Contracts

The courts are the legal mechanism for people seeking to redress perceived wrongs. The courts were used to go after the police in the Frank Bluestein shooting case. But after the cops were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by the coroner’s inquest, some people apparently didn’t feel that the pending civil actions would provide the justice they sought. In late February, Metro was informed by the FBI’s Chicago office that they’d picked up credible information about contracts put out on the lives of David Groover and Gene Smith. The two Intelligence Bureau officers were marked for death and a pair of hit men from Chicago was on their way to do the job. After stopping in Denver to obtain a clean weapon, the would-be cop killers would soon be in Las Vegas.

The mob tries to best the police by corrupting them or outsmarting them, not by killing them. People who prefer to stay below the law’s radar screen rarely order the murders of two cops. It brings down too much heat. The news caught Metro by surprise.

Kent Clifford remembers when he first heard about the contracts. “For quite a while after the Bluestein shooting there had been a verbal battle in the press between the department and the Bluestein family’s lawyers. There had also been several civil cases filed, and I thought that’s all that was going on. Then we get word that Groover and Smith are going to be killed.

“I went berserk. Spilotro knew my goal was to put him in prison for the rest of his life; I’d told him that more than once. We were adversaries, but there were certain rules we played by. You didn’t put contracts out on cops. And even if Tony didn’t actually order the hits, he damn sure knew about them. Nothing like that was done in Las Vegas without Spilotro’s knowledge and approval.”

As upsetting as the news was, Smith and Groover may not have been the sole intended victims of the Chicagoans.

Were there three?

The FBI wasn’t the only source of information Metro received regarding hit men being in town. Former Clark County Deputy District Attorney Jim Erbeck, who subsequently successfully prosecuted Frank Cullotta, and convicted other members of the Hole in the Wall Gang along with several other organized-crime figures, believes he may also have been a target. He received information from a friend, whom considered a highly reliable source, that he was of interest to the men from the WindyCity. Mr. Erbeck recalled the incident during a 2005 interview.

“At that time I had been with the DA’s office for just about a year and had previously volunteered to prosecute organized-crime cases. There was a bar and restaurant called T.K. Christy’s located at

“I remember going into Christy’s one night after the Bluestein shooting and hearing some very disturbing information. One of the female employees I was acquainted with told me that three men had been in asking questions about me and two Metro detectives. She knew one of the men from her previous job. He was from Chicago and was ‘connected.’ The other two were strangers to her. They asked her things like how often I stopped in, where I parked my car, and if I knew or hung around with certain Metro detectives. She told them that I was a customer and she knew me. But she also said she didn’t keep track of my movements or social circles, and couldn’t be much help to them. The encounter had shaken her up. She was scared to the point that she wouldn’t give me a description of the men.

“I immediately called Metro Intelligence and reported what I’d been told. They asked me to go about my normal activities, including frequenting Christy’s. I was to park in my usual place in the parking garage. Metro said they would have the area under surveillance and attempt to determine if I was being watched or followed, and by whom.

“After a few days I was advised by Metro that two men were keeping an eye on me and that they had been identified as hit men from Chicago. A short time after that, I was notified that the situation had been resolved and there would be no further problems.”

Regardless of the number of intended victims, Clifford, Groover, and Smith believed then, and they believe now, that the hit men were acting on behalf of the Bluesteins. 

“I moved my family out of state for their protection,” Gene Smith recalls. “Cops were assigned to stay at my house. We were waiting for those guys when they hit town and checked in at the Fremont Hotel downtown. They were under surveillance around the clock. One of the people they met with was Ron Bluestein, Frank’s brother. The supposed hit men were in Vegas for about a week, but only came near my place once. They stopped a couple of blocks away, and then left the area. I don’t know what happened; maybe they got cold feet. We eventually confronted them and had a little chat. They headed back to Chicago shortly afterward.”

In a further effort to build a case against the Bluesteins, after the hit men arrived in town an application was made to wiretap the phone of Steve Bluestein. The tap was approved, but only after an altercation with Clark County District Attorney, Bob Miller.

“The DA didn’t like to use wiretaps,” Kent Clifford recalls. “When we met to discuss the matter, he asked me why I didn’t like him. I said it wasn’t that I didn’t like him. It was that I had raw intelligence information that he was associating with one of the people who had organized the skim from the casinos. The DA said the guy was an old friend and that there was nothing the matter with them socializing. I argued that in his position as DA, he shouldn’t have that kind of a relationship with an organized crime figure. He said I could think what I wanted, but the association would continue.

“While the wiretap was running, we made reports to the judge who had issued the warrant. On the second day of the tap, he told me that a high-ranking member of the DA’s office had called him and asked that the tap be shut down. After our conversation the judge refused the request. The next day a piece appeared in the Las Vegas Sun stating that an informant had told them about the Bluestein wiretap. When that article appeared, Bluestein’s phone went dead. Besides Metro, the only other people who were aware of the tap were the DA’s office and the judge.” 

The immediate threat was over, but would someone else show up to make an attempt on the lives of the detectives? In Kent Clifford’s mind, the only way to remove the danger once and for all was to have the contracts lifted. He was also quite sure that Spilotro had authorized the hits on his own and his bosses in Chicago weren’t aware of them, but there was only one way to find out for certain. In an unprecedented move, Clifford decided that he needed to go to Chicago and have a face-to-face with Tony’s superiors.

Next: Trip to the Windy City