Joey Cusumano, Last Surviving Associate of Tony Spilotro and Hole in the Wall Gang Member, Dies at 90

Joey Cusumano, believed to be the last surviving associate of mobster Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro, died on Tuesday (Oct. 20) at the age of 90. A trusted lieutenant in Spilotro’s crew, he operated in Las Vegas criminal enterprises, labor racketeering, high-stakes extortion, and as a member of the Hole in the Wall burglary gang. Though no specific character in the 1995 film Casino was based on him, Cusumano stood at the center of the real events that inspired it, according to Casino.org News.

Originally a New Yorker, Cusumano resettled in Las Vegas in 1968. He worked at Caesars Palace while it operated under organized-crime influence, delivering skimmed casino profits to Genovese bosses Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Vincent “Jimmy Blue Eyes” Alo. In 1970 he left to open Joey’s New Yorker, an Italian restaurant south of the Sands that became a Strip fixture. He formed a working relationship with Spilotro in the early 1970s and later secured a line-producer credit on the 1984 film The Cotton Club after helping arrange its financing.

Post-Spilotro Convictions and Survival

After the 1986 slayings of Tony and Michael Spilotro, Cusumano declined an offer to take over the Chicago outfit’s Las Vegas rackets. He was convicted of labor racketeering a year later for diverting funds from the Culinary Union’s life-insurance program. Released from prison in June 1990, he was placed in Nevada’s Black Book, barring him from all state casinos for life.

That October he survived an assassination attempt when a masked gunman shot him multiple times in the shoulder outside his Las Vegas Country Club townhouse. Cusumano remained in Las Vegas for the next 36 years, maintaining a low profile. He played tennis, dined with friends including former mayor and defense attorney Oscar Goodman, and created the menu for Goodman’s namesake restaurant—though Black Book rules prevented him from entering the casino that housed it.

In 2012 Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith labeled him “the luckiest man in Las Vegas.” Cusumano told Smith: “I lived what I lived, and it’s over. The best thing about the way I’m living now is the peace. I miss Tony, but the truth is that if he was still around, we wouldn’t be here. We would have had a lot of problems.” He faced worsening medical issues in recent years.

A visitation is scheduled at Palm Mortuary-Cheyenne from 3 to 7 p.m. on Nov. 13. The funeral will be held at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church from 11 a.m. to noon on Nov. 14, followed by committal at Bunker’s Memory Gardens from 2 to 3 p.m.

Reporting: Casino.org News

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