You have to hand it to Frank Cullotta. For a former hitman depicted in the Martin Corsese movie Casino, he’s gone straight to the extent that he now shows tourists around the old criminal haunts in Las Vegas.
Mind you, Mr Cullotta had already become FBI informant back in the 1980s and then had to work out how to make a living without killing people.
And that was turning his infamy into tourism.
A self-confessed murderer, Mr Cullotta was a loyal lieutenant to mob enforcer Tony Spilotro – who was depicted by Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese’s film Casino. He also worked for boss Frank Rosenthal, who was played by Robert DeNiro.
“Sometimes the legal isn’t so legal, you know what I’m trying to say?” he told the Daily Beast.
“There’s graft in anything you do, even on the legal side. It’s difficult to be legit, and I am legit. But I’m always having to fight the system for some reason. It seems like nobody wants me to be legit.”
Nicholas Pileggi captured the Las Vegas mob zeitgeist in his nonfiction bestseller Casino, which became a star-studded blockbuster that entertained the masses and helped slap a coda on the mob era on the clean-shaven and corporate Las Vegas as the new century approached.
Mr Cullotta had the idea of leading a bus tour, and the 75-year-old obtained permission from the Las Vegas authorities to take visitors around scenes of murders and casino scams.
Also included in the tour is a signed copy of a photograph of the Casino cast – and a pizza dinner.
