Joey Cusumano, a Las Vegas figure long tied to Tony Spilotro and the city’s old organized-crime networks, died at his Las Vegas home on October 20 at age 90. He survived a labor-racketeering conviction, a spot in Nevada’s notorious Black Book, and a 1990 assassination attempt that left bullet fragments lodged in his shoulder.
Cusumano was born in New York City on November 8, 1935, according to his obituary from Dignity Memorial. He moved to Las Vegas from New York in 1968, as reported by The Mob Museum. In the years that followed, he became known as the trusted confidant of Anthony Spilotro, described by the Las Vegas Review-Journal as the Chicago Outfit’s man in Las Vegas.
From Street Rackets to Caesars Palace Ties
Cusumano connected with Spilotro in the early 1970s, becoming his friend and partner in various street rackets, per the same Mob Museum account. He was also connected with Caesars Palace through Genovese crime family figures Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Vincent “Jimmy Blue Eyes” Alo, the outlet reported. Around that same period, Cusumano opened his own restaurant, Joey’s New Yorker, in 1970, which grew into a popular Strip night spot.
Spilotro and his brother, Michael, were murdered by the mob in 1986 and buried in an Indiana cornfield, according to seed reporting from NBC 5 Chicago. Following those killings, Cusumano was considered next in line to take over Chicago’s Las Vegas street rackets, but he turned the role down, the station reported, citing investigators’ belief that Outfit leaders had asked him to replace Spilotro as boss.
Conviction, the Black Book, and a Shooting
The year after the Spilotro murders, Cusumano was convicted of labor racketeering for skimming from the Culinary Union’s life insurance plan, per the Mob Museum’s account, and he later served a prison term tied to the union racketeering case. In 1990, Nevada regulators formally added him to the state’s List of Excluded Persons, commonly known as the Black Book, barring him from casino premises statewide…