Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Procedural grounds: Coffee inspires tale
OSCAR GOODMAN says he knew Anthony Spilotro as well as anyone in Las Vegas. The former “mob lawyer” easily explains why.
“Because he was always in trouble,” Goodman said Thursday night at the Mob Museum during a 25th anniversary retrospective of “Casino.” “He was under investigation just about anywhere in the United States of America.”
Whenever the attorney and client traveled across the country, the mobster made all the accommodations. Spilotro always required that the two be booked in adjoining rooms that shared a common door. This was so Spilotro could give Goodman a sort of mob wake-up call.
“The reason he did that was because he would get up really early in the morning, 4 or 5 in the morning, and he always loved coffee but he didn’t like to drink coffee alone,” Goodman said. “So he would take the cups and make noise and make noise at the oven to wake me up.”
Goodman also recalled, “It was a very cordial relationship. He needed me to keep him out of prison, and I needed him to have the kind of cases that really were the best cases in the world for a criminal defense attorney.”
“Casino” was released Nov. 22, 1995 (read my colleague Christopher Lawrence’s piece on the making of the film and its legacy). The epic, three-hour film was based on the history of the mob-operated Stardust, renamed the Tangiers in the movie. “Casino” was again at center stage — or on the witness stand — as Mob Museum Vice President of Exhibits and Programs Geoff Schumacher interviewed Goodman for a capacity courtroom crowd.
Goodman marveled at how Joe Pesci, playing the Nicky Santoro character based on Spilotro, mastered Spilotro’s mannerisms. But the character’s spewing of profanity was greatly exaggerated.
“I never saw him use a curse word around women. Around men, he was pretty generous,” Goodman said to laughter in old Kefauver Courtroom. “But he treated women with a great deal of respect, my office staff with a great deal of respect and my family with great respect. I saw a different Tony Spilotro than the world saw.”
Nicholas Pileggi appeared via Zoom digital connection. His book “Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas” was the basis for the movie. Stuntman Carl Ciarfalio also dropped in online. Ciarfalio, a Las Vegas resident, was the stuntman in the legendary scene in which Pesci’s Santoro tightens a vise around hit man Tony Dogs’ head.
“I had Pesci’s DNA all over me by the end of that scene,” Ciarfalio said, referring to the shouted expletives throughout the gory sequence. “I was on the table for seven hours. I was determined to make it through. … The whole experience was kind of surreal.”
Pileggi and Goodman swapped stories and butted heads over a key figure in the book and film’s development: the late mob figure Frank Cullotta. The reformed Mafia associate-turned-government witness was portrayed by Frank Vincent in the movie. Cullotta, who admitted to killing grand jury witness Sherwin “Jerry” Lisner, a scene recounted in “Casino,” was an on-set consultant on the film.
The former hit man found inaccuracies in the original filming of that segment and suggested that he play the scene himself. Pileggi liked Cullotta, referring to him as a friend and invaluable resource for the book and film.
Goodman listened to all this, then said, “I demand equal time.” Goodman detested “rats” who became government witnesses. He had represented Cullotta, who in his later years was a tour guide of mob attractions in Vegas who made appearances at the Mob Museum.
In one of Goodman’s favorite stories, he recalled prepping Cullotta for court. The attorney suggested a necktie. Cullotta did not wear ties and didn’t know how to tie a knot. Goodman offered to tie it for him and slipped it over Cullotta’s head.
“My only regret in this whole thing,” Goodman said, “was not tying that knot a lot tighter around Frank Cullotta’s neck.”
More laughs. Goodman clearly enjoyed revisiting the movie and the era of Stardust/Tangiers and old Las Vegas. Though this Oscar never won one, he was perfect for the role, having lived through it all.
“It was filled with action, adventure, with me trying to protect my clients against government misconduct,” Goodman said. “It was a time in our city that will never be replicated.”