By Chuck Goudie Thursday, October 22, 2015
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Tamara Rand Part One: Messing with the Mob
Reported by: Tom Hawley
Email: thawley@sbgtv.com
Posted by: Phillip Moyer
LAS VEGAS (KSNV News3LV) – This month marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Martin Scorsese’s "Casino” – a movie which unlike many others set in Las Vegas – gets it right.
In this Video Vault, we look at one small scene from that movie that happened 40 years ago.
“Well it was based on a woman named Tamara Rand who was a real estate investor in San Diego,” says the Mob Museum’s Geoff Schumacher.
In the movie, it's Ffolliott “Fluff” LeCoque as Anna Scott, opposite Kevin Pollock as Phillip Green, based on real life's Allen R. Glick.
“Who was really the front man for the Argent* Corporation, which owned the Stardust and three other hotels in Las Vegas,” explains Schumacher. “But, of course, which was secretly operated by the Chicago outfit and other Midwestern mob groups.”
Joe Bonpensiero picked up the story, talking about his uncle, Frank “Bomp” Bompensiero: “Frank had a good reputation in the Midwest, in the East Coast -- Chicago, Kansas.”
Bompensiero operated out of San Diego, where Rand lived and Glick had gotten his start. Joe says his uncle Frank was acquainted with Las Vegas muscle man Tony Spilotro, played in the movie by Joe Pesci as Nicki Santoro.
“Spilotro, being from Chicago, etcetera, or back and here. Not familiar with the area,” Joe said. “Turned to somebody he knew that lived there he could trust. And that would have been Frank.”
Spilotro had been sent to San Diego because Rand was suing Glick, having been a silent partner in his enterprises.
“She invested in it on the premise that she wanted to get into the casino business,” says Schumacher. “But she felt like Glick had betrayed her, and that he had not honored his obligations.”
The lawsuit would have meant opening the Stardust account records, exposing the skim.
“But before she could start counting her money, the boys back home decided to settle the case out of court instead. So they called me,” says Santoro/Spilotro in the movie.
Rand was shot five times with a .22-caliber gun, Spilotro’s weapon of choice. The movie implies Spilotro made the hit solo, and Bompensiero is not represented.
“They were together,” Joe explained emphatically. “No question about it.”
Was Frank just a wheelman, or did he pull a trigger? All people can do is speculate.
“Where are they gonna get the information?” asks Joe rhetorically. “From the source? And they ain't talkin'! Or they're gonna go to the dead guy?”
The two men sent on the hit went out gangland style themselves. Bompensiero was shot in a phone booth in 1977; Spilotro, whose legal counsel in Las Vegas was future mayor Oscar Goodman, was beaten to death and buried in a cornfield in 1986.
In this Video Vault, we look at one small scene from that movie that happened 40 years ago.
“Well it was based on a woman named Tamara Rand who was a real estate investor in San Diego,” says the Mob Museum’s Geoff Schumacher.
In the movie, it's Ffolliott “Fluff” LeCoque as Anna Scott, opposite Kevin Pollock as Phillip Green, based on real life's Allen R. Glick.
“Who was really the front man for the Argent* Corporation, which owned the Stardust and three other hotels in Las Vegas,” explains Schumacher. “But, of course, which was secretly operated by the Chicago outfit and other Midwestern mob groups.”
Joe Bonpensiero picked up the story, talking about his uncle, Frank “Bomp” Bompensiero: “Frank had a good reputation in the Midwest, in the East Coast -- Chicago, Kansas.”
Bompensiero operated out of San Diego, where Rand lived and Glick had gotten his start. Joe says his uncle Frank was acquainted with Las Vegas muscle man Tony Spilotro, played in the movie by Joe Pesci as Nicki Santoro.
“Spilotro, being from Chicago, etcetera, or back and here. Not familiar with the area,” Joe said. “Turned to somebody he knew that lived there he could trust. And that would have been Frank.”
Spilotro had been sent to San Diego because Rand was suing Glick, having been a silent partner in his enterprises.
“She invested in it on the premise that she wanted to get into the casino business,” says Schumacher. “But she felt like Glick had betrayed her, and that he had not honored his obligations.”
The lawsuit would have meant opening the Stardust account records, exposing the skim.
“But before she could start counting her money, the boys back home decided to settle the case out of court instead. So they called me,” says Santoro/Spilotro in the movie.
Rand was shot five times with a .22-caliber gun, Spilotro’s weapon of choice. The movie implies Spilotro made the hit solo, and Bompensiero is not represented.
“They were together,” Joe explained emphatically. “No question about it.”
Was Frank just a wheelman, or did he pull a trigger? All people can do is speculate.
“Where are they gonna get the information?” asks Joe rhetorically. “From the source? And they ain't talkin'! Or they're gonna go to the dead guy?”
The two men sent on the hit went out gangland style themselves. Bompensiero was shot in a phone booth in 1977; Spilotro, whose legal counsel in Las Vegas was future mayor Oscar Goodman, was beaten to death and buried in a cornfield in 1986.
Another Video Vault will shed a lot more light on Frank Bompensiero later this month.
Meanwhile, the Mob Museum is hosting a "Courtroom Conversations" discussion on the movie “Casino” with legendary Las Vegas broadcasters Gwen Castaldi and Bob Stoldal on Saturday,
Nov. 7. You’ll find a link on this page.
I shot JFK from the grassy knoll: Mafia hitman claims to be missing piece in assassination
A Mafia hitman who claims to have fired the bullet that assassinated US President John F Kennedy is due to be freed from prison after 36 years next spring.
Brown: An alderman, the mob and an SRO
Chicago Sun Times, Written By Mark Brown Posted: 10/10/2015, 09:20am
Ald. George Cardenas. Brian Jackson / Sun-Times file photo
The Chicago Tribune ran an interesting story about Dominic in 2000, explaining how police officers who raided Dominic’s businesses encountered other Chicago cops on the premises providing security for him, the point being that Dominic has a lot of influential friends.
Despite that notoriety, both Cardenas and Mell told me they don’t know Dominic and were not aware of his involvement with the SRO.
The nature and extent of Dominic’s interest in the venture has been a point of contention in Cook County Circuit Court, where he is among several defendants in the aforementioned class-action suits brought by tenant rights lawyer Berton Ring.
The building that houses the Acacia Hotel fronts on both Grand and Milwaukee and is probably most recognizable to Chicagoans as the site of the popular La Scarola Restaurant, a favorite of mine.
La Scarola occupies part of the first floor alongside the notably more downscale Richard’s Bar.
Occupying the second and third floors is the Acacia, previously called the Arcadia, a 45-unit SRO where residents rent rooms for $100 a week and share a bathroom.
In their lawsuit, former tenants Peter Gabiola and Jerry Weikle say Dominic identified himself as the SRO’s owner and manager, while personally renting out rooms and handling maintenance requests.
In a court affidavit filed in response, Dominic said Richard’s Bar is owned by his sister, Susan Dominic, while SRO Operating Company, her landlord, is managed by Thomas Harris, his close friend since childhood. Because of those relationships, Dominic said he has “from time to time” assisted in both operations but doesn’t own either.
That could explain why it was Dominic who personally convinced one of the SRO’s tenants to sign a release dropping his legal claim, persuading him to accept a month’s rent as settlement.
It also might explain why a police officer listed Dominic as the owner of the facility in a report he filed after Dominic waved him down on the street to make a complaint against one of the tenants who brought the original class-action, alleging months after the fact that the individual had punched holes in the walls.
And it also helps explains why a lawyer for SRO Operating Company asked a federal judge to clarify that the Dominics are covered against the lawsuit under an insurance policy taken out by the company — the company in which they say they have no involvement.
If you can handle one more complication, there’s this:
Records show Florence Posner, wife of Chicago hoodlum Michael Posner, once managed the same property, which also carries the address of 491 N. Milwaukee, prior to its current owners taking over.
Michael Posner, once the mob’s reputed boss in Lake County before he caught a 10-year prison sentence in 1987 for operating a prostitution ring from his nude dancing club, went on to become a casino operator on the Caribbean island of Aruba.
Just another small twist: The city business license for the SRO is held in the name of a Cicero man who died in 2004, although his signature has continued to appear on license renewal applications.
Are you getting the picture?
I dropped by the bar in search of Dominic and left my card but haven’t heard back.
The big question is how this SRO’s problems became the concern of Cardenas, whose Southwest Side ward is far from Grand and Milwaukee.
Cardenas said it began with his idea to fight homelessness by creating additional SRO housing in the city for low-income individuals.
He said he assigned his staff to work on the issue, and they reported back that the big problem driving SROs out of business and discouraging new ones from opening was nuisance litigation brought by class-action lawyers abusing the landlord tenant ordinance.
For evidence of this problem, he could only direct me to Edward Eberspacher, the lawyer for SRO Operating Company. He was fuzzy about how they became acquainted or how Mell got involved.
Mell was more definitive.
“Cardenas called me and asked me would I help him get it passed,” Mell told me. “Cardenas told me to call the attorney or gave the attorney my number.”
Cardenas’ explanation overlooks the fact that what has driven SROs out of business is the soaring demand for rental properties in certain parts of the city that make it far more lucrative for owners to sell out to developers who want to take the buildings upscale and jack up rents.
It also misses the point that the landlord-tenant ordinance has been an important tool of public interest lawyers fighting to protect the rights of residents being driven out of those buildings by landlords who sometimes employ illegal tactics.
Cardenas’ proposal would add SROs to a list of facilities exempt from the landlord-tenant ordinance — joining hotels, motels and roominghouses. Lawyer Eberspacher argues this was always the intent of the original ordinance and that this is only a “clarification.”
While they might pay by the week or month, many SRO residents remain there for years, making them more like apartment dwellers than hotel guests.
Cardenas also proposes to make the change retroactive to the original effective date of the 1986 landlord-tenant ordinance, the combined effect of which would give the SRO more ammunition for its court defense.
I keep thinking somebody conducted the research for Cardenas’ ordinance from a table at La Scarola.
Ald. George Cardenas. Brian Jackson / Sun-Times file photo
Ald. George Cardenas (12th) says he was only trying to help the homeless when he introduced an ordinance to exempt SROs —single-room occupancy buildings — from the city’s residential landlord-tenant ordinance.
How strange then that all the city’s low-income housing advocates are arrayed against him, while his main support is from an SRO operated by a mob-connected businessman.
The SRO in question — a non-descript facility at 723 W. Grand sometimes known as the Acacia Hotel — is seeking relief from a legal dispute with current and former tenants.
In a pair of class-action lawsuits, those tenants say they were subjected to illegal lockouts, bug infestations and improper late fees.
Cardenas says he proposed his ordinance because such litigation is threatening the city’s dwindling supply of SRO housing by making it too costly to maintain the cheap rents that allow these facilities to serve as a crucial source of shelter for the poor.
But the groups that have led the fight to preserve SROs say there is no evidence of a wider problem and that the alderman’s proposal would take away important legal rights they often rely on to protect SRO residents.
Adding to the intrigue is the involvement of former Ald. Dick Mell, who says Cardenas was so intent on passing his ordinance that he recruited Mell to lobby for it. Mell, who now works as a registered lobbyist, said Cardenas went so far as to help arrange for him to be hired by a lawyer for the building’s owner, SRO Operating Company LLC.
Also showing a keen interest in the affairs of SRO Operating Company LLC is Robert “Bobby” Dominic, whose name can be found on the Chicago Crime Commission charts of the Outfit’s hierarchy.
Dominic, 61, has long been identified by law enforcement as a “mob associate” for his involvement in enterprises involving organized crime such as dirty bookstores and peep shows. Though arrested 15 times in his younger days, Dominic has only two minor misdemeanor convictions on his record.
Robert “Bobby” Dominic, a Chicago businessman long identified by law enforcement as a mob associate, is one of the operators of an SRO hotel seeking to amend the city’s landlord-tenant ordinance. Dominic, 61, is shown here in an old Chicago Police Department booking photo
The Chicago Tribune ran an interesting story about Dominic in 2000, explaining how police officers who raided Dominic’s businesses encountered other Chicago cops on the premises providing security for him, the point being that Dominic has a lot of influential friends.
Despite that notoriety, both Cardenas and Mell told me they don’t know Dominic and were not aware of his involvement with the SRO.
The nature and extent of Dominic’s interest in the venture has been a point of contention in Cook County Circuit Court, where he is among several defendants in the aforementioned class-action suits brought by tenant rights lawyer Berton Ring.
The building that houses the Acacia Hotel fronts on both Grand and Milwaukee and is probably most recognizable to Chicagoans as the site of the popular La Scarola Restaurant, a favorite of mine.
La Scarola occupies part of the first floor alongside the notably more downscale Richard’s Bar.
Occupying the second and third floors is the Acacia, previously called the Arcadia, a 45-unit SRO where residents rent rooms for $100 a week and share a bathroom.
The top two floors of this building at Grand and Milwaukee house a single-room occupancy hotel that wants the Chicago City Council’s help to fend off lawsuits brought against it under the city’s residential landlord-tenant ordinance. | Mark Brown/Sun-Times
In their lawsuit, former tenants Peter Gabiola and Jerry Weikle say Dominic identified himself as the SRO’s owner and manager, while personally renting out rooms and handling maintenance requests.
In a court affidavit filed in response, Dominic said Richard’s Bar is owned by his sister, Susan Dominic, while SRO Operating Company, her landlord, is managed by Thomas Harris, his close friend since childhood. Because of those relationships, Dominic said he has “from time to time” assisted in both operations but doesn’t own either.
That could explain why it was Dominic who personally convinced one of the SRO’s tenants to sign a release dropping his legal claim, persuading him to accept a month’s rent as settlement.
It also might explain why a police officer listed Dominic as the owner of the facility in a report he filed after Dominic waved him down on the street to make a complaint against one of the tenants who brought the original class-action, alleging months after the fact that the individual had punched holes in the walls.
And it also helps explains why a lawyer for SRO Operating Company asked a federal judge to clarify that the Dominics are covered against the lawsuit under an insurance policy taken out by the company — the company in which they say they have no involvement.
If you can handle one more complication, there’s this:
Records show Florence Posner, wife of Chicago hoodlum Michael Posner, once managed the same property, which also carries the address of 491 N. Milwaukee, prior to its current owners taking over.
Michael Posner, once the mob’s reputed boss in Lake County before he caught a 10-year prison sentence in 1987 for operating a prostitution ring from his nude dancing club, went on to become a casino operator on the Caribbean island of Aruba.
Just another small twist: The city business license for the SRO is held in the name of a Cicero man who died in 2004, although his signature has continued to appear on license renewal applications.
Are you getting the picture?
I dropped by the bar in search of Dominic and left my card but haven’t heard back.
The big question is how this SRO’s problems became the concern of Cardenas, whose Southwest Side ward is far from Grand and Milwaukee.
Cardenas said it began with his idea to fight homelessness by creating additional SRO housing in the city for low-income individuals.
He said he assigned his staff to work on the issue, and they reported back that the big problem driving SROs out of business and discouraging new ones from opening was nuisance litigation brought by class-action lawyers abusing the landlord tenant ordinance.
For evidence of this problem, he could only direct me to Edward Eberspacher, the lawyer for SRO Operating Company. He was fuzzy about how they became acquainted or how Mell got involved.
Mell was more definitive.
“Cardenas called me and asked me would I help him get it passed,” Mell told me. “Cardenas told me to call the attorney or gave the attorney my number.”
Cardenas’ explanation overlooks the fact that what has driven SROs out of business is the soaring demand for rental properties in certain parts of the city that make it far more lucrative for owners to sell out to developers who want to take the buildings upscale and jack up rents.
It also misses the point that the landlord-tenant ordinance has been an important tool of public interest lawyers fighting to protect the rights of residents being driven out of those buildings by landlords who sometimes employ illegal tactics.
Cardenas’ proposal would add SROs to a list of facilities exempt from the landlord-tenant ordinance — joining hotels, motels and roominghouses. Lawyer Eberspacher argues this was always the intent of the original ordinance and that this is only a “clarification.”
While they might pay by the week or month, many SRO residents remain there for years, making them more like apartment dwellers than hotel guests.
Cardenas also proposes to make the change retroactive to the original effective date of the 1986 landlord-tenant ordinance, the combined effect of which would give the SRO more ammunition for its court defense.
I keep thinking somebody conducted the research for Cardenas’ ordinance from a table at La Scarola.
Hoffa mystery endures 40 years later
These days Stan Hunterton is known as a longtime Las Vegas attorney. Whether the case is civil or criminal, Hunterton is a legal veteran comfortable around any courthouse.
Back in the late 1970s, he was an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Strike Force in Detroit and Las Vegas. He later served as deputy chief counsel to the President’s Commission on Organized Crime.
So it’s no wonder each year about this time he can’t help but think back about one of the great mob mysteries: the disappearance of Teamsters Union titan Jimmy Hoffa.
Hunterton sent a reminiscence that I think captures some of the mystery and the enduring Hoffa legend: “Forty years ago this July 30, Jimmy Hoffa was assassinated. No one has ever been convicted, or even charged with the crime. That day, the best known labor leader in the world, a man who had been pardoned by President Richard Nixon and who was furiously working to regain his position as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, vanished as he was scheduled to meet with members of the mafia in a public place. When told earlier this fate awaited him, Hoffa is reported to have said, ‘They wouldn’t dare.’ His body was never found.
“Before there was a ‘crime of the century’ every couple of months, this was the crime of the century. The audacity and success of this murder makes it an intriguing ‘who done it.’ But why?
“Was it a pure Mafia hit prompted by repeated public claims by Hoffa that he ‘had records’ and would ‘name names’ when he regained control of the Union? Did it have a political element? Hoffa’s Presidential pardoned contained a prohibition against him seeking union office. Or, was it ‘personal,’ not ‘business,’ arising from Hoffa’s blood feud with New Jersey gangster and fellow Teamster Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano? Was it an inside job? After all, many lucrative jobs, contracts and loans would be impacted by Hoffa’s campaign, Or, was it something like ‘Murder on the Orient Express’? All of the above.
“There has been a confession to the shooting itself, albeit published posthumously in ‘I Heard You Paint Houses’ by Charles Brandt. The self-described trigger man and close friend of Hoffa, Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran, says he killed Hoffa but can’t lead us to the body and Sheeran probably never knew exactly ‘why’ Hoffa had to die beyond the general proposition that he was making the mob nervous, very nervous. So, even assuming Sheeran told the truth the case remains an enigma.
“Who was Jimmy Hoffa? His father was an Indiana coal miner who died when his son was 7 years old. His mother worked in a laundry. Hoffa quit school at 14. Was he a ‘hero to the working man from america’s heartland’ as some would have it?Back in the late 1970s, he was an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Strike Force in Detroit and Las Vegas. He later served as deputy chief counsel to the President’s Commission on Organized Crime.
So it’s no wonder each year about this time he can’t help but think back about one of the great mob mysteries: the disappearance of Teamsters Union titan Jimmy Hoffa.
Hunterton sent a reminiscence that I think captures some of the mystery and the enduring Hoffa legend: “Forty years ago this July 30, Jimmy Hoffa was assassinated. No one has ever been convicted, or even charged with the crime. That day, the best known labor leader in the world, a man who had been pardoned by President Richard Nixon and who was furiously working to regain his position as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, vanished as he was scheduled to meet with members of the mafia in a public place. When told earlier this fate awaited him, Hoffa is reported to have said, ‘They wouldn’t dare.’ His body was never found.
“Before there was a ‘crime of the century’ every couple of months, this was the crime of the century. The audacity and success of this murder makes it an intriguing ‘who done it.’ But why?
“Was it a pure Mafia hit prompted by repeated public claims by Hoffa that he ‘had records’ and would ‘name names’ when he regained control of the Union? Did it have a political element? Hoffa’s Presidential pardoned contained a prohibition against him seeking union office. Or, was it ‘personal,’ not ‘business,’ arising from Hoffa’s blood feud with New Jersey gangster and fellow Teamster Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano? Was it an inside job? After all, many lucrative jobs, contracts and loans would be impacted by Hoffa’s campaign, Or, was it something like ‘Murder on the Orient Express’? All of the above.
“There has been a confession to the shooting itself, albeit published posthumously in ‘I Heard You Paint Houses’ by Charles Brandt. The self-described trigger man and close friend of Hoffa, Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran, says he killed Hoffa but can’t lead us to the body and Sheeran probably never knew exactly ‘why’ Hoffa had to die beyond the general proposition that he was making the mob nervous, very nervous. So, even assuming Sheeran told the truth the case remains an enigma.
Or, was it the truth, as asserted by Dan Moldea in ‘The Hoffa Wars,’ that Jimmy Hoffa’s most valuable contribution to the American labor movement came at the moment he stopped breathing?
“Or was it both?
“I was recently on a plane with a man returning home from a Teamsters convention in Las Vegas. He wore a shirt which said, ‘I AM A FRIEND OF JIMMY HOFFA’ and which had a picture of Hoffa emblazoned under the caption. “Some public events live on, and on.”
jsmith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith.
AMC’s ‘The Making Of The Mob’ Renewed: Chicago
mxdwn.com August 22, 2015
On Friday at the Televison Critics’ Association press tour, AMC announced the renewal of the docuseries, The Making Of The Mob, for a second season (via The Hollywood Reporter).
The series comes from Stephen David Entertainment and it had a steady stream of viewers in its debut season. The Making Of The Mob averaged at about 1.5 million viewers a night. The show’s premiere season was entitled The Making Of The Mob: New York and was based on the infamous mobster, Lucky Luciano. The series premiered on June 15, 2015 as an eight part event. Emmy award winning actor, Ray Liotta, narrated the series which starred Rich Graff and Ian Bell and was executive produced by Stephen David.
The sophomore season will be entitled, The Making Of The Mob: Chicago which will follow the rise and fall of Al Capone. The second season is also set to explore Al Capone’s war with the Irish gangs of Chicago and Elliot Ness. Stephen David, head of Stephen David Entertainment, talked about the renewal, “We’ve had an amazing experience with AMC on ‘The Making of the Mob: New York’ and to get to explore a second season focusing on Al Capone and Chicago is a dream” (via Variety).
In other AMC news, the cable network ordered the docudrama, The West, straight to series. The West is another Stephen David Entertainment production and it will explore western legends and cowboys. The series is set to be a mixture of documentary footage and dramatic scenes. It will premiere in the summer of 2016 in eight installments (The Hollywood Reporter).
AMC’s The Making Of The Mob: Chicago and The West are set to debut in 2016.
On Friday at the Televison Critics’ Association press tour, AMC announced the renewal of the docuseries, The Making Of The Mob, for a second season (via The Hollywood Reporter).
The series comes from Stephen David Entertainment and it had a steady stream of viewers in its debut season. The Making Of The Mob averaged at about 1.5 million viewers a night. The show’s premiere season was entitled The Making Of The Mob: New York and was based on the infamous mobster, Lucky Luciano. The series premiered on June 15, 2015 as an eight part event. Emmy award winning actor, Ray Liotta, narrated the series which starred Rich Graff and Ian Bell and was executive produced by Stephen David.
The sophomore season will be entitled, The Making Of The Mob: Chicago which will follow the rise and fall of Al Capone. The second season is also set to explore Al Capone’s war with the Irish gangs of Chicago and Elliot Ness. Stephen David, head of Stephen David Entertainment, talked about the renewal, “We’ve had an amazing experience with AMC on ‘The Making of the Mob: New York’ and to get to explore a second season focusing on Al Capone and Chicago is a dream” (via Variety).
In other AMC news, the cable network ordered the docudrama, The West, straight to series. The West is another Stephen David Entertainment production and it will explore western legends and cowboys. The series is set to be a mixture of documentary footage and dramatic scenes. It will premiere in the summer of 2016 in eight installments (The Hollywood Reporter).
AMC’s The Making Of The Mob: Chicago and The West are set to debut in 2016.
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