When The Providence Office* Owned The Dunes in Las Vegas
Definitely a Fun Place for Louis the Coin Colavecchio, World's Greatest Counterfeiter
PHOTO CREDIT
Las Vegas Mafia History Facebook Group / Larry Henry
From the streets to federal prison and a few places in between,
The greeting, “You Thought It Was More”
Identified those in The Providence Office.
The Providence Office was The Patriarca Crime Family.
EXCERPTS
via
YOU THOUGHT IT WAS MORE — New Adventures of the World’s Greatest Counterfeiter
A memoir of sorts: Some of this really happened and some names have been changed to protect the guilty. See author’s note in the book.
Chapter 16
Vegas Junkets
… Bobby Rosati, from Providence, was connected to and financed by the Patriarca Family. He was a stockholder and manager of The Dunes Casino.
Bobby would shudder at news that the Providence Crew was coming to Las Vegas and would be staying at The Dunes. Poor guy, he would beg us not to break into the hotel rooms, play slugs in the slot machines, rob old ladies’ pocket books, pay the hookers with counterfeit money or make trouble in ways only Providence guys knew how to do.
Bobby Rosati knew what we would do, but we were all connected with the same Family and there really wasn’t anything he could do about it. Of course, he obtained his job through Providence sources and was obliged to take care of anybody that was from the Providence Family with free suites, comps, meals, and all the perks that go along with it …
A Little Bit About Louis
Louis the Coin was a genius in metallurgy whose estimated haul from producing counterfeit slot tokens and chips easily exceeded $3 million to $4 million from casinos around the country.
Some casinos admitted it, and many – most of which were in Nevada – didn't.
Louis sat at the right hand of New England Mob Boss Raymond Patriarca – one of the most powerful gangsters in U.S. history – with direct access to his family members. Louis was a friend of theirs and talent, not a made man.
He was neither your average jeweler nor your average mob associate. He began his criminal career as a teenager and went on to earn a business degree from Providence College ...
NOTE:
Rhode Island’s own Joe Broadmeadow – retired E. Providence police captain – wrote a history of organized crime in the state for the book, placing Louis in historical context. Retired CT State Police Det. Sgt, Jerry Longo arrested Louis, became his friend and wrote the intro. Co-author Franz Douskey also wrote a book about Frank Sinatra’s friend and valet, Tony Consiglio, ‘Sinatra and Me –The Very Good Years.’
