The writer of several books, Dennis N. Griffin, wrote most of his books on the Las Vegas Mafia. The now-retired mobster Cullota said to him that the new Vegas has no resemblance to the one that he saw in his days.
Culotta passed away on Aug 20 in a hospital in Las Vegas of a different complication that occurred by Covid-19. He was only 81.
Griffin said to a newspaper that he believed that Frank’s death had marked the end of the past era of Las Vegas casino history. Culotta shifted to Vegas in 1970 to his boyhood friend in Chicago, Tony Spilotro, “The Ant,” who operated a criminal association in Southern Nevada. The Ant was the overseer of the Chicago Outfit in Las Vegas.
During this span, money extracted from casinos was illegally sent to Midwest Mafia families. This era is drawn in the critically accoladed 1995 film Casino. Cullotta was in that movie playing the role of a hitman.
Griffin found Cullotta to cowrote books about this time in Southern Nevada. Griffin has also cowrote a couple of books that come out in the market after the death of Cullotta.
Beyond Anything on Earth
Griffin told the Newspaper that Las Vegas’s history and aura will last forever. He said that it was truly an exception from any other place in the world. The movie casino and all the other books and movies about Las Vegas will ensure that. They will keep that Las Vegas alive.
Co-author of the movie, Nicholas Pileggi, told the same newspaper that Las Vegas that day was spectacular. However, co-author Pileggi also said that he missed the time when walking even into a tiny casino on the Strip had been like meeting a close friend.
Griffin doubted if the companies could bring those days back.
