Anthony John Spilotro (May 19, 1938 – June 14, 1986), nicknamed "Tony the Ant", was an American mobster and high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit who operated in Las Vegas during the 1970s and '80s.

Spilotro eventually ran afoul of his superiors in Chicago over his handling of their Las Vegas concerns, and they arranged his murder on June 14, 1986.

Both parents ran Patsy's Restaurant, which was frequented by mobsters such as Sam Giancana, Jackie "The Lackey" Cerone, Gus Alex and Francesco "Frank the Enforcer" Nitti.

Spilotro started his criminal career alongside his boyhood friend Frank Cullotta, engaging in theft, burglary and murder.

[5] Spilotro was nicknamed "Tony the Ant" by the media after FBI Special Agent William Roemer publicly referred to him as "that little pissant."

[11] He also testified that Spilotro, his boss in Las Vegas, ordered him to make a telephone call that lured one of the 1962 murder victims, William McCarthy, to a fast food restaurant.

[13] On June 22, their bodies were found, one on top of the other and stripped down to their undershorts, buried in a cornfield in the Willow Slough preserve near Enos, Indiana.

[13] The freshly turned earth had been noticed by a farmer who thought that the remains of a deer killed out of season had been buried there by a poacher and notified authorities.

In the wake of the imprisonment of Joseph Aiuppa and John Cerone for skimming Las Vegas casino profits,[16] a meeting was held that month at the Czech Lodge in North Riverside, Illinois.

[19] The suspected murderers included capo Albert Tocco from Chicago Heights, Illinois, who was sentenced to 200 years in prison in 1990, after his wife testified against him.

[20][21] On May 18, 2007, the star witness in the government's case against the 14 Chicago mob figures, Nicholas Calabrese, pleaded guilty to taking part in a conspiracy that included 18 murders.

Calabrese agreed to testify after the FBI showed him DNA evidence linking him to the murder of fellow hit-man John Fecarotta who was also allegedly involved in the Spilotro slayings.

[23] In September 2007 Frank Calabrese Sr. and four other men—Marcello, Joseph Lombardo, Paul "The Indian" Schiro, and former Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle—were convicted of mob-related crimes.