Kent Clifford returned from Chicago believing the war against Tony Spilotro would again be fought within the acceptable guidelines. A sense of normalcy did return, but only for a few weeks. At around 10 p.m. on April 9, someone launched a shotgun attack on the home and vehicle of Tony Spilotro, and the nearby house of his brother John. Fortunately, no one was hurt during the shooting, but both houses and their parked vehicles were damaged. At 10:47 p.m., John Spilotro reported the incident to the police. The subsequent investigation failed to identify the assailants.
In August, John Spilotro contacted Bob Miller, Clark County District Attorney, and demanded an investigation. He told a Las Vegas Sun reporter that he went to the DA, because the police had failed to do a thorough investigation and that he believed the shooters had actually been cops. He alleged that the shotguns had been in the hands of Gene Smith and Detective Bob Gillispie. Spilotro said that not only had his property been damaged, the shotgun blasts had placed him and his family in great personal peril, with some pellets narrowly missing the heads of his two sons. The police motive was supposedly the continuing policy of harassment that had been initiated by Sheriff McCarthy and Kent Clifford.
The Sun also reported that a secret witness had come forward claiming to have observed Gene Smith in the act of loading a shotgun in the vicinity of the Spilotro homes the night of the shootings. The witness had allegedly identified Smith from a photo lineup.
Metro denied its officers were involved, stating that records showed Smith and Gillispie were two miles away from the Spilotro neighborhood at the time of the incident, and were being interviewed by a Metro patrol officer regarding a traffic accident their unmarked car had been involved in.
The DA entered into the case, launching an investigation into the shotgun blasts. That started a three-way war that was fought in the press. Metro Undersheriff Don Denison suggested that by stepping into the case, Miller had placed himself in the position of having to “either call for arrest warrants or grand jury indictments, or give the two officers an apology.”
Miller shot back, “I don’t owe an apology to the police department for doing my job. I’m doing what I was elected to do.”
Metro officials then contended that Miller’s decision to get involved had been the result of pressure by Spilotro’s attorney, Oscar Goodman. The DA flatly denied that allegation. “I haven’t talked to Oscar Goodman for months,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Spilotro side continued to express the opinion that the Bluestein shooting and the shotgun incidents were related events in an ongoing police plot. The shotgunning was a message sent by the cops to intimidate them.
After a six-week investigation, the DA declared that there was insufficient evidence to warrant charges against the police. Miller explained, “To the very best of our abilities, based on all the evidence presented, the two Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers cannot be held responsible for the shotgun incident.” He declined to provide specifics about the evidence, except to say that the witness who supposedly saw Gene Smith loading a shotgun failed to identify the officer from a photo lineup.
Smith scoffs at the story told by the alleged witness. “He said I was near a convenience store when he saw me. What in the hell would I be doing out there with an empty shotgun? His story didn’t make any sense.”
According to Smith, if the shootings were meant as a message to the Spilotros, the lawmen weren’t the authors. “That happened right after Kent Clifford went to Chicago and blew the whistle on Tony. Maybe his bosses were getting fed up with him and wanted to get his attention.”
The additional violence and war of words didn’t sit well with Kent Clifford. Having had enough, he called Oscar Goodman and asked to have a meeting with the Spilotro brothers. The session was held soon afterward in the lawyer’s office with the Spilotros, Goodman, and Clifford present.
As the four men took seats around Goodman’s desk, Clifford sensed that the meeting was being taped. He suggested that they move to a couch and chairs about 10 feet away. The Spilotros agreed, but Goodman said no, they should stay where they were. That convinced Clifford they were being recorded. On the record or not, the conversation got pretty heated. Clifford remembers the dialogue this way:
“Commander, you went to Chicago and told them you have forty men. I have four hundred men,” Tony Spilotro snarled.
“That makes us even, doesn’t it?”
Spilotro stared at the cop questioningly for a few seconds. “How do you figure?”
“My people are Vietnam combat veterans, and they’re each worth ten of your street punks,” Clifford explained.
“I next told him that my men hadn’t done the shooting at John’s or his place and that we were not out to kill him or anybody else. He accused me of making a statement on TV that I intended to kill him. He was talking about something I told a reporter after the incident at the Sahara where we mistakenly arrested his brother Patrick. I said then that there would be another day. To a guy like Tony, that indicated a death threat, because that’s the way his mind worked. I clarified that my statement meant that I intended to put him in jail for the rest of his life. That would be better justice than killing him. When I left that meeting, it was understood that the personal stuff was over and things would be back to normal.”
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