It’s no secret that Las Vegas was made possible due to the forward-thinking capabilities of a small handful of individuals with professions that didn’t exactly adhere to societal standards. Now, one of the individuals that helped shape the Nevada landscape, both literally and figuratively, has passed away. Joey “The Clown” Lombardo died in a federal prison at 90 years of age on October 19.
Lombardo was a mob boss and gambling kingpin out of Chicago who oversaw many of the mob’s Las Vegas operations. He was allegedly the Consiglieri of the Chicago Outfit when it was managing, as well as profiting from, the Stardust, the Marina, the Hacienda and the Fremont. Lombardo wound up in the federal pen in 2007, where he was serving a life sentence for loan sharking, murder, extortion, racketeering and, of course, illegal gambling. That sentence came after he had already served a six-year stint, from 1986 to 1992, for hiding his interests in several Vegas gambling houses and skimming over $2 million from them during the mid-70s.
The Clown wasn’t a moniker he was given politely by his fellow business partners. Instead, the media contributed the name, using it to describe his antics and quick with in court, as well as for his propensity for not keeping a straight face when police tried to take his mug shot.
His associates preferred the name Lumpy, ostensibly for the way he attacked those who crossed him. It was a nickname he earned when he was loansharking on the streets of Chicago’s Near West Side when he was a teen, and which stuck with him as he moved up in the ranks.
Anyone who has seen the 1995 movie Casino has seen Lombardo, in a way. He wasn’t actually in the movie; however, in real life, mobster boss Tony Accardo had put him in charge of Frank Rosenthal and Tony Spilotro, who were on the ground in Vegas to oversee the mob’s activities. He was also in charge of the Teamsters Union’s Central State Pension Fund. That fund was one of the main sources of money used to build Las Vegas since traditional bank loans were out of the question.
Lombardo was known as an intelligent and savvy playmaker, which had helped him establish himself as a vital part of the Chicago Outfit. He was also fiercely loyal. In 2005, he was indicted by the FBI, along with 13 others, based on testimony provided by relatives of a mob hitman, Frank Calabrese, Sr. Lumpy, 74 at the time, went on the run until he was captured nine months later, but never rolled over on his associates. Whatever he knew about the mob’s operations died with him on Saturday.
