Artie Piscano Casino
Vella, a native New Yorker with some 70 acting credits to his name, was most memorably featured as the deli owner Artie Piscano alongside Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s 1995 crime classic. The Casino movie character Artie Piscano was based on Carl 'Tuffy' DeLuna. The raid on his home happened on February 14, 1979. Unlike what is depicted in the movie, Tuffy did not die of a heart attack during the raid. He was sentenced to prison for his participation in skimming Las Vegas casinos and was released in 1998.
Carl Angelo 'Tuffy' DeLuna (April 30, 1927 – July 21, 2008) was an organized crime figure who was once the powerful underboss of the Kansas City crime family. He was also brother-in-law to Kansas City crime boss Anthony Civella. DeLuna was heavily involved in the 'Skimming' of profits from Las Vegas Casinos in the 1970s and acted as both a courier and middleman between the leaders of crime family's involved in the multi-million dollar scheme.
Biography
Born in Brooklyn, New York, DeLuna rose through the ranks of the Kansas City family to eventually become underboss and second-in-command to Nick Civella. He was said to be personally responsible for the ambush of a rival mob crew, the Spero brothers, who were the bosses of a renegade faction challenging Nick Civella's authority, at the Virginia Tavern in Kansas City, Missouri in May, 1978. The shooting resulted in one brother being paralyzed, another injured and a third, Mike Spero, dying (one of the four Spero brothers had previously been found murdered in the trunk of a car a few months before the barroom shooting).
The Spero brothers shooting resulted in the FBI planting surveillance and listening devices in hangouts of certain members of the Kansas City family, which in June, 1978, resulted in the FBI unwittingly overhearing DeLuna and Carl Civella discussing Allen Glick and the sale of Las Vegas casinos, discovering the mobs infiltration of these multi-million dollar a year enterprises.
DeLuna was a well-respected and trusted mobster, he maintained the Kansas City family’s close ties with the Chicago Outfit, to the Milwaukee crime family under crime boss Frank Balistrieri and the Cleveland crime family during the mob infiltration of several Las Vegas casinos in the mid-1970s. Federal prosecutors in Kansas City alleged that Nick Civella, Carl Civella and DeLuna each held secret investments in the Tropicana hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. DeLuna along with Charles Moretina were in charge of traveling to Las Vegas and receiving the Kansas City crime family's share of the skimmed casino profits. DeLuna once threatened to kill Las Vegas Mob front-man Allen Glick and his family to force him to sell the Argent Corporation through which Glick legally owned many mob-backed Las Vegas casinos. DeLuna told him they wanted him to sell the Argent corporation because he and his partners were 'finally sick of having to deal with me (Glick) and having me (Glick) around'. Glick would later testify against DeLuna describing him as 'vulgar and animalistic'. Within days of DeLuna's meeting with Glick at Oscar Goodman's law office, Glick went before the Nevada Gaming Commission and announced his intention of selling his shares in the Casino's.
Arrest and Conviction
On February 14, 1979, DeLuna's home was raided on and it was found that he kept extensive cryptic notes hidden in his basement which, together with wiretaps, connected all the dots the FBI needed in linking the mob to illegal control of Las Vegas casinos. It would not be an exaggeration to say that some of DeLuna's recorded meetings and notes were responsible for getting the mafia kicked out of Las Vegas. DeLuna was an inverted, compulsive note-taker and had meticulously noted his expenses for his Las Vegas trips and used codes to refer to people involved in illegally controlling and skimming from the Casinos in addition to basically laying out blueprints on FBI wiretaps as to how to skim from a casino. In 1979, DeLuna was placed in the Nevada Gaming Commission's Black Book. On November 5, 1981, DeLuna and Carl Civella were charged and convicted of conspiracy, travel act violations, interstate gambling and transportation of stolen property. DeLuna was sentenced to 30 years in jail in addition to pleading guilty to felony crimes in 1983 along with Joseph Agosto.
DeLuna was released from prison in 1998 after serving 17 years in prison. He died in Kansas City in 2008 of natural causes, he was 81 years old.
Artie Piscano Casino Quotes
In Popular Culture
DeLuna was portrayed in the 1995 film 'Casino' as Artie Piscano (played by Vinny Vella). In the film, Piscano is portrayed as being a loud mouth and dying of a heart attack during the FBI raid on his home.
DeLuna was also prominently featured in the book 'Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas'.
Casino
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- Robert De Niro
- Sharon Stone
- Joe Pesci
- Don Rickles
- Kevin Pollak
- James Woods
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Artie Piscano Casino
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Casino is a 1995 American epic crime film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci. It is based on the nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese. The two had previously collaborated on Goodfellas.
The film marks the eighth collaboration between director Scorsese and De Niro, following Mean Streets (1973); Taxi Driver (1976); New York, New York (1977); Raging Bull (1980); The King of Comedy (1982); Goodfellas (1990); and Cape Fear (1991).
Artie Piscano Casino
In Casino, De Niro stars as Sam 'Ace' Rothstein, a Jewish American gambling handicapper who is called by the Chicago Outfit to oversee the day-to-day operations at the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. His character is based on Frank Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust, Fremont, and Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago Outfit from the 1970s until the early 1980s. Pesci plays Nicholas 'Nicky' Santoro, based on real-life Mob enforcer Anthony J. Spilotro, a 'made man' who could give Ace the protection he needed. Nicky is sent to Vegas to make sure that money from the Tangiers is skimmed off the top and the mobsters in Vegas are kept in line. Sharon Stone plays Ginger McKenna, Ace's scheming, self-absorbed wife, based on Geri McGee.
Plot
In 1973, sports handicapper and Mafia associate Sam 'Ace' Rothstein is sent to Las Vegas to run the Teamsters Union-funded Tangiers Casino on behalf of the Chicago Outfit, which secretly controls the Teamsters, while Philip Green serves as the Mob's front man. Taking advantage of gaming laws that allow him to work in a casino while his gaming license is pending, Sam doubles the casino's profits, which are skimmed by the Mafia before they are reported to income tax agencies. Impressed with his work, Mafia boss Remo Gaggi sends Sam's childhood friend and mob enforcer Nicholas 'Nicky' Santoro and his associate Frank 'Frankie' Marino to protect Sam and the whole operation. Nicky's volatile temper soon gets him banned from every casino in Las Vegas, so he gathers his own crew and engages in independent shakedowns and burglaries, instead.
Sam meets and falls in love with a hustler and former prostitute, Ginger McKenna. They conceive a daughter and marry, but their marriage is proven difficult by Ginger's covetousness and love for her manipulative former boyfriend, con artist-turned pimp Lester Diamond. Lester is beaten severely by Sam and Nicky after they catch him conning Ginger out of some money. Ginger subsequently turns to alcohol. Meanwhile, Sam makes an enemy in county commissioner Pat Webb for firing his brother-in-law Don Ward for incompetence. When Sam refuses to reinstate him, Webb pulls Sam's license from the backlog, forcing him to face a hearing for his gaming license while secretly arranging for the board to deny Sam. Sam blames the incident on Nicky's recklessness and the two argue furiously in the desert after Sam attempts to tell Nicky to leave Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, the casino counters begin stealing some money for themselves, prompting the Midwest Mafia bosses to put Artie Piscano of the Kansas City mafia in charge of overseeing the transactions. Piscano is unable to find the thieves, but keeps tabs on everything he knows about Las Vegas in a private notebook, ranting about it in his grocery store. The FBI, investigating a separate crime, have wired Piscano's store, and Piscano's detailed complaints, complete with names, spurs the FBI to begin investigating the casino. Meanwhile, Sam finally seeks divorce from Ginger, tired of her alcoholism. She then kidnaps their daughter, Amy, taking her to Los Angeles, and plans to flee to Europe with Lester. Sam convinces her to come back with Amy, and then scolds her for stealing his money and kidnapping their daughter. After he overhears Ginger talking on the phone about killing him, he kicks her out of the house, but soon relents. Ginger then approaches Nicky for help in getting her valuables from their shared vault in the bank, and the two start an affair. Sam discovers this after finding Amy tied to her bed by Ginger, who is with Nicky at his restaurant. Sam disowns Ginger, as does Nicky. A furious and drunk Ginger crashes her car into Sam's driveway, making a scene, and retrieves the key to their deposit box after distracting the attending police. Even though she succeeds in taking her share of the money from the bank, she is arrested by the FBI as a material witness.
The FBI moves in and closes the casino. Green decides to cooperate with the authorities. Piscano dies of a heart attack upon observing federal agents discover his notebook. Nicky flees Las Vegas before he can be caught. The FBI approaches Sam for help, but he turns them down. The bosses are arrested and put on trial, and decide to eliminate anyone involved in the scheme to prevent them from testifying. Among those killed are three casino executives, Teamsters head Andy Stone, and money courier John Nance. Ginger travels to Los Angeles and ultimately dies of a drug overdose in a motel. Sam himself is almost killed by a car bomb, and suspects Nicky was behind it. Before Sam can take revenge, Nicky and his brother Dominick are ambushed by Frankie and their own crew, beaten and buried alive in a cornfield, the bosses having had enough of Nicky's behavior and suspecting his role in Sam's car bombing.
Artie Piscano Casino&hotel
With the Mob now out of power, the old casinos are purchased by big corporations and demolished. The corporations build new and gaudier attractions, which Sam laments are not the same as when the Mafia was in control. Sam subsequently retires to San Diego and continues to live as a sports handicapper for the Mob, in his own words, ending up 'right back where I started'.
Cast
- Robert De Niro as Sam 'Ace' Rothstein
- Joe Pesci as Nicholas 'Nicky' Santoro
- Sharon Stone as Ginger McKenna
- James Woods as Lester Diamond
- Frank Vincent as Frankie Marino
- Don Rickles as Billy Sherbert
- L. Q. Jones as Clark County Commissioner Pat Webb
- Kevin Pollak as Philip Green
- Alan King as Andy Stone
- Pasquale Cajano as Remo Gaggi
- John Bloom as Donald 'Don' Ward
- Dick Smothers as Nevada State Senator Harrison Roberts
- Philip Suriano as Dominick Santoro
- Bill Allison as John Nance
- Vinny Vella as Artie Piscano