extortion and 17 other murders, followed the admission of Nicholas Calabrese that he had helped to kill Spilotro 30 years previously.
In the film Casino , the Spilotro brothers are buried alive after being severely beaten. In reality, said Calabrese, the brothers were killed before being buried. He told the trial about Spilotro’s demise: ‘He came into the basement and there were a whole bunch of guys who grabbed him and strangled him and beat him to death . . . Tony put up a fight. He kept saying, “You guys are going to get in trouble, you guys are going to get in trouble”.’
Roy Demeo And The Gemini Crew
A recipe for murder:
First take your victim. Make him feel relaxed by plying him with booze in the Gemini Lounge. Then lure him through the side door – game of poker, bit of food, women; anything will do, most people are weak for something – and into the apartment that joins on to the building out back.
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