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Clyde's in Tyson's Corner, Washington, DC. Nichols was again _ time, Giaquinto also served as president of the home entertain- talking about Dominica, saying that he had just done a radio ment sector of MCA, which owned Universal Pictures. In his broadcast in his new position as minister of state security, and application to wiretap Giaquinto, Agent Thomas G. Gates, who also that he was part of a CIA coup that was going to happen. later supplied information to Casolaro, suggested that FBI inves- Casolaro's friend claimed that Nichols "had this story that they tigative files indicated that in 1978 Nichols had been "an interna- were going to turn Dominica into a CIA base, had plans for a tional money launderer for money generated through narcotics desalination program, and pulled out this design drawn by a trafficking and organized crime activities."” The wiretaps caught French architect of a dome the size of Texas Stadium that was Giaquinto and Nichols discussing a takeover of MCA, and half underwater. Really, the whole thing reminded me of Ernst revealed Giaquinto's connection to renowned mobster John Gotti. Stavro Blofeld..." Although the investigation was derailed by members of the After dinner, Casolaro took his friend aside and showed him Reagan administration, Giaquinto left both MCA and Meridian, what he alleged was a summary of an FBI wiretap on Nichols that —_ but not before unsuccessfully trying to secure an appointment for linked him to the Yakuza and the Gambino family. Casolaro's Nichols to head an industry anti-video-piracy operation in Asia. friend was shocked. "I said, Danny, I'm gonna take you out back Nichols denied any involvement with the Yakuza or the Mafia. and whip your ass! You just put me in a meeting with this man "He traces the trouble to an FBI misunderstanding of his screen- and didn't tell me what the hell...why didn't you tell me before?’ play career. He says he was introduced to a high-level executive And Danny was kind of, 'Oh, I don't know. I of MCA several years ago at a coffee shop. wanted to see how Nichols would react..." When the MCA man encouraged him to turn Danny Casolaro related Nichols’ stories some tales he'd told him into screenplays, about Dominica in his notes: "Before the they became friends and, briefly, business reins of the Octopus are turned over to sever- To me, however, the associates. Unknown to him, the MCA man al younger players, the game continues | most interesting of all the | was the subject of a full-court-press FBI now—July 1991—on the tiny Caribbean investigation for being a key organized- island nation of Dominica. Possessing the mysterious deaths crime link to the entertainment industry. largest boiling deep-water lake in the world, connected to Inslaw was | And so, Gable [i.e., Nichols] says his voice Dominica's geothermal potential is was picked up by taps on the MCA man's unmatched. It is here that the Octopus may that of 1960s political phone. The bureau misinterpreted tl eir con- be making isbldetandmost anges | tivist Abbie Hoffman. ‘on: a cmaning colt worse mane eh otseacantl "| Hoffman wrote an early | "sprog ns ssa acquire : Howard Hughes’ Summa piece on the October FBI man for libel and slander. He says Sive magnate. Toseph Cicippi, later Surprise for Playboy the FBI man’s affidavit in the Gable cmployee PALS Fandatthctine, fa qpeagazune aN SNOUY | TMM Scots respond to an fav employee of Ali ahd at the time, thereafter was involved ichols responded to an affidavit by in a suspicious automobile accident. and has stated that Nichols represented Agent Gates, linking him to John Gotti himself as an agent for the US and the Gambino family through Government in the takeover bid. Giaquinto by suing him and the US Cicippio said that Nichols showed him Government for libel—suits which Justice Department identification, and were dismissed twice by federal courts. had information which he assumed Gates said in testimony before the could only have been obtained through House Judiciary Committee that government contacts. Possession of Nichols’ attempts at payback may not such identification from the Justice have ceased: informants had twice told Department suggests a possible link between Nichols and the him that Nichols had placed a contract on his life. original PROMIS double-dealings.” The other high point of Nichols' movie career came with his Casolaro learned more about Nichols from Richard Stavin, for- cameo appearance as a terrorist in the 1992 Steven Seagal movie, merly a special prosecutor for the Justice Department's Organized Under Siege. Perhaps not coincidentally, Seagal became Crime Strike Force who had some familiarity with the small-eared embroiled in controversy when a writer, Alan Richman, claimed Gable's attachment to the mob-end of the entertainment industry. in GQ magazine that Seagal had appropriated details of the On 31st July 1991, Stavin explained to Casolaro the connections biographies of former associates Robert Strickland and Gary Nichols had to the Gambinos and the Yakuza, which the FBI had Goldman and passed them off as incidents in his own life. When investigated in 1987 as part of its probe of Mafia presence in investigator John Connolly later repeated the charges in Spy mag- Hollywood. Stavin also mentioned that Nichols had at one time azine and made further claims that Seagal tried to set up Richman offered to become an informant for the Justice Department, in a fake homosexual tryst and tried to have Goldman killed, although he did not know whether anyone had taken him up on Seagal sued unsuccessfully. the offer. Today, Stavin feels that passing this information on In 1993 Nichols sought damages against the Los Angeles Police may have contributed to Casolaro's death.* Department over an incident that caused the revocation of his con- The FBI's focus in 1987 was on mob influence in the motion cealed weapons permit and, consequently, a money pullout by picture industry, taking particular aim at Eugene Giaquinto, a Swiss financiers for manufacturing the G-77. According to his member of the board of directors of Nichols’ Meridian Arms, a testimony, he had been thrown to the floor, disarmed, handcuffed firm that was to manufacture the G-77 gun in South Korea. At the and carted off to a North Hollywood jail by LAPD officers that of 1960s political activist Abbie Hoffman. piece on the October Surprise for Playboy magazine and shortly thereafter was involved in a suspicious automobile accident. 34 © NEXUS DECEMBER 1996 - JANUARY 1997