[2] Cullotta dropped out of Steinmetz High School in the ninth grade, and started a criminal career together with boyhood friend Tony Spilotro, engaging in theft, burglary, and murder.

[2][1] In early 1979, Cullotta moved to Las Vegas, Nevada to join Spilotro, who had already been there since 1971,[4] with his group of experienced thieves, safecrackers, and killers.

[citation needed] On October 10, 1979, on Tony Spilotro's orders, Cullotta killed his former friend and grand jury witness Sherwin "Jerry" Lisner in Las Vegas.

[2][5] On July 4, 1981, the Hole in the Wall Gang attempted to burglarize Bertha's Gifts & Home Furnishings, a high end store, on East Sahara Avenue in Las Vegas.

The robbery was a bust, as the FBI and the Las Vegas Metro police had an inside informer named Sal Romano in the gang.

[6] He also testified that Tony 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.

[1] On August 20, 2020, Cullotta died at the age of 81 in a Las Vegas hospital from complications related to COVID-19 and other medical issues, amid its pandemic in Nevada.