Women married to mobsters make up interesting excuses

Unable to get mob wife Nancy Spilotro to tell all about Tony, I did the next best thing and went to a panel Tuesday featuring four women with mob ties.

Like many others, I have a fascination with mob history and particularly wonder about women who know their husbands are murderers -- yet stay with them.

Two of the four panelists were clearly delusional: Deirdre Capone and Wendy Mazaros.

The frankest was Amy Hanley, Wendy Mazaros' daughter by hitman Tom Hanley and half sister to crazed killer Gramby Hanley. And she was reared by another murderer her mom married.

The fourth, Dani Porter Lansky, married Meyer Lansky II. She is working on a book based on family letters about the mob's accountant.

Capone's book, "Uncle Al Capone," is a defensive presentation; so were her panel comments. Her view: Al Capone was a businessman "set up to fail because he's Italian."

She bragged that Al and his brother Ralph (her grandfather) were "the first Italian-American millionaires. I think Americans should be proud of that."

In her opinion, they provided Americans what they wanted during Prohibition: illegal gambling, illegal liquor and willing prostitutes.

Then there was Wendy Mazaros, who claimed husband/hitman Tom Hanley was training her to be a hitwoman, which seemed preposterous. Yet when it came to hearing from someone who lived the life, she is the real deal, which is why her book "Vegas Rag Doll" is selling well.

Oddly enough, she didn't voluntarily bring up the late drug-addicted Ted Binion until an audience member asked what she remembered about him.

"I remember he was nice," Mazaros said.

"He was sick," her daughter interrupted, pointing out he was snorting cocaine with her mom when her mom was just 15. "What man takes a 15-year-old girl and sends her to a brothel?"

Mazaros denied Binion sent her to a brothel, blaming it on another man. But it's clear in her book that Binion made it happen, leading me to wonder whether she fears retaliation from the Binion family.

The mother-daughter exchange was among the most interesting of the program, which nearly filled the 399-seat theater at the Clark County Library at 1401 E. Flamingo Road.

Amy Hanley, who was 3 when Tom Hanley died, was reared by another murderer, the late Robert Peoples.

When she was 16 and was given a new car, shopping sprees and vacation trips to San Diego, she asked Peoples where the money came from because he wasn't working much. And he told her about his mob ties in San Diego and Arizona.

Another memorable moment came when an audience member asked Capone: Do you truly believe Al Capone never committed a heinous crime, like murder?

Capone answered that the people who did business with mobsters knew "if they didn't perform, there had to be repercussions."

Amy Hanley jumped in quickly, saying just because people did business with the mob doesn't give mobsters the right to kill them.

Mazaros claimed Tom Hanley was involved in the disappearance of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa and President John F. Kennedy's assassination. Her co-author, Joe Schoenmann, cautioned that couldn't be proved.

Why does a woman stay with a stone-cold killer like Tom Hanley?

"I didn't have any other choice," Mazaros said.

He had forced her to write a suicide note, just as he did for his first wife, and she feared he would kill her if she left him.

Even if I didn't believe everything I heard (or read in Mazaros' book), it was time well-spent.

Mob Month at the Clark County Library offers four more mob programs on the next four Tuesdays, all starting at 7 p.m.

Coming next: "How the FBI, Nevada Gaming Control and the IRS Took Down the Mob."

May not believe everything I hear there either. Doesn't mean I won't enjoy it.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison