Frank Cullotta: Just another ex-mobster looking for a job in retirement

By John Katsilometes

Friday, May 7, 2010 | 2:48 p.m.

How does a retired mobster spend his time anyway?

If you’re Frank Cullotta, you talk about what it’s like to have once been a high-ranking member of “the outfit.”

The 72-year-old Cullotta, once the deputy of Chicago mob overlord Tony “The Ant” Spilotro who became a federal witness against and government informant, is the star attraction at a multimedia presentation titled “Mob Chronicles.”

In the presentation, Cullotta describes in his own inimitable fashion what it was like to serve as the mob’s equivalent of western marketing manager.

The event is set for 2 p.m. Saturday at today’s Las Vegas mob headquarters -- Winchester Cultural Center at 3130 S. McLeod Drive. Cost is $15. Joining Cullotta will be noted organized crime writer Dennis Griffin, who penned the book “Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster and Government Witness.”

During a coffee meeting this morning at the Peppermill on the Strip, Cullotta said he’s becoming pretty restless in his retirement. Better find him some sort of creative outlet, agreed? As a career, Cullotta most recently ran a limousine service from his Los Angeles headquarters.

The company was called “Nah!” I say that because that’s what Cullotta said when I asked, “Can you tell me the name of your limousine company?”

For an ex-Mafia lieutenant, finding a job in retirement is no easy feat. It's not as if Walmart is seeking aged, part-time extortionists. But Cullotta is particularly interested in the two organized-crime attractions planned for Las Vegas. He said today he is providing narration for some of the exhibits for the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement (or, the Mob Museum). He’s also interested in contributing his stories and his time to the Las Vegas Mob Experience, scheduled to open by year’s end at Tropicana. Those hired as consultants for that project include Sam Giancana’s daughter, Antoinette; Spilotro’s widow, Nancy; and his son, Vincent.

“What kind of stories are they gonna tell?” Cullotta asked. “They were in the families of these people, but they weren’t part of the activity. I knew Sam -- I met him in Cook County Jail. We were locked up together in the late ’60s. He liked me personally very much.”

At the moment, Cullotta has not been contacted by officials with the Mob Experience. He does hope the “Mob Chronicles” can become a recurring event.

“If 50 people turn out, I wouldn’t be interested in doing it again,” he said. “But if it’s 150, I’d be pleased. I like just talking, telling the stories, giving people the real story of what it was like to live that lifestyle. It’s not like in the movies.” Cullotta says the most piercing questions seem to come from women. “I was asked by a woman recently what it really felt like to kill someone,” he said. “I told her, ‘I didn’t think about it at the time, because if I didn’t carry out the order, I might have been killed myself.”

Zohn appears for NVCI

The near-tragedy carries such a simple and obvious theme: Ethan Zohn, champion of 2002’s “Survivor: Africa” is himself a survivor. Zohn, the curly haired former pro soccer player (for the Hawaii Tsunami and Cape Cod Crusaders of the United Soccer League) was diagnosed with a rare form of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. For the past year, he has undergone an intensive stem cell transplant in Manhattan and learned only this month that he has received “clean scans,” meaning he is cancer-free.

Zohn donated most of his after-tax prize money from “Survivor” to seeding Grassroot Soccer, a charity built to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa, site of his reality TV show victory. He’s in Las Vegas on Saturday at the home of Jim and Joan Hammer for Nevada Cancer Institute’s “Beach Party.” Zohn will be joined by the Bangles and the most recent version of the Beach Boys at the event. Cost is $1,000, and all proceeds go to NVCI. (Go to the NVCI Web site for event info.)

“When I was first diagnosed, the first thing I thought was, ‘I’m going to die,’ ” Zohn said in a telephone interview this week. “My father was diagnosed with colon cancer when I was 14, and he ended up passing in 1989. So my only reference was death, but I did have a lot on my side. I had youth, I was in excellent condition -- I was training for a marathon at the time I was diagnosed -- I eat well.”

Zohn compared his stem cell treatments as “hitting reset on your whole body. These cells are harvested from your bones, through your blood, and you need 30 days to go through this very painful, very uncomfortable process. I couldn’t swallow; I was being fed through a feeding tube. It’s like your body is turning against you. I had no energy, and even taking a shower was an activity.”

Post-recovery, the 36-year-old Zohn is host of a new show on Outside Network called “Outside Today,” which is akin to a “Today” show centered on outdoor activities.

“I’m the ‘Survivor’ survivor, with the good double-entendre there,” he says, laughing. “But why I took this public is cancer touches everyone, no matter who you are.”

Vegas The Shows

Tony Sacca announced his multimedia show “Vegas The Show” will be launched this summer at his Embassy Theatre at Vegas Rocks restaurant in the Fremont Street building bearing the name “Neonopolis.” Sacca will be joined onstage by impressionist Tom Wallek, “Jubilee!” dancer Laurie Caceres and vocalists/dancers Nellie Norris and Amanda Kaiser. Wallek is to be the narrator of this lengthy traipse through the past and future of Vegas entertainment, covering the 1930s through 2050, which, as of this writing, has not yet happened.

Sacca, of course, has taken umbrage at David Saxe’s naming of his Las Vegas spectacle “Vegas! The Show” at Saxe Theater at Miracle Mile Shops. Saxe originally planned to open the show June 1, but now June 11 is the target date.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.