In the Godfather Garden: The Long Life and Times of Richie "the Boot" Boiardo

Chapter 12. On the Jolly Trolley

154 2 The Jolly Trolley Casino was a Las Vegas grind joint located in a dreary shopping mall on the northwest corner of the Strip and Sahara. The casino was built in a former butcher shop, and it incorporated an old meat cooler that greeted patrons when they walked in the front door with steak loins hanging behind glass doors. In a city that specialized in selling gimmicks, the Trolley’s bait was to offer guests cheap steak dinners sold by the ounce and cut to their own specifications, as well as ninety-nine-cent burgers. Another selling point for carnivores: the Trolley featured the only strip club in Las Vegas, starring a conga line of naked go-go dancers on a stage at the edge of the gambling pit. Wellknown strippers and porn stars appeared at the Jolly Trolley, including Marilyn Chambers, who performed a one-woman show, “The Sex Surrogate ,” on the casino stage.1 The Trolley was not the Capri. It was a dive and an easy mark for an old-school hoodlum who desperately wanted to continue living the life as the mob’s glory days waned. Little Pussy was just such a thug; he infiltrated this sawdust joint on behalf of the Boot and himself and made everyone some money, but he also made quite a few more enemies in the process, and as usual he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. c h a p t e r 1 2 ON THE JOLLY TROLLEY The thief said, “Better pardoned is the sinner who can blame himself, and I confess that I take all I can from those less powerful.” —Matteo Maria Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato, 406 On the Jolly Trolley 155 In 1970, Pussy was one of nine high-profile mobsters serving time for contempt, including Jerry Catena and Angelo Bruno. In 1971 he was paroled but found himself facing charges from the IRS for failure to file income taxes on two companies he owned. He pleaded guilty and was back in Trenton State Prison, sentenced to eighteen months and fined $50,000. During this stint, Little Pussy got caught in a melee in the prison mess hall and was stabbed twice in the lower back by black inmates. Newspapers reported that the prison stabbings were related to“racial conflict,”but insiders attributed the violence to a turf war instigated by black militants over the control of drugs within the prison.2 Five of the assailants were black, while six of the seven victims were white. Little Pussy was released briefly from prison a year later to undergo surgery for a cancerous kidney condition and was again released a year later for surgery to correct poor circulation in a leg; he was treated at Golden Isles Hospital, Hallandale, Florida. While he was still serving time, the FBI suggested to the State Commission of Investigation that they ask him questions about La Cosa Nostra that would appeal to his ego. “Questions so directed to him should result in fairly positive answers.”3 He testified in a closed session before the commission, answering all their questions despite his attorney’s attempts to stop him. He admitted breaking bread with organized-crime members, but“he never set up rackets in the New Jersey Shore area,”and, despite the DeCarlo tapes, he denied to the best of his recollection ever having conversations with Gyp. He also claimed to have never injured or killed anyone and denied he killed “Harold the Jew,” as recorded in the tapes.4 Little Pussy eventually paid off his IRS debt by selling his New Jersey properties, and in November 1974 he was released from prison. His nemesis , Tony Boy, was out of the picture; at that time the heir apparent was still convalescing after his heart attack,taking it easy at home and on golf courses around the state. DeCarlo died from cancer in 1973, and Jerry Catena was getting ready to retire, so Little Pussy fell under the direct oversight of the Boot. Little Pussy appeared to be the last man standing in the Boiardo crew, 156 In the Godfather Garden along with his older brother Big Pussy, who was not in good health. The Boot also was dealing with health and age issues and, according to the newspapers , was losing the respect of “young turks”in the underworld.5 It was to the Boot...