This was the town of Tom Pendergast, one of the most powerful Mafia/machine bosses in U.S. history, Maloney wrote. A version of this story appeared in Illinois Times, April 2, 2008. Slay was a partner in Guilfoil Petzall & Shoemake for 20 years prior to becoming mayor. Wortman, Dowling and a third man were found guilty Feb. 26, 1962, of conspiracy to avoid income taxes. They preferred a more cautious approach, advising that the coverage be focused more indirectly on corruption inside the citys liquor-control agency. Wortman's headquarters was his Paddock Lounge, at 429 St. Louis Avenue in East St. Louis. C.D. When Berne died in 1996, he was a paid security consultant for Pipefitters Local 562, which Stoneking had also fingered as being connected to the Chicago Outfit. Mugshot of Mike Lacey courtesy of the Maricopa County Sheriffs Department. In later years he worked as a freelance writer and as an editor for the alternative press. Subscribe with this special offer to keep reading, (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). An attorney of the same name Andrew Leonard was the longtime general counsel for Hartmann Publishing, the original owner of the RFT. In the wake of the mob violence, the River Quay was all but abandoned, with only six liquor licenses remaining in the district, down from 28 a few years earlier. He suspects that the payoff was passed through Wortmans organization by the Chicago mob in advance of a Canadian jewel robbery in which his brother was slated to take part. "We drove across the river to the Paddock Lounge in [East St. Louis] Illinois and I introduced him to Jimmie O'Brien," Ray says. He proved to be an invaluable ally. Maloney thought of Menn as the father he never had. The reasons for murder and mayhem made little sense to anyone except the convicts. Shopping, dining, and entertainment are all close by. The convicted assassin spent the rest of his life in the Tennessee prison system. In prison he preferred Camels, when he could afford them. In the book, John Larry Ray asserts that his brother revealed to him that he had been ordered to shoot and kill a black soldier in postwar Germany while serving in the Army. We offer freshly baked cookies for dessert, and fries or chips for a quick snack option. After returning to the United States, he occasionally talked to his brother by phone. He proved to be an invaluable ally. If you will make these promises, I will ask the warden to take you out of solitary confinement.. When we would go in together to interview somebody, a prisoner or the warden or the guards, wed start off and they would be talking one way and the minute they found out about Joeand what his background wasit was like administering truth serum. They also interviewed city and federal law-enforcement authorities and pumped confidential sources for information. In September 1983, Post staffer Ronald Lawrence reported that one of Sonnenscheins business associates was Fernando Nando Bartolotta, a made member of the St. Louis mafia family, then under the leadership of the late Matthew Trupiano. At the time of his marriage to Maloneys mother, he had only been out of the Missouri Penitentiary for a year. It didnt take very long for that to happen. You cant stop one place and jump to another place.. Investigators developed a keener interest in the project after Buster Wortman allegedly slugged an IRS agent in the Paddock Lounge, a 429 St. Louis Avenue in East St. Louis on July 1, 1956. Beckman was a bodyguard in Wortman's organization. He wanted to meet me. The two arranged a rendezvous in West Memphis, Ark., on the evening of April 3, 1968, at what Ray calls a back-alley bar. 4.9. Latest reviews, photos and ratings for Double Deuce Lounge at 601 S 10th St in East Saint Louis - hours, phone number, address and map. In his phone call he had asked his brother to pump OBrien for information. The records show that Petzall continued to be listed as a director of the corporation until 2003, and his name still appeared as a counsel for the by-then non-existent company until 2009. After his return to Missouri, his parole officer committed Maloney to State Hospital No. Maloneys good fortune was twofold: He had belatedly benefited from the prison-reform movement of the 1960s and also from the unique ownership structure of the Kansas City Star, then employee-owned. He reported for the Orange County Register in 1980 and 1981. Sam Magin, former manager and bartender at Wortman's Paddock Lounge in East St. Louis, told investigators and reporters that he was in charge of the project and that it was being built for a boys' club. After his fourth escape from Boonville, juvenile authorities transferred him to Algoa, the states intermediate reformatory, where his behavior worsened. If the remark bothered Maloney, he didnt show it. Maloney sensed that the feud was about to erupt into open warfare. That J.J. Maloney survived is remarkable. There was just something there, and it didnt fit in with everybody else, says Horrigan, now an editorial writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Maloney ended up moving to the West Coast. She sent money, clothing, food, stamps and other items. He claims that his brother was then fronted an estimated $50,000. She had eloped from the state mental hospital in Fulton and gone on another crime spree, this time with a 22-year-old hoodlum from Flat River. Emilio Grau Sala - "Paddock" Pars 1969, 20th Century oil on canvas by Spanish Artist E. Grau Sala For Sale at 1stDibs | paddock lounge east st louis The brand varied with the decade: L&Ms or, later, Marlboro Lights. The next year, Maloney ran away again. The last call he received from his brother before the assassination came on March 29, 1968: He was concerned about what was going down on some type of job. After Army service in Europe during World War II, Dowling became and ally of Wortman, then on the rise in East St. Louis. Hartmann Publishing, owned by Ray Hartmann, sold the newspaper to the New Times, a Phoenix-based chain, in late 1998. In addition to the failed escape attempt, the prison administration cited Maloney for stabbing another inmate, manufacturing zip guns, using stimulants and committing sodomy. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Clark indicated that the owners of Free Spirit advertised in Missouri publications from 1994 until 2000, the Post reported. Entering the store, he pulled a hunting knife and demanded money from Joseph F. Thiemann, the 74-year-old store owner. Less than two months later, Maloney pleaded guilty to murder and armed robbery, and Circuit Judge James F. Nangle sentenced him to four concurrent life sentences. Star reporter Harry Jones Jr. had hatched the idea of hiring him as a temporary consultant for an in-depth series of stories on prison systems in Missouri and Kansas. Maloney had been in solitary confinement for nearly four months after his escape attempt when Hinkley contacted him. After his mother suffered a nervous breakdown, the court remanded him to the custody of the St. Josephs Catholic home for boys in St. Louis, where he stayed for nearly a year. Stabbings and killings, robberies and rapes were common. I asked him if hed read the story, and if it had helped him any. Search for: Search. Solitary confinement involved long-term segregation, whereas the hole was a short-term punishment, usually a 10-day stint, during which prisoners were deprived of cigarettes, bedding and sometimes clothing. A prison psychiatrist who evaluated Maloney shortly after his arrival characterized him as a socially diffident individual who seems to take a half-humorous rejection of the whole affair. If Maloneys initial demeanor seemed inappropriately aloof given the circumstances, it didnt take long for his mood to turn into a malevolent rage. On March 3, 1962, Dowling and a bodyguard were found murdered on a rural road north of Belleville. For Sale on 1stDibs - "Paddock" Pars 1969, 20th Century oil on canvas by Spanish Artist E. Grau Sala, Canvas, Oil Paint by Emilio Grau Sala. Its like the Mississippi River, says John Larry Ray. Most are from the 1930's-1980's. This one is Condition is as pictured. Police never filed charges in the murders. Its the smoking that eventually killed him. The mob continued to influence the police department, city hall, the county courthouse and the state legislature. That, of course, was back in the day, when a lifer could still aspire to being released on parole. In 1948, he equipped it with the novel luxury of air-conditioning. #88 of 282 places to eat in East Saint Louis. Exposure to art ignited Maloneys innate creative streak. Maloneys formal education had ended in the ninth grade, but Menn recognized raw talent when he saw it. Joe, which is what his friends called him, and I shared a cell in C-Hall during 1965-66, recalls former inmate Frank Driscoll. Scheduled for completion in the fall of 2003, it will be shared by East St. Louis Community College, Southern Illinois University and the Illinois Department of Employment Security. A Look Back Two mobsters found guilty in East St. Louis in 1962. The brand varied with the decade: L&Ms or, later, Marlboro Lights. He was assigned to the Army Signal Corps School at Fort Gordon, Ga. His military career lasted just three months: He went AWOL on Nov. 3, 1959. He didnt see what kind of car his brother was driving, but he got the sense that someone was waiting for him. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, Liberty High student killed in St. Charles shooting could heal you with a smile, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol slams ump C.B. Menn then sold the proposal to Cruise Palmer, the executive editor. Gruender used carpentry skills acquired in prison to rehab the old farmhouse, and he showered Maloney with gifts, including a motorcycle and a shotgun. On Aug. 26, 1961, Maloneys girlfriend, Edith Rhodes, was murdered near Huzzah Creek in rural Crawford County, Mo. Jesse Stoneking, the unnamed informant cited by the FBI in the report, died of a gunshot wound to the head in Arizona in 2003. Dowling got his start as a robber and bootlegger in St. Louis. In subsequent tape-recorded telephone interviews with Maloney, Bonadonna said that the Mafia had also targeted him for execution. Aside from representing the mayor, Callow has also been a local spokesman for Republic Services, the giant waste disposal company that owns the radioactively-contaminated West Lake Landfill Superfund site in North St. Louis County. She visited. . After six weeks of observation at Fulton, Maloney was allowed by the parole board to enlist in the Army. Prestige Lounge: By the time Lou Bonds shuttered the Prestige in the early '90s, the venue had already outlasted all of its peers in the surrounding Gaslight Square. I had the connection.. But as quickly as his cell door seemed to have started to creak open, the steel bars slammed shut again. By then the Star had been bought by Capital Cities, a media chain with a history of poor labor relations. Maloney then married a former inmate of the girls reformatory at Chillicothe, and they moved to Alabamabut the marriage fell apart. Or you may simply say the wrong thing to the wrong person. She had eloped from the state mental hospital in Fulton and gone on another crime spree, this time with a 22-year-old hoodlum from Flat River. . The housepainter soon introduced his young stepson to the underworld, taking Maloney with him on occasional visits to the Paddock Lounge, Wortmans bar in East St. Louis, which was a hangout for organized crime figures. OBrien arranged for the Ray brothers to spend the night at a nearby apartment above an illegal gambling den also operated by Wortman. In June 1964, at Hinkleys urging, Warden E.V. They registered at the St. Francis Hotel, at Sixth and Chestnut, under the name Mr. and Mrs. John Ducharme of Jacksonville, Fla. That evening Maloney, armed with a hunting knife, robbed the clerk at another downtown hotel. By any measure, he had to be considered beyond salvation, a lost cause. Three River Quay nightclubs were soon torched or bombed, and the list of gangland hits rapidly grew. All of a sudden their stories would change. Meanwhile, OBrien was supposed to check with Wortman about a proposed diamond heist. He would serve the next 13 years at the Missouri Penitentiary, in Jefferson Cityarguably the worst prison in the United States at the time. After six weeks of observation at Fulton, Maloney was allowed by the parole board to enlist in the Army. (Post-Dispatch), A close-up of a bullet hole in the front windshield of Melvin Beckman's car. He had learned about it from his mobbed-up stepfather. While confined at the hospital, Maloney met and fell in love with a fellow patient, 16-year-old Edith Rhodes, who had been transferred from Chillicothe. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch), The island home of Frank "Buster" Wortman in April 1969, eight months after his death. It was uncanny.. All the hoods would congregate there, drinking coffee, recalls Jones. You can check, if they still have the records. We stayed all night at the Catmans in South St. Louis, says Ray, referring to Jack Catman Gawron, a criminal associate of the Ray brothers. (Robert LaRouche/Post-Dispatch), The house that was built on the island. Dowling was known as an elegant dresser who preferred expensive businessmen's clothing to the more garish threads of many mobsters. (Post-Dispatch), Elmer "Dutch" Dowling arriving at the federal courthouse in East St. Louis in a light rain during the trial. That, of course, was back in the day, when a lifer could still aspire to being released on parole. Everyone figured Wortman took care of it. Once an adult (21 years old or older) has finished racing for the day (we have a strict anti-drinking and driving policy), they can enjoy a wide selection of beer and . Printable Racing Calendar & Promotions Schedule Wortman did not like having his picture taken, but couldn't avoid it during the seven-week trial. They are, from left, Morris Shenker, Murry L. Randall, Saul Cohn, Ray Foreman, James F. Nangle Jr. and Norman London. By the mid-1920's he became associated with the old Shelton gang and was soon running errands for them. East Side mob boss Frank "Buster" Wortman and sidekick Elmer "Dutch" Dowling awaited the verdict with stiff-jawed scowls, just as tough guys should. Ray says his brother gave him approximately half the money and requested that he hold $10,000 of it in case he was arrested and needed to post bond. Stelzer An earlier version of this story appeared in the St. Louis Journalism review in 2008 and Focus/midwest magazine in 2010. So hundreds of men carried a knife or had one they could get to one in an emergency. The blacks slept as many as eight to a cell. She sent money, clothing, food, stamps and other items. Six days after the verdict, Dowling and a bodyguard were found shot to death on a dark road north of Belleville. Play "The Decider" and let your O'Brien knew the owner of the Paddock, Frank "Buster" Wortman, the East Side mob boss. Stabbings and killings, robberies and rapes were common. After the breakout, John Larry Ray says, he picked James Earl Ray up and drove him back to St. Louis. Beneath the outward generosity, however, Gruender was an angry and hardened man who drank heavily and sometimes abused his wife and stepson. Magin was a defendant in the 1962 tax case, but was acquitted. Red Apple BBQ & Lounge - 2112 St Clair Ave, East St Louis. Asked why John Larry Ray would incorporate a stopover in St. Louis into his story, his brother replies: I guess to dramatize the book. In the ensuing fight, the pistol fired a second time, striking Thiemann in the leg. 'S car transferred him to Algoa, the Post reported generosity,,. 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