Las Vegas Strip Sahara Hotel-Casino Closes

Onetime host to luminaries Elvis Presley and the Beatles, the Sahara Hotel-Casino closed its doors at 2:00 p.m. May 16, 2011 after 59 years. At one time Sinatra's infamous Rat Pack frequented the Sahara, a casino noted for its lounge acts featuring Don Rickles, Johnny Carson and Louis Prima.

Owners SBE Entertainment decided the casino was no longer economically viable to maintain on the North Las Vegas Strip property. Other recent closings on the Strip include the Stardust, Landmark and Boardwalk.

Read this for more Sahara history: http://travel.usatoday.com/hotels/post/2011/05/las-vegas-sahara-hotel-closes/170315/1

Crime Beat Radio

Crime Beat Radio Show Releases
Upcoming Program Schedule

May 20, 2011— Crime Beat: Issues, Controversies and Personalities from the Darkside has been programming since January 28 of this year and is currently averaging 60,000 listeners plus each week, and the figure is growing. 

Crime Beat is now pleased to announce its forthcoming schedule:

• May 26: Eric Forchion (AKA NJWeedman)

Forchion,activist and Rastafarian, will discuss his historic legal brief in New Jersey's Burlington County Superior Court, his upcoming criminal trial and his long-running battle to make marijuana legal and to change the drug laws in the U.S. 

• June 2: Andrew DiDonato (Command Performance)

DiDonato will reveal how he survived the Mob and led a street soldier’s life in the Gambino crime family

• June 9: Anthony DeStafano

The crime author will discuss his just released book, Mob Killer; The Bloody Rampage of Charles Carneglia, Mafia Hit Man

• June 16: John Pappas,  Executive Director, Poker Player’s Alliance

Pappas will discuss issues relating to Internet gambling

• June 23: Nathaniel Vinton and the co-authors from the New York Daily News

Authors will discuss their book, American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Past-Time

• June 30: The Serial killer

Dan Zupansky, author of Trophy Kill: the Shall We Dance Murder. The Trial and Revelations of a Psychopathic Killer, and Scott Bonn, serial killer expert and professor at Rutgers University, will discuss Zupansky’s book and the mind of the serial killer.

• July 7: David Albright

Albright will discuss his latest book Peddling Peril and how the secret nuclear trade arms America’s enemies

Crime Beat is a weekly hour-long radio program and airs every Thursday from 9 and 10 EST. Beginning with the May 5 program the show moves to the 8pm-9pm EST time slot on the Artist First World radio Network. Crime Beat presents fascinating topics that bring listeners closer to the dynamic underbelly of the world of crime. Guests have included ex-mobsters, undercover law enforcement agents, sports officials, informants, prisoners, drug dealers and investigative journalists, who have provided insights and fresh information about the world’s most fascinating subject: crime.

Crime Beat is hosted by award-winning crime writer Ron Chepesiuk (www.ronchepesiuk.com) and broadcast journalist and freelance writer Willie Hryb. Ronald Herd 11, the popular Internet radio host and regular listener of Crime Beat, said "Crime Beatsounds like an organized crime greatest hits collection...I am loving it!"

“I am a BIG fan of your show and enjoy the variety of guests you have on your show,” writes Tom Hart of Atlanta Georgia. 

For more information, go to the Artist First Worldwide Radio Network at www.artistfirst.com. To contact the Crime Beat radio program, e-mail crimebeat123@yahoo.com.

Las Vegas Mob Museum Slated for Dec. 2011 Opening

There's plenty of controversy swirling around the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, better known as The Mob Museum. Read John L. Smith's piece below the main story taken from The Mob Museum Website.

Site of Mob Museum



LV mayor Oscar Goodman

MOB MUSEUM UNVEILS THE STARTING LINE-UP OF NAMES AND ARTIFACTS

(LAS VEGAS, NV) --- The Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement – aka The Mob Museum – today announced several of the names associated with artifacts that will be displayed within the Museum when it opens in December 2011.

According to Dr. Dennis Barrie, creative director of the Mob Museum, who, along with his wife, Kathleen Hickey Barrie of Barrie Projects, are developing the Museum’s creative content and overseeing the collection and curation of artifacts, the Mob Museum will be highly experiential and will incorporate rich elements of design, atmosphere, film, video and many fascinating artifacts that will help to tell the full story of organized crime in America.

Artifacts to be integrated throughout the Museum’s interactive exhibits are associated with many of organized crime’s biggest names, including, Alphonse Capone, Dion O’Bannion, George Moran, Charlie Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Ben Siegel, Sam Giancana, Joe Bonanno, Frank Rosenthal, Mickey Cohen, Tony Cornero and Tony Spilotro to name just a few.

In addition, many items relating to historic eras and specific industries, such as prohibition, money laundering and gaming, will also help to tell the story of the mob’s influence on these areas. Items and artifacts relating to law enforcement’s role in helping to eradicate and control the Mob, such as weapons and crime scene photos, will also be part of the Museum experience.

The Museum is under construction in the former United States Post Office and Court House at 300 Stewart Avenue in downtown Las Vegas that was dedicated on November 27, 1933 as the City’s first federal building. The building housed the very courtroom, where in 1950, one of 14 national hearings were held to expose and control organized crime in America. As part of the construction and rehabilitation of the building, the courtroom is being restored to appear as it did in 1950 during the famed Kefauver hearings, named for Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver.

“Visitors to the Mob Museum will be immersed in a full-bodied experience right down to the very building where members of organized crime were once exposed and prosecuted,” said Kathleen Barrie. “The historical building is the ideal home for this fascinating subject that is already capturing the interest and imagination of people from around the globe. We receive phone calls and e-mail from throughout the world on an almost daily basis inquiring about the Museum. Today, the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement is easily among the most highly anticipated museums in the world.”

Core and shell construction is well underway just nine months following the August 2009 “wall-breaking” by museum board members, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar B. Goodman and former U.S. Senator, Richard Bryan. Seismic retrofit is almost complete; new mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems are being installed and restoration of architectural details has started. The Museum is scheduled to open in spring 2011.

About The Mob Museum
The Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement – The Mob Museum – is a world-class museum dedicated to the history of organized crime and law enforcement now under development in downtown Las Vegas. The museum will present the real stories and actual events of mob history via interactive and engaging exhibits that reveal all sides of the story, with considerable focus on how law enforcement defeated and continues to battle organized crime. Located at 300 Stewart Avenue, inside an historic and former post office and federal court house, the museum is an important component of the city’s downtown redevelopment now underway and is projected to generate a combined economic output of more than $62.3 million during construction, employ approximately 227 individuals during construction, and generate annual visitation of hundreds of thousands tourists to the museum and downtown Las Vegas when it opens in 2011 The 41,000-square-foot Mob Museum includes approximately 16,800 square feet of exhibition space on three floors in addition to a specialty retail store, special event areas, educational areas and office space. The Mob Museum is expected to cost approximately $42 million to construct and is being funded through local, state and federal grants, in addition to matching grants and Redevelopment Agency funding sources that can only be spent in the city’s redevelopment area. The City of Las Vegas, which is currently overseeing the museum’s early development, owns the building and the land on which it sits. Ellen Knowlton, former FBI Special Agent in Charge, Las Vegas Division, and a 24-year FBI veteran, is president of 300 Stewart Avenue Corporation, a non-profit board formed to oversee the Museum’s development and operations. For more information, visit http://www.themobmuseum.org./

For a candid take on the Mob Museum check out Las Vegas Review-Journal John L. Smith's column:
http://www.lvrj.com/news/38442514.html

Crime Beat Radio's Hot New Topics

Ron Chepesiuk

 If you haven't checked out Crime Beat Radio, here's your chance:

April, 2011— CRIME BEAT: ISSUES, CONTROVERSIES AND PERSONALITIES FROM THE DARKSIDE has been programming since January of this year and is currently averaging 50,000 + listeners each week and the figure is growing.

Will Hryb



Crime Beat is now pleased to announce its forthcoming schedule:

• April 21: Diedre Capone, ancestor of Al Capone and author of Uncle Al Capone, shares family secrets about the godfather

• April 28: Tom Ajamie and Bruce Kelley, the authors of Financial Serial Killers, give us an inside look at the world of Wall Street hustlers, swindlers and con men and provide advice on how to protect yourself against Ponzi investment schemes
• May 5: Lynda Milito, the author of Mafia Wife talks about love, murder and madness.
• May 12: Howard Campbell, the author of Drug War Zone, talks about the Mexican drug war and life on the streets today in Juarez and El Paso
• May 19: Robert Wittman, former FBI agent and the author of Priceless, reveals how he went underground to rescue the world’s art treasures.


Crime Beat is a weekly hour-long radio program and airs Every Thursday from 9 and 10 EST. Beginning with the May 5 program the show moves to the 8pm-9pm EST time slot on the Artist First World radio Network. Crime Beat presents fascinating topics that bring listeners closer to the dynamic underbelly of the world of crime. Guests have included ex-mobsters, undercover law enforcement agents, sports officials, informants, prisoners, drug dealers and investigative journalists, who have provided insights and fresh information about the world’s most fascinating subject: crime.

Crime Beat is hosted by award-winning crime writer Ron Chepesiuk (www.ronchepesiuk.com) and broadcast journalist and freelance writer Willie Hryb. Ronald Herd 11, the popular Internet radio host and regular listener of Crime Beat, said "Crime Beat sounds like an organized crime greatest hits collection...I am loving it!"

For more information or to listen to the archives of Crime Beat, go to the Artist First Worldwide Radio Network at http://www.artistfirst.com/crimebeat.htm. To contact the Crime Beat radio program for interviews, e-mail crimebeat123@yahoo.com or call 803-366-5440.



Vinny Vella Mob Actor: More than The Sopranos & Casino

Vinny Vella

Who is this guy?
For one thing Vinny Vella, who grew up in New York’s Little Italy, portrayed the character Jimmy Petrille in the TV hit The Sopranos. Before that a string of mobster and other quirky characters followed his role as Artie Piscano in the movie Casino directed by Martin Scorsese. He’s been called “one of Hollywood's old standbys for playing imposing, street-smart Italian-American hoods.” But there’s a lot more to Vinny Vella than his celluloid mobster persona.

Lesser known facts:
 • Vinny, known as the unofficial “Mayor of Elizabeth Street,”   was born Vincent Franco Vellacerra in New York City’s Little Italy.

• Vinny was the “man about town” in a program on the Travel Channel based on his adventures.

• Vinny says he doesn’t want to be as famous as Robert De Niro, “I don’t need no Rolls-Royce. All I want is to be working a little more, to have a little more money. I want a building with an elevator.”

• Robert De Niro attended Vinny’s wedding.

• Vinny teamed up with ESPN to do over 30 commercial spots for Monday Night Baseball.

• Vinny logged some time behind bars for running numbers.

• Before he was an actor, Vinny used to rent out RVs to use on movie sets.

• Vinny plays Frank Brancato in the movie, The Irishman. It premiered in several cities around St. Patrick’s Day, March 2011.

Mob Speak was curious to see what kind of a guy Vinny Vella really is…

MS: Vinny, many years ago you had a trucking company called “Star Truckers.” How did you snag clients like Madonna, Cindy Crawford and Mariah Carey?

VV: We rented out our vehicles to different fashion industries among other clients. The fashion people used the RVs for makeup and wardrobe. I started working with models like Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and many others who were just starting out in the business. The next thing you know we started renting out the vehicles to MTV and VH1 for music videos. Pretty soon we had stars like Madonna on board. Then word got out and the movie studios found out about us.

MS: I read that you got your first acting gig in an MTV show called House of Style.

VV: Yeah, I became good friends with Cindy Crawford. She was always glad to see me when I drove the RV. “Hey Vinny, how are you?” she’d say. I’d entertain everyone, not like the other drivers who would just stand around and try to see the girls without any clothes on…bunch of perverts. If it was a nice day I’d step outside and give the girls their privacy. If it was rainy I’d sit in the front seat and look straight ahead. I respected them and they appreciated that. Well, Cindy Crawford launched House of Style and offered me a spot on the show. Every time I saw a new model I said, “She’s the most beautiful.” The next model I saw I said, “No, this is the most beautiful one.” I tell you I had the best dreams.

MS: How did you happen to land the role of Artie Piscano, a stool pigeon in Casino? Any good stories?

VV: When I was just a driver for the fashion industry I began putting together head shots and submitted them to different NY agents. Got some work as an extra for $100 a day. I took these jobs just to get my feet wet. The next thing you know I heard about auditions for Casino. I auditioned and was offered a very small part. Then they upgraded my role to the Kansas City underboss, Artie Piscano, because they liked what they saw. They asked if that was a problem. “No, no problem,” I said, thinking how lucky I was. Everything started to snowball.

The woman who played my mother in the movie I knew from Elizabeth Street. She happened to be Marty Scorsese’s mother. I spent time with her on the set since nobody wanted to hang out with her. I took her to a casino for fun. Marty saw how well we got along and told me he was going to try something in our next scene. Every time I swore, he was going to have her hit me and make some comment. It's hard to keep your concentration when you’re trying to remember your lines. It wasn’t working out too well so Marty came up to me and took my lines and threw them in the garbage. I had no idea what he was going to tell me. He asked me what I’d do to someone who owed me a lot of money and didn’t pay. I told him I’d do this and that and I'd break their f---ing heads. He stopped me and said, “That’s perfect.”

So I improvised the whole thing. I was waiting for him to say cut because I was running out of stuff. After maybe 2 or 3 minutes he finally said cut and walked over. “Vinny, that was excellent…exactly what I want…now do it over again.” We ended up doing about 20 takes with 3 cameras. I guess it worked out. Some people are shy when the camera starts rolling. Me, I make love to that camera.

Now 16 years later people still come up to me and say, “Hey you’re the guy that screwed up in Casino.” It was a memorable part that started me on a roll.

MS: What about your role in The Sopranos?

VV: They called me down and said I’d be reading with someone else. It ended up that I got the part of Jimmy Petrille with the New York mob. I was in several episodes.

MS: You had a part in director Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog and Coffee and Cigarettes. Jarmusch allegedly said, “The beauty of having a guy like Vinny in your film is that he’s real…he didn’t come out of an acting academy.” How tough is it for you to play a mob guy? Are you afraid of being typecast?

VV: I pretty much play myself. No, I don’t worry about becoming typecast. People seem to like what I do. I’ve also branched out into comedy in movies like Analyze This and Analyze That. I’ve done a comedy called The Last Days of Limbo where I play a bishop. There’s a scene in the movie where I’m cooking sausages and one of the characters asks if I know what I’m doing. “Of course I know what I’m doing,” I say. “I’ve been cooking all my life.” At that exact moment a lot of smoke comes up out of the grill...it turns out very funny.

MS: You portrayed real life mobster Frank Brancato in the recently released movie, Kill the Irishman, based on Rick Porrello’s book To Kill the Irishman, The War that Crippled the Mafia. How did that gig come about?

VV: I think I was watching The Price is Right and I get a phone call from Jonathan Hensleigh, the director, who told me he wanted to get me on board. I said, “So when are guys going to start filming?” “Next week,” he said. “When you’re ready, call me,” I said. You could waste a lot of time sitting around waiting for stuff to happen. Here's what I believe in: When I’m actually in front of the camera. Jonathan told me who was in it and asked if he could send me a script. It sounded like it was on the up-and-up, so I said yeah. We worked out a contract. It was great what they offered me. I was in Detroit (which doubled for Cleveland) like 5 weeks.

Ray Stevenson not only looked like The Irishman Danny Greene, he was one of the greatest guys you’d ever want to meet. We hung out and played pool and drank in a bar across the street. Well, Danny Greene always wore a gold chain with a gold cross on it. So at the end of the shoot Ray gave all the principal actors, 10 to 15 people, a gold chain and cross. Must have cost at least a couple hundred a piece.

MS: You’ve been in something like 50 movies, Vinny. Do you remember them all?
VV: It’s not that I’m losing it…it’s that I’ve already lost it. I’ve done so many movies and TV shows that I lose track.

MS: Okay, you opened a pizzeria in Brooklyn called Vinny Vella’s Pizza that attracted a colorful assortment of characters many of whom are ex-wiseguys and actor buddies of yours including Robert De Niro, Danny Aiello and many of The Sopranos crew. (Does that make them friends of yours or friends of ours?) Then you renamed it Better Fellas in 2009. Is it still going?

VV: I got rid of it because of my partner who had “slippery fingers.” He’s lucky he still has his fingers because if this was years ago his hands would have been in the oven. But that’s another story…

Offspring of Mobsters Victims Too

Calabrese, Sr.

Joey Lombardo

If you think it's all about lucrative movie and book deals for relatives of dead mobsters, read on. This was posted on the Website, Chicago Syndicate:

Surviving Relatives of Mob Hits Feel Re-victimized by Mobster Books and Museums


The public's fascination with traditional organized crime didn't end with the Godfather movies, Casino, Goodfellas or the Sopranos on television.


Even after Chicago and New York crime families were decimated by federal prosecutions, there is a renewed public appetite for the mob. But some people aren't biting.

"It's something that never leaves your mind or your heart," said Bob D'Andrea whose father was killed by the mob.

"It destroys you, it destroys the inside of you, it destroys you as a person," said Joey Seifert whose father was also murdered by the mob.

Decades after their loved ones were murdered by the Chicago mob, sons and daughters and wives and parents say they continue to be victimized. Not by a pistol-whipping or the payment of protection money but by a new book by ex-Chicago Outfit thug Frank Calabrese Jr., who is beginning a promotional tour this week in the city where he turned on his own father and helped put him away for life. And they say they are revictimized by two mob museums opening soon in Las Vegas.

"What you see when you go there? You are going to see the mob guys laughing and holding their kids, like trying to humanize them. And they are not, they are monsters," said Seifert.

At age four, Seifert watched a masked mob hitman kill his father. It was Joey "The Clown" Lombardo.

Anthony Ortiz was 12 years old in 1983 when his father was killed in front of the Cicero tavern he owned, gunned down by the ruthless Outfit boss Frank "The Breeze" Calabrese Sr.

"To me, a mobster is just a glorified gangbanger, am I wrong or am I right? They beat people up, they take their money, they threaten them," said Ortiz.

It was the Calabrese crew that committed a 1981 hit on suburban trucking company owner Michael Cagnoni by a remote-controlled bomb on the Tri-state Tollway after Cagnoni refused to be extorted by Outfit bosses.

In her first ever interview, Cagnoni's widow, Margaret, says hoodlum-turned-author Frank Calabrese Jr. should not be turning a profit off victims' grief. "Frank [Jr.] was not an innocent person...To him, to go out and make money on our loses and our sorrow and profiting from victims' families is disgraceful. We suffered enough," Cagnoni told the I-Team.

"I didn't kill anybody. OK, so if they're mad that I'm going to profit off of my story with my dad, I don't know what to do. I feel bad for them. I feel sorry for their losses. I can relate to them," said Frank Calabrese Jr.

"If he is really sorry from what he did and wants to do good and show that he is making amends for his past. Why don't you show that you're sorry by donating, if you are going to write a book donate the profits to a worthy charity," said Cagnoni.

The I-Team asked Calabrese Jr. if he thought about donating his profits to a victims' fund. "I haven't. That's definitely a possibility. I talked to some of the victims' kids, and I'm trying to form a relationship with them because I want to hear their stories too," he responded.

"It would be nice if he did something nice like donate a part of the proceeds to the families, it's not like he wasn't in the business," said D'Andrea.

"His dad and his uncle are the ones who killed my dad. Why should anyone benefit from that?" said Ortiz.

"We all went through something similar, in different ways...Unfortunately all the mob that put us together," said Seifert.

And now, mob victim and mobster have something else in common; Joey Seifert has written his own book and screenplay. "It's more of a survivors' book, a family survival of this is what happened, how it shredded our family and how it brought us back together," said Seifert.

Relatives of several Chicago mobsters are paid consultants to the mob experience opening this month in Las Vegas including such names as Spilotro, Giancana and Aiuppa.

Thanks to Chuck Goudie

Gotti's Adopted Son Subject of 2-Part Radio Show



John Gotti & adopted son, Lewis Kasman

 CRIME BEAT RADIO TO AIR SPECIAL 2-PART PROGRAM

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH LEWIS KASMAN, CRIME BOSS JOHN GOTTI’S “ADOPTED
SON,” AND KASMAN’S COUNSEL, JOEL M. WEISSMAN, NOTED FLORIDA LAWYER

March, 2011—This coming March 17th and 24th, the radio show, CRIME BEAT: ISSUES, CONTROVERSIES AND PERSONALITIES FROM THE DARKSIDE, will feature a special two-part program focusing on Lewis Kasman, John Gotti’s so-called 'Adopted Son', and his lawyer, Joel M. Weissman, one of the country’s top divorce lawyers. Kasman, at one time a millionaire garment executive, became one of the closest confidants of the late John Gotti, the notorious Gambino crime boss known as the ‘Dapper Don'. When John Gotti died in prison, Kasman brought the body home in a private Lear jet, planned the funeral and gave the eulogy at Gotti’s funeral.

Lewis Kasman’s story is fascinating because he gained unprecedented power within the Gotti Mob. The Dapper Don entrusted Kasman with the authority to pay gambling debts, lawyer fees and assorted bills relating to Gambino crime family matters. After Gotti was sentenced with a life sentence in a federal penitentiary, Lewis Kasman hid millions of illicit dollars in a toy chest in his attic and later became a government witness in 1996. Feeling the heat from the Feds, Kasman agreed to wear a wire and recorded 130 tapes with top mobsters inside the Gambino ranks, as well as John Gotti’s own family. The court sentenced Kasman to probation as the reward for his invaluable secret work. Kasman is also credited with saving the lives of noted crime reporter Jerry Capeci and a federal worker at Springfield, Missouri.

In reflecting on the years he spent with John Gotti, Lewis Kasman told Crime Beat, “If I was to characterize my relationship with Gotti, I suppose I would say it was blind allegiance. I have many regrets.”

Weissman represented Kasman in a high profile divorce that the tabloids covered. In addition to discussing his representation of Kasman, Weisman will talk about his successful career as one of the best criminal and divorce lawyers in the United States.

Joel Weissman will appear on the Crime Beat radio program March 17th from 9-10 p.m. EST, while Lewis Kasman’s appearance is scheduled for March 24th from 9-10 p.m. EST. Listeners can access the program by going to www.artistfirst.com, clicking on the “Live Weekly Show Schedule” and then clicking on the “Crime Beat” link. See also http://www.artistfirst.com/crimebeat.htm.

CRIME BEAT is hosted by award-winning crime writer Ron Chepesiuk (www.ronchepesiuk.com) and broadcast journalist and freelance writer Willie Hryb. Ronald Herd 11, the popular Internet radio host and regular listener of Crime Beat, said Crime Beat “sounds like an organized crime greatest hits collection...I am loving it!

Guests on previous shows included Jack Garcia, former FBI agent and best selling co-author of Making Jack Falcone, the story of how Garcia took down a Mob family; Andrew DiDonato, ex-mobster and co-author of Surviving the Mob: A Street Soldier’s Life in the Gambino Crime Family; Rick Porrello, author of To Kill an Irishman, the inspiration for the Hollywood movie, Kill the Irishman, that will premiere this March 11; and Tim Donaghy, former NBA referee and author of Personal Foul who was Crime Beat's special guest last week on February 24th.

“We are delighted to have Lewis Kasman and Joel Weissman on our program, “Chepesiuk said. “We expect to hear a lot of interesting things about Mob life and the activities of John Gotti and his crew.” Chepesiuk, the author of several true crime books, is a consultant to History Channel's Gangland documentary series.

It’s going to be a real special program,” Hryb added. “What can be more interesting than having two guests in the know talk for a couple of hours about the law and the Mob?"

For more information or to listen to the archives of Crime Beat, go to the Artist First Worldwide Radio Network at http://www.artistfirst.com/. To contact the Crime Beat radio program for interviews, e-mail crimebeat123@yahoo.com or call 803-366-5440.