Question of the Day - 02 January 2025

There are still as many theories of the attempted assassination as there are Dolly Parton costume changes … and with the passing of time (and witnesses), the truth becomes ever more elusive.

The movie might be ambiguous, but the book Casino seems to point the finger of blame at the biker roughnecks that Geri Rosenthal ran with during her last years. The failure of the bombing itself would seem to indicate that the sapper was someone who, at the very least, was inefficient.

However, as one searches for a consensus, the theories fan out, rather than coalesce. Most of the interested parties ain’t talkin' (being long gone). But we tried several local journalists and historians, and here are their responses.

Michael Green, professor of history, University of Nevada-Las Vegas: “My sense is that Spilotro probably had some connection to it, if only doing what someone else told him to do. My memory of it is that Rosenthal tried to claim he'd been at Marie Callender's instead of Tony Roma’s, because everyone knew the mob was hanging out at the rib joint, and that he actually was just leaning into the car to start it as opposed to being in it. But there are obviously other accounts!”

Indeed there are.

Geoff Schumacher, Vice President of Exhibits & Programs, the Mob Museum: “No [consensus], unfortunately. I think there may be people still alive who know, but I haven't been told.”

George Knapp, KLAS-TV investigative reporter: “I can tell you for sure who Rosenthal thought was responsible. He felt it had been done by Tony Spilotro and Joey Cusumano [once known as Spilotro's right-hand man, who himself survived a 1990 hit when he was shot twice at his Las Vegas home]. He was wrong, though. Those guys knew they'd be blamed, but they didn’t plant it and didn’t hire the guys who did.

“Can’t remember the name, but there was an ex-cop who became a hitman. He did jobs for different mob families. He was the top suspect among the mobsters I knew back then, likely hired by Frank ‘Mad Bomber’ Balistrieri (Milwaukee) and/or the Civellas (Kansas City).”

And saving the best for last …

John L. Smith, Nevada Independent columnist: “My reporting on this (in Of Rats and Men and elsewhere) differs substantially from the Casino version. Although it’s possible that Tony had something to do with the bombing, it’s factual that the Balistrieris and Civellas were ready to murder Lefty and had a substantial history of bombing. Multiple sources close to the Balistrieri family agreed that this was the greater possibility. In an interview, Oscar Goodman recalled a phone call he had with Nick Civella, in which Civella asked of Rosenthal, ‘Is he crazy [meaning cooperating with the government]?'

“‘No, I don’t think he’s crazy,’ Goodman replied.

“If Rosenthal were determined to be crazy, the Civellas would have put him down in a hurry. Years later, an FBI 302 [a form agents use to summarize an interview and record information that may be used as testimony] surfaced that also recounted that conversation. The phone line was tapped. But the truth was, Rosenthal was an informant.

“The FBI wanted Tony Spilotro for a lot of things and he was certainly capable of just about anything. But there's zero connection between him and the bombing. Not so with the Midwest mob, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Kansas City, St. Louis.

“Gary Magnesen, a retired FBI agent who worked the Milwaukee people and Spilotro, I believe, mentions Of Rats and Men and agrees with my assessment. Rosenthal received a heavy six figures for his story and told it from his side, leaving a lot of his treacherous and petty politics out of the picture. But of course, few people want to question [Nicholas] Pileggi and [Martin] Scorsese about such things.

“This has nothing to do with anything, but I interviewed Rosenthal once and he told me, in his trademark arrogant demanding voice, ‘You couldn’t put out the newspaper without Frank Rosenthal!’”

So there you have it: one bombing, myriad theories.