L'histoire Complete de la Mafia - Anthony ''La Fourmis'' Spilotro
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00:00 You can humiliate yourself in public as well as kill yourself.
00:04 May 15th, 1962.
00:27 A Chicago Southside police officer approaches an abandoned vehicle on 55th Street.
00:32 The neighbors are filled with the strong smell emanating from the car's trunk.
00:38 When the police officer arrived and opened the trunk, he found two men.
00:45 Their bodies were stained with the greens.
00:48 The police still don't know what happened, but someone knows the whole story.
00:52 I was involved in that with Tony Spilotro.
00:56 He told me, "We should never talk about this."
00:59 The victims are two local thugs, Billy McCarthy and Jimmy Miralia.
01:05 They had killed two thieves in Helmuth Park, Illinois.
01:09 The Chicago Mafia, nicknamed "The Outfit", the "Team", considers the area as a forbidden area.
01:15 Many gang leaders live there and don't want to attract the attention of the local police.
01:22 Anyone who breaks the rules of the Mafia is exposed to a visit of young Tony Spilotro, 24 years old.
01:27 Billy was caught first. When Tony intercepted him, he put him in the car and tortured him.
01:34 Spilotro beats McCarthy so that he can reveal where his accomplice is.
01:39 McCarthy refuses until, in a fit of rage, Spilotro and his henchmen put his head in a stake.
01:49 The Irishman was tough, but after his eye came out of his orbit, he gave up Jimmy's name.
01:55 Spilotro and his gang track the second man before strangling them both.
02:00 The press then calls the double murder of McCarthy and Miralia "MNM murders".
02:06 In the following months, the news spreads in Chicago.
02:13 Tony Spilotro can get all the information he wants from anyone and by any means.
02:20 Born on May 19, 1938, Anthony Spilotro grew up in a violent Italian neighborhood in the westernmost part of Chicago.
02:42 From an early age, Tony likes to fight.
02:45 During a territorial conflict between shoe shiners, Spilotro meets a newcomer in the neighborhood, Frank Culotta.
02:54 Tony was shorter than me, and yet I'm not tall, but he was very strong.
02:59 He could beat anyone. His big brother was hanging by the pool,
03:03 and he offered five or ten dollars to whoever could beat his little brother Tony, but no one ever challenged him.
03:10 The two boys' fathers met.
03:12 Tony and Frank became friends.
03:15 Spilotro's neighborhood is a mafia spot.
03:20 He once sheltered the owner of the outfit, Tony Accardo.
03:24 Spilotro's father, Pazzi, honestly owns a modest Italian restaurant.
03:30 He wouldn't do with the crooks who come to taste his famous meatball sandwiches.
03:37 But for his young son, Tony, it's a whole other story.
03:41 After school, he frequents a local gang.
03:44 Before even leaving high school, he already hung out with a group of people who'd taken the wrong road as well.
03:52 We started out in all directions before we got a minimum education.
03:58 We stole cars, we'd steal gas stations, we'd stick up restaurants.
04:04 But one day in 1954, it's a tragedy.
04:07 Tony's father dies of a sudden stroke, leaving his wife, Antoinette, alone with her six sons.
04:13 Tony leaves school and decides to join the mafia.
04:19 He wanted to be part of the outfit, unlike me.
04:24 And he ended up getting in touch with the organization very early, let's say around 18, 19 years old.
04:32 But getting in touch doesn't mean being one of them.
04:35 To get attention, Spilotro commits small crimes. He starts stealing.
04:40 He started out with convoys of cash, robbing bank cashiers.
04:47 And this is the way he started going with them.
04:49 Then they had a detournement of trucks.
04:51 When he was 20, Spilotro had already been arrested 13 times.
04:56 But he didn't care about his criminal record, he only helped a local waitress, Nancy Stuart.
05:02 Nancy Stuart, 22, works in one of the mafia's HQs on Rush Street.
05:10 From a height of 165cm, Spilotro is a con man.
05:13 Stuart is a real beauty, and to make matters worse, she's shorter than him.
05:18 Spilotro asks for his hand, and on January 15, 1960, they get married.
05:25 At the same time, Spilotro's ties with the outfit develop.
05:28 He no longer just hangs out with low-level associates.
05:32 He starts working with a particularly violent drug dealer, Mad Sam DeStefano.
05:37 Mad Sam was a maniac.
05:40 Even law enforcement was wary of him, because he had such a purpose to torture people.
05:45 He took Tony out very quickly, and he became his collector.
05:52 And I'm sure that whatever his natural propensity for violence,
05:56 I'm sure that it was the influence of Sam DeStefano who made him an expert in torture, making people pay up.
06:03 The little Tony, 1.65m, would come in saying, "Either you pay up, or I'll kill you."
06:08 The police start to find corpses related to the mafia, like those of the M&M murders.
06:15 The Chicago authorities suspect Mad Sam and his young protégé, Tony Spilotro.
06:21 And if Tony's reputation is not yet done, it won't be long before he will be put to a real carnage.
06:28 Sometimes you'll fight a dead man to make him suffer, to show him who's stronger.
06:36 Tony didn't know anything else, and neither did I.
06:40 That's how we grew up.
06:44 Chicago, 1936
06:48 In the 1960s, Tony Spilotro, a Chicago gangster, went from a petty crime to a real criminal career,
06:56 torturing his victims to get information.
06:59 The Chicago mafia, the Outfit, is interested in the 22-year-old.
07:06 But so are the federal agents.
07:12 And as the corpses pile up, the police tighten their grip on Spilotro and monitor his every move.
07:19 In 1962, Tony Spilotro already has a number of mafia crimes on his record, like the double murder of M&M.
07:35 But it's still not over.
07:40 Spilotro is frustrated, he wants much more.
07:43 He always said he wanted to be the boss. He told me, "One day I'll be the boss, will you be with me?"
07:49 And then, in November 1963, Spilotro finally sees the opportunity to be noticed.
07:55 A convict, Leo Foreman, threw Mad Sam out of his office.
08:00 DeStefano wants revenge and calls Spilotro.
08:08 Spilotro arranges an interview with Foreman at a friend's house.
08:12 Just one year after the Cuban missile crisis, many Americans converted their cellars into anti-nuclear shelters.
08:21 Spilotro convinces Foreman to go down to the cellar to show him the shelter.
08:28 It's then that Spilotro grabs Foreman and starts torturing him.
08:35 Tony cuts the flesh from the victim's body and smashes his spine with a hammer.
08:40 Mad Sam joins him and throws 20 ice picks at Foreman.
08:46 The convict begs Sam's mercy before he finishes him off with a gunshot.
08:52 Tony's violence is an asset to the outfit, but he still has to prove that he can make him gain weight.
09:01 They were using him to do the dirty work.
09:05 And then over time, they said, "What if Mad Sam could groom him to be a good miner, a money-earner, that would be a benefit to the outfit?"
09:15 Spilotro is then entrusted with the orders of a very lucrative network of bookmakers in northwest Chicago.
09:25 The bets are Tony's main income. And since all the bookmakers in Chicago have to pay a percentage of what he earns, it's an even bigger source of income for the outfit.
09:36 In Chicago, bookmakers are a very, very large enterprise. They make millions and millions of dollars.
09:49 In the 1960s, Spilotro meets another ambitious character, Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal.
09:55 The two make a pair. Lefty is the brain and Tony is the muscles.
10:01 Unlike Spilotro, Rosenthal was a strictly gambling guy. That's what his specialty was.
10:11 Rosenthal knew how to calculate the odds.
10:18 In 1962, he gets stuck after cheating on college basketball games.
10:23 He gets a $6,000 fine for buying a player from the University of New York.
10:28 In 1967, the authorities put more pressure on Spilotro.
10:33 As part of a dismantling of the Parisian networks, investigators from the Financial Brigade invest Spilotro's home in Oak Park.
10:43 Federal agents discover that Tony runs a large-scale gambling organization from his home.
10:49 The investigator from the Financial Brigade, Bob Fussell, proceeds with the arrest of Spilotro.
10:55 He was very nice during his arrest. One day it went crazy and his wife got upset and he didn't let us do the job.
11:02 Spilotro calmly gets his father, but he has a message for Fussell.
11:08 He told me, "Remember my name." I looked at him and I think that was the new boss.
11:16 Spilotro gets a fine, but he is not incarcerated for this crime.
11:22 Then, in September 1969, the Bandit Repression Brigade finds another way to trap Spilotro.
11:34 Police officers suspect him of conducting a bookmaking operation from an abandoned cell.
11:39 They have a search warrant to enter the cell, but the Mafia refuses to open the heavy armored door.
11:47 With the police on the doorstep, Tony's men act to find a way to get the evidence to disappear.
11:54 But Spilotro has an idea. The bets are written on special paper that dissolves quickly in water.
12:03 He didn't have water on hand, so he started eating the bets.
12:06 When he opened the door, he was swallowing them.
12:10 Police officers search Tony's office and record bets and sports calendars.
12:16 During the search, the phone starts ringing and a police officer answers.
12:21 The man on the other end of the line wants to place a bet.
12:24 Tony is trapped.
12:29 Spilotro gets a fine and escapes to prison again.
12:33 But his time here is numbered. He is on the cell.
12:37 It is time for him to leave the city.
12:42 In the 1960s, the Mafia Tony Spilotro is a profitable link in the Chicago Outfit.
12:56 But his work as a bookmaker is only a facet of his success.
12:59 He also made a name for himself as a bloodthirsty killer.
13:03 He lives the life of the gangsters who used to idolize him, but he also attracts unwanted attention.
13:12 The FBI and the FISC have begun to closely monitor him.
13:16 The Chicago Police Intelligence Unit as well.
13:19 For them, Spilotro was someone to take seriously.
13:24 Since the police force has been spying on his every move, the city of Chicago has become too small to hold.
13:30 In the turn of the 70s, the Chicago Mafia controls most of the rackets in the west of Mississippi, including Las Vegas.
13:45 The Mafia and the roadmen unions have a long history together.
13:52 When the Mafia built hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, they called on the roadmen to finance their projects.
13:58 Without the roadmen's pension funds, the Mafia would not have been able to build Las Vegas the way they wanted to build it.
14:05 They worked in close collaboration and everything was under the control of the Chicago Outfit.
14:12 By using honest businessmen as a facade, the Mafia can maintain its presence in the casinos and thus siphon money from above.
14:22 Every day, the casinos are evaluating their profits on fake balances and declare biased results.
14:28 And like the federal agents, the Mafia is the one who makes the difference.
14:33 The city nestled in the middle of the desert becomes a real golden egg for the Chicago Mafia.
14:39 And with such a sum of money influencing the casinos, it needs big arms to protect its interests.
14:46 It is then that the roadmen naturally call upon a man who has been killing and torturing for them for years, Tony Spilotro.
14:52 For the young gangster, it is a unique opportunity to prove himself.
14:56 I think Spilotro had reached a point where he had done all he could do to show off the aspirations of becoming a boss.
15:07 And no one was anybody willing to give up their position for him.
15:14 He jumped at the opportunity.
15:16 He didn't know he was going to get himself in the lion's den.
15:19 1971.
15:21 Tony Spilotro's plane has barely touched the ground when the Las Vegas police come to pick him up.
15:27 They try to intimidate him to get him out of the city.
15:32 But Tony is not a man to be impressed.
15:35 Over the following weeks, five bodies will be found in the desert.
15:39 Five homeless people, all beaten and tortured.
15:43 The police can't link these cases to Spilotro, but this wave of murders is obviously not a coincidence.
15:49 He was never arrested, but we saw a clear change when he got there.
15:54 Crime in all its forms has gone boom.
15:57 Robberies, burglaries, murder attempts.
15:59 The new strong man of the mafia has arrived.
16:02 If there was a contract placed on someone, he would have to do it.
16:08 He uses his wife's daughter's name as a cover to open a souvenir shop at Circus Circus Hotel and Casino.
16:15 The shop costs him 70,000 dollars and will be his home in Las Vegas.
16:20 While Spilotro is setting up his shop, his old friend Lefty Rosenthal works at the other end of the city at Stardust Hotel and Casino.
16:29 Officially, Rosenthal is the director.
16:32 He is the one who supervises everything that happens inside the casino.
16:37 But the authorities suspect him of having more influence behind the scenes.
16:40 Lefty was born a gambler. He was very talented. He excelled in his role as supervisor.
16:45 He knew how to run a casino. He was very effective.
16:49 Tony finds Lefty and rekindles their old friendship.
16:54 Even their wives, Nancy and Jerry, become very close.
16:58 Jerry Rosenthal is a former playmate and a famous call girl.
17:04 But he is a very dangerous man.
17:06 His marriage to Lefty is a tumultuous one.
17:09 And to make matters worse, his drug and alcohol abuse leads him to violent fits of rage.
17:14 Spilotro adapts to the life in Las Vegas.
17:17 But on his side, the Chicago police don't forget him.
17:21 On September 1st, 1972, Tony is accused of the murder of Leo Foreman, a Mafia investigator, who was arrested in 1963.
17:32 Matt Sam DeStefano and his brother Mario are also accused.
17:35 During a preliminary hearing in Chicago, DeStefano defends himself and makes the procedure a real show.
17:42 DeStefano was a free agent. The Mafia said, "We can't let him speak during the trial. He will harm the whole organization."
17:50 The next day, Tony arranges a meeting with Matt Sam and goes to his house to talk about the murder of the key witness charged against him.
17:59 Instead, Tony points a double-barreled gun at Sam's chest and presses the trigger.
18:04 It was very violent. His arm was almost torn off.
18:09 Matt Sam's trial opens a boulevard for Spilotro's lawyers to get the evidence.
18:16 To this day, it's hard to believe, but Tony is drawn to it. And that's where Spilotro's dream life began.
18:25 But, late 1974, the Circus Circus is sold and Tony has to leave his gift shop.
18:31 But he gives it for $700,000, ten times more than his purchase price three years earlier.
18:37 Everything smiles at Spilotro in the City of Sin, until he starts to seduce the wife of his old friend, at the risk of losing everything.
18:50 We have to keep away from our friends' wives and girlfriends, otherwise it's a lack of respect for them.
18:55 In general, we don't like to shoot down a guy for that, but we do it anyway.
19:00 In the early 1970s, the Chicago Mafia sent one of its own, Tony Spilotro, to Las Vegas to keep an eye on his interests in the casinos.
19:12 Spilotro was trained to be a man of his word, and he knows how to use his talents.
19:20 In the space of a few weeks, everyone in Las Vegas lives in the shame of a visit by Tony Spilotro.
19:25 Casino managers, directors, everyone knew how to watch their back.
19:31 They knew that a member of the outfit was there.
19:34 And if they took a wrong step, if they stole, for example, they knew that they would be in big trouble.
19:40 [Music]
19:50 In the 1970s, Lefty Rosenthal was slowly moving away from his old friend, Tony Spilotro.
19:56 The way he operated was in favor of Lefty.
20:03 He was hanging around the casinos, creating problems, and it was attracting the attention of law enforcement, especially the game commission.
20:10 He was out there doing side-line operations in front of the casino.
20:14 Tony was sort of a real cowboy in the way he operated.
20:18 To cover it all up, Spilotro starts a relationship with Lefty's wife, the beautiful but unstable Jerry.
20:24 Tony said to me, "Hey, man, I really screwed up."
20:29 And I said to him, "You aren't screwing with your wife, are you?"
20:33 And he said, "Yes, I made a mistake."
20:36 Tony had a bad habit.
20:39 He always tended to get too attached to one of his friends.
20:46 If the outfit finds out that Tony is in a relationship with the wife of a family member, he's a dead man.
20:53 I said to him, "Man, you're in trouble."
20:56 "When they find out in Chicago, they're not going to like you."
20:59 And he said, "Well, they won't."
21:01 But Spilotro's secret is revealed when Lefty Rosenthal tries to get Jerry on his car's phone.
21:07 The phone rings in the void until a man picks up.
21:11 It's Spilotro.
21:13 Lefty instantly understands that his old friend is in a relationship with his wife.
21:17 Rosenthal must be careful.
21:22 The man in Tony's position can easily make him disappear to avoid revealing his secret.
21:26 But Tony is not careful.
21:30 He reveals his relationship with Jerry in front of the whole Las Vegas crowd.
21:33 The noise spreads quickly to Chicago.
21:36 The outfit summons Culotta.
21:42 They asked me, "Is he hitting on the Jewish woman?"
21:46 And I said, "Probably not."
21:50 Lefty doesn't let his feelings show and devotes himself to his work at Stardust.
21:54 He knows that to survive, he must stay away from Spilotro and the sulfurous reputation he carries behind him.
22:01 But the authorities have enough to link Rosenthal to the mafia.
22:04 They have him in the collimator.
22:06 In 1975, the Nevada Games Commission takes a fatal blow to his business.
22:11 Mr. President, could you let us present our way of seeing things today?
22:16 The commission discovers Rosenthal's criminal past.
22:19 It also learns that Lefty is more than just a director
22:22 and that he goes beyond the authority his work permit grants him.
22:25 Lefty must obtain a legal license and his ties to Spilotro will make his task almost impossible.
22:32 But the clashes between Rosenthal and the police don't stop Spilotro.
22:39 At the end of 1976, he opens a jewelry store on the Strip
22:43 where he offers jewelry from the legal circuit and stolen jewelry.
22:48 The store will have a well-found name, the "Golden Arbor".
22:51 Obviously, Spilotro must be careful.
22:54 If the jewelry was stolen in Las Vegas,
22:57 we never know, a guy could come in at any moment to buy a ring and find the one he was stolen from.
23:01 "Hey, that's my ring!" You see?
23:03 But the customers are the least concerned about Spilotro.
23:06 The FBI has put his store on the list and Spilotro, no doubt.
23:10 During all these phone conversations, he takes good care to avoid compromising allusions.
23:16 "Do you see a reason for me not to point?"
23:19 "Not that I know of."
23:23 "Everything's fine?"
23:25 "For me, yes."
23:27 "I don't know, but..."
23:29 But Spilotro has a case to run and he needs manpower to steal and sell jewelry.
23:35 At the end of the 70s, he asks his lieutenant, Frank Culotta, to recruit men for this job.
23:44 "He just wanted me to put a team together.
23:46 You want me to put four or five guys to work for you, to steal, to do what, to steal?"
23:51 "They got a stealer, a dealer, and he said, if they steal, you give me a percentage."
23:57 The efficiency of this team is soon to be a nickname.
24:01 "They were called the hole in the wall,
24:05 because when they couldn't get into a building, they dug a hole in the wall.
24:09 They were also the cause of fires, robberies, attempts at extortion.
24:13 They did it all."
24:14 But if the hole in the wall manages to escape the police,
24:18 other members of the outfit can't say the same.
24:21 In November 1978, the FBI puts one of the Mafia HQs on the radio in Kansas City.
24:26 The agents hear the Mafia talk about the profits of Las Vegas,
24:30 as well as certain names of places and people.
24:33 "We were able to establish, with hard evidence,
24:39 that the Mafia, as a target of organized crime, had hidden interests in casinos in Las Vegas,
24:44 and that they were receiving benefits.
24:47 This is the first time we've been able to confirm our suspicions and test them with evidence."
24:52 The Mafia doesn't know that it's so close.
24:56 In 1979, the FBI arrests one of Spilotro's associates,
25:04 Sherwin "Jerry" Lissner, for theft and misappropriation.
25:09 Lissner is ready to go public.
25:11 "He got back to Tony, and Jerry Lissner,
25:15 who was testifying before a federal jury about Tony and I.
25:20 And Tony said to me, 'We gotta do something about this guy.'"
25:27 The next few days, Spilotro makes an effort to befriend Lissner.
25:32 He wants the main witness to feel comfortable with him.
25:36 And when Lissner lowers his guard, Culotta wears the stockings.
25:40 "I told him I was supposed to tell him something.
25:43 He said, 'Come see me.' I went to see him, and I killed him."
25:47 Culotta thinks that Chicago gave in,
25:52 but when the outfit's sponsors ask him who did it,
25:55 he understands that Tony made that decision on his own.
25:58 "He didn't have permission to do it.
26:04 He was doing things on his own, and he shouldn't have.
26:06 He was taking things into his own hands.
26:09 He should have asked them."
26:12 In December 1979, the police re-seize Tony's stocks.
26:20 That same month, Spilotro's name is added to the black list of Nevada criminals,
26:26 which lists all individuals not authorized to enter a state gambling establishment.
26:32 Tony is no longer allowed to enter the establishments he is supposed to supervise.
26:36 The man behind the Las Vegas outfit is in a jail cell.
26:41 At the end of the 1970s, Tony Spilotro has become a free man.
26:52 He runs his own gambling business from a casino,
26:55 he sells stolen jewelry,
26:57 and he commands a murder without the consent of the outfit.
27:01 "His personality of being a cocky little guy,
27:04 because that's what he was,
27:07 was one of the things that demanded his power."
27:11 But the FBI and the Financial Services
27:14 launch a thorough investigation into the mafia activity in Vegas.
27:17 The federal government launches a massive attack on the environment,
27:23 and the man they have in their sights is called Tony Spilotro.
27:28 [Music]
27:33 In the turn of the 80s, Spilotro's method has changed.
27:37 "One time I went to his house,
27:41 we had to take off all our clothes,
27:43 and he showed us a bathing suit.
27:45 We had to go to the jacuzzi with him to talk about all the problems.
27:51 While we were there, one of the women was looking for a wire.
27:56 This didn't stop the men from the hole in the wall
27:58 from organizing new robberies.
28:01 Money is getting rarer,
28:04 and the gang has to work extra hours to make ends meet.
28:07 "When the robbery is the only source of income,
28:10 it's a full-time job.
28:12 Everything the gang stole only brought him 30 cents for a dollar,
28:15 and in case of big money,
28:17 she had to share it with Tony Spilotro.
28:19 She was pretty busy robbing."
28:23 The robberies continue, and Spilotro is less suspicious.
28:26 He lets a FBI spy infiltrate his gang.
28:29 The team works on their next break.
28:34 The furniture and gift shop, Bertha.
28:37 It's a big target, with a loot estimated at $1 million in jewelry and precious items.
28:42 The bad guys plan to strike on July 4,
28:46 counting on the sound of fireworks to camouflage the one they will do by breaking the roof.
28:52 On his side,
28:53 the top keeps the FBI informed of any step.
28:56 "He told us where it was going to happen.
28:59 That Lota had organized everything,
29:02 and they were going to attack the Bertha store on July 4,
29:05 because of the fireworks.
29:07 So that was an opportunity for us to pin them down and lock them up."
29:10 July 4, 10.40 p.m.
29:17 Spilotro's gang sets up.
29:21 Three men on the roof,
29:22 Lota in the car,
29:24 and two others on the floor.
29:26 As soon as the fireworks start,
29:29 the roof team starts working.
29:31 The FBI agents watch and wait for them to enter.
29:35 That's when they intervene.
29:37 Frank Lota is the one driving the car.
29:42 He notices a strange truck moving in his rearview mirror.
29:46 "I thought, 'Shit, I knew they were cops.'
29:50 I knew that these were cops."
29:52 The FBI agents take six of Spilotro's men on the case,
29:57 but he remains missing.
29:59 "All of us go to jail.
30:03 Tony doesn't come to help us.
30:06 Tony doesn't come over to pay for our bans."
30:09 Two weeks later,
30:11 the FBI agents find Spilotro
30:13 and arrest him for racking and molesting.
30:19 The Chicago Mafia isn't happy with this.
30:21 Five of his men have been found guilty
30:24 for having robbed a roadside union
30:26 and attempted to corrupt a senator.
30:28 Spilotro's eccentricities
30:30 may reveal the Mafia's system of rackets
30:33 that weighs several million dollars.
30:35 "He was arrested for attempted robbery,
30:38 and he was flirting with another woman.
30:40 He was drawing too much attention and suspicion
30:42 to the Mafia at that time."
30:44 "The Mafia feared an increased surveillance
30:48 that would disrupt the way
30:49 they made the money come out of the stronghold
30:51 and thus lose the lucrative interests
30:54 they were making every month."
30:57 While the Mafia keeps an eye on Tony,
30:59 he fears that Frank Culotta will speak to the FBI
31:02 to get him out of prison.
31:04 "Tony said he couldn't afford to let him go to prison.
31:08 He knew too much.
31:10 He had to get rid of him."
31:12 "The prison didn't scare me.
31:14 What worried me was that he would succeed
31:17 in getting himself killed by one of his contacts."
31:18 Culotta has every reason to be worried.
31:21 Federal agents have him listen to a recording
31:23 that confirms his fears.
31:25 "The FBI guy said to me,
31:27 'If you could tell me who you're talking to on the tape.'
31:30 It's a wiretap recording.
31:32 He told me it's somebody else in Chicago.
31:35 Tony didn't say my name, but he says he's lost his mind.
31:39 He's out of control.
31:41 He's doing whatever he wants to do.
31:45 And he said, 'Well, you know what you have to do
31:47 to clear your country.
31:49 Take care of it.'"
31:51 The FBI released Culotta under caution,
31:53 but he knew he was safer behind bars.
31:56 One night in April 1982,
31:59 his neighbor was shot.
32:01 "My wife said, 'Did you hear that?
32:04 What happened? Are you okay?'
32:06 I said, 'Yes, they shot a guy next door.'
32:08 She said, 'Maybe it was for you.'
32:10 I said, 'You're paranoid.'"
32:12 An hour later, the phone rings.
32:14 It's Tony.
32:15 In fact, he wants to know if Frank is still alive.
32:18 Culotta knows he has no choice.
32:21 Spilotro's longtime friend
32:23 becomes a witness protected by the government.
32:26 "It was either that, or I was getting out.
32:30 Or I was going to jail for the rest of my life.
32:33 It's probably the biggest decision I've ever had to make."
32:38 The authorities now have an opening
32:42 between Spilotro's criminal activities
32:44 and the Chicago Pecre.
32:46 "He knew the Chicago hierarchy.
32:49 He had lived in Chicago with Tony.
32:52 He had committed crimes with and for Tony.
32:55 He knew all the players."
32:58 Culotta lists a series of crimes committed by Spilotro.
33:03 As Spilotro's lieutenant turns against him,
33:09 someone takes his old friend, Lefty Rosenthal.
33:12 One evening, after having dinner at a Las Vegas restaurant,
33:17 Lefty gets in his luxury car.
33:20 "When he was putting the ignition on,
33:24 he sensed that something was wrong.
33:26 The car exploded when he came out
33:29 through the driver's door."
33:32 "It's a miracle that Frank is not dead.
33:38 Because the explosive charge was fixed and triggered
33:40 right behind his seat.
33:43 He was slightly burned,
33:47 but he managed to get out of the car
33:50 and he survived."
33:53 No one is concerned about this murder attempt,
33:57 and Rosenthal refuses to speak to investigators.
34:00 The following month, Frank's ex-wife, Jerry,
34:04 dies of what appears to be an overdose
34:07 in a mythological motel in Los Angeles.
34:09 Rosenthal leaves Las Vegas.
34:15 In 1983, Culotta helps the prosecutor
34:22 to charge Spilotro with the double murder of Eminem.
34:26 That same year, the trial begins in Chicago.
34:31 During the public hearing, Frank Culotta
34:36 explains Spilotro's role in these murders.
34:38 "During the trial, the judge said to me,
34:41 'You seem to know a lot about these murders.
34:45 And you wouldn't know it if you weren't involved in it.'"
34:50 At the end of the trial,
34:52 the charge didn't get to connect Tony to the crime.
34:55 It's Culotta's word against Spilotro's.
34:58 The judge declares the mafia innocent,
35:04 and the victory will be short-lived.
35:06 That month, he will be on the bench again.
35:09 "He's indicted along with 15 other members of the outfit
35:14 for the profits of the casino tour he was sending to Chicago.
35:17 The hearings taught us how money was repatriated to Chicago,
35:21 which was in the course.
35:23 And it was proof of the hand of the Chicago mafia
35:27 on the Vegas casinos,
35:29 especially thanks to Spilotro."
35:33 In this wave of inculpations,
35:34 the Nevada Games Commission intervenes in the Stardust Casino.
35:37 This operation is of serious value
35:41 to the Vegas operations of the Chicago outfit.
35:44 The previous year,
35:46 the mafia raised a few million and a half dollars
35:49 for the Stardust alone.
35:51 The outfit is furious against Spilotro.
35:55 She sent him to Las Vegas to protect his interests,
35:58 but instead, her inconsistency costs him millions.
36:02 [train whistle]
36:03 Worse still, she fears he will tell the FBI everything he knows.
36:08 "When any organization is in danger of going to prison,
36:14 unless it's the boss,
36:17 then the future may end up being an informant."
36:20 Spilotro is on the bench.
36:22 Federal agents want to put him behind bars,
36:25 and the mafia wants to see him dead.
36:30 [music]
36:31 In 1986,
36:37 the justice system had already incarcerated five mafiosi
36:40 and put an end to their juicy activities in Las Vegas.
36:43 The FBI could have done just as much with Tony Spilotro
36:48 if his trial hadn't been updated because of his health problems.
36:51 "Before that trial, he had a heart attack,
36:56 and he was severally out of the rest of the defendants.
36:59 It's a real advantage,
37:00 especially as part of a conspiracy charge,
37:03 to not be sitting there with your other conspirators."
37:06 Spilotro's heart threatens to break,
37:08 and if he doesn't take guard,
37:10 the mafia will be in charge of speeding up the process.
37:13 [music]
37:15 Early in 1986,
37:22 Spilotro appears for his role in the robbery of a furniture store.
37:27 It's one of the three cases he will be tried for in the coming months.
37:30 "In the mid-1980s,
37:33 Tony Spilotro was on the red line in Las Vegas,
37:36 and the Chicago mafia knew that."
37:38 An impressive amount of witnesses and witnesses,
37:43 including his old friend Frank Culotta,
37:45 are produced against Tony.
37:47 The trial will last 12 weeks,
37:49 until one of the jury members gives a note to the judge.
37:52 She suspects two other members of the jury to have been paid.
37:57 The judge updates the trial.
37:59 Tony escapes once again for his sentence,
38:05 but only for a short time.
38:07 A new trial is scheduled for June 16, 1986.
38:10 He still risks a charge for the case of the detour in Las Vegas,
38:14 and another trial for the murder of the repentant Sherwin Lissner.
38:18 It's a difficult year,
38:21 it's announced to Tony Spilotro.
38:25 "He had one problem after another,
38:27 one inculpation after another,
38:29 one arrest after another.
38:31 He was doing tremendous amount of publicity for the outfit."
38:34 The future of Tony Spilotro is dark.
38:37 If the outfit doesn't kill him,
38:39 he will probably end up in prison.
38:41 He, who has spent so long and so often between the lines,
38:46 now feels at a loss.
38:48 "He was paranoid.
38:52 His life was meaningless.
38:54 It was all for him.
38:55 He was useless.
38:57 He couldn't do nothing about it.
38:59 He was going to end up in prison one way or another."
39:02 In June 1986, Tony gets a call.
39:06 The new godfather wants to see him in Chicago.
39:09 Tony's little brother, Michael, is also summoned.
39:12 In recent years, Michael has become active in the outfit.
39:18 "In fact, we said that we would do a meeting
39:23 for Tony and Michael's official introduction.
39:25 They had some suspicion when they got to the meeting.
39:28 But when the godfathers of the outfit said,
39:31 'You come at this time and place, you go there'..."
39:34 "I think he thought he had to go there
39:37 if he wanted to become a leader one day.
39:40 But at the same time, he was on his guard.
39:43 I think he thought it could be a trap."
39:45 On June 13, 1986, Tony goes to Chicago.
39:48 His brother, Michael, takes him to the airport
39:52 and they both prepare for the meeting.
39:54 The next day, the two brothers meet in a hotel
40:02 near O'Hare airport.
40:04 "They had some suspicion that there was something
40:07 good and something bad in there.
40:09 In fact, Michael's wife later said
40:12 that if he hadn't been back by 9 o'clock,
40:15 something very bad had happened."
40:19 Two days later, they still haven't come back.
40:21 Michael's wife decides to call the police.
40:24 No trace of the Spilotro brothers.
40:27 The speculations are good.
40:30 "An agent said to me, 'We can't get a hold
40:33 of Tony and his brother.
40:36 Do you have any idea where they could be?'
40:39 I said, 'I know Tony won't run away,
40:42 and I know Michael won't run.
40:46 He's always telling me he doesn't know where to go.
40:48 Believe me, he didn't run away.
40:51 He's dead.'"
40:53 June 23, 1986.
40:57 A farmer in Indiana is plowing the desert
41:00 on his corn field when he notices
41:03 that the land has been recently turned over.
41:06 "He noticed a corner of the land
41:09 where something had been buried.
41:12 He called the authorities because he smelled something
41:15 and they found Tony and Michael's bodies
41:17 in undergarments."
41:19 Tony and Michael Spilotro were brutally beaten to death.
41:22 A terrible end for a ruthless mobster.
41:25 "They wanted to show him that he wasn't that strong.
41:28 It was sad for me to see him die like that.
41:31 He'd have been better off in prison."
41:34 Over time, the Spilotro brothers' murder
41:37 seemed to be linked to the many other
41:40 mobster murders in the past.
41:44 It was not Hollywood.
41:46 In 1995, Martin Scorsese directed "Casino,"
41:49 a film inspired by the Spilotro's
41:52 "Frask" in Las Vegas.
41:55 On screen, the character of Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal
41:58 is played by Robert De Niro
42:01 and the character of Tony Spilotro by Joe Pecci.
42:04 "The resemblance was strong
42:07 because of the gray streaks and the red hair
42:10 and the black hair.
42:13 It was a very different personality."
42:15 In 2005, nearly 20 years after the Spilotro's murder,
42:18 the federal justice system did not forget the mobster.
42:21 It launched a series of inculpations
42:24 against the community
42:27 for an impressive list of crimes.
42:30 This case would later be classified
42:33 as a family secret trial.
42:36 "The government inculcated a number of suspects
42:39 linked to 18 inter-mobster murders.
42:42 One of the most famous was the Spilotro's.
42:44 That was the high profile one."
42:47 The trial was held in Chicago
42:50 and is based on the testimony of a very prolix
42:53 of the outfit, Nick Calabrese.
42:56 He tells the story of the night of the murder
42:59 of Tony and Michael Spilotro.
43:02 "The Spilotro's brothers went to a motel
43:05 near O'Hare airport and were taken to a house
43:08 next to Bensonville.
43:11 They saw all these individuals who they all know.
43:13 Michael rose to their hands and said
43:16 that all these individuals are wearing gloves
43:19 and they've come to know that they're not leaving this basement.
43:22 At that moment, Tony said,
43:25 'Hey, I just need a minute to pray every time I sit there.'
43:28 Michael and Tony were beaten to death
43:31 with basically kicks and punches."
43:34 At the end of the trial,
43:40 the Spilotro's brothers were found guilty of several murders,
43:42 including the one of Tony and Michael Spilotro in 1986.
43:45 "All the individuals who were charged,
43:50 all the individuals who were compared to the family secret trial
43:53 were found guilty on all counts."
43:56 Even after his death,
44:02 Tony Spilotro remained a thorn in the side of the organized crime.
44:05 And his journey could almost serve as a parable
44:09 on the dangers that threaten all those who choose the path of crime.
44:11 "If you make the wrong decisions,
44:17 you end up in a cornfield in Indiana."
44:20 "He had a very colorful life.
44:23 He killed a lot of people.
44:26 I can't just say he was a good guy.
44:29 He grew up in there.
44:32 It's all about money.
44:35 It's all about money and power."
44:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]