Edward Anthony Buccieri

Edward Anthony Buccieri, a 52-year-old man known to friends and colleagues as "Marty," had built a life in the burgeoning world of Las Vegas casinos. Since 1967, he had worked as a floorman and shift boss at the iconic Caesars Palace, a position that placed him in the center of the city's high-stakes energy. He was a husband to his wife, Anna May, and a father to their children, Kathy, Eddie, Joe, John, and Marleen. Buccieri also reportedly had connections within the city's powerful and shadowy organized crime circles and was said to be a distant relative of Chicago underboss Fiore "Fifi" Buccieri. These connections were believed to have helped him facilitate Teamsters Pension Fund loans for casino executive Allen Glick, whose Argent Corporation was a front for the Chicago Outfit's interests in several Las Vegas casinos.

On the night of May 12, 1975, Buccieri finished his shift at Caesars Palace and walked to his car in the employee parking lot. The glamour of the casino floor gave way to a brutal end. Inside his vehicle, he was shot five times in the head. The discovery of his body sent a chill through the Las Vegas community, and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department immediately began an investigation into what looked like a professional hit. Suspicion quickly fell on notorious mob enforcer Tony "the Ant" Spilotro, the Chicago Outfit's overseer in Las Vegas.

The case took a surprising turn the following year when a 25-year-old local petty criminal named Wayne Donald Horton was arrested. Horton, who had a history of violence, confessed to Buccieri's murder, along with three other killings. He told police that he had intended only to rob Buccieri and opened fire when the older man resisted and "called him dirty names." To avoid the death penalty, Horton pleaded guilty in June 1976 to the murders of Buccieri and a cab driver, William Tinnell. He later pleaded guilty to two other killings and received four life sentences without the possibility of parole. With Horton's confession and conviction, the case of Edward Buccieri's murder was officially closed.

However, doubts about the official story persisted for decades. The truth, according to some with inside knowledge, was far more complex and tied directly to the mob's control of Las Vegas. Years later, Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, a central figure in the Chicago Outfit's casino skimming operations and a high-level FBI informant, provided a different account. Rosenthal, whose story was later depicted in the film *Casino*, stated that Wayne Horton was not the killer. He claimed Buccieri's death was a contract killing ordered by the Outfit.

According to Rosenthal and other law enforcement sources, Buccieri had recently approached casino owner Allen Glick and demanded a $30,000 finder's fee for his role in securing the Teamsters loans. Buccieri reportedly made physical threats against Glick, who then passed the information on to Rosenthal. Days later, Buccieri was dead. Rosenthal identified the actual triggermen as Chicago mob enforcers Anthony Spilotro, Joey Hansen, and Paul Schiro. Another informant suggested Milwaukee crime boss Frank Balistrieri, who also had an interest in Glick's casinos, ordered the hit to protect the mob's lucrative skimming operation.

Despite this compelling information from a top-tier informant, no further legal action was ever taken. The Clark County District Attorney's office did not file charges against Spilotro, Hansen, or Schiro for the murder. Wayne Donald Horton never challenged his conviction for a crime many believed he did not commit. He remained incarcerated for the rest of his life, dying in prison from health complications on January 3, 2010. The case of Edward "Marty" Buccieri's murder is officially considered solved, yet the conflicting accounts leave a lingering question of whether the man convicted was the true killer, or if the slaying was a stark message from the powerful and ruthless organized crime figures who once ruled Las Vegas.