Before he turned government informant, Frank Culotta ran with the infamous and formidable Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, a band of professional burglars from the Chicago Outfit who wreaked havoc in Las Vegas a quarter century ago, and he did muscle work for notorious mafia man Anthony Spilotro, which included things like murder. On Wednesday, June 6, Culotta showed up at the Nevada State Museum and Historical Society on Twin Lakes Drive, and there he was viewed as something more than just a guest speaker on a panel discussing the old mob days of Las Vegas; rather, the couple hundred people who packed into the place treated him like a cultural relic.
He had some interesting stuff to say, and from it we learned a few essential lessons, like how to commit murder:
• Get a game plan: “You don’t just walk in a room and kill. It takes preparation to wax someone.”
• Get your mind right: “If I didn’t like him, that made it easier [to kill him].”
• Get Oscar Goodman as your attorney: “I never thought of Oscar Goodman as a good attorney. He just knew how to get continuances. And if you delay long enough, witnesses aren’t around any longer to testify. That’s how you get off.”
- Joshua Longobardy