Who exactly planted the bomb under Frank Rosenthal's car?

[Pmac2]

The fbi kept visting him in jail. But didn't want to inform and rode out his sentence

[Ed]

Balistieri was an informant? First time hearing this. Where did you get this info?

I may be wrong. I understood he spke to the FBI after his conviction for a deal for his sons, offered info.
I thought it was discussed here, but I cant find a reference.

Balistieri definitely approached the FBI to cooperate.

viewtopic.php?p=169329#p169329

[SonnyBlackstein]

Balistieri was an informant? First time hearing this. Where did you get this info?

Dude, you were half the thread.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Balistieri was an informant? First time hearing this. Where did you get this info?

I may be wrong. I understood he spke to the FBI after his conviction for a deal for his sons, offered info.
I thought it was discussed here, but I cant find a reference.

Balistieri definitely approached the FBI to cooperate.

viewtopic.php?p=169329#p169329

Thanks for the find Eld. Thought it was him.

[JerryB]

Balistieri was an informant? First time hearing this. Where did you get this info?

I may be wrong. I understood he spke to the FBI after his conviction for a deal for his sons, offered info.
I thought it was discussed here, but I cant find a reference.

Balistieri definitely approached the FBI to cooperate.

viewtopic.php?p=169329#p169329

The purported offer to "cooperate," which the FBI alleges was initiated by Franky Bal's attorney (and not by agents approaching his attorney first, wink-wink), was for him to be moved to Lexington FCI if he fulfilled his proffer. Balistrieri never went to Lexington, KY, remaining in Lewisburg, FCI until his release.

I believe Franky Bal and his attorney were playing the system for his and his son's benefit, certainly not an uncommon ploy. It happens regularly. FBI/cops (LE) make contact with bad guys (or their attorneys) constantly, trying to flip them. That's their job!

[Patrickgold]

Balistieri was an informant? First time hearing this. Where did you get this info?

Dude, you were half the thread.

I completely forgot that it was discovered he approached the FBI for a possible deal (I’m 99.9% sure it was the FBI that approached him. FBI is known to lie and mislead). I don’t think that proves he cooperated though or even had the intention to cooperate. He could have been checking his options or checking what the FBI had. It’s a cat and mouse gang. I’m still surprised if he actually did approach the FBI.

[davidf1989]

https://themobmuseum.org/blog/who-bombe ... thals-car/

Several theories have surfaced regarding who tried to kill Rosenthal.

1) The most prominent is that it was the work of mobster Anthony “Tough Tony” Spilotro, who, like Frank Rosenthal, was an underworld transplant from Chicago. Spilotro also was having an affair with Lefty’s wife, Geri.


2) Another theory pins the crime on the outlaw bikers Geri Rosenthal knew in Southern California during a downward spiral that resulted in her apparent drug overdose death there at age 46 a month after the car bombing. In the movie, Sharon Stone plays the Geri Rosenthal character, while Joe Pesci portrays the character based on Spilotro. Spilotro and his brother, Michael, were beaten to death in 1986 and buried in an Indiana cornfield.

3) Another suspect in the car bombing is former Milwaukee crime boss Frank “Mad Bomber” Balistrieri. A History Channel publication released in 2020 titled The American Mafia states that “most evidence” points to Balistrieri. According to the publication, Balistrieri blamed Rosenthal for the Chicago Outfit’s demand that he “surrender 25 percent of the take from his skimming operation.”

4) Some who were around in those days view it differently, believing Kansas City mobsters were responsible for the bombing. Frank Cullotta, a Chicagoan who reconnected with childhood pal Spilotro in Las Vegas in the 1970s, becoming his Mob lieutenant in town, said in a recent telephone interview that the Kansas City Mafia suspected Rosenthal of being a government informant and therefore wanted to take him down.

Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jane Ann Morrison later confirmed through her law enforcement sources what some mobsters sensed, that Rosenthal had been a Top Echelon federal informant. Morrison even discovered that Geri Rosenthal also talked to the FBI.

Frank Rosenthal’s involvement as an informant went back a long time, according to what Pileggi said over the telephone recently from his Manhattan apartment. The screenwriter said Frank Rosenthal likely had been a Top Echelon informant as far back as his Chicago years, when he was a prominent oddsmaker. When the Mob finally learns that about someone, arrangements are made to silence the person.

Thanks for your interesting comments and here is an article about what information Rosenthal gave up to the Feds https://mafiahistory.us/rattrap/infachilles.html and also here's an article about Allen Glick's involvement with Rosenthal and Frank Balistrieri https://themobmuseum.org/blog/allen-gli ... -has-died/

[Tonyd621]

Balistieri was an informant? First time hearing this. Where did you get this info?

I may be wrong. I understood he spke to the FBI after his conviction for a deal for his sons, offered info.
I thought it was discussed here, but I cant find a reference.

Balistieri definitely approached the FBI to cooperate.

viewtopic.php?p=169329#p169329

The purported offer to "cooperate," which the FBI alleges was initiated by Franky Bal's attorney (and not by agents approaching his attorney first, wink-wink), was for him to be moved to Lexington FCI if he fulfilled his proffer. Balistrieri never went to Lexington, KY, remaining in Lewisburg, FCI until his release.

I believe Franky Bal and his attorney were playing the system for his and his son's benefit, certainly not an uncommon ploy. It happens regularly. FBI/cops (LE) make contact with bad guys (or their attorneys) constantly, trying to flip them. That's their job!

You don't believe he cooperated or don't want to believe it?