Sunday, May 01, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOHN L. SMITH: Mob connections prove famous Disneyland tune no joke after all

Talk about a small world.

Phone booths have more room than the distance between indicted Chicago Outfit crime boss Joey "the Clown" Lombardo and embattled Crazy Horse Too topless club owner Rick Rizzolo.

When the FBI went looking for signs of Lombardo last week after he failed to turn himself in following Monday's indictment in connection with 18 murders, agents checked around Las Vegas. Why?

In part, because Lombardo's brother, Rocco Lombardo, until recently was employed at Rizzolo's Las Vegas club. It makes sense that brothers would keep in contact.

But there's something else about the Crazy Horse Too that intrigues authorities these days.

Not only has Rizzolo employed the brother of a notorious mob boss -- one now accused of participating in the grisly 1986 murders of brothers Tony and Michael Spilotro -- but he dined with the Clown on several occasions.

I didn't know mob chieftains had social suppers. Now that's a small world.

During his February 2002 deposition in the civil action stemming from the September 2001 beating outside the Crazy Horse Too of Kansas tourist Kirk Henry, Rizzolo was asked about his relationship, if any, with Rocky Lombardo's older, more notorious brother.

"Is that Joey the Clown Lombardo's brother?" attorney Donald Campbell asked.

"I wouldn't know," Rizzolo replied. "His brother's name is Joey. I don't know if he is a clown or not."

A swell answer, but it was less than complete.

Rizzolo not only had met Joey Lombardo, but had broken bread with him. At least, that's what Crazy Horse Too executive Al Rapuano acknowledged in his deposition in the same civil case.

Rapuano, a former chief operating officer of Bally's Las Vegas and the Riviera, has spent much of the past decade working with Rizzolo at the Crazy Horse Too. That relationship placed him in the company of Joey Lombardo.

"Have you ever met him?" Campbell asked Rapuano.

"I believe I probably was in a group that had dinner, a group of eight, 10, or 12, and I believe ... I was introduced to him," Rapuano said.

Rapuano remembered dining with Joey Lombardo "two or three times" while in Chicago with Rizzolo, Rocky Lombardo and "possibly" former cop and Nevada Black Book member Fred Pascente.

"Whenever we went to eat, there was always a group," Rapuano said.

"When was it that you first became aware of who Joey Lombardo was?" Campbell asked.

"Well, certainly with the recent news coverage," Rapuano said in March 2003. "But I have a feeling that I came to learn that previously. Probably from some newspaper report."

Unlike Rizzolo, at least Rapuano reads the newspapers.

The dinners took place around the time Rizzolo was involved in a consulting capacity with the Crazy Horse Too topless club in Chicago. In exchange for the use of the Crazy Horse Too name, Rizzolo said he received a $20,000 monthly fee. But anyone who picked up a Crazy Horse Too matchbook in Las Vegas would notice the Chicago operation advertised as a sister club.

Chicago law enforcement suspected the Crazy Horse Too in that city of mob ties, specifically to the people who pay tribute by losing at cards to Joey Lombardo. The club, however, was licensed.

"In my opinion, the connections are there for a reason," former Chicago Crime Commission chief investigator Wayne Johnson says. "Naturally, there are social connections, but people know who they're with, and people know the risks of being with them."

Former Chicago mob cop John J. Flood concurs: "There's no question about it."

Although the Crazy Horse Too isn't mentioned, the extortion of Chicago adult entertainment clubs is cited in the indictment of Lombardo and 13 other men.

Why would Rizzolo & Co. repeatedly dine with a mob legend?

I've always believed big shots of Lombardo's caliber were all business. But maybe that's just mob mythology.

In his deposition, Rizzolo emphatically denied knowing even general details of Joey Lombardo's very dark and very public criminal history.

Who knows, maybe the Clown came to dinner to make balloon animals.

Either way, it's a small world, don't you think?

John L. Smith's column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295.