The Movable Buffet

Dispatches from Las Vegas
by Richard Abowitz

Category: Vegas Mob Connections

Mob Museum caves in face of media brick count

August 27, 2009 |  9:46 am

Agree with me or not about the commercial possibilities of a Michael Jackson tribute, museum or theme resort in Vegas, at least the taxpayers are not involved with the risk.

Not so with the Mob Museum, where at the very least our mayor, Oscar Goodman, spends a lot of his time talking and thinking about this monument to so many clients from his former life back when he insisted that folks like Tony Spilotro were being persecuted by the government.

He actually put this project, expected to open in 2011, on a list for government stimulus funds. That irony did not work out for him. But the idea that the mob lawyer-turned-mayor is building some grand tribute to his own ego does not seem to have occurred to his honor. Rather, speaking the mantra of the day, he now offers us the idea that his pet project will bring tourists to Vegas. Not that there is much, if any, evidence for him to point to that is so.

I have long been on record disagreeing with the view that a mob museum will be a tourist magnet (at least off the Strip), as do most other commentators on Vegas. I also think the museum is a bad idea that will inevitably glorify criminals. That certainly seemed the case when the mayor proudly announced the purchase of the first item to be displayed, mob memento mori: the wall from the St. Valentine's massacre, complete with bullet holes.

Loved the baseball bats the mayor was carrying to the news conference, very educational for the children watching at home. And the Vegas connection to this wall is what? None that I can think.

Anyway, it now turns out the city was not entirely honest about how much of the infamous wall it bought. This isn't entirely a surprise, since the last tribute to history the city paid for was to display "Fun Facts" on placards about the city that were called "fun" because they were not actually true. After at first denying this was a problem, the city grudgingly made some corrections. [Updated, 10:40 a.m. Aug. 31: An earlier version of this post made mention of a photographic rendering of the wall from the St. Valentine's Day massacre. In fact, the city had not presented the rendering to the public as being an authentic photo.]

City officials also were not willing to share with the Chicago television station that exposed the city's loose words about the wall how much was paid for the, um, partial wall.

And this is only the beginning of the scandals big and small that I am going to predict will be coming until the Mob Museum takes its place waiting for tourists the way its comrade, the near-empty mall Neonopolis, another city-promoted redevelopment project, had everything but customers and then, after waiting long enough, lacked even tenants.


Is the mob caught again in Vegas?

October 21, 2008 |  9:18 am

The Las Vegas Sun reports on its site that, even as I write this, law enforcement agents are executing search warrants as the denouement of a long-time investigation into organized crime in the Las Vegas valley.

According to the Sun: "No more details were available this morning because of  'operational security,' police said."

This should be interesting. These days organized crime is usually brought up in relation to a possible museum planned to celebrate our city's interesting history. But maybe reminders like this will make people consider that Vegas is being a bit too quick to celebrate a past that involves, well, violent crime, and on top of that might still have just as vile a present.


The Clown, The Ant, The Mayor and the Topless Club Purveyor

January 18, 2006 |  7:21 am
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There are very few good mob stories left in Las Vegas. But one that reaches into the town's infamous past and touches issues very much still present is the case unfolding in Chicago of Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo. Among the 18 killings Lombardo is charged in connection with is the murder of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro. Once thought to be the mob's guy in Vegas, Spilotro wound up beaten to death in a corn field. A version of his story was immortalized in the flick "Casino" with Joe Pesci playing the character based on Spilatro. Lombardo was recently picked up by authorities after 9 months in hiding, and the judge asked the 77 year-old if he had seen a doctor: "I didn't see my doctor since nine months ago. I was---what do they call it? I was unavailable."
If Lombardo beats the rap I see script writing for "The Sopranos" in his future. Actually, there are still echoes of that world in Las Vegas. Spilotro's one time attorney, Oscar Goodman, is currently the mayor. On the more sinister side, the FBI for years has been investigating local topless bar owner Rick Rizzolo and his Crazy Horse Too club for its alleged connections to organized crime and Lombardo. Lombardo's younger brother once worked as a shift manager at the Vegas strip club. That investigation sent dozens of federal agents swooping down to raid the club in 2003. When Internet rich kid, Tim Poster (who briefly owned the Golden Nugget and made a reality show of the sorry experience) went before the Gaming Control Board the toughest questions he faced came from simply knowing Rizzolo. And, on Sunday the MGM-Mirage attracted notice by allowing Light (located in Bellagio though owned by the Light Group) to host a party for a calendar of Crazy Horse Too strippers.  Rizzolo attended the party. So far though, in all the years (and, we are talking a decade) he has been investigated and investigated, Rizzolo has been charged with nothing.
(Joseph Lombardo photographs released by the US Attorney's Office, via AP)


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