Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Supported by

John L. Smith On Kirk Henry And The Crazy Horse Too

Getty Images

Kirk Henry, the Kansas tourist who was made a quadriplegic after being beaten in September 2001 outside the Crazy Horse Too topless club, has died. He was 58 and left behind two grown children.

The case not only made headlines, but eventually led to the imprisonment of club owner Rick Rizzolo and 16 of his associates as well as a multimillion-dollar civil judgment in Henry’s favor.

Through attorneys Donald Campbell and Stan Hunterton, Henry spent years attempting to collect the judgment. Smith notes that originally Henry was to get $1 million and then the rest of the judgment when the club sold. However, it took a long for the club to sell and when it did it was for a lot less.

That did not stop Henry or his attorneys.

“However, there was also a sign that Rizzolo was hiding his assets and this is where Campbell and Hunterton and their investigators went after Rizzolo for years and hounded him,” Smith said. 

In the end, Henry was able to get $9 million from Rizzolo. 

The closure of the Crazy Horse Too and the end of Rick Rizzolo's time owning it was in some people's minds an end of an era. 

“It was a pretty crazy time. A pretty violent time. The fact is that certain businesses in Southern Nevada that are really popular are big cash businesses. They draw a certain kind of customer. They’re owned by folks that are colorful to say the least. It wasn’t the last time that a club ran afoul of the law here,” Smith observed.

Bundy Trial Update:

The trial of some of the people involved in the standoff at the Bundy Ranch near Bunkerville in April 2014 is far from over. Smith has been attending the trial. 

He said the evidence presented by the prosecution is taking a fascinating turn as they use social media posts leading up to the standoff against the defendants. 

The posts are from and between militia groups throughout the West and with the Bundy family.

“And at one point Carol Bundy, Cliven Bundy’s wife, was in a Facebook post with a militia leader and they were discussing rounding up the cattle and bringing them home and needing the militia boys to be there. It is an interesting turn. It makes it more difficult for the defense to argue that these were separate individual citizens who just happened to see the Internet, just happened to get angered by this miscarriage of justice,” Smith said.

And while it is not illegal to be part of a militia group, Smith points out it is illegal to carry out a plot against the government. 

Naomi Malisor

Longtime organizer for the Democratic Party in Nevada, Naomi Malisor, has died. 

Smith said Malisor was always someone that the party could count on to organize support and work the grassroots efforts from stuffing envelopes to working phone trees.

“Naomi comes from a generation when really some of the biggest opportunities for women were right there in the organization phase. They weren’t all encouraged to be candidates.” Smith said.

That, of course, has changed but at the time the party was led by men and women did the ground work.

John L. Smith, contributor

Stay Connected
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Carrie Kaufman no longer works for KNPR News. She left in April 2018)