![]() “When I heard that, I told the case agent we’d find nothing but cabbage,” he said, referring to the 1981 Ponto search. “He was the one who signed the wiretap order on the Stardust,” the retired agent said. Kaspar said he believes Claiborne was the leak. “Harry Claiborne lived with this accusation until he took his own life,” Goodman said angrily.Įxcept Magnesen’s book was published in 2010 and Claiborne committed suicide in 2004. Goodman, who went on to become mayor of Las Vegas for 12 years, went on a tirade against former FBI agent Gary Magnesen, who had written in “Straw Men” that he believed the late Claiborne had leaked information from FBI search warrant affidavits so mobsters knew in advance about the searches, which resulted in cookies and a Social Security check. Goodman said things such as Spilotro didn’t curse, he and Geri Rosenthal didn’t have an affair, Rosenthal was not an FBI informant, and federal Judge Harry Claiborne had not leaked FBI wiretap information to the mob. Kaspar said he tried to be diplomatic, but he pushed back against Goodman’s statements he believed were not true. While there were plenty of laughs Saturday, there were serious moments. It was Ponto’s way of flipping off the FBI, much like the simultaneous search that resulted in agents coming up with cookies and a bottle of wine in a car trunk. ![]() The safe was opened, and inside was nothing but Ponto’s Social Security check. The agents searched his apartment looking for marked money that had been skimmed from the Stardust. Kaspar told about a 1981 search where the subject - in this case Stardust employee Phil Ponto - had been tipped. Oscar Goodman gave his views from the perspective of the attorney representing Spilotro and his chum Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal.įormer Gaming Control Board member Jeff Silver spoke about his role chasing the mob as a state regulator.įormer FBI agent Deborah Richard told her experience in two previous columns, and retired television reporter and anchor Gwen Castaldi told of the challenges facing journalists covering the mob in the 1970s and 1980s.Īs Castaldi said, without cellphones and the Internet, it wasn’t easy, especially because news about the mob in Las Vegas was frequently connected to news about the mob in Kansas City, St. Kaspar was speaking out publicly for the first time about his experiences as the case agent in the Spilotro investigation. Kaspar has donated those cuffs to the Mob Museum, which hosted the Saturday panel discussion of what was real and what was fiction in the 1995 movie “Casino.” Kaspar knew what he had to do, so did Spilotro it was all very professional. Spilotro offered his hands up, he was cuffed, and they did the perp walk. Until they got close to the federal building and Kaspar said, “Tony, I’ve got to put handcuffs on you.” When Spilotro was arrested, Kaspar didn’t even use his handcuffs. You would think they would be bitter enemies. The two men had known each other for years because Kaspar has been on the FBI’s Las Vegas organized crime squad since coming to Las Vegas in 1977, and the squad’s No. Spilotro had been indicted on racketeering by a federal grand jury, and Kaspar went to arrest him. The one with the Afro.ĭuring a panel Saturday, Kaspar told the behind-the-scenes story of that perp walk outside the Foley Federal Building. The journalists waiting to ask questions that wouldn’t be answered were George Knapp and the R-J’s federal court reporter at the time. ![]() ![]() The serious-looking FBI agent walking him by the press was Marc Kaspar. The perp was later-to-be-murdered mobster Anthony Spilotro. Jane Ann Morrison/Las Vegas Review-JournalĪlthough I have never been a perp, I participated on a famous perp walk in 1983 and have the black-and-white photo to prove it. ![]() Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman holds the microphone at the Mob Museum during a program focusing on the movie "Casino" on Saturday, Nov. ![]()
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