Friars club
Anthony Fiato, “The Animal”
Mike “Rizzi” Rizzitello
Matthau
In the sixties, the Beverly Hills Friars club was a cash cow for major-league wiseguy, Johnny Roselli,”Handsome Johnny”. Johnny, and his crew of card cheats, milked the joint for a bundle of bucks. Years later the club was still
full of fat-cat entertainers, and Hollywood celebrities, who loved to gamble on sports.
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BIG ACTORS like the late Walter Matthau, and Get Smart, star, Don Adams, wouldn’t think twice about betting ten grand on a football game. Through the years, the Friars Club resident bookies have always gotten rich off the losers. In 1980 Bobby Craig was the in-house bookie. Bobby was making money hand over fist. The greedy fuck didn’t want to share the wealth with Capo Mike “Rizzi” Rizzitello. I had to push Bobby down a flight of stairs in the Friars Club to get him to cough up the cash. He paid two grand a week to us.
next was ex Brooklyn copper Al Lazar, and his partner Nick Dio. They took over the action at the Friars Club when Bobby Craig died. We did a job on them too .
Mike Hammer actor Stacy Keach was taking action up there for a while too. I had gone to Stacy’s wedding in Malibu so I gave him a pass.
Anthony Fiato
my book The Animal in Hollywood mentions these guys.
