Frank Rosenthal (Manager)

Frank Lawrence "Lefty" Rosenthal (born  June 12, 1929 in Chicago , Illinois , † October 13, 2008 in Miami Beach , Florida ) was an American gambler and former casino manager in Las Vegas . He has been arrested several times for illegal gambling .

Early years in Chicago

Frank Rosenthal grew up in western Chicago, where he came into contact with the everyday life of the American Cosa Nostra at a young age . When he was about 14 years old, he left school in order to be able to be at the horse racing tracks every day. At the time, his father owned a number of horses that he ran at these Chicago racetracks. This was also the place that had a decisive influence on Rosenthal, as after winning a horse bet he made the decision to run the betting business from now on professionally. He quickly realized the value of exclusive information and began buying it too. If he initially only spent a few dollars on it, he soon hired two of his friends for the task. Reading the latest daily newspapers in the morning was also part of his compulsory program. Other handicappers and bookmakers quickly noticed him. Rosenthal's role model was the leading personality in this business field: Hymie the Ace .

At the age of 19, Rosenthal got a job at the sports betting company "Angel-Kaplan Sports Service" in the north of the Chicago Loop . He was so successful that he was probably already an associate of the Chicago Outfit criminal organization at the time ; in his early twenties he paid part of his income every week to Capo Fiore Buccieri .

In the meantime, Frank Rosenthal married for the first time. But it was a short marriage to a woman who didn't even really know his family. Nothing about it is recorded in the otherwise well-informed book "Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas" by Nicholas Pileggi .

In the late 1950s, his relationship with Anthony Spilotro intensified . Rosenthal had known this since his youth, but the age difference had prevented a closer friendship until then. In contrast to Rosenthal, Spilotro, as an Italian-American, was later able to become a member of the Mafia . At first, like other mobsters of the outfit , he benefited from Rosenthal's knowledge and information regarding the results in sports such as B. College Football . Frank Rosenthal was able to bet on game results of up to 50,000 US dollars by the end of the 1950s. He failed to use the word "bet" (am .: bet), or "betting" (am .: bet). Instead he used the expression “wager”.

Miami

Based on hearings before the Kefauver Crime Committee , a judicial investigation into illegal betting shops and bookmakers in the United States, Frank Rosenthal decided in 1961 to escape pressure from the local police in Chicago and move to Miami .

Together with two friends from Chicago he realized bets of up to 15,000 US dollars. Because of his skills and the skills of his friends, they managed to increase this stake to $ 750,000 within one season. At that time it was also possible for him to place a stake between 20,000 and 30,000 US dollars per game. Rosenthal and his associates had a very good flow of information, which was simplified by special telephone lines that enabled him to communicate within seconds with all the major bookmakers in the country.

The name "Lefty" was immediately known to numerous other handicappers and bookmakers across the country, as Rosenthal had had good business relationships with these people during the years in Chicago and they knew that he was a fair partner. In addition to his handicapping activities, he and his father still had some racehorses in Miami that they ran on local racetracks there.

After he had refused to pay a certain "Eli the Juice Man" $ 500 a week, the latter now incited the police on him and his people. In this way, Rosenthal came into conflict with the law for the first time and was arrested several times for illegal bookmaking. His friendship with Anthony Spilotro grew even closer during the years in Miami, as he was often in town to oversee a large Chicago Outfit bookmaker ring . Spilotro now also took care of Rosenthal's protection. From then on it was difficult for a police officer to arrest Frank Rosenthal without getting into trouble with Spilotro.

Rosenthal's reputation in Miami was significantly shaped by his 1961 hearing before the Kefauver Crime Committee , chaired by Robert F. Kennedy . He didn't even answer when asked whether he was right or left handed, although the answer was no secret, as his left-handed status earned him his nickname "Lefty". In total, he appealed to the “ Fifth Amendment ” 37 times (the right to refuse to give evidence of the US Constitution). During that hearing, he was also accused of bribing a basketball player. Thereupon Rosenthal pleaded neither guilty nor innocent. That would cause problems later in his casino license hearings in the 1970s.

Las Vegas

Beginnings

When the pressure from the authorities in Miami became too great for Rosenthal in 1967, he decided to return to Chicago for the time being. There he continued to bet, but placed his sports bets over the phone at a betting shop in Las Vegas because they offered better odds. After some weather events, Rosenthal decided to move to Las Vegas because he believed he could pursue his business there - in Las Vegas gambling has been legal since the 1930s - without further interference from the police. Frank Rosenthal moved into a suite in the luxurious Tropicana casino hotel in Las Vegas and began to place his bets from the "Rose Bowl Sports Book" betting company. But even in Las Vegas, Rosenthal came into conflict with the law. The city police made it very clear to him that he was not wanted and should leave the city. With the help of friends, including Elliot Price, a senior executive at the Riviera Casino Hotel , and Eddy Torres, the Riviera CEO , he managed to come to terms with the police.

He continued to do his work as a handicapper extremely successfully. He won almost every bet on the weekend games and all Monday games with one exception. He and his other top handicappers, Joey Boston and Marty Kane, are now betting between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000 on each game. During this time Rosenthal met his future wife Geraldine "Geri" McGee . She was a dancer at the Tropicana and a "chip hustler". As the latter, she accompanied - as a rule - male people for one or more days while playing in the casinos and received a reward from them. Rosenthal went out with her regularly and fell in love. But from the start this was not based on reciprocity. Geri was still attached to her ex-lover Lenny Marmor, who was now active as a pimp in Los Angeles . She made no secret of this from Rosenthal.

In the end, Rosenthal was still able to persuade Geri to marry. On May 1, 1969, they got married in Caesars Palace . A major factor in Geri's decision was the fact that Rosenthal opened a safe deposit box for her that contained around US $ 250,000 in cash and jewelry worth over US $ 1 million. In the same year, Rosenthal deposited another two million US dollars in cash in a bank in Los Angeles for emergencies. In 1969 he bought his family a $ 1 million home on the grounds of the Las Vegas Country Club that can still be found there today. In 1970 Frank and Geri's first son, Steven, was born. In 1973 a daughter followed, Stephanie.

The boom in casinos

In 1971, Frank Rosenthal was arrested again for illegal bookmaking . He ran the "Rose Bowl Sports Book" betting company , was a professional "handicapper" and lived with his wife and son in a well-off situation. However, his wife Geri thought he should take things a little slower and get a respectable job, which at the time in Las Vegas meant working in a casino . Rosenthal first asked the Circus Circus , then the Tropicana and finally the Stardust . There he found a job because of his relationship with Bobby Stella , the vice president of the casino. At the time, the casino was run by Chicago-based Al Sachs .

In truth, however, the casino belonged to the Chicago Outfit , whose people controlled the gaming and counting rooms. The “skim”, the illegal siphoning off of income that was consequently not recorded for tax purposes, was paid to the bosses of the outfit as well as to those of Kansas City and Milwaukee . Rosenthal started his career in 1971 as a floor man who monitored four blackjack tables. For this he got $ 60 a day. In the weeks and months that followed, he familiarized himself with the “in and outs” (meaning: goes or does not work) of the casino business. He learned how to identify cardsharps and fraudulent croupiers and how "skimming" worked. But the most important thing in this business was dealing with the guests.

Give them a free drink and a dream, and they give you their wallets.

"Give them a drink and a dream and they'll give you their wallets."

- Frank Rosenthal

In 1971 Anthony Spilotro was also sent to Las Vegas. There he took the vacant position of Marshall Caifano as "enforcer" (am .: enforcer). From then on it was again up to Spilotro's area of ​​responsibility to protect Rosenthal from other bullies .

To this day, there is suspicion that Rosenthal ran the casino for the heads of the Cosa Nostra families from Chicago, Milwaukee and Kansas City and secured their “skim” from the start. In the years up to 1974 he constantly changed his job title, as the authorities would probably not have allowed him to manage a casino as a former bookmaker . He was therefore appointed "Food & Beverage Manager" and later, among other things, PR manager in order to evade a license hearing. But it was clear to all employees that in truth all powers within the casino were in the hands of Rosenthal. For them, “Lefty” Rosenthal was the actual CEO .

Takeover by Allen Glick

In 1974 the Stardust and the Fremont , which was part of the same society as the Stardust , were up for sale. The Argent Corporation of Allen Glick turned out to be the buyer . He had already acquired the hacienda in 1973 . Glick took out $ 65 million on a loan from the Central States Pension Fund to fund the purchase . Contact was established with Frank Balistrieri , the boss of Milwaukee , via official channels of the Teamsters union . Balistrieri then contacted Nick Civella and the fund manager Roy Williams , who ultimately only had to deliver his signature. The same form of funding was used to purchase the Aladdin , Circus Circus , The Sands , Dunes, and Tropicana casinos .

In return, bosses like Joseph Aiuppa or Frank Balistrieri installed their men in said casinos. In particular, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal represented the actual CEO of the casinos from then on. This caused anger at Allen Glick , who ultimately only acted as a front man and was expressly instructed by Frank Balistrieri to appoint Rosenthal as CEO of the Nevada activities and all Argent properties. This work was endowed with an annual contract worth $ 250,000. For the Cosa Nostra bosses this meant that Rosenthal should get all the freedom he needed to run the casinos according to his ideas and to assert their interests.

By the end of 1975, Frank Rosenthal implemented a number of innovations that are an integral part of Las Vegas to this day. First he recruited the magicians Siegfried and Roy from the MGM Grand Hotel by promising them to equip them with an exclusive cloakroom and to build a show stage for them according to their individual ideas. To sweeten this offer, he gave the magic duo a silver-gray Rolls-Royce , which he had originally bought for his wife Geri. Next he hired female blackjack dealers, which was an absolute novelty at the time and doubled profits at the blackjack tables in a year. In 1975 Rosenthal succeeded in building a sports betting hall in the Stardust and in this way brought his former “Rose Bowl Sports Book” from the street into the casino. This business idea has been copied from every casino on the Strip over the years due to the tremendous profit potential.

Licensing problems

At the end of 1975, Rosenthal gave an interview to the US business newspaper Business Week and declared: "Glick is the financial end, but policy comes from my office" ("Glick is responsible for the finances, but the orders come from my office") . This statement turned out to be problematic as it provided tangible evidence to the Las Vegas gambling authority, which had been trying for years to prove to Rosenthal that he ran the Stardust hotel casino without the necessary license. In addition, Rosenthal had fired an incompetent employee at the hacienda who was a friend of Pete Echeverria - the chief executive officer of the gambling authority.

At the beginning of 1976 Rosenthal therefore had to undergo a license hearing. From his point of view, the negotiation was not objective, as Echeverria and other members of the gaming authority Rosenthal had reservations. His past and his friendship with Anthony Spilotro represented additional burdens for the proceedings . Frank Rosenthal was represented in court by Oscar Goodman .

Spilotro had meanwhile made a name for himself in the city. Although "normal" crime in Las Vegas was actually prohibited by the Cosa Nostra bosses in order not to endanger the skimming of the casinos, Spilotro had built a criminal empire that began with loan sharking, as well as stealing and professional break-ins included. Spilotro itself was entered in the Black Book in 1976 and was thus banned from all casinos in Las Vegas.

If Frank Rosenthal had previously tried not to be seen in public with Spilotro, he completely avoided public contact with his friend from then on; especially after the hearing ended on January 15, 1976 and Rosenthal's application for a license was rejected.

Carl Wesley Thomas

Spilotro still acted as the protector of Rosenthal. When he was supposed to vacate his office for Carl Wesley Thomas on January 29, 1976 , who was also to succeed Rosenthal in the interests of the Cosa Nostra bosses from Chicago , Kansas City and Milwaukee , Spilotro was still ready to deal with emerging problems on behalf of the bosses of to avert him.

Carl Wesley Thomas wanted to bring the entire illegal business in the casinos under his control and to restructure the "skimming" in his favor. He therefore fired many competent employees from key positions who were still hired by Rosenthal. Due to the remaining lobby of Lefty Rosenthal and its reputation with the bosses in Chicago, Thomas's project ultimately did not work.

In order to maintain its influence on the Stardust , the Argent Corporation spent a lot of money to link Rosenthal's house to the casino's camera surveillance system, so that Rosenthal was able to continue issuing orders.

Grant of license

Meanwhile, Rosenthal's fight for his license continued. On December 2, 1976, at a further hearing , Judge Joseph Pavilowski ordered that the Argent Corporation should reinstate Frank Rosenthal because Rosenthal had not been granted all rights at the previous hearing. The background is said to have been different: Joseph Pavilowski married Frank and Geri in 1969 and years later, with Frank's help, he was able to organize the wedding of his own daughter in the Stardust hotel casino. When Pavilowski heard that Rosenthal had problems in court, he immediately took on the case.

On December 3, 1976, Frank Rosenthal took over the casino again and changed his job title again to "Entertainment Director". As a further step, he announced that he would host his own show that was to be broadcast on television. The "Frank Rosenthal Show" was broadcast from April 1977 from a studio in Las Vegas. After a while the show was so successful that Rosenthal decided to move it to the Stardust . From August 27, 1977, the first TV show was broadcast live from a casino.

Rosenthal continued to avoid any public contact with Spilotro in order not to endanger his new license . Spilotro Rosenthal resented this. In the course of 1977 and 1978, their friendship finally became fragile.

The end of Argent

At the end of 1976, a police investigation took place, which investigated the blown "skimming" of income from the slot machines (one -armed bandits ) in the Stardust . The bosses commissioned Rosenthal to make an offer to Allen Glick : Glick should either pay the bosses a million dollar severance payment or withdraw as a partner himself. In this case, Rosenthal should be made "Chairman of the Board". At first Glick refused both.

However, the end for the Argent Cooperation and casino skimming came from another side. In 1978 a bug was placed in the Kansas City pizzeria "Villa Capri Pizzeria" for information about a 1973 murder. The store acted as a meeting place for Nick Civella , the Kansas City boss, and his underboss Carl DeLuna . But instead of getting information about the murder, local FBI agents witnessed Civella, DeLuna and other high-ranking members of the Cosa Nostra families discussing which casino to buy next or what to do with Allen Glick.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there were numerous trials and convictions relating to “skimming” Las Vegas casinos. In 1984 Frank Balistrieri , the boss of Milwaukee, was sentenced to 13 years in prison. 1986, Joseph Aiuppa , Jackie Cerone , Joseph Lombardo , Angelo Lapietra , Milton J. Rockman and Carl DeLuna because of financial levies of casinos in Las Vegas sentenced in the amount of two million US dollars. The investigation of the Argent Society ultimately also contributed to the discovery and destruction of other "skim" schemes in Las Vegas.

With the end of the Argent Corporation , the end of Frank Rosenthal's casino career was sealed. Rosenthal himself was never charged or convicted of "skimming" and remained silent on this until his death.

Marital problems

Second child

The marriage with Geri became a problem. The alcoholism and the continuing connection to Lenny Marble were used for loading. She knew Marble from high school and he was the father of her daughter Robin .

Rosenthal underestimated the relationship between the two; Geri had spoken to Marmor on the phone on the wedding evening to tell him about their marriage. After three years of marriage, Rosenthal was threatened with divorce. Rosenthal believed that a second child could save the marriage, which he offered Geri in 1973 with the help of lawyer Oscar Goodman . That led to the birth of Stephanie Rosenthal . However, this did not stabilize the marriage. Geri was never able to build up feelings for her third child, such as her first daughter Robin or her son Steven .

In addition to the alcohol problem, Geri developed an addiction to tablets , which made her appearance and behavior unstable. She could be a loving and admirable woman on the one hand, but also a capricious, unpredictable and scheming personality on the other. The marital disputes escalated increasingly in the 1970s. Geri had been an independent woman before marriage; as the wife of Rosenthal , she should now live according to his rules and had to spend a lot of time alone at home while her husband went about his business.

After a divorce , she would not have received the million dollar jewelry or their children. Geri often tried to break out of this golden cage and at times disappeared with the children for more than two days. She then met with Lenny Marble frequently . At one of those meetings, Geri gave Marmor $ 25,000 she 'd taken from a Los Angeles bank locker where Frank Rosenthal had stored $ 2 million for emergencies.

One evening in 1978 an argument escalated and Geri took a pistol from a cabinet . Only when the children arrived did the fight for the weapon end, as Geri gave up and Frank Rosenthal came into possession of the weapon.

On the following day of the fight for the gun, Rosenthal had overheard a telephone conversation of his wife, during which she spoke drunk into the receiver: "You've got to help me kill this motherfucker " (on: You have to help me kill this lousy guy) .

Affair with Anthony Spilotro

Around the end of 1979, Rosenthal discovered that his wife had started an affair with Anthony Spilotro.

Rosenthal discovered Spilotro when he dialed his wife's car phone and recognized Spilotro's disguised voice at the other end. When Rosenthal caught his wife in further lies and confronted them, she confessed that the affair with Spilotro had been going on for a year.

Rosenthal immediately realized the dimension of the problem and tried to explain to his wife that Spilotro should never know that he was now aware of the affair. For the bosses of the Cosa Nostra , the women of other mobsters and associates were absolutely taboo; Offenses against it were punished with death. Spilotro could feel compelled to solve the problem by murdering the Rosenthals.

The divorce

On September 8, 1980, Frank Rosenthal and his casino manager Murray Ehrenberg were sitting in Rosenthal's house when Geri returned from a weekend trip. She rammed the garage door and then the Rosenthal car, which was in the garage. A loud argument began and neighbors called the police. Frank called Nancy Spilotro over , who should try as best friend to defuse the situation.

When Nancy arrived, Geri pointed a gun at her husband, which Nancy was able to take from her. Then Geri asked one of the policemen to accompany her into the house while Frank had to wait in front of the door. Meanwhile, Geri took the key to the safe deposit box, in which jewelry and about 250,000 US dollars were stored for her. Geri also managed to persuade the police officers to escort her to the bank. Frank and Ehrenberg followed the two cars, but couldn't do anything when Geri opened the locker, as it was registered in their names, and drove away with the money.

Three days later, on September 11, 1980, Frank Rosenthal finally filed for divorce . Geri was able to keep the money, the jewelry and the car, while Frank got the house, all his fortune and the children.

In 1981 and 1982, after Frank left the casino business because the Argent casinos had been sold, he initially acted as a "handicapper" again.

He was bombed on October 4, 1982 . When Frank Rosenthal left the steakhouse “Tony Roma's Restaurant” in Las Vegas in the evening and started his car, small flames came out of the car's ventilation system. He was able to escape from the vehicle before a few seconds later the bomb attached to the rear of the vehicle exploded.

He only saw his ex-wife Geri on the birthdays of his children. Her increasing problems with alcohol and drug addiction were evident. On November 6, 1982 Geri died of an overdose in a motel in Los Angeles . Frank and his two biological children were not present at the funeral .

Frank Rosenthal recorded the bomb attack as a warning and left Las Vegas a few months later. In 1983, he and his two children moved from Las Vegas to California .

The years after Las Vegas

Rosenthal moved to Laguna Niguel , California , where he lived in a $ 375,000 home. He continued to work as a handicapper, but also focused more and more on the lives of his children. His daughter Stephanie was a very good swimmer who almost qualified for the 1984 Olympic Games .

On November 30, 1988, his name was entered in the " Black Book " of the "Nevada Gaming Commission". Because of his ties to organized crime, he was declared a persona non grata in Nevada .

In the late 1980s, Frank Rosenthal moved with his two children to Boca Raton , Florida , where he lived on an estate on a golf course . He continued to work in sports betting, but only as a player and no longer as a handicapper. In the 1990s, he helped his nephew run a bar called "Croc's" in Miami . He was also back in demand as a consultant for large non-Las Vegas casinos. From the end of the 1990s he also ran his own website , on which he also posted betting tips.

Most recently he lived in Miami Beach , Florida , where he owned an apartment in the luxurious Fontainebleau Tower . He died on October 13, 2008 of a myocardial infarction .

Adaptations

In 1995 Martin Scorsese made his film Casino based on a book by Nicholas Pileggi , which is based on Rosenthal's career in Las Vegas. Frank Lawrence "Lefty" Rosenthal was played by actor Robert De Niro in the film character Sam "Ace" Rothstein .

literature

• Nicholas Pileggi: Casino. Droemer Knaur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3426604396 (German).
• Nicholas Pileggi: Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. Simon & Schuster, October 1995, ISBN 9780684808321 (English).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Hoffa Files: How This Tough Guy Made Las Vegas ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on www.klas-tv.com (English)  
2. ↑ www.time.com “Blood Threat”, February 3, 1986

Web links

• The Official Website of Frank Rosenthal (Engl.)
• Frank Rosenthal in the Internet Movie Database (English)