Hole in the Wall Gang Part 3

The FBI waits outside Bertha’s Gifts and Furnishings for the Hole in the Wall Gang In this third and final installment in my report on Tony Spilotro and his Hole in the Wall gang, the reader will learn how the gang plan a big burglary at Bertha’s Gifts and Furnishings. The only problem is they took in a government informant before the score. As they plan a huge score in the burglary of Bertha’s Gifts and Furnishings, Sal Romano reported every move to his FBI control. By 1981, Spilotro knows he is in for a series of legal challenges. He is facing a RICO indictment for conspiring to skim money from Las Vegas casinos. He knows the government has dedicated a huge amount of resources and they are very serious. He knows his Chicago Outfit bosses, Joey Aiuppa, Jackie Cerone and Angelo LaPietra are all facing these same charges. He needs money and a lot of it. Oscar Goodman, his Las Vegas lawyer does not work cheap. If the government convicts Spilotro, more than likely he goes away for a long stretch and he must earn money to provide for his family in the eventuality. Las Vegas Metro Intelligence Commander Kent Clifford and FBI agent Emmet Michaels are very focused on the Spilotro burglary crew for several reasons. First because of the bad publicity from the Frankie Bluestein killing, second because of the threats against Sgt. Gene Smith and Det. David Groover of Metro and thirdly because of Commander Clifford’s trip to Chicago to threaten Outfit bosses. They need a win. The FBI and Las Vegas Metro form a task force with the specific intent to bring down Spilotro. They will get a huge break. How the FBI and Metro Intelligence finally joined forces Because of the former Sheriff, Ralph Lamb, and his corrupt Intelligence Unit detectives, the FBI has had to hide what they are doing from local law enforcement. In 1981, David Helfry, the USA Attorney in Kansas City, and his staff were working with Bill Ouseley and agents in Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Las Vegas to put together the skimming cases. They are putting folks in front of a grand jury and trying to get somebody to turn and explain how the skimming works to the trial jury. Even though Metro Intelligence has cleaned up its act, they are still distrustful of the FBI and vice versa. Since much of the FBI information is coming from a Federal Grand Jury, they cannot share that intelligence with the local cops. The FBI has this Top Echelon Informant (Lefty Rosenthal) in Las Vegas and this information cannot be shared. Then a couple of Chicago agents turn a guy who will make all the difference. The FBI will require local cooperation to pull off what they believe will be the blow that brings down Spilotro and his Hole in the Wall Gang. When the government decides to take down a crew and forms a partnership with the local cops, the target does not have a chance.  By this time, the Spilotro Task Force was very familiar with all the usual Hole in the Wall Gang hangouts. Many times, unless there is a specific operation going, the Intelligence guys will merely hang around the known spots like clubs, casinos, apartments or homes to see who their targets meet and follow them to maybe identify other businesses they go into or to see what other activities they participate in. The officers might see Cullotta or another member of the gang frequenting another bar or business where they had a friend or a source working and they would later visit the place to find out what the crook was doing there. Many people think this is a waste of time and the officers themselves may not realize or understand exactly what they are seeing during these kinds of surveillance. In his case, they were observing Tony Spilotro with Frank Cullotta, Ernie Davino, Larry Newman, Wayne Mateki, Leo Guardino, and Joe Blasko quite a lot. They knew these were all career criminals and had done high-end burglaries or robberies in the past.