Richard was charged to gather intel on Rosenthal and Spilotro, and as the first female FBI agent during that time, she said she could largely remain unseen. 'If you knew somebody in the casino and they had the gift of the pen, people were comped for shows and dinners you know.'
'We all knew Vegas at that time, it was a comp town,' said Deborah Richar, former FBI agent. The real characters have since died, but the people who interacted with them, represented them and watched them are still here. While the movie 'Casino' is fiction, it covers the main plots of the Rosenthal/Spilotro story. Rosenthal's wife McGee was a hustler with her own story who was speculated to have had an affair with Spilotro. Mob associate Rosenthal operated the Fremont, Stardust and Hacienda Casinos, while childhood friend and made man Spilotro oversaw skimming operations sent back to the Midwest.
Set in the late 1970s, the characters were meant to embody Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal, Tony Spilotro and Geri McGee. Actors Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone brought that to life when they starred in the movie 'Casino' in 1995.
Before roller coasters and ferris wheels, the Las Vegas strip wasn't known for being a family friendly place.Īlthough mob control of casinos began to wane by the end of the 1970s, there were a few that remained in the grasp of organized crime.
