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It was, as former Las Vegas Casino Owner Allen Glick explained, an offer he simply couldn't refuse. In 1978, when the Mafia was leaning on Glick to sell his interest in Vegas' sprawling Stardust casino, Kansas City Mobster Carl ("Tuffy") DeLuna was dispatched to deliver him a chilling message. "He said I might think of my life as expendable, but I might not think of my children's lives as expendable," Glick testified. "Then he read off the names and ages of my sons and said if he did not hear the announcement to sell immediately, my sons would be killed one by one. I assured him I would sell."
Glick, a wealthy San Diego real estate investor, was a key witness against four organized-crime leaders from Chicago and one from Cleveland in a four-month federal trial that ended last week in Kansas City. The five were charged with helping to skim some $2 million from the Stardust and Fremont casinos. Glick, who bought the casinos in 1974 with $87 million in loans from the Teamsters' Central States pension fund, gave the court vivid details of how the Mob muscled in on his operation.
As soon as he acquired control, Glick testified, he was told to place Frank Rosenthal, a Stardust employee, in charge of the casinos. The order came from Frank Balistrieri, 67, a Milwaukee crime boss who had helped Glick get the Teamsters loan. (Balistrieri pleaded guilty after the trial began. So did DeLuna, 58.) Glick complied, but when he later wanted to fire Rosenthal, he was given a blunt warning. Glick testified that Rosenthal said to him, "I was told not to tolerate any nonsense from you because you are not my boss. If you don't do what you're told, you will never leave this corporation alive."
Summoned to Kansas City for a meeting with Mafia Leader Nick Civella, who died in 1983, Glick testified, "He told me I should cling to every word he said because 'You don't know me, but if it was my choice, you would never leave this room alive. If you listen, you may.' " Civella told Glick to give Rosenthal a free hand in running the casinos.
After deliberating for 30 hours, the jury last week convicted the five defendants: Joseph J. Aiuppa, 78, the Chicago Mafia boss; John Cerone, 71, Joseph Lombardo, 57, and Angelo LaPietra, 65, all of Chicago; and Cleveland Mob Leader Milton J. Rockman, 71. Each could be sentenced to 40 years in jail. Chicago FBI Chief Edward Hegarty called the convictions of the Midwest's top mobsters, along with earlier guilty pleas of Mob leaders in Kansas City, "the most significant prosecution of organized-crime figures in the history of the U.S." An even bigger Mafia trial is to start next March in New York City, where leaders of all five of the city's powerful crime families will face racketeering charges.