Cullotta’s enemies never forget his past, or forgive his present

Memo to Frank Cullotta: You can stop wondering whether certain critics from your Chicago mob days have forgiven and forgotten after 27 years.

They haven’t.

Cullotta, the mob guy-turned-informant, made a lot of enemies when he went against the Chicago Outfit in the early 1980s. Two recent columns quoting him on the subject of the late and murderous Larry Neumann have generated no shortage of terse responses from Cullotta’s detractors.

Most of the remarks fall into the category of “Cullotta’s a no good rat,” or words to that effect. Really, gentlemen, you need to work on cleaning up your language and brushing up on your B-movie tough-guy patter. This column has its standards.

But a remark from Neumann’s former attorney, veteran lawyer Cal Potter, bears repeating. Potter had the difficult task of defending Neumann, who was a career criminal and a suspect in at least six murders.

That doesn’t put him far ahead of Cullotta, Potter reminds me.

“My recollection was that he (Cullotta) admitted to four murders, but was responsible for many more,” Potter says. “I can remember his brother taking the stand and saying that he no longer had a brother.”

Potter adds, “I represented Larry Neumann during the Spilotro trial in 1986 and successfully represented him in the Ninth Circuit to enforce the terms of his plea agreement. During the trial the, question that was not allowed to be asked of Cullotta was: ‘Is it easier to commit a burglary, or is it easier to commit perjury?’

“Cullotta has now become a writer of fiction attributing his crimes to those who no longer live. I knew a different Larry Neumann. He gave me two Rolls-Royces and a Cadillac (made by the Franklin Mint.) He wanted me to be the only attorney in Las Vegas with two Rolls Royces. He always sent cards at Christmas, usually with him sitting at the Warden's desk.”