The transfer to a half-way house is the final step before freedom for Betty Loren Maltese. Her 'community corrections program,' as it's called, is being managed out of Phoenix, but on Friday evening there were reports Loren Maltese is serving her final six months in a city she knows well.
"I don't want any men in this house," said Loren Maltese in 2002.
That was the last time the public saw Betty Loren Maltese.
The larger-than-life former leading lady of Cicero joked with her elderly mother and young daughter in 2002 that she didn't want any men in the house while she was away in prison.
Loren Maltese has spent the last 6 and a half years at a federal prison camp in California. On Thursday, she was transferred to a half-way house.
A spokesman for the Las Vegas Community Corrections facility confirms she is there, corroborating media reports that she is serving the remaining few months of her time in a city close to her heart.
Loren Maltese, according to federal prosecutors, gambled away hundreds of thousands of dollars on Sin City's strip during her final few months of freedom back in 2002.
The half-way house where she is now reportedly staying is, ironically, less than a block from the old Stardust Casino. Newer gambling palaces like the Wynn are also just around the corner. But Loren Maltese is barred from doing any gambling.
Bureau of Prison rules for all half-way houses dictate inmates find 40 hour per week jobs, pay a fraction of their living costs and can only leave the facility for approved reasons.
Betty Loren Maltese still has a lot of supporters and admirers in Cicero. Many mailed her letters and birthday cards in prison, but she rarely wrote back.
