One of the more memorable scenes in the 1995 movie Casino depicted the character based on Tony Spilotro (played by actor Joe Pesci) and his brother being beaten to death in a cornfield.

The actual killings of Tony and Michael took place in June 1986. After their bodies were found in an Indiana cornfield, there was some speculation that the two had been buried while still alive.

However, testimony given by various witnesses in the Operation Family Secrets trial in Chicago – including a forensic pathologist and a former Outfit hit man – show that the real murders didn’t occur exactly as shown on the big screen.

Below is part of an article that appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times on August 1, highlighting that testimony.

August 1, 2007

Best Joe Pesci Movies

BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter

Directed by Martin Scorsese. With Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods. A tale of greed, deception, money, power, and murder occur between two best friends: a mafia enforcer and a casino executive compete against each other over a gambling empire, and over a. The film portrays Las Vegas at a time when it was dominated by the mafia, extremely well directed by Scorsese, that film shows Robert De Niro as manager of the Tangiers Casino who have to deal with his unstable wife that used to be a high-class prostitute but who can not forget her pimp Lester and with his childhood friend Nicky that is taking the city with extreme uncontrolled violence bringing a bad image to the plans that the mafia has in Las Vegas.

Apr 13, 2015 The scene was filmed in the parking lot of Main Street Station with the California Hotel & Casino in the background, and they had to blow-up at least three cars before they got the shot just right.

A forensic pathologist who took part in the autopsies of mobsters Anthony and Michael Spilotro gave testimony on Wednesday that upended the Hollywood version of their deaths, which had the men beaten to death with bats and buried alive in an Indiana cornfield.

Dr. John Pless said at the Family Secrets trial that there was no evidence that the men had been buried alive. The grisly detail was popularized in the 1995 mob movie, “Casino.”

Pless said the injuries the men received were more likely from fists than bats.

Pless riveted jurors with a detailed list of the injuries both men received.

Casino Movie Joe Pesci Scenes Youtube

The Spilotros both died from multiple blunt trauma injuries and from having their lungs or airways so filled with blood from their wounds that they couldn’t breathe, according to Pless’ testimony.

The men had been lured to the basement of a Bensenville area home in June 1986 after a mob hit squad had unsuccessfully tried to kill Anthony Spilotro in Las Vegas, according to earlier trial testimony.

Spilotro had tried to blow up a mob associate without Outfit permission, had slept with that associate’s wife and had committed unauthorized murders, according to evidence at trial.

Joe Pesci Scene In Restaurant

Mob officials lured the men to the basement on the promise that Tony Spilotro was to be promoted to a capo position in the mob, and Michael Spilotro was to be a “made” member of the Outfit.

Instead, a dozen killers were waiting for the men in the basement and jumped them as they came down.

Earlier in the trial, Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese, who is testifying for the government, described his own role in the murders.

Calabrese testified he held Michael Spilotro while another man strangled him. Calabrese said he did not get a good look at how Anthony Spilotro was killed.

The forensic pathologist testified that he found abrasions around the neck of Michael Spilotro that could have come from a rope, but noted that the corpses had decomposed after being buried for at least a week in the cornfield, and it was difficult to find markings.

The attorney for reputed mob boss James Marcello jumped on the lack of clear strangulation marks.

Defense lawyer Thomas Breen hammered home that point to the jury and will likely use it to bolster his argument that Nicholas Calabrese wasn’t even at the Spilotro murders and made up his account of them.

Calabrese’s testimony is important to Marcello because Calabrese contends Marcello took part in the murders by driving him and other killers to the Bensenville area home.

Tags: chicago outfit, CULLOTTA, las vegas, lefty rosenthal, mafia, organized crime, tony spilotro, true crime

Joe Pesci pretty much steals every scene in Casino, as Nicky, even though he’s a despicable sociopath who only has maybe one redeeming scene in the whole movie, which is where he is described as always, after a night of intimidation and beatings and murder, getting home in time to make his son pancakes before school.

Casino is the one where he stabs the guy with a pen, not the one where he plays nearly the same character and does the “funny how?” bit, that’s Goodfellas. In Casino, he drags a guy beaten practically beyond recognition and straps him down on a table with his head in a vice. Here, if you’re expecting yet another illustration of how awful this character is, you’re surprised. Because here his relative compassion comes out.

He’s trying to get a name out of the guy. He’s describing how tough getting a name out of him has been after days of beatings. He even tells his other guys that he knows they would have ratted by now. He admires the guy. So after he’s strapped him down, he gets real close to the guy’s ear. The guy is in a daze, so Nicky describes the situation he’s in. “Listen to me, Anthony, I’ve got your head in a fucking vice. Just give me a name.”

Then he gives maybe my second favorite line in the movie, moments before my favorite line in the movie, he says, “Don’t make me have to do this, please. Don’t make me be a bad guy.”

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He doesn’t want to be made a bad guy. This guy is evil incarnate, but he apparently doesn’t know. He is operating with some sense of ethics, though it’s the first we, as viewers, would have guessed it.

“Fuck you,” the guys says.

Casino Movie Joe Pesci Scenes Youtube

So Nicky turns the handle of the vice, gruesomely squeezing the guy’s head. “Fuck me? Fuck me? You mother fucker, you.” Then just at the grossest crackling and popping of the guy’s skull, he adds, “Fuck my mother?”

The guy never said anything about his mother, but viciously as Nicky is cranking the handle of the vice and slowly crushing the man’s skull, he’s conflicted. He needed to find motivation to commit. “Fuck you,” was all he got, but it wasn’t enough, so he invented more. He invented that the guy said “Fuck your mother.”

First Joe Pesci Movie

Then he popped his eye out of his head.

The scene is disturbing and graphic but it’s also a great character scene. You can watch in on youtube here: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=casino%3a+head+in+a+vice&view=detail&mid=605091B6DBCED2CA150B605091B6DBCED2CA150B&FORM=VIRE