The BEST and the WORST of Las Vegas
INSIDE VEGAS by Steve Miller
AmericanMafia.com
April 4, 2005
The
Las Vegas Review-Journal "Best
of Las Vegas 2005 Awards" just named Buffalo Jim Barrier "
Las
Vegas' Most Colorful Character." The newspaper's second choice was
Sin City's mobbed-up mayor, Oscar Goodman.
Buffalo Jim
Barrier
(AmericanMafia.com photo)
.
What makes the timing of this award amazing is that Buffalo Jim's
garage sits directly next door to the local Mafia headquarters
where the
WORST
of Las Vegas hangs out. It also comes only weeks away from when Federal
Racketeering Indictments are expected to come down on the club's
purported owner Rick Rizzolo, his family, silent partners, and many of
his employees.
.
Greg Liosi, Bobby
D’Apice, Joe
Blasko, Ray
Randazzo,
Ralph Rizzolo, Jon Norheim, Rick Rizzolo
Mo
McKenna, and Vinnie
Faraci (KVBC TV News)
(Photo by Buffalo Jim Barrier)
Buffalo Jim opened his auto repair business in 1976, more than ten
years before the Crazy Horse moved into the converted warehouse next
door. That's when the problems began. The known and unknown owners of
the topless bar wanted to kick Barrier out, especially after they
learned he had friends in Federal law enforcement circles. They
obviously didn't want anyone looking over their shoulders while they
conducted their business which included alleged credit card fraud,
prostitution, tax evasion, extortion, and political corruption.
The gangbanger's stooges at City Hall tried to make things unbearable
for the former pro-wrestler. City Hall began spending taxpayer's money
to try to harass him into moving, but Buffalo wouldn't budge. Soon
Building and Fire Inspectors arrived at Barrier's shop finding all
manner of pseudo infractions. The City even assigned a Parking
Enforcement Officer to the property to ticket Buffalo's customers.
Barrier began making a photo journal of the City's actions along with
taking photos of his neighbor's beating victims.
City tickets
Buffalo's customers on private property
Buffalo hired Gus Flangas, one of the town's best
attorneys, and went on the offensive. After winning three times in
District Court, the harassment waned. He also went to Small Claims
Court to recover damages. After he received judgments, to his
neighbor's dismay, Buffalo displayed the cash or checks in his shop
window.
"Buffalo Whups Rizzolo" proclaims
plaque in window of
garage
(AmericanMafia.com photo by Mike
Christ)
His photos obviously began to raise a few eyebrows, especially at the
Review-Journal, Nevada's largest
newspaper. Barrier quickly learned that having a newspaper in his
corner far outweighs any other second in a tag team match. The City
began to back down while the national media tuned in to the story. Soon
the
LA Times and
NBC were knocking on Barrier's door.
(AmericanMafia.com photo by Mike Christ)
Buffalo's Nikon camera caught this photo of beating
victim
Kirk
Henry being placed in an ambulance. The photo was shown on
Dateline
NBC.
Sept. 20, 2001
After I published the ambulance photo for the first time in 2001, the
newspaper I wrote for received a letter containing the following
statement:
"Mr. Miller also refers to another alleged beating that
occurred at my club on September 20, 2001. No 'beating' ever occurred
on my premises on that day. A customer leaving the club drunk did trip,
but in no way was this man 'beaten,' About the only accurate fact
reported by Mr. Miller was the club personnel were standing over the
injured man. Of course, Mr. Miller does not mention that my employees
were assisting the injured man, as that would ruin his insinuation that
my employees had 'beat up' this man." -- Rick
Rizzolo
Two months later, Rizzolo tried to get a local judge who he had
given $4,000 during her last political campaign to issue a
Gag
Order stopping my reports on violence at his bar. I was so insulted
by this action that I elected to not attend the hearing and instead
wrote a front page story purposely designed to violate any Gag Order
the judge might issue. When attorneys for the ACLU and
Review-Journal suddenly showed up
in her court, the judge backed down at the last minute.
Had Buffalo not documented Kirk Henry's injuries at the time and date
they occurred, and had I not published the photo and
initial
story, Rizzolo and his goons may have gotten away with claiming
Henry arrived at their bar with an already-broken neck.
This photo was taken by Barrier of Henry's alleged assailant escorting
local paramedics into the bar for coffee and eye candy:
Bobby
D'Apice escorts local paramedics into Crazy Horse for eye
candy in 2004
But one year later, after Kirk Henry
identified Bobby
D'Apice as his assailant, a much different photo of the club
manager appeared on the front page of the Review-Journal:
D'Apice in 2005
(Review-Journal photo)
After it was discovered that some fire department officials and a few
local cops were frequent guests in the VIP room at the Horse, it became
apparent why no violent incidents had been
reported
since the FBI and IRS
raided
the bar in 2003, and why the
local
police had not requested the club be brought up on a license
revocation action.
Another "Coffee Break" at the Crazy Horse Too?
(Photo by Buffalo Jim Barrier)
In the meantime, our
cowardly
Mayor refuses to close his former client's blood-soaked place of
business while his law partner
David
Chesnoff makes money representing them in court.
Now Big Brother (FBI - IRS) has had to step in to clean up a local mess
we should have cleaned up by ourselves years ago. Had "Las Vegas' Most
Colorful Character" lacked the guts to tell his story, this cleansing
may not now be happening.
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Copyright © Steve Miller
email Steve Miller at: Stevemiller4lv@aol.com
