Richard Abowitz writes on http://vegasblog.latimes.com: I have confirmed the startling news that the Penthouse Club is changing its name to Crazy Horse III.
In fact, the signs are already being altered. The new club even has its own Facebook page with the motto “The Godfather of Gentleman’s Clubs.” This is amazing because Crazy Horse Too was caught up in a federal investigation for racketeering that ultimately sent the club’s owner and most of its top management to prison as part of a universal settlement of the case.
Among the allegations against Crazy Horse Too was that a tourist was beaten so badly over a bar tab that he is now paralyzed. Part of the money from selling the club was to have gone to the tourist, but somehow that never happened and the building now sits empty.
I am assured the Crazy Horse III has nothing in common with the owners of Crazy Horse Too. (Crazy Horse, the original, being the Parisian topless show at MGM Grand.) So, why use a name to create a squeal for a place with so many bad associations?
Well, here is one seeming connection, though apparently not at the ownership level.
The Crazy Horse clubs appear connected through the services of the controversial Vincent “Vinny” Faraci [pictured]. Though Faraci retired as a shift manager at Crazy Horse Too in 2005, he left enough baggage behind that he went to prison as part of the Crazy Horse Too racketeering probe for failing to report to the IRS “tips” taken from strippers.
(As a side note, because dancers were required to tip out shift managers, this was not a tip in the sense that it was optional or given for good service.) Faraci also offers some name recognition for mob aficionados because his father is an alleged member of the Bonanno crime family, and, according to Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith, writing in 2004, law enforcement sources considered Faraci, already at the time a convicted felon, to be mob-connected as well.
Last year, the publicly traded Rick’s Cabaret backed off from hiring Faraci after local media and politicians began to wonder why they would want him. Why would any strip club, a cash-heavy business, want a man with such a checkered past?
Though I have not been able to reach Faraci, I have confirmed with two sources, including one who does public relations for the club and was totally unaware of Faraci’s rather colorful past, that Faraci is now working at Crazy Horse III. According to the PR rep, none of the employees at the club have official titles and so she was not clear what work Faraci was doing, exactly, but offered to get back to me. I am waiting on that.
In the meantime I spoke to a dancer who went back to the Crazy Horse Too days with Faraci and happened to be working at Penthouse Club when she recognized him. She told me he orders managers around and that he has been spending a lot of time at the club and finally, when pressed for his exact duties, she said, “It is as if he is watching the place for someone.”
Anyway, by picking the name Crazy Horse III, local authorities and media have certainly been alerted to be watching as well. Interesting.