Rick Porrello's - AmericanMafia.com - Steve Miller

Rizzolo's story becomes tabloid fodder
INSIDE VEGAS by Steve Miller
AmericanMafia.com
January 9, 2006

Rizzolo has a criminal record for brutal violence. In 1985 he pleaded guilty to battering a Crazy Horse client with a baseball bat. The man suffered brain damage and died several years later... “Rick Rizzolo made his fortune by paying off crooked cops, politicians, DAs and judges to keep a lid on his and his associates’ criminal activities,” Miller charges. “It will now take the FBI and the IRS to clean up what we on a local level should have had the courage to stop years ago.” - GLOBE, January 9, 2006

LAS VEGAS - In a story you first read on AmericanMafia.com, I told you of a politically protected Sin City strip club, the Crazy Horse Too, and its owner who made a fortune extorting club patrons into paying highly inflated bar and lap dance tabs. If the patron refused, many were beaten, crippled, or killed. Now the story has gone national and is the talk of Tinseltown because of its involvement with Academy Award winning actors.

Our story was first picked up in 2003 by NBC News. A Dateline NBC segment soon followed. Still, local law enforcement and liquor licensing authorities did nothing. Then the Orange County Register broke the story about Rick Rizzolo, the Crazy Horse's purported owner, being a convicted felon for beating a patron almost to death with a baseball bat. This was followed by a story in the New York Daily News, and now the Globe.

Always looking for a new spin on a rapidly developing story that includes famous people, sex and drugs, national entertainment writers sought to learn the identity of whom in the movie business frequented the Crazy Horse located near the Las Vegas Strip. Soon the names George Clooney, Joe Pesci, and Robert De Niro surfaced.

(Mysteriously, the baseball bat beating and movie star stories have not yet been covered by the Las Vegas news media.)

Of course, such successful actors do not want their names associated with "Hookers, Drugs, or Fraud," things the Crazy Horse has become infamous for, but thanks to their friendship with Rick Rizzolo and their oft times presence in his club, these men are now unwilling subjects of the Crazy Horse stigma.

Within days of the famous threesome first being mentioned as frequent visitors, the Federal Grand Jury's interest piqued, and the celebrities soon received subpoenas to testify in an investigation of the new Vegas mob. The Fed prosecutors wanted to know what they knew about Rizzolo, his operation, and his questionable associates.

Paparazzi gathered outside the federal courthouse in anticipation. When the stars emerged from their grand jury sessions, few words were spoken to reporters with the exception of Rizzolo's always vocal attorney Tony Sgro who tried his best to minimize the importance of their testimony by telling the New York Daily News that the Feds "have tried to make those friends nervous in order to cause those friendships to end." "To suggest that any of those friends know anything with regard to the Crazy Horse is absurd."

But following last month's coverage in the Daily News, and this week's headlines in the Globe, its doubtful that Hollywood's finest will continue to feel comfortable recreating at the Crazy Horse Too, especially with a Federal Grand Jury about to issue criminal indictments any day now against their "notorious strip club boss" friend.

The Globe, like other national media outlets, called on Rick Porrello's AmericanMafia.com for assistance in writing their highly accurate story. Exclusive photos were requested, and ones used in this week's Globe came directly from INSIDE VEGAS columns.

The Globe photo of Rizzolo smoking was from the October 10, 2005, INSIDE VEGAS column "Stupid is as stupid does." It was taken by Rizzolo's worst nemesis, his next door neighbor Buffalo Jim Barrier.

Barrier snapped Rizzolo as he was walking through his parking lot, never suspecting that the unshaven, disheveled picture bearing his photo credit would appear on every supermarket and convenience store checkout stand in the US and Canada!

Rizzolo has for years preferred a well groomed photo showing him wearing his favorite blue tie. The photo appeared in the November 3, 2005 Orange County Register story, "Vegas club owner said to have mob ties." He reportedly brags the photo makes him resemble John Gotti even though it accompanied the first story ever told of Rizzolo's criminal conviction for the baseball bat beating.

In the meantime, the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. is busy dotting the I's and crossing the T's of a three-year-long joint FBI-IRS investigation into racketeering, extortion, money laundering, robbery, kidnapping, prostitution and tax evasion -- all crimes that any red blooded American movie star would dread having his good name associated with!

FULL TEXT OF THIS WEEK'S GLOBE STORY:

GEORGE CLOONEY GRILLED IN VEGAS MOB PROBE
January 9, 2006
By PAUL BANNISTER

FEDERAL agents looking into Mob racketeering and extortion in Las Vegas made George Clooney an offer he couldn't refuse.

They called in the Ocean’s 11 star to ask him about his friendship with a strip club owner they're investigating for links to organized crime.

Also swept up in the Fed’s investigation were Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, who were also questioned.

Clooney’s reported friendship with Rick Rizzolo, the owner of the notorious topless club Crazy Horse Too, has been the talk of the gambling mecca for several years.

Rizzolo himself bragged, “George is my buddy” to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. And he even let Clooney use the club to shoot Ocean’s 11 scenes, including a stripper’s lap dance with Brad Pitt, for free.

News reports noted back in 2003 that “coziness between actor George Clooney and embattled Las Vegas strip club owner Rick Rizzolo have raised some eyebrows at a Sin City VIP nightclub party thrown by Cindy Crawford's husband bar owner Rande Gerber."

The reports said they have known each other since 2001 and "greeted each other warmly" at the party.

And Rizzolo's lawyer, Tony Sgro, recently confirmed that the FBI "has interviewed some of Mr. Rizzolo's celebrity friends...to make those friends nervous."

Rizzolo was reportedly friendly enough to turn down $100,000 that the Ocean's 11 producers offered him for closing down for a few days.

The Feds claim Rizzolo is close to mobsters like Joey Cusumano and was in with the late Tony "The Ant" Spilotro. Rizzolo is also known to have dined a number of times with Chicago Mob capo Joey "The Clown" Lombardo. "The Feds want to know what Clooney saw around Rizzolo’s club because they have a big-time investigation going on there into violence, prostitution and drugs,” says a Las Vegas insider. “No one is suggesting that George has done anything improper, but this friend of his, Rizzolo, has got problems.”

Rizzolo has a criminal record for brutal violence.

In 1985 he pleaded guilty to battering a Crazy Horse client with a baseball bat. The man suffered brain damage and died several years later.

Rizzolo’s huge club, where up to 400 topless dancers perform every night, has repeatedly been the scene of violence. Patrons who dispute fees have often been threatened or attacked by bouncers, says former Las Vegas city councilman Steve Miller. He says police were called to the club 737 times in just three years.

“Rick Rizzolo made his fortune by paying off crooked cops, politicians, DAs and judges to keep a lid on his and his associates’ criminal activities,” Miller charges. “It will now take the FBI and the IRS to clean up what we on a local level should have had the courage to stop years ago.”

Court papers filed in a Nevada lawsuit against the club by a former federal organized crime prosecutor say, “For years, the management and security staff of the Crazy Horse have been infested by a rogue’s gallery of thugs, thieves, drug pushers and corrupt ex-cops.

“Most, if not all, have well documented ties to organized crime figures.”

One Kansas tourist who disputed a tab at the nightclub says he was attacked by a Crazy Horse employee and left paralyzed from the chest down.

The club manager accused of the attack, Bobby D’Apice, has convictions for carrying a concealed weapon and having armor-piercing bullets in his gun. U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden has charged D’Apice, 50, with six cases of extortion, robbery and kidnapping, as well as racketeering, prostitution and tax evasion.

In another suit against the club, Crazy Horse bouncers are accused of beating a California man to death. One bouncer was ex-cop Joe Blasko, who was booted off the Las Vegas force and jailed for supplying information to mobster Tony Spilotro.

“The Feds know a lot about Rizzolo,” says the Vegas insider. “They’ve been digging for years, and have had a full-on investigation into suspected fraud, illegal sex and drug violations since August 2001. They raided the place in 2003 with 85 agents, SWAT teams, police, everyone, and spent 11 hours searching the joint.”

Robert De Niro visited the Crazy Horse when he was shooting Casino, but is said not to know Rizzolo at all.

Joe Pesci, who is reported to be a friend of the club owner, also starred in Casino. He played a character based on Tony Spilotro, who was beaten with a baseball bat and buried in a cornfield.

Says Rizzolo’s lawyer Tony Sgro, “To suggest any of those [celebrity] friends know anything with regard to the Crazy Horse is absurd.” – PAUL BANNISTER

I took a nasty libel suit for breaking the first Crazy Horse story back in 1999, but have remained undaunted keeping my readers informed of criminal activity and violence at the strip club.

I have also done my best to inform you of the local political corruption that keeps this place open for business. But the most telling statement comes from Amy Henry, wife of the man who in 2001 suffered a broken neck when he disputed an $88 Crazy Horse bar tab:

"I can't understand what kind of city or state would allow a place like this to remain in business."