Crazy Horse Too was a strip club located at 2476 Industrial Road in Las Vegas, Nevada, a few blocks west of the Las Vegas Strip. The club was known as Billy Jo's during the 1970s. In 1978, the club was purchased by Mob member Tony Albanese and renamed Billy Jo's Crazy Horse Too, after the Crazy Horse Saloon, another Las Vegas strip club owned by Albanese. In 1984, Rick Rizzolo took over operations of the club when it was purchased by his father, Bart Rizzolo. Rick Rizzolo was a majority owner by 1986.
In 1995, federal officials began an investigation of activities at Crazy Horse Too. The club endured a history of violent crimes, including the alleged beating of a tourist in 2001. In 2003, Crazy Horse Too was searched by multiple government officials who were investigating possible links between the club and organized crime. As part of a plea bargain, Rick Rizzolo and 16 club officials pleaded guilty to multiple charges in May and June 2006; Rizzolo was ordered to sell the club within a year as part of the deal. Crazy Horse Too subsequently closed in September 2006, after its liquor license was revoked. The club reopened with a temporary liquor license in October 2006.
Rizzolo's attempts to sell Crazy Horse Too failed, and the club was closed again in August 2007, when it was seized by the United States Marshals Service. After multiple failed attempts to sell Crazy Horse Too, the federal government auctioned the club in 2011. California strip club owner Mike Galam reopened the club in May 2013, as The Horse Gentlemen's Club; another Las Vegas strip club, Crazy Horse III, alleged that "Crazy Horse Too" was a trademark infringement. The Horse reverted to its previous name in February 2014, after a judge ruled that Galam had purchased the rights to the name.
Crazy Horse Too closed in August 2014, because of poor customer attendance and liquor license violations. The club continued to open once a month for eight hours to retain its erotic dance establishment license and land use rights. However, the license was revoked in August 2019, as the building had fallen into disrepair and was the target of vagrant break-ins. The building was heavily damaged in a June 2022 fire and was demolished at the end of the year.
Background
Early history (1972–2000) Crazy Horse Too operated in a strip mall, constructed in 1972, on Industrial Road, directly north of an overpass used for West Sahara Avenue. By 1978, a popular discothèque named Billy Jo's, which included strippers, had been operating in the strip mall. Tony Albanese, a member of the Mob, purchased Billy Jo's that year after its owner died of health complications. Albanese had already opened a strip club named Crazy Horse Saloon at the intersection of Paradise Road and Flamingo Road, and chose to rename his new club as Billy Jo's Crazy Horse Too. Henry Rapuano took over operations of the club in 1981, after Albanese's severed head was found in the desert in Needles, California.
Rapuano renamed the club simply as Crazy Horse Too. Rapuano died of a sudden heart attack in 1982. Frederick "Rick" Rizzolo – a close associate of Henry Rapuano's son, Al Rapuano – took over operations on February 1, 1984; Rick Rizzolo's father, Bart Rizzolo, purchased the club that month. The club at that time contained and had 12 strippers employed. In 1985, a man named Rick Sandlin suffered permanent brain damage after being beaten outside the club with a baseball bat by Rick Rizzolo, who claimed he was defending himself. Rizzolo, represented by criminal defense attorney Oscar Goodman, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge and avoided jail time. By 1986, Rizzolo was the club's majority owner.
From 1984 until 2006, Rick Rizzolo was involved in an ongoing dispute over parking with "Buffalo" Jim Barrier, a well-known Las Vegas personality and a commercial tenant of Rizzolo. According to numerous newspaper and television reports, for 22 years, Rizzolo engaged in an unsuccessful pattern of harassment aimed at driving Buffalo Jim and his automotive repair business off the Crazy Horse Too property so that the club could expand.
In 1991, future pornographic film actress Jenna Jameson began working at the club. In 1998, Rizzolo invested $800,000 in a expansion of the club. The club was expanded into a closed adjacent adult novelty store named L.A. Hot. The expansion brought the club up to approximately , and served as a new dressing room for the club's 600 workers. Rizzolo planned to eventually convert the former dressing room, which served as office space, into a new entertainment area with a bar and stage. Rizzolo learned during construction that he needed a variance for his expansion, as a zoning ordinance prohibited strip clubs from expanding if they were located within 1,000 feet of other sexually oriented businesses. Rizzolo chose to continue construction, as he believed he would be approved for a variance; he said he would likely sue if he was denied.
In January 1999, the expansion was approved by the city's Board of Zoning Adjustments. However, the vote was appealed by a nearby resident and a business, with claims that the expansion would increase traffic and cause parking problems. Another complaint was that hundreds of local children would be exposed to an increased number of drug dealers and drug seekers who would visit the expanded club. City planners allowed Rizzolo to use his expansion pending the outcome of a vote by the City Council, which approved Rizzolo's request for a variance in February 1999. In October 2000, Crazy Horse Too filed a lawsuit against MGM Grand Las Vegas, seeking an injunction to prevent the resort from using the Crazy Horse name for their debut of a topless show titled Crazy Horse Paris. Crazy Horse Too also sought $10,000 in damages.
Criminal investigations (2001–2006) On October 2, 2001, a lawsuit was filed against the club by Kirk Henry, a tourist from Kansas City, Kansas, who suffered a broken neck after visiting the club on September 20, 2001. Henry alleged that he was beaten up in the club's parking lot after a dispute involving an $80 tab at the club's bar. Representatives of the club contend that Henry was heavily drunk and fell in the parking lot, breaking his own neck. The lawsuit allowed authorities to pursue a criminal RICO investigation of the club.
On October 4, 2001, police utilized search warrants to search the club and confiscate business records, although the club was allowed to remain open during the search. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was investigating the case as of April 2002. Nearly a year after the incident, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) interviewed Henry, who identified Bobby D'Apice, a shift manager at the club, as the man who allegedly attacked him. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department launched a criminal investigation in October 2002. By the end of the month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had taken the lead in the investigation.
As part of the investigation, Rick Rizzolo was questioned about his relationships with various crime figures. Henry's lawyers alleged that many of Crazy Horse Too's employees had extensive criminal records for various offenses. In November 2002, police detectives declined to turn over documents from their investigation, saying, "Premature disclosure of this information would prejudice the criminal investigation and endanger the safety of possible witnesses." Police officials and the FBI expected the investigation to continue for at least another six months.
Raid On February 20, 2003, around 5:00 a.m., the club was raided by approximately 80 to 100 law enforcement officers, some of them armed with rifles. The group included agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, as well as two SWAT teams. Crazy Horse Too's attorney, Tony Sgro, said, "They handled (Thursday's) search with the scope and intensity that would be expected if they had located a terrorist cell within the club." Sgro also said, "It was like they found somebody in the al-Qaida network in there. That's how many agents were in there." Sgro criticized the search warrant, as he believed that it contained vague and generic wording. Sgro noted the presence of the news media as the raid began, and called it "nothing short of a publicity stunt." The raid, which lasted 11 hours, was conducted as part of an investigation to determine possible links between the club and organized crime. The investigation had been ongoing for at least 15 months. Officers seized a variety of records – a total of 170 items – that dated back to 1995. The search ended around 4:00 p.m., and the club reopened later that night. The only drug found on the premises was a marijuana cigarette in a stripper's locker.
On February 21, 2003, Sgro filed a motion in U.S. District Court, seeking the return of certain items seized during the raid: "The club is making a request for the return of only a tiny fraction of the truckloads of equipment, furniture and records taken from the club. These items are basic to the running of the business and are required immediately." The items included nine cash registers, valued at over $10,000 each. Other requested items included computers and current financial documents needed for preparing 2002 tax returns. According to Bart Rizzolo, who had a 10 percent interest in the club, officers also seized all of the club's money in the raid, at least $250,000. Sgro said the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure was violated during the raid, claiming that a Crazy Horse Too representative was not allowed to observe the search: "It cannot be determined, with any accuracy, what was actually taken by officers or what might have been left behind." Rick Rizzolo, who denied any involvement in criminal activity, said his club made more than $10 million a year: "It makes so much money, I wouldn't do something stupid to jeopardize it." Rick Rizzolo also planned to sue the federal government for the money lost during the raid, estimated to be between $40,000 and $60,000.
One of the items under investigation was the $20,000 monthly consulting fee from the Crazy Horse Too bar in Chicago that was being paid to Rizzolo. Actors Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci were interviewed as part of the investigation, as well as George Clooney, who was a longtime friend of Rick Rizzolo.
In late February 2003, employees alleged that they were held at gunpoint during the raid and were forced to provide videotaped statements in exchange for their release from the club. In March 2003, a judge ordered the return of all items seized during the raid. Rick Rizzolo said business had improved at the club as a result of publicity from the raid. As of March 2003, Crazy Horse Too had approximately 100 employees and more than 5,700 strippers. Talks about a possible plea bargain began a few months after the raid.
Further developments