 Welcome back to the original gangsters podcast. I'm Jimmy Buccellato aka the doctor here in studio with my Co-conspirator mr. Scott Bernstein hey now the intrepid Scott Bernstein and Benny's in the house and We just want to remind everyone please subscribe to our YouTube channel and please subscribe to our podcast Please follow us on social media. We're on Twitter Facebook Instagram We are on tiktok and hopefully we'll be dropping some more clips on tiktok We haven't been that active, but we are definitely active on Facebook Twitter and Instagram We appreciate all your comments try to get back to as many people as we can and We've got an exciting episode today, but before we get into that I just wanted to take a moment a minute or two and talk to the audience about Really introduce ourselves or reintroduce ourselves because our podcast is growing and that's a good thing Our numbers are going up in terms of video and audio and I noticed from some of the comments Some people are like who are these guys and and sometimes they don't mean that in a kind way It's mostly the video though. It's mostly video Because we're new to YouTube in the last five four or five months. Yeah, so I think in fairness It's a good idea for us to introduce or reintroduce ourselves just so you know That we're not just a couple of jabronis talking out and maybe we are but But we do have some credentials. So I'm Jimmy Buccellato. I am the reason why they call me the doctor. I have a PhD in the social sciences I'm a criminologist at a university. I research right and teach about gangs and organized crime That's my specialization. I Wrote a book called early organized crime in Detroit. So I'm really interested in organized crime in the mafia in Detroit, but also the Sicilian mafia in particular, but I Research all sorts of other crime groups street gangs. I've appeared in different documentaries about about gangsters in Detroit about Jimmy Hoffa so That's who I am and my friend Scott Bernstein. You want to tell us I wear many hats so At first I was a author I've published six books all an organized crime I started writing about organized crime in Detroit in the mid to late 2000s after I graduated from law school in Chicago Published six books on organized crime and then I have transitioned into a career as an investigative journalist Documentarian historian I've been a part of a number of Hollywood television and film projects that I'm Started in about 2015 been working in that space now for going on seven eight years I've had some viral hits on Netflix. I worked on a movie with Matthew McConaughey. I am now in the process of selling a couple television shows to not kind of would Netflix and CBS respectively and Still out there doing my gangster report comm www.gangsterreport.com. I started in 2014. It's I call it the Rolling Stone of the online magazine underworld a lot of a hodgepodge of different organized crime subjects kind of With with some pop culture and history sprinkled in yeah, I encourage people to check out gangster report because a Lot of our episodes gangster report Inspires what we'll talk about here, but we only do this once a week like there's a lot of other content If you're interested in this topic There's a lot of other content on gangster report that we aren't necessarily going to address here address here So if you want more of that, I encourage you to check out gangster report and anyhow So we hope that you continue to like our show my podcast or two in case you guys didn't know This podcast now going on three four years. Yeah recently when we spent the first two years building up our audio Audience and then in the last five six months We've really made a concerted effort to get into YouTube and get into visual space So yeah, please spread the word and I'm really humbled by it. I mean when we first started this I Told Scott and Roberto back then like you know a few dozen people listen to this I'll be I'll be happy and then the first time Roberto told us like oh like one of our episodes got like 10,000 Downloads I was like what like are you serious? So we've been growing it ever since and we're happy to do so We appreciate your support So today is going to be another La Cosa Nostra episodes So we're going to be talking about the Italian mafia and specifically the Chicago outfit a lot of our episodes on the Chicago Outfit are very popular. So we're happy to bring you more content and We have a couple of stories here that connect the outfit to their operations in Las Vegas And we've we've talked about this before and we will revisit it But some some other news that that has come out recently about the outfit and Vegas Although their historical case studies. It's right There are news is kind of coming out now about to happen in the two dead bodies, right one in the 80s and one in the 2000s and they've both of these cases have surfaced in the Las Vegas media In the last month. Yeah related to current ones related to a current investigation and ones related to a family's plea for justice or attention to their Fathers Suspicious overdose death. Okay, so let's let's start chronologically. What's the let's start with the tell us about the first one. So If if people have been keeping track with our podcast We've done at least one or two episodes on all the dead bodies that are Emerging from Lake Mead in Nevada It's the the major body of water in the Las Vegas area the largest freshwater reservoir in America It was created as we're not for much longer as a result of the Hoover Dam And since the 1940s 50s there a lot of Las Vegas's problems have disappeared either into the desert or into Lake Mead and There's been a a water drop In that area and there's this precipitous water level Decrease that is causing human remains to surface and there have been at least five bodies or five Skeletal remains human skeletal remains that have been Uncovered since early May and there's a lot of speculation as to whether or not these are old Case mob murders from the Tony spolato era And that was the character that you saw in the movie casino They call him Nikki Santoro in the movie casino played by the actor Joe Pesci but in real life his name was Tony the aunt spolato and He ran roughshot through the Vegas Strip from 1971 when he landed there as a representative of the Chicago Mafia to look after the Midwest mobs interest in the casino and hotel industry and he ruled for 15 years was very Very high-profile nobody in Vegas had ever seen a gangster like Tony spolato and He died as he lived was someone that was suspected in upwards of probably three dozen gangland homicides Some of them very brutal in nature One of them you saw in the movie casino where they popped the guy's eye out in a head vise Like that really happened and Tony spolato really did that That's one of my favorite scenes I'm not to say like I like gruesome like eyes being popped up with the the the dialogue Yeah, you make me pop over that piece of Charlie Charlie M He's gonna kill me Frankie do my favorite So my mother this this actually ties in to the case that we're about to talk about so in the movie casino there is a scene About midway through the film where you see that the Joe Pesci characters Rain in Las Vegas is going off the rails and their bodies popping up and Law enforcement scrutiny that wasn't there before he got there There's media attention that wasn't there before he got there and it's causing some consternation for the bosses back home and He sends his right hand played by Frank Vincent back to Chicago to meet with the Chicago mob boss who could give him a piece of the action and while he's there the the mob boss in Chicago was supposed to be a kind of a Composite, but I think it's mainly supposed to be based on Joey Dove's I upa But in the movie he's called Remo gaji and in the movie Remo tells Frankie that kind of come closer And he says they found a guy's head in the desert the other day. Everybody's talking about it. It's a big deal Yeah, and then Bandy says now go back to Las Vegas and you tell Nicky. He's got to take care of things a little quieter right Frankie They found a guy's head in the desert You know about that Yeah, yeah Everybody's talking about it. They make a big deal out of it. It's in all the papers and I mean that's no good I know I'm gonna tell him to take care of things a little better So I didn't realize I knew that there were a lot of Murders that were depicted in the movie casino that were based on real life I didn't know until recently that that scene in that comment about a guy's head being found in the desert Was another one of those cases And the guy's name was Anthony Albanese. He went by the nickname Tony Paradise he was a Born and bred East coaster that had come West in the 60s had come in to Los Angeles to Southern California and owned a Series of strip clubs and then in the 70s he moved to Las Vegas and started to I guess impose his will on the sex industry in in Sin City and Ten years after he arrived His head was found in the desert in California with no torso No body attached to his head. That's what the Rimogaji character was referencing in the movie casino and right now Because there's all these questions swirling around the bodies that have already emerged from Lake Mead as well as predictions by environmentalists in Nevada that are saying This is really the tip of the iceberg and over the next couple years. You're gonna see dozens if not hundreds of human remains surface and it came out recently that one of the bodies or Remains that they're hoping to tie and and and I guess close up a cold case murder is that the Authorities in Las Vegas are hoping that they'll find Tony Paradise's Torso the rest of the rest of him in Lake Mead and that possibly some of the remains that have already surfaced since May Potentially could be Tony Paradise. So from a forensics perspective. I mean if they find his body, I Don't know. How would you get the D? How unless they say unless they saved? The head yeah in like a police freezer or an FBI freezer Or they could go to I'm guessing they could go to his Offspring if he has any yeah, or brothers or sisters and get their DNA so but to find it Are there I mean what would this do is this just about like some Closure because it's so like I mean it's all these cases morbid like and you like to just know that his head was there But not the rest of his body like I guess I'm just So what if they find his torso what purpose is this right, right? I Don't think in any of these situations any of these bodies that they're looking for if they were connected To mob hits in Las Vegas. I don't think there's any Way or any possibility that charges are gonna come out of this nobody's building a case There's not gonna be homicide indictments, I suppose for the family if there's any family left. I mean they might receive some kind of Consolation like That you can finally be buried in a proper. I don't know like you know, it's such a gruesome gruesome thing But the circumstances surrounding his murder are pretty interesting. Yeah, that's what I was just gonna say Let's let's get into that. I did a little research I talked I reached out to some of my law enforcement sources in the area and guys in the FBI Or formerly in the FBI a couple guys that were in the spielotro orbit and This was a you didn't you didn't really hear much about beefs between mafia families in Las Vegas and From our knowledge and our research And and the historical record most of the action that was going down in Vegas not to say that there wasn't an east coast Influence there was but the majority of the influence in Las Vegas Was from the Midwest right was Chicago Detroit Cleveland, Milwaukee, Kansas City, St. Louis But New York still Had their tentacles stretched from the east coast into the Nevada into the Nevada gaming industry at some level and Albanese I think Represented maybe not with the gaming industry, but at least with the sex industry Represented the the five families that the New York mob Albanese he was representing some of their interests and I know particularly he was tied into the Bronx crew of the banana crime family Patty de Filippo Vito de Filippo guys of any Bassiano Some some names that yeah follow the New York mob, you know who they are right and Patty de Filippo I think was just a soldier at that point his dad had been a Capo under Joe Bonanno I'm pretty sure Jimmy's more of an expert on Some of the Sicilian I think the old man was yeah, and So he represented the banana crime family in LA or was one of the representatives in LA in the 60s he had a Strip club chain called little Abner's little L. I L Abner's I'm Guessing that's based on the the children's book. Yeah, I've heard that Friday city, I think it was like a city mouse or Country mouse city mouse. Hey, I don't I've heard that before I don't remember what it was I don't know if Abner was the city mouse or if he was the country mouse anyway He he Ran those strip clubs in LA and according to some documentation I saw He was not paying tribute to the LA Mafia. I see that in your reporting. Yeah So it's not to say that tribute wasn't being paid The the the documentation I said or the documentation can't speak the documentation that I saw Alluded to an informant saying that he wasn't sure that the LA crime family wasn't seen anything He just knew that Albanesey personally Wasn't kicking to the dragon crime family That's not to say that the Bananos Themselves were not paying the LA crime family some piece of what? Albanesey was giving to them. Yeah, they made maybe they were making it right on that end But at least the foundation for when he came to LA or sorry God I'm all over the place when he left LA and he came to Las Vegas in I think 1972 Which is around the same time that splotcher got there He purchased a strip mall known as paradise market, that's how he got the nickname 20 paradise at least in Las Vegas he was called 20 paradise and The strip club had sorry the strip mall had a strip club In it called the crazy horse The precursor to the famous crazy horse to which we'll talk about in a little bit but the first crazy horse in Las Vegas was owned by Tony Albanesey and It did pretty well, but it was a small kind of quaint Wasn't making a lot of noise wasn't I don't think a Big wise guy hang out at that time like it would become and He was he was I guess flying under the radar so to speak for his first five six years seven years in Las Vegas, but then he Came up with a business idea Inspired by what was going on in New York City where there were a There was a a sex club industry like a mainstream sex club industry not like Not where it wasn't necessarily seedy and you weren't going to like a red light district, but there were places in Manhattan I'm I'm blanking. I know there was one that had a famous name But they were high-class Clubs and I think they were promoted as spot co-ed spas I love the euphemism and he'd basically go and take your clothes off with other people of opposite and same sex and It would be kind of like a wink-wink like you're coming here for a spa But if you want us if you want to become swingers if you want to you know hook up and have sex here We'll also provide Those opportunities So I think that there was again. I'm blanking on the name. There was a famous club in Manhattan that Albanese was inspired by and then that club in Manhattan had spawned some knockoffs around New York City and I'm thinking about that. So if this is the early 80s The AIDS crisis had before it was before it was 81 So you could see would people leave or less uptight about AIDS crisis really hit the mainstream in 84 right in 45. Yeah, because it seems to me like That business model me. Yes But it was very successful in New York City I don't know for sure, but I would wouldn't be shocked if some of the Bananos had a piece of those Oh, yeah, I'm sure of course. So Albanese. He had a open storefront in his Paradise market which was at the corner of Flamingo and Paradise Avenue And he intended to open up the city of Las Vegas's first ever co-ed spa or Underground sex club, however, you wanted to to refer to refer to it as and throughout 1980 and the early part of 1981 he was Tony Albanese he was on a fundraising campaign where he was selling shares of the club for You know financial investment to wise guys So this sounds More like a swingers orgy kind of thing because we knew there were like what do they call them stud ranches or I mean There were brothels going back Forever in Las Vegas. This is a little swinger. This is for right. It's more of a collective. Yeah Community communal. I think it's for husbands and wives or boyfriends and girlfriends to go right and swap, right? right The one in New York did I think it was called Plato's Closet or I don't like the philosopher If you told me the name of it, I would remember I should have done my research before we Got on the air, but I didn't I apologize, but but there was a precedent up on Google. So when you're your fiance when he looks at your Scots look at come New York sex. There was some precedent in terms of successful business and endeavors in that space in New York Again, I'm speculating but I'm guessing that the Italian mafia had something to do with either financing or overseeing or extorting so Albanese he decides to take that concept bring it to bring it to Las Vegas and At this point Uh Spelancho wants in and again, I don't know all the particulars of what was going on before that it doesn't sound like Albanese he was kicking up any tribute to the Chicago guys in Vegas It looked like again like what he was doing in law in Los Angeles where he was relying on the bananas to run interference for him But when word starts to spread on the strip that this is gonna happen and People know it or people were assuming I guess it would be a successful endeavor and it would be profitable I think he was looking at initially to raise a quarter million dollars and At some point According to informants Spelancho Approached Albanese and said We're coming in for a piece of this and we're not paying we're not giving you any money to invest in it we're just taking a piece of it and Albanese he didn't take kindly to that Conversation based on some people I spoke to and some stuff I saw That's not saying that he was definitely killed by Spelancho. We don't know exactly who killed him But I Would lean towards believing that that is what that that incident that dispute Is what led to him being murdered and it doesn't seem on brand like a head in the desert doesn't seem like on brand for spelancho Yes, I mean obviously we don't know but it doesn't seem like it would be on red So let me ask you something and just for some context here. I because I think there's an interesting story spelancho's initial assignment is to protect Rosenthal and the skim right but as we've established on other episodes When he goes out there, he doesn't he doesn't just confine himself restrict himself to that He views it as an open city. Yeah, and he wants a piece of everything breaking and entering theft They're never have the gambling loan sharking They've been mobsters that have been Las Vegas before right the mobsters were focusing on the stealing that was going on in the Casinos, right? There was nobody that was like you're saying looking at it as an open city to go in and conquer Yes, and cut in to all the illegal business being Operate on the street street level right and if you don't let us cut in we're gonna cut your head off or murder you right? So this was this was kind of an interesting Dynamic separate from his initial assignment from the outfit and you can see why some of the guys in Chicago would Get annoyed with him not only generating headlines, you know a head in the desert, but like in this case maybe Getting into Causing some beef with another crime family that then Chicago has to Settle this because I can imagine This albinese guy if he if he if he thinks he's protected by the bananas He might not even know who spelancho is and he might he might be yeah I would say he I mean maybe when he first got there. Yeah, but he'd been there for seven years. Yeah opened up He purchased this strip mall I believe in 79 So he would he would have known who he was, but he might not have been like been there for seven years before yeah Operating, you know on the fringes of the strip club Industries, but you know how these guys are like if they're protected by some other wise guys He might be like I don't have to fucking pay you shit Not maybe appreciating how lethal spelancho could be so according to one of the documents I was given by One of my sources the former FBI agent This informant says there was some type of sit-down in March of 81 between spelancho group Albanese Someone from the bananas that had come in town I'm lead I'm I'm of the belief that it was Patty from the Bronx Patty De Filippo. This is what the informant thought it was De Filippo And then there was also members of the LA crime family that were at that meeting so I guess the murder could have been carried out by the LA family as well and Because this world is so treacherous. I'm totally speculating. I've no I've not done any reporting on this just asking Scott What he thinks? to me there's always a possibility that They all agreed behind the scenes. All right, we're gonna fuck this guy. We're gonna cut this guy out and Spelancho bananas, we'll just like you want to fucking whack because he's not a made guy Right, right the bananas could have sold him out. I don't think Albanese was a may guy, right? I don't see any evidence telling me before that he's a may guy, but that doesn't mean that yeah Yeah, but there's no evidence to tell us that he was yeah So if he was a may guy then that then what I just said that would become more complicated and may not be the case but if he's not a made guy who knows maybe even the bananas sold him out and Made some arrangement with spelanchoes like but the co-ed spot never got built or opened Oh, that's that's true. Yeah. Yeah, and which would defeat the purpose of any kind of like We'll split it among ourselves and and please if you're If you're from Las Vegas and you're watching this or listening to this, please correct me if I'm wrong, but at the new shopping plaza that Albanese he opened up when he first got there and he opened up this crazy horse saloon that was a A strip club He had taken over a piece of property that was known as Billy Joe's power company and I guess in the 70s This piece of property Was like if not the hottest disco in Las Vegas one of the hottest discos in Las Vegas So it was like a it already had like a Reputation as a hotspot. Yeah and that can actually be a segue for us into the second Chicago mob Las Vegas tie that we're gonna get into today. Let me I'm sorry because I just want to finish this up I want to ask you one more thing. So it's the protocol like okay. Let's assume He's an associate of the Bananos spelancho wax him without clearing it with with New York and The Bananos find out they're probably not willing to go to war over something like this But what would be the protocol like with the Bananos and say you have to you have to reimburse us remember like in Sopranos Like it's all business remember they beat the guy up and put him in the It was hashes hashes He's like now can we get around to something more important? You want ten thousand or whatever fine like we I mean that's how it be like no one would shed tears in that world But they would wouldn't they expect some kind of compensation. Yeah, but I think back up for a second I think I don't think spelancho or Chicago Would have been brazen enough to hit a member of the Banano crew without clearing it with the Bananos So then the Bananos did throw that did sell them out again. I'm looking I'm also looking at my reporting here according to the informant at that Sit down in March albany's he got quote-unquote mouthy. Ah, I see I don't know what that means He got mouthy with spelancho. Does that mean he got mouthy with the LA guys Does it mean he got mouthy with his own guys in the Bananos, right? I can see a week So we talked about this another episode a lot of the time when these guys get clipped It's over determined. It's not it's not always just one specific It's a it's a culmination of infractions and then there's one that's a catalyst where it's like all right enough for this fucking guy so album also this is the I'll end with this albany see disappeared on May 18th 1981 he was at home with his wife in in their house in Las Vegas on on Bel Air Avenue and Told her that he was going to a meeting and that the meeting should last Less than an hour that he'd be back for dinner Never returned. They found his body in or sorry. They found his head in California. They didn't find it in Nevada so he was kidnapped from Nevada or Killed in Nevada and his head placed in California another interesting aspect of this was There, you know, it doesn't look like there's any direct connection But there could be some tangential connections to the fact that two other Underworld figures That were from Southern California, but we're doing business in Las Vegas the same way that albany see was We're killed the same time period. We're killed in early summer late spring 81 So when when investigators have been looking at albany see his case besides speculating about The connection to spolato or Chicago. They also have looked at if it ties into these other two Underworld figures that popped up dead, but if if spolato is Would you say he's? By 81 totally rogue yet He was heading in that direction because I'm saying like if it that's is that we know that he was having that problem It's not unimaginable that he could have whacked a banano associate without getting without checking in Yeah, but I I feel if that happened there would have been blowback We would know about now. I see I could be wrong I mean sure might have been blowback that got stomped out really quick and it never reached the point where someone like me would have heard it Yeah, right But it's interesting. I I find it. I Just find it difficult to believe as crazy as splotcher was that I mean that would He'd be risking a Bicostal mob war, right? If you kill the New York mobster on the Chicago mobs watch Without permission, maybe this is what triggered the war between Chicago and the bananos that you read about in When I was reading that for the first time I read it in high school and I was blown away. I was like, why did this never been addressed Made into a movie Then he doesn't many probably doesn't know we're talking about Bill Romer and people that are listening to my might not know we're talking Yeah, Bill Romer was a famous FBI agent that was kind of splotcher. It was main nemesis in the FBI and He was a bit of a glory hound sure and when he retired from the bureau He wrote a handful of books on the Chicago mafia He wrote one on splotcher, which is great by the way one on Tonya Carter, which is great But then he wrote another one Without really letting people know it was fiction There's no disclaimer and it was about this like mob war between New York and Chicago and all these real life People and he's like talking about like FBI wires and an informants and I'm an adult gets killed Right, and I'm just like wait this never really had this never happened. I was doing a research on it You're like, oh, it's fiction. Yeah, I was so I read it when I was probably 15 or 16 I was so confused. I was like how why wasn't this addressed in any of the other books? I had read I was blown away So anyhow, sorry to digress, but but yeah, so tell us about the the second second case So the so the crazy horse saloon that Tony paradise albany see opened up in 1979 He died two years later. It was killed two years later by 1984 The crazy horse had been moved Let me go back and see where it was moved to it was moved to Industrial the industrial in Sahara It was underneath I think a sub a Sahara Boulevard overpass. Yeah, I just tried to look it up on Google. I can't really figure I haven't been to Vegas in years. I don't really know that area to be honest I've only been there a handful of times, but I don't know where it is So the original one was on flamingo and paradise and then The second one was on a piece of property known by the which was at the corner of industrial road and a highway overpass That was Sahara Avenue That became the crazy horse to which became quite Notorious at least in my early trips to Las Vegas That was of a kind of a go-to strip club It was the one that everyone said the mob controlled and whether or not that's true I guess it's neither here nor there, but it was kind of one of the last It was it's I believe it's closed now, but up until recently It was known as like one of the last vestiges of mob control over Las Vegas that there was still a business in the 2000s operating and it wasn't a kind of a Profit sharing it was that a Chicago mafia has full control over according to Some informants and documented again nothing has ever been proven But that Chicago mafia controlled a hundred percent controlled the crazy horse to strip club which became one of the more popular trendy strip clubs in the 80s 90s and 2000s and There were quite a few Chicago wise guys and Chicago wise guy affiliates that were employed at the crazy horse to most notably Joy the calm Lombardo's brother Rocco, so Benny you're always balling out in Vegas and that strip club still So that strip club was owned On paper by a Chicago businessman eventually a convicted felon, but at the time a Chicago businessman named Rick Rizolo and Rick Got into a dispute with his tenant So Rizolo owned The strip mall that he had bought From whoever Albanese he had whoever inherited it after Albanese. He yeah died and There was a Very colorful Las Vegas businessman by the name of Buffalo Jim Barrier and Buffalo Jim Barrier was a Very very colorful connected Someone that was known around town as kind of a ambassador of Sin City and He was also He owned an auto repair business That also doubled as a memorabilia Pawn shop and it was in the same Strip mall as The crazy horse too, which again had become a incredibly popular strip club. So this Buffalo Jim Barrier who had this auto parts Store that again doubled as a place where people would go and try to sell wrestling memorabilia professional wrestling memorabilia So kind of think of like pawn stars Where people would go and try to sell things to those two guys in Las Vegas Yeah, and then they would turn around and wouldn't what this have been again This was in the 80s and 90s and early 2000s. Well, and it's interesting because I'm not sure how much wrestling memorabilia there even was well I don't know the time on this the rest memorabilia part might have started to come later or later on that would make sense He I believe he put the Auto repair shop in there in the 70s, okay, and then at some point Rizzolo takes over the crazy horse to and there starts to be landlord tenant disputes Buffalo Jim in addition to having this auto repair auto parts company storefront that Sold and traded memorabilia. He also had his own Promotion, oh wrestling right, right, right. Yeah, so he had a small Independent wrestling promotion in Las Vegas that had a television deal and that was on cable television. Yeah, so he was this I Keep on coming back to the word word colorful, but I mean he was just like larger than life crazy like your crazy uncle and He looked the part yet, you know look like a almost like a biker with a long beard and tattoos and he was a popular guy, too right? Yeah, very popular who do commercials on television for his auto repair shop and Starting in the 1990s Rick Rizzolo tried to kick Buffalo Jim barrier off the property To expand the strip club, or do we know why he wanted? Yeah, I'm not sure him out of that But he started to and Buffalo Jim had opened up the shop in 1977. So he was there for a good seven years before Rizzolo took over Rizzolo took over in 84 85 by 95 96 Rizzolo is trying to remove Barrier from the property a barrier Claims renters rights says I own this before you bought it goes to court and gets the The proceedings to a victim stayed and it becomes a Ten-year bitter feud between Rizzolo and the strip club and barrier and according to Barriers family and barriers attorney over those ten years. There was a a campaign of intimidation that was launched by Rizzolo and the strip club death threats Flat tires that had been slashed graffiti art being put on pieces of property that that mr. Barrier owned I mean if he's a good paying tenant I have to imagine Their main thing was they probably just wanted that to expand the wanted the space to explain this expand the strip club, right? Okay, there's there's another kicker here and the kicker is that through this eviction process Buffalo Jim starts cooperating with the FBI the DEA and the IRS against the strip club against Rizzolo and Isn't really trying to hide that fact He's using it as leverage to get them off his back. Yeah because the FBI and the authorities in Las Vegas were convinced that Rizzolo was part of a racketeering enterprise was using the strip club to run drugs or to Launder money none of this is it'd be very good none of this was ever proved right was ever proven But and part of this started back in the early 2000s when a Customer at the in September of 2001, so I think it was right after 9-11 a Customer at the crazy horse to Got into a dispute over his bar tab with some of the security and the security beat this guy To death and threw him out on the curb Buffalo Jim barrier Used that incident as a way to Kind of show Las Vegas. Hey, these are a bunch of bad guys. They're killing their customers Two years later the feds raid The crazy horse to and they're just they're just coming full-court press at Rizzolo Um Eventually Rizzolo ends up copping a plea to tax evasion in 2007 has to sell I believe his Ownership stake in the crazy horse to and has to go do a year in prison on April 4th 2008 Rick Rizzolo is released from prison and 48 hours later on April 6th 2008 Buffalo Jim barrier is found dead In a motel 6 The authorities ruled that it was a cocaine induced heart attack the barrier family and the barrier attorney Is convinced that this was a message murder that Rizzolo in the Chicago outfit had killed barrier that hot dosten and That it was a message because it happened You know a day or two after Rizzolo have got not a person So that was the news that hit the Las Vegas press about two weeks ago three weeks ago Jim barriers daughters two daughters did an interview with the Las Vegas Review journal are they filing like an unlawful or what's the term I think they're just on lawful death They're pleading for some type of Follow-up investigation by the Clark County Corner's office or the Las Vegas police or the FBI You know the the Las Vegas review journal reached out to them for the story and they said It is what we say it is it was a Accidental overdose and there's no foul play and we don't intend on going back and it seems to me like a long shot I'm not I'm not trying to disrespect the family and it's a sad story But if they can demonstrate that at any point in time this guy was doing cocaine Yeah, like there's plausible tonight like like sometimes that happens, you know And this guy let's also paint the picture of a buffalo Jim. I mean this guy was like in the world of wrestling You might not have known him across the country but When anybody of any stature and from this at least of people that I spoke to because I didn't know who this guy was before I heard But from the people I spoke to and you could tell by just googling him and and looking at a Google image search Any major wrestlers that came into Las Vegas in the 90s and 2000s were pain and were like taking a pilgrimage Yeah to this auto parts like a destination to come take a picture with Buffalo Jim Maybe sign some memorabilia interact with fans that were coming there to sell and trade wrestling memorabilia So, I mean he was like this figure that maybe a majority of the world hadn't heard of but in certain spaces in certain Circles he was a pretty popular Renowned dare I say even iconic Figure in certain places So, um, do you think law enforcement in that area are interested in this taking it seriously or I don't and uh You know, I don't know what to believe I Am someone in in my crime reporting I don't believe in coincidences I don't believe when someone ends up dead on a certain date or close to a certain date That it wasn't intentional now that said This is very thin. I mean he had a cocaine. I mean he had a cocaine induced heart attack Is it possible that that someone hot dosed him and they're saying that he was at that motel six with a woman He didn't know very well Maybe the I think they're implying that this woman might have been hired to hot dose him um I don't know it doesn't seem very it doesn't seem like there's a very strong case for this being a mob hit other than the fact That the timing is strange yeah, the timing is uh is uh Interesting, but again, you know in terms of any kind of evidence I mean if this this guy like doing coke And he's with some we don't know that you know, I don't I don't I don't want to make assumptions Yeah, yeah, we don't know that my gut tells me And I apologize if his family's listening to this and and and he's and he's nothing like this I don't know anything about this guy other than what I've written and what I've talked to a couple people In the las vegas press as well as a couple people in the That were former feds So I apologize if this comes off like I'm talking like I don't know what I'm talking about but He seems like a guy that liked to party Right, that that's why I'm I don't know. I don't know if I don't I have no idea if he had a recreational cocaine habit If you had a uh cocaine addiction, I have no idea Looks like based on the pictures I've seen and the way he presented himself as he was a guy that liked a good time I mean if you're a guy with someone that You've taken a woman to a motel six It doesn't seem to me a stretch that you you like to use cocaine You're going there to have sex and and to do drugs. It seems like they go they go well together, but um, but if I was their family, I would Be very suspicious all the time that it happened, you know less than two days after this guy that had a Real hard on for my dad. Yeah This guy gets out of prison and then you know within two days. My dad's dead. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's an interesting story But it seems to me right now. It's too thin in terms of no, it's definitely too thin. I would never um I would never say or imply that that there are You know charges on the horizon or a case even a case that could ever be built Right, but I found it interesting the the laws vegas Uh review journal put this on their front page This buffalo gym guy obviously, um, you know was was relatively high profile So was rick rezolo. So you had rick rezolo. I don't know if it's rezolo or rezolo um, but you had you know two of vegas's maybe most Uh colorful characters most, um, you know infamous People that were budding heads for a decade and and one ends up in in prison and one ends up dead of an overdose One had helped put the other in prison You know, it definitely leads to some questions to be asked. Uh, I'm again, I'm more interested in kind of who this Buffalo gym was and and and what his How all these wrestlers knew him? I don't think that like he was getting mainstream Household names to come wrestle on his circuit Yeah, sometimes in that case you get like some Hasbens You know that I don't think back in the day. It wasn't it wasn't any uh company that had a national television They had a local television deal. Yeah a lot of times because those those guys Once mcmann cut you loose those guys didn't make any money And so they would some of those hasbens would but but the point I'm making is that a lot of these You know legendary wrestlers Knew this guy was and and appeared to Really like him and enjoy his company I mean just the picture that I put up on my website when I recorded or when I did this story um, you know, he's with uh Goldberg and um Sid vicious, Sid vicious and was that rick steiner. Yeah, and rick steiner Yeah, wcw guy. Well the Sid vicious wasn't back and forth, but um So one of these days we'd like to do a wrestling episode Because there's there's a couple of really interesting in canada dino bravo And then johnny canine, which was the outlaw bikers and then dino bravo had connections to the Cotroni risotto organizational Montreal Both guys died under you know Dino bravo was like stealing cigarette shipments. Yeah that he was supposedly in charge of yeah So there could have been multiple people that wanted to see him dead Yeah, but please please google this buffalo gym because he looks like something straight out of a wwe storyline Yeah, I thought he was cactus jack. Yeah first when I uh, when I saw that picture But if anyone out there by the way, if there any wrestling people out there that like wrestling like, I mean We used to I don't follow wrestling anymore probably in 20 something years But I loved wrestling in the 80s and 90s and early 2000s But um, if you could think of any good guests that we could contact to come on our show and talk about Dino bravo johnny canine Let us know because I don't know anyone in that world to like we we We have networks within law enforcement in the underworld, but I don't know anyone to talk about wrestling But we'd love to do an episode on the wrestling underworld crossover I'm gonna digress here for a quick second, but this isn't really crime related but It's fascinating to look at these wrestlers that I grew up watching in the 80s That were you know, these like in larger than life Yeah, I had their action figures and The lifespan Of these guys. So they all die at like 50 or 45. I mean steroids and cocaine are a really really brutal combination Yeah on the body and if you look I don't want to throw out a crazy estimation, but I mean You're talking maybe 30% Of the guys that were wrestling in the 80s are gone now. I would say more than that Yeah, when I watch like I like to watch old-fashioned wrestling even now I'll watch I'll text bernie Like in the summer I'll binge and I'll watch like wrestling 80 from 88 or whatever royal rumble or whatever And I'll text them like I can't believe like almost every one of these guys and these matches is dead dead right now And they died a long time ago die young not just like the other day, but like and they die young the 90s and Early 2000 so it's sad, but hopefully we we find this topic interesting. Hopefully we can expand I know it's it's a little different than the what happened in Chicago But it his connection to wrestling made me think about this other this other stuff and right now, you know Rick Rosolo, you know, he's 66 years old. He's still living in Las Vegas It's been out of you know, they've been out of prison now for 13 14 years We don't really You know, I haven't really kept tabs on him since the crazy or is too closed, but You know, again, I want to make very clear that we're not impugning him. We're just saying what was alleged by Buffalo Jim's family and by some investigations into him But has never been convicted of any racketeering or modulated counts was was was convicted of of tax evasion but you know if you're employing Joey Lombardo's made man brother and Joey Lombardo was the conciliary of Chicago mafia recently died a legendary figure in the midwest underworld was he was actually In charge of spallotro So spallotro in Las Vegas reported to Lombardo In Chicago and then Lombard and then Lombardo reported to the bosses Lombardo was a coppo at that point ran the west side Grand Avenue crew Then she became conciliary in the 90s, but uh He sent his brother to work at the crazy horse too um, and his brother is allegedly a maid guy so You do the math um The club In its heyday Was very mobbed up and it was known as a place that if you were a gangster That was coming in from out of town. You weren't going to spearmint and rhino You weren't going to og's You were going to the crazy horse too You weren't going to the seven seven seven. What was the death row? Shrug knight No, I think other was seven with a party that pock was going to that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, right. I care about 40 club or something So, I mean, I just want to make clear that yes, they were allegations, but That's a fact. Rocco Lombardo was employed By the crazy horse too. There's pictures online. Is he still around? He's still alive. He's still alive If you if you he's any was younger than joey's is probably mid 80s Joey died when he was 89 in 2018 or 19 Um, but you know, you can just google Rocco Lombardo. There'll there'll be a picture that pops up with him at the crazy horse so I I don't think it was all speculation that this was a Mobbed up establishment. It doesn't mean that rick Rizzolo or Rizzolo was was uh Was a mobster sure, but uh, I I am um I'll side with informants that claim that he was a mob associate and he was beholden To the guys in Chicago. I don't think Any of his own money really went into That strip club. I think back in the 80s when it was Moved and and renamed the crazy horse too and everything and that was you know 1984 I mean it was two years before splotter died. So, you know, Chicago still had a Stranglehold in the vice grip on that territory. I wonder about the strip clubs today in vegas Like if they're any of them are mobbed up. I have no I don't have no idea I that's what I'm saying. I haven't been to vegas and I can't remember 12 years. That's been a while That's why I think people made such a big deal of the crazy horse too Being so mobbed up allegedly it was the last it was the last real business in laws of eight I mean, I'm not the last but one of the last that had Supreme control by organized crime. I mean now all those Casinos are all corporate. I mean even if you wanted to try to shake down a casino, you couldn't Well, I'll tell you what the last time I was in vegas I took out money from the atm And it was a $25 fee and I said it was better when the mob controlled it because You'd pay less interest from a mafia loan shark than a goddamn $25 fee But anyhow, well, this was a good show. We'll wrap up here We're always happy to talk about the outfit in las vegas. Hopefully more topics on this soon Again, please subscribe to our youtube channel. Please spread the word People on youtube have said it's a crime that we don't have more subscriptions And I agree. Yeah, so please spread the word. This is grassroots, right? Please spread the word and please follow us on social media. I'm jimmy butchilato. I'm scott brunson and we're out