A Former Hitman Survived the Mob But Not the Coronavirus
Just a quick post this week as we take a sabbatical from Forensic Files and head to the Casino. Fans of the Martin Scorsese film probably already know that all three major real-life characters portrayed in the 1995 movie are long dead.
Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal (called Sam Rothstein on screen), the sports-betting expert, onetime talk-show host, and casino executive, cashed in his chips forever at the age of 79 in 2008.
His wife, dancer Geri McGee (Ginger McKenna), and gangster friend Tony Spilotro (Nicky Santoro) met their end years before the film even started production.
One of the supporting characters, however, not only survived but also scored his own online franchise — before succumbing to COVID-19 at the age of 81 on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020.
Frank Cullotta, a self-admitted thief, thug, and hitman, parleyed his connection with Tony Spilotro — who was tortured and buried alive in 1986 after he angered his mob bosses — into a gig as a historian of local organized-crime in Chicago and Las Vegas from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Cullotta, played by Frank Vincent in Casino, avoided prison time via the transactional immunity he received for cooperating with authorities investigating his associates.
Before his own demise, Cullotta created a hit YouTube channel where he reminisced about his life as a gangster and provided backstories surrounding Tony Spilotro as well as the Rosenthals, whose marriage was a power struggle marked by infidelity, marathon fights, and conciliatory jewelry-giving.
In addition to the success of his series, known as Coffee with Cullotta or Alotta Cullotta, an interview he granted VLAD-TV has garnered 290,217 page views. For 90 minutes, Cullotta recounts how he and Spilotro began their relationship as rival shoe shine boys in Chicago and later moved to Las Vegas to help protect Rosenthal and enforce mob rule in casinos. Highlights include new details on the Casino vise-torture scene (gorier in real life) and an account of the failed Bertha jewelry store robbery that ultimately resulted in Cullotta’s switch to the feds’ side.
The Coffee with Cullotta episodes last around 22 minutes each. Here are links to a few you’ll want to drink in:
• Coffee with Cullotta 1
Highlights: Cullotta clarifies his status as a not-so-made man, discusses just how fat Herbert “Fat Herbie” Blitzstein was, and speculates on who planted a bomb in Rosenthal’s Cadillac.
Real life vs. movie: Rosenthal survived the car explosion only because he hadn’t closed the driver’s-side door yet.
• Coffee with Cullotta 17
Highlights: Cullotta discusses why he never liked Frank Rosenthal and details an aborted plan to assassinate him. He also confirms that Geri Rosenthal had an affair with Tony Spilotro.
Real life vs. movie: Frank Rosenthal, portrayed by the olive-complexioned Robert De Niro in the movie, actually resembled a “skeleton walking around with white skin draped over it.”
• Coffee with Cullotta 27
Highlights: Cullotta recounts the impoverishment of Tony Spilotro’s widow and how the film studio’s makeup department gave Joe Pesci a Spilotro-worthy hairdo.
Real life vs. movie: Tony Spilotro didn’t switch cars in underground garages and he wasn’t really the hit man who ended Tamara Rand’s life and lawsuit.
Local Las Vegas news organizations noted that Cullotta was already grappling with a number of other health problems when COVID-19 struck.
Farewell to Frank Cullotta, a bad guy who helped put some of his old associates out of business for good.
If you’re interested in learning more about the huge cast of real-life characters — only some of whom were represented in the movie — the influence of the mob in Las Vegas, and the day-to-day operations of a betting palace, you’ll enjoy the nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi.
But don’t take my word for it — I’ve only read it seven times.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Martin Scorsese film Casino on Hulu
