The Topless Club with a Headless Owner
The curt caption in the Las Vegas-Review Journal reporting on the head of Las Vegas strip club owner Tony Albanese being discovered in the desert. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
Strip Clubs, mobsters, and a head in the desert
Hustler and adult entertainment industry entrepreneur Tony Albanese oversaw the 1979 renaming of a little-known Las Vegas bar to its more infamous name – the Crazy Horse Too.
Less than three years after opening the Crazy Horse Too, Tony Albanese disappeared.
The mystery of Albanese’s sudden disappearance was resolved when his head was found in the desert outside of Needles, California. And some investigators believed Albanese may have been a casualty of a larger war between rival Mafia families for control over adult businesses in Southern California and Las Vegas.
Local press covered the regulatory battles that plagued the Crazy Horse Too from the inception of the establishment. The Las Vegas City Council refused to approve Albanese’s efforts to change the name of Billy Jo’s the Power Co. to Billy Jo’s Crazy Horse Too. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
seeking fortune in the desert
Tony Albanese had a successful career running a chain of what were referred to at the time as “girlie bars” across Southern California throughout the 1960’s. Albanese operated his establishments under the name “‘Lil Abner” and had started his bars with the novel concept of featuring waitresses in bikinis. Soon enough the bikini tops were lost, and ‘Lil Abner became one of the first topless bar chains in Los Angeles.
His operation of the ‘Lil Abner bars brought repeated legal problems for Albanese, with the young entrepreneur being cited for selling alcohol to minors and permitting “lewd acts” between patrons and the waitresses. Seeking a fresh start and new opportunities, Albanese moved to Las Vegas in the early 70’s.
Albanese’s battles with the Las Vegas City Council and licensing authorities were a frequent feature of local press coverage from shortly after his arrival to the city. Citations for serving alcohol to minors and permitting lewd acts from his days operating topless bars in California caused city officials pause when it came to licensing Albanese. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
founding the crazy horse too
The move to the desert proved lucrative for Albanese. His ownership of a strip mall located at Flamingo and Paradise – which was also site of the topless bar The Crazy Horse Saloon – brought in steady rental income. The newcomer to Vegas also founded the Tony Albanese Talent Association (T.A.T.A) to seek employees for the establishments in which he had an interest. Meanwhile, Albanese continued to explore ways to take a more direct role in the strip club industry blossoming in Las Vegas.
The bar known as “Billy Jo’s the Power Company” had operated off of the aptly named Industrial Road in the back alley of the Strip for several years when Albanese reached an agreement with the existing owners of the establishment to grant him a 50% interest in the bar. As part of the deal, Albanese changed the name to “Billy Jo’s Crazy Horse Too.” Billy Jo’s the Power Co. had operated as a bar featuring go-go dancers before Albanese took his controlling interest in the establishment and opted to make topless dancers the central feature at the Crazy Horse Too.
Unfortunately for Albanese, the Las Vegas City Council had different views about the ownership and operation of the Crazy Horse Too. The City Council barred the efforts to change the name of Billy Jo’s and denied Albanese a license to take an interest in the bar, citing his prior legal troubles back in California. While the flashy sign on the building still read “Billy Jo’s Crazy Horse Too,” legally the bar was still Billy Jo’s the Power Co.
Rumored connections to organized crime figures haunted the middle-aged adult entertainment impresario during his days managing the Crazy Horse Too, and he was plagued by routine regulatory battles with the local government in Las Vegas. Local government officials dealt Albanese another blow in 1980 when he was forbidden from entering the premises of the Crazy Horse Saloon by the Clark County Commission.
But Albanese was undaunted by these barriers to his business plans as he pursued schemes for new entrepreneurial ventures up until his dying day.
The sudden disappearance of Albanese and subsequent gruesome discovery of his remains in 1981 provided the local press with plenty of fodder. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
disappearance and discovery
On the night of May 18, 1981, Albanese told his wife he was heading out for a meeting with a business associate and that he should be back within the hour. He left his house on Bel Air Drive at 6:30 p.m.
But Albanese never returned home.
In the days following his disappearance, Metro police detectives discovered Albanese’s car in the parking lot at McCarran Airport, but there was no indication he had taken a flight out of the city. It also wasn’t like Albanese to stay out all night without checking in with his wife or friends.
The unexplained disappearance was resolved in gruesome fashion the following month when Tony Albanese’s head was found in the desert outside of Needles, California by a camper. The skull showed no signs of trauma, and homicide detectives were unable to conclusively determine the cause of death. Metro homicide detective John Conner told reporters he believed Albanese’s head had been left in a place where it would be discovered. When reporters asked Conner whether Albanese’s murder was intended as a message, he replied, “You can read it any way you want. It’s not normal.”
Press reports indicate the Albanese murder may have been related to a war between the New York crime families and the Chicago Outfit for control over adult entertainment establishments in Southern California and Las Vegas. Vito de Filippo, a capo with the Bonnano Family, was the alleged secret owner of the Crazy Horse Saloon, located in the shopping center owned by Albanese. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
Mob war over the adult industry
Investigators began by questioning the business associate with whom Albanese was supposed to meet the night of his disappearance, a middleman for a deal Albanese was putting together to borrow $200,000 from a group of investors in California to open a “coed spa” in his shopping center on Flamingo Road. But the business associate (who was never named in the press coverage of the case) claimed to not have any meeting scheduled the night of May 18th.
Some detectives speculated that Albanese’s murder was part of a broader organized crime war between the Chicago Outfit and the Genovese and Bonanno Families for control over adult industry establishments in Southern California and Las Vegas – including topless bars, adult theaters and stores, and pornography production.
Support for this view was found in the June 1, 1981 murder of Albert Fandino in Los Angeles while the search for Albanese was still ongoing. Fandino was not only financially linked to several adult establishments in California as a shadow investor, but he was also a co-owner of a wedding chapel and spa at the Circus Circus in Las Vegas.
Then, on July 4, 1981, John Gordon and an associate parked in front of Gordon’s Las Vegas home. Gordon was the brother-in-law of Fandino and a fellow co-owner of the wedding chapel and spa at the Circus Circus. As Gordon sat in his car, a gray station wagon pulled alongside, and a man described as being in his thirties with dark hair fired three rounds into Gordon’s face and neck before speeding off. Gordon’s associate sustained light wounds from the gunfire. Both Gordon and his associate survived the attack.
Gordon, Fandino, and possibly Albanese were hidden owners in several topless bars and massage parlors across Southern California and were looking to expand their interests. It later came out that Albanese was close friends with Joseph Balzano, an associate with the Bonanno crime family. These moves may have collided with the ambitions of Chicago Outfit enforcer Tony “The Ant” Spilotro as he sought to expand his operations into Southern California. In fact, California Attorney General George Deukmejian noted at the time, “The Chicago Syndicate, one of the most expansionist groups in the country, is becoming more influential [in California].”
Some investigators speculated Spilotro’s crew may have had a hand in the slaying of Albanese. Others believed organized crime figure and owner of several adult entertainment establishments across Southern California by the name of Jack Gordon was responsible for the attacks on Fandino and Gordon (no relation), and possibly the murder of Albanese as well.
The murder of Tony Albanese remains unsolved.