Michael D. Blutrich - Scores: How I Opened the Hottest Strip Club in New York City, Was Extorted out of Millions by the Gambino Family, and Became One of the Most Successful Mafia Informants in FBI History

PRAISE FOR SCORES

A fascinating, funny, and, at times, frightening tale of strippers, money, and the mob by one of the FBIs most unlikely informants ever!

Anderson Cooper

Scores is a compelling true crime book that takes readers on a wild ride. This book has it allmobsters, strippers, extortion, G-men, and one unlikely FBI informant. Michael Blutrich has told a riveting tale that will keep readers entertained and enthralled.

Miles Corwin, author of Homicide Special

In Scores, we finally have the definitive insider memoir of the club that changed New York City nightlife forever. The book is a blockbuster ride revealing secrets held close since the 1990s.

Harvey Osher, Scores Owner, 19982008

Michaels story is a riveting window into the secret world of FBI undercover cooperation by a prominent NYC lawyer against the Mafia. As Michaels lawyer, I was present for many of the events he describes, and, unbelievable as it may seem, his story is true. His case is like no other Ive encountered in my 40-year career, and his book will become an instant classic. Even knowing how it would end, I couldnt put the book down until the final page.

Morris Sandy Weinberg, Jr., partner, Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, Tampa,
FL, former AUSA in the Southern District of New York, chair-elect of
the ABA Criminal Justice Section

Michael Blutrich, a smart lawyer from Brooklyn, was feeling pretty good when his new Upper East Side strip club became a must-visit destination for everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio to Donald Trump. Then Blutrich found out he had partners he hadnt known about: John Gottis crime family. An irrepressible wiseacre, Blutrichs first thought was that hed seen nothing about that in the lease. Then a couple of hoods whacked two employees and things got very real, very fast. Soon, Blutrich became the least likely undercover agent the FBI ever had, wearing a wire against Gothams biggest gangsters. But he kept his eyes open and his sense of humor and the result is this great read.

Tom Robbins, investigative reporter and coauthor of Mob Boss

SCORES

SCORES

How I Opened the Hottest Strip Club in New York
City, Was Extorted out of Millions by the Gambino
Family, and Became One of the Most Successful
Mafia Informants in FBI History

MICHAEL D. BLUTRICH

BenBella Books, Inc.
Dallas, TX

Copyright 2017 by Michael D. Blutrich

The events, locations, and conversations in this book while true, are recreated from the authors memory. However, the essence of the story and the feelings and emotions evoked are intended to be accurate representations. In certain instances, names, persons, organizations, and places have been changed to protect an individuals privacy.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

BenBella Books, Inc.

10440 N. Central Expressway

Suite #800

Dallas, TX 75231

www.benbellabooks.com

Send feedback to feedback@benbellabooks.com

First E-Book Edition: January 2017.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Blutrich, Michael D., author.

Title: Scores : how I opened the hottest strip club in New York City, was extorted out of millions by the Gambino family, and became one of the most successful Mafia informants in FBI history / Michael D. Blutrich.

Description: Dallas, TX : BenBella Books, Inc., [2017]

Identifiers: LCCN 2016037690 (print) | LCCN 2016051586 (ebook) (print) | LCCN 2016051586 (ebook) |

ISBN 9781942952633 (trade cloth) | ISBN 9781942952640 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Blutrich, Michael D. | MafiaNew York (State) | InformersNew York (State)New York. |

NightclubsNew York (State)New York. | Organized crime investigationNew York (State)New York.

Classification: LCC HV6452.N7 B58 2017 (print) | LCC HV6452.N7 (ebook) | DDC 364.10609747/1dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016037690

Editing by Erin Kelley and Alexa Stevenson

Copyediting by Scott Calamar

Cover design by Faceout Studio, Kara Davison

Jacket design by Sarah Dombrowsky

Text design by Aaron Edmiston

Text composition by Integra Software Services Pvt Ltd.

Proofreading by Brittney Martinez and Sarah Vostok

Printed by Lake Book Manufacturing

Distributed by Perseus Distribution

www.perseusdistribution.com

To place orders through Perseus Distribution:

Tel: (800) 343-4499

Fax: (800) 351-5073

E-mail:

Special discounts for bulk sales (minimum of 25 copies) are available.
Please contact Aida Herrera at aida@benbellabooks.com.

For my family, who in the darkest of lifes times taught me the meaning of
unqualified loyalty, unshakable faith, and selfless dedication.

For my dear and true old friends, who never withdrew their love, confidence,
or support, even when my own dreams had fled and my hope deserted me.

For the special old friends who welcomed me back into their hearts and lives,
and patiently helped me to rediscover a place in a new world. And for the
amazing new friends who accepted and healed a bruised and battered spirit.

I have finally learned that a loving family and true friends are the only
requirements for a life worth living. With this revelation, coming late in my life,
I view myself as the luckiest man in the world.

PROLOGUE
Murders That Shocked the Big Apple

S cores. The first and most notorious upscale gentlemens club in New York City. After opening to the derision of its neighborhood residents on Manhattans fashionable Upper East Side on Halloween night 1991, Scores grew into an unrelenting cauldron of celebrity, publicity, controversy, and profitability.

Unlike any New York club before it, except perhaps Studio 54, Scores regular patrons included film and television superstars, sports figures, major recording artists, fashion models, comedians, politicians, billionaire businesspersons, infamous mafiosos, and every horny New Yorker or tourist with cash or plastic assets. In a city that reveled in its secret adoration of celebrities, Scores was the singular stop where stargazing was matter-of-fact.

The first club of its kind to feature topless lap dancing, Scores attracted the fierce and perverse loyalty of the self-proclaimed King of All Media, Howard Stern. Tales of Sterns star-studded parties at the club, replete with lurid lesbian exhibitions, were described daily and in excruciating detail on his radio and television programs; Sterns personal endorsement served to vault Scores reputation into the national and international arenas. The club further attracted the unsolicited and costly protection of the Gambino crime family, which, over the years, seasoned its financial demands with every possible form of extortion, threatening beatings, arson, bombings, and even murder.

My name is Michael Blutrich, and I am the clubs founding owner. Its very nice to meet you. I will be your guide through this tale: a gay lawyer who found himself owning the most successful den of heterosexuality in the history of the western world. It is a tale of laughter and tears, luck and betrayaland the beginning of the end of my lifetime of successes began at the club on one warm night in June 1996.