The Rise and Fall of a "Casino" Mobster

The Tony Spilotro Story Through A Hitman's Eyes

By: Frank Cullotta, Dennis N. Griffin

Narrated by: Clay Lomakayu

The true story behind the hit film Casino from an "enforcer" who lived it.

Tony Spilotro was the Mob's man in Las Vegas. A feared enforcer, the bosses knew Tony would do whatever it took to protect their interests. The "Little Guy" built a criminal empire that was the envy of mobsters across the country, and his childhood pal, Frank Cullotta, helped him do it. But Tony's quest for power and lack of self-control with women cost the Mob its control of Vegas; and Tony paid for it with his life.

"I was a little nervous before my first meeting with former mobster Frank Cullotta. It turned out we had a pleasant conversation that ended with an agreement for me to write his book. As I drove home, I realized I had made a deal with a career thief and killer on a handshake. What was I thinking?" (Dennis N. Griffin, author of Surviving the Mob)

©2017 Frank Cullota, Dennis N. Griffin (P)2017 WildBlue Press

Great Story/AWFUL Editing

The story is great and the author really captured everything that made Frank Cullotta great as a storyteller. The editing is incredibly bad, choppy and at times just incorrect. There are several spots where sentences are repeated. Really a shame because the story and narrator are great.

Just the facts. No insight...

I feel like I just watched an episode of Dateline. Nothing in-depth here. It was just okay. There are better podcasts and books on this stuff. It wasn't bad, It just wasn't good.

Narrator was ok.

Interesting take

The book discusses the influence the Chicago outfit had in Las Vegas. While the book is given through the eyes of one of the participants, the author may have been on the periphery Of the events was still interesting to listen to and not a fad way to spend a few hours

Excellent - Wonderful Book

The combination of Cullotta, Griffin and performer Clay Lomakayu were simply excellent. Great inside, first-hand story of the Chicago mob. Well written. The performance was spot on. Big thumbs up!

Great read

Great description on what it is like to be a day to day mob hit man

great read

the book is highly recommended for mafia history lovers. anthony spilotro and the 'casino' movie storys are importent in orgnized crime storys. the book is fluid and easy to follow. the auther did a great job describing spilotro charecter.

Informative and Well-Delivered

The Rise and Fall of a Casino Mobster: The Tony Spilotro Story Through a Hitman's Eyes by Frank Culotta and Dennis N. Griffin, narrated by Clay Lomakayu caught my attention one morning after having watched the movie Casino the night before. I love the movie, so I figured I couldn't go wrong in reading up on those who inspired it. Being that the only prior knowledge I had when starting this audiobook was the movie, I found myself a little lost in places, due to the many people surrounding the real-life events. However, the author does make references and connections to the movie throughout, so this helped clear up some of my confusion. Had I given myself a longer break in between watching the movie and listening to the book, I may have enjoyed the book more because the names and events from the movie were still too fresh in my mind. This is, most likely, why I found myself consfused in parts of the book. As ridiculous as this may sound, I think I was secretly wishing the book to be more of a replica of the movie, rather than a book about the real people and actual events that inspired it. Either way, it was informative and well-delivered.

The narration kept me engaged and was consistent from start to finish. However, I noticed that the chapter before part two plays through two times (within that same chapter block). This did not take away from my overall enjoyment because I was able to skip ahead by advancing to the next chapter (the first chapter of part two), but I still felt it worth mentioning.

The Rise and Fall of a Casino Mobster: The Tony Spilotro Story by Frank Culotta and Dennis N. Griffin, narrated by Clay Lomakayu grabs an overall rating of 4/5 stars. The book helped me get a better picture how everyone was connected and allowed me to understand the relationships on a deeper level, starting when they were kids. It was a really good book, and reading it made me want to learn more. I would have liked if a pdf download came with this audiobook showing pictures, names, and a "family tree" outline showing the ranking and status of each of the key players because I would have liked to place faces with names. I recommend this audiobook to those who enjoy nonfiction books about mobsters and the time period in which they reigned.

Thank you for reading my review. I hope it was helpful. :-)

PHENOMENAL LISTEN!

This story hits personally for me because I was born and grew up in the northwest outskirts of Chicago and knowing the streets and remembering names of old long gone restaurants from years back had loads of nostalgic feelings and the reader did a fantastic job as it was such an easy listen. Some of the other stories have narrators that sound like comic book BS voices and make the Chicago accents more southern Kentucky. Frank Cullata may you RIP goodfella

Interesting!

I enjoyed the reader a lot. I was hoping for more Vegas stories. It was very interesting though.

MUST CHECK OUT

Unfortunately I don’t have the patience to sit down and read a book And this is one I have wanted to check out for a long time. Frank Cullotta I’ve seen on some interviews and heard via a few podcast so I had a feeling the book would be very good. Definitely did not disappoint I could listen to it again very easily.