Feature Articles

February 2002

The Bare Facts: Part I

By John William Tuohy

In the past 18 months, organized crime, in the form of the Chicago Outfit, the Gambino, Bonanno and the Genovese families, has turned up in the news in relation to strip clubs operating across the United States. The most recent of these somewhat seedy establishments to make the news is the Crazy Horse Too.

In the middle of a strip mall, now far from middle class neighborhood, sits a 26,000 foot Roman-themed strip club called the Crazy Horse Too, owned by Rick Rizzolo, a Chicagoan, who said that he once owned a bar in New York that was closed down by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's drive to clean up the city.

The Crazy Horse has a roster of 1,500 topless dancers, employs about 120 people and is worth between $30 million to $40 million and grosses $22 million to $23 million annually.

Rizzolo likes those figures, and he likes to say that he runs a high class place. However, his neighbors call it a cesspool, and they might be right. Several years ago, the family of a patron of Rizzolo's Vegas club, who was found beaten to death and tossed along the side of a railroad track, sued three of the club's employees, Paul Luca, Darrin Brey and Michael Muscat for wrongful death.

Violence seems to be an accepted way of doing or conducting business for some Vegas strip club operators. Several months ago, another Las Vegas strip club, owned by Anthony Nastasi, ran an outcall service business which sent exotic dancers to clients' homes or hotel room. When Nastasi's competition started to get the upper hand, Mario Stefano, an associate of Nastasi's, offered to send "a couple of aspirins" to the competitor.

One of the men he sent was Vinnie Congiusti, who earned his nickname "Vinnie Aspirin" for drilling holes in his victims' heads. However, Stefano didn't know that Nastasi was working with the FBI in its investigation of Christiano DeCarlo, another outcall service business owner, and that his conversations were being recorded. The 65-year-old Stefano was given 10 months in prison for violating his parole in a $100 million wire fraud case in Philadelphia as well.

Mr. Rizzolo has interesting friends. One of them is Joey Cusumano, an alleged loan shark and reputed top lieutenant of slain Chicago mobster Anthony Spilotro. Cusumano is also identified by law enforcement officials as having ties to Chicago and New York mob families, and is said to be involved in a movie project on the sensational Ted Binion murder case.

Cusumano, once a regular at the Sahara casino, came to the attention of the Chicago Crime Commission in 1980, when he, Tony Spilotro and Fat Herbie Blitzstein, also later murdered, were seen together in a Las Vegas Hospital room after the Metro police shot and killed Steve Bluestein, AKA Frankie Blue, after he pulled a .22 on the officers.

Bluestein was the son of Steven Bluestein, an organizer for the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, part of the extremely corrupt Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Union, once run by Ed Hanley. Hanley, the son of a card sharp, started his career in the unions in Local 450, in Cicero Illinois, a local then owned by Joey Auippa, who would go on to run the Chicago mob.

In 1987, Cusumano, a Chicagoan who was once seen as the replacement on the strip for Spilotro, was convicted for trying to divert $315,000 from a life insurance policy from the Culinary Union's insurance fund. Cusumano, who is listed in Nevada's Black Book of "undesirables," or persons banned from entering Nevada casinos, denies that his longtime friend and business associate Rick Rizzolo, is involved in the project as a financial backer. However, both Cusumano and Rizzolo are friends with Rick Tabish, one of the two men accused of murdering casino owner Binion. But, again, Cusumano and Rizzolo deny that they have struck an agreement with Tabish to help with his legal fees in return for a piece of his movie rights.

Las Vegas Police found a $9,400 bill from Rizzolo's Crazy Horse Too nightclub in Las Vegas during a raid on Tabish's place of business. There is also some evidence to suggest that Tabish may have ties to the Chicago mob. Detectives have learned that Tabish telephoned a Chicago area beeper number from his cell phone several times on the morning after Binion's death in 1998. The number has not yet been identified.

A day after the murder, Tabish and two other men were arrested after they had dug up an estimated $4 million to $5 million in silver Binion had buried in an underground vault. Tabish and a women are accused of pumping Binion with drugs, suffocating him and stealing his valuables.

Cusumano and Rizzolo have been involved in several business ventures together, including a Las Vegas telecommunications company and in 1990, Rizzolo took Cusumano into his home after Cusumano survived an assassination attempt by persons unknown. Cusumano was shot three times in the left shoulder by two men wearing ski masks as he pulled his Mercedes Benz out of his garage. Cusumano managed to activate his garage door opener and drive himself to a local hospital for treatment.

In 1998, Cusumano, who has been married five times, and was the line producer for the film "The Cotton Club," helped Rizzolo and others put together a $39 million deal to buy the government's troubled Bicycle Club casino in Southern California. The deal, which became the subject of a Senate investigation, eventually fell apart.

Rizzolo admits to once having been close to Cusumano, but now denies that he has any dealings with him at all.

Rizzolo was also said to be close to former Policeman, Las Vegas City Councilman Michael Mcdonald who is reported to have deep contacts within the Vegas power structure. During on election, Mcdonald's opponent claimed that Rizzolo was helping Mcdonald raise money for his campaign. Although both men deny the allegation, Mcdonald did receive money from a number of Rizzolo's friends, including Cusumano's father-in-law.

While he was on the force Mcdonald was verbally reprimanded by his superiors for showing confidential police information on Sam Cecola, an alleged mob member, to a county commissioner. Cecola has since been convicted of tax fraud in Illinois and sent to prison.

In 1998, Rizzolo expanded Crazy Horse Too into the adjacent L.A. Hot, an adult novelty shop. The store was closed after Mcdonald and other members of the Council attempted to close the place down for alleged violations of the zoning code. L.A. Hot's owner, unable to afford the fight, abandoned the store.

Rizzolo is also a friend of another former cop, Chicago police officer Fred Pascente, who is included in the Nevada Black Book of excluded persons. Pascente was included in the book due to his 1994 felony conviction for mail fraud and his alleged mob ties. Pascente denies any connection to the Mafia.

According to court records, Pascente and Anthony Ziga were convicted of falsely receiving a $20,000 claim check from Allstate Insurance. Police say the two filed a false injury claim, as the result of a staged accident. State Investigators also alleged that Pascente and another associate, David Ballog, falsely submitted a $44,500 insurance claim for jewelry that they said had been lost at O'Hare International Airport. They later received a $37,000 check for the claim.

A year ago, Pascente, an ex-felon with 26 years on the force, was arrested at McCarran International Airport for failing to register with Las Vegas police within 48 hours of arriving in town. Rizzolo was with Pascente at the time of his arrest at the airport. Pascante is one of seven former Chicago Police men who are on the Chicago Crime Commission's list of persons known to be associated with organized crime.

Pascante works at the Crazy Horse Saloon in Chicago as comptroller and food and beverage manager. The Chicago Crazy Horse Saloon, another topless bar, pays Rizzolo a service fee for the right to use the Crazy Horse name and for consulting work Rizzolo does.

According to his own statements, Rizzolo earns a remarkable $240,000 per year for working there for two weeks a month. However, in the past, Rizzolo has said that he is the owner of the Chicago bar, although the owners of record are Perry Mandera, who also owns a trucking company, and a firm called Pooh Bah Enterprises Incorporated.

Recently, Rizzolo was questioned under oath as part of a probe by the Chicago Liquor Commission into the club. Chicago liquor licensing officials said that the Crazy Horse as been violating city laws prohibiting any nudity where alcoholic beverages are served since 1993. The bar claims that it is in compliance with city law because the dancers use latex paint to cover their bodies.

(To be continued)

Mr. Tuohy can be reached by writing to MobStudy@aol.com

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