Read Online The Battle for Las Vegas: The Law vs. The Mob by Dennis Griffin - Free Book Online Page B

future. In the years following, Manzie’s addiction continued and he ran up gambling debts at some of the Outfit-controlled casinos. In December 1976, Manzie was found murdered in his Las Vegas home, shot in the head at close range by a small-caliber handgun. His killing was never solved.
    By the middle of June, after 79 days of wiretaps, 8,000 conversations had been recorded on 298 tapes. The FBI had amassed enough evidence to obtain search warrants for 83 locations. On June 19, the warrants were executed simultaneously, one of them at the Gold Rush. As agents converged on his store, Tony Spilotro bolted out the door and headed for his home a short distance away. Arriving at the house a few steps ahead of the G-men, he said he wouldn’t admit them until his lawyer arrived. The standoff lasted long enough for Tony to contact his attorney, Oscar Goodman, and to make sure certain incriminating items disappeared. In his biography Of Rats and Men , Goodman is quoted as saying of his client’s actions that day, “He ran into his house ... and there was plenty in the home the FBI would have been interested in ... but Tony held them at bay. He held sixteen FBI agents at bay all by himself while things were happening in the house to make sure that they came up with zip, which was exactly what they came up with.”
    According to the Los Angeles Times , though, the searches, including the one of Tony’s house, were productive. Agents described the Gold Rush as “a veritable warehouse of stolen property” and said that a large percentage of its inventory came from a nationwide burglary and fencing ring. Some 4,000 pieces of jewelry were seized from the store, of which 1,400 were later identified as being stolen.
    From Tony’s house, the police removed communications equipment, a handgun, handcuffs, stock certificates, confidential police intelligence reports, $6,000 in cash, even a private investigator’s report on Lefty Rosenthal’s activities.
    The raid on John Spilotro’s house produced $196,045 in paper money, as well as financial records. Safety-deposit boxes belonging to the Spilotro brothers, Herb Blitzstein, and the Gold Rush contained rare coins in mint condition, $20 gold pieces, jewelry, bonds, and $40,000 in cash.
    The feds had collected a lot of stuff, items that might have led to convictions and prison time for Tony and his boys. That was not to be, though. A U.S. magistrate later ruled that the raiding agents had gone far beyond the scope authorized in the search warrants and that nearly all the evidence gathered was inadmissible. Chalk up another victory for the Ant. But a downside arrived later in the year: In October, Tony’s name was added to Nevada’s Black Book, barring him from all casinos.
    As for the two rogue cops, after the raids Blasko was fired and overtly went to work for Spilotro. Leone retired for health reasons and moved back to New Jersey. Both men were later indicted for their actions, but neither stood trial. Charges against Leone were dropped due to his deteriorating health. Blasko’s case was dismissed due to evidentiary problems.
    The impact of the resulting scandal, however, was far-reaching within the law-enforcement community. Other agencies treated the Vegas police like lepers, refusing to interact with them. National organizations declined to grant the locals membership because of their apparent inability to protect sensitive intelligence information. But the cops weren’t the only ones with image problems. The FBI’s Las Vegas office had also come under fire for alleged inappropriate conduct.
    Compromising Comps
    Starting in the late 1960s, the word within federal law-enforcement circles was that agents working out of the FBI’s Las Vegas office were “freeloading” all over town. They were reportedly receiving free meals and drinks from the very individuals and casinos they were supposed to be investigating or keeping an eye on.
    Richard Crane, head of the federal