Infamous Las Vegas Mob Era Character Joey Cusumano Dies at Age 90

Joseph “Joey” Cusumano, a longtime associate of Chicago Outfit enforcer Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro, who was convicted of labor racketeering and barred from Nevada casinos, has died in Las Vegas at age 90. How Did Cusumano Get Involved in Las Vegas Organized Crime? With his death, Cusumano has left behind a film-worthy criminal career. Born in New York, Cusumano moved to Las Vegas in 1968 and soon began working at Caesars Palace, which was then influenced by organized crime. His role included delivering skimmed casino earnings to Genovese crime family bosses Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Vincent “Jimmy Blue Eyes” Alo in New York. In 1970, Cusumano left the casino industry and opened Joey’s New Yorker, an Italian restaurant just south of the Sands Casino that soon became a popular gathering spot on the Las Vegas Strip. In the early 1970s, he also tied himself to Spilotro, working alongside him in several street-level criminal operations. All Things Come to an End A major shift in Cusumano’s story came in 1986 after the killing of Spilotro and his brother Michael. Cusumano was offered to become Spilotro’s successor in the Chicago outfit’s Las Vegas rackets, but he declined. Despite that, a year later, Cusumano was convicted of labor racketeering for misappropriating funds from the Culinary Union’s life insurance program. After his release from prison in June 1990, the Nevada Gaming Commission added him to its Black Book, a list of individuals permanently barred from entering the state’s casinos. Earlier this summer, the Commission considered removing two other dead mobsters from the list, so it’s likely Cusumano will follow them. However, this wasn’t the end of Cusumano’s troubles. The same year he was released from federal prison, the mobster was attacked by a masked gunman in front of his own home. The gunman fired five rounds at Cusumano as he opened the garage door of his townhouse. Struck by three bullets, Cusumano managed to flee in his Mercedes-Benz convertible and drive himself to the Sunrise Hospital. The shooting left Cusumano with two bullet fragments in his shoulder. Cusumano spent the next 36 years living in Las Vegas, enjoying tennis and hosting friends and family. In his later years, however, he suffered from several health problems that required extensive medical treatment. Oscar Goodman, the former mayor of Las Vegas and his former defense attorney and close friend, said that every time Cusumano went in to have something fixed, doctors found something else wrong with him. In other news from Las Vegas, data from Statistics Canada showed that fewer Canadians are traveling to the city and other major US tourist destinations, compared to historical values.