Just minutes from highways 367, 170 and I-270, the commute to great St. Louis employers like Boeing, Express Scripts, and Emerson Electric is easy. The convicted assassin spent the rest of his life in the Tennessee prison system. As a result, Maloneys letters to Menn started coming back undelivered. When I went to the Missouri Penitentiary at Jefferson City, in February 1960, there were 2,500 men inside the walls, Maloney later told readers of the Kansas City Star. Talk about stares. We are also conveniently located near shopping, dining, and entertainment options. 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. The next year, Maloney ran away again. OBrien knew the owner of the Paddock Frank Buster Wortman the East Side mob boss. Maloney sensed that the feud was about to erupt into open warfare. Stoneking, the informant who testified against Bartolotta and dozens of other St. Louis mobsters in the 1980s, died of an apparent suicide in Maricopa County, Arizona a year ago (2003). Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. 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. He wrote to me as if I were just another person, another young writer.. The Paddock closed in 1967. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch), Elmer "Dutch" Dowling in 1938, when he was 32 years old and a suspect in the attempted murder of a prospective trial witness. Maloney excelled as a feature writer but eventually became better known as an investigative journalist covering a wide range of issues, including labor racketeering, white-collar crime, drug trafficking and mental health. There were men in prison who were said to make more money each year from dope and gambling than the warden was paid. Despite the low wages, the offer was priceless because it cinched his parole. Martin Luther King Jr., who died in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968. Or you may simply say the wrong thing to the wrong person. They drove to Kansas City together and toured the Stars editorial offices. Bonadonna disappeared in 1978, presumably into the federal witness-protection program. If you are helpless, there are people who will try to make a reputation at your expense. Maloney had reached his nadir. C.D. While absent without leave, Maloney worked briefly for a carnival in Florida before returning to Missouri. The next year, Maloney ran away again. But the bankrupt, Illinois-based company, which had been sold to a foreign concern, remained an active corporation in Missouri for six years after its apparent demise; proof that there is life after death at least in the legal world. Most are from the 1930's-1980's. This one is Condition is as pictured. But Richard Callow, the mayors longtime political consultant, does make a cameo appearance in the film. By checking liquor-license applications, Maloney determined that mobsters or their relatives secretly owned several restaurants and bars in the River Quay. The delays in communications eventually killed his deal with Random House. The convicted assassin spent the rest of his life in the Tennessee prison system. You cant stop one place and jump to another place.. The first, I Speak for the Dead, is a fictionalized account of Kansas Citys mob war, drawn straight form his clip file. This was the town of Tom Pendergast, one of the most powerful Mafia/machine bosses in U.S. history, Maloney wrote. Maloney then married a former inmate of the girls reformatory at Chillicothe, and they moved to Alabamabut the marriage fell apart. The two reporters began knocking on doors, talking to area business owners. Before his contract expired, the Star hired him as a full-time general-assignment reporter. He was Wortman's right-hand man when they were convicted together in the income-tax case in 1962. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. They are, from left, Morris Shenker, Murry L. Randall, Saul Cohn, Ray Foreman, James F. Nangle Jr. and Norman London. 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. Though he avoided further trouble with the law, Gruender acted as a courier for Wortman. Rays late brother James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to Kings murder in 1969 but quickly recanted his confession. I heard he was in Florida someplace., They sipped beer together for a couple of hours, says John Larry Ray. Maloney had been in solitary confinement for nearly four months after his escape attempt when Hinkley contacted him. . In subsequent tape-recorded telephone interviews with Maloney, Bonadonna said that the Mafia had also targeted him for execution. Before the details of that caper could be hashed out, however, the Ray brothers got jittery and split for Chicago. A few days later I received a letter from Thorpe Menn, literary editor of the Star, who rejected the poem but said he liked the last four lines. Its like the Mississippi River, says John Larry Ray. Live Racing. Bar, Nightlife Hours: 601 S 10th St, East St Louis (618) 874-8447. 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. She seemed fragile and shy, yet she wasnt. His prison record over the next few years is a litany of major conduct violation:. Menn then sold the proposal to Cruise Palmer, the executive editor. Facebook. Thus inspired, the IRS began digging harder into Wortman's unusual financial world. He was kind of fearless, says Jones. His editors opposed the idea. Five more years would elapse before Maloney finally made parole, during which time Menn continued to support and encourage his writing. Rays late brother James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to Kings murder in 1969 but quickly recanted his confession. You never know for sure what is going to happen from day to day in prison. Later that year, James Earl Ray returned to the St. Louis area and met with OBrien again, John Larry Ray says. Maloney was also keenly aware that local law-enforcement officials were hesitant to use the M-word. She also acted as Maloneys liaison with the outside world. OBrien arranged for the Ray brothers to spend the night at a nearby apartment above an illegal gambling den also operated by Wortman. I did what all young poets do, I tried to write a nice little rhyming solution to all the problems of the universe, he later wrote. He encouraged me to keep working on the poem, and asked me to stay in touch with him. Bar, Nightlife. Shopping, dining, and entertainment are all close by. He had learned about it from his mobbed-up stepfather. Barbecue, Barbeque, Bar. The two returned to St. Louis early the next morning on a Greyhound bus. (Jack January/Post-Dispatch), Another view of excavation for the mysterious moat and island in April 1956. 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. Maloney, I realize you have a job to dobut do you have to be so intense?. 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. Their stories ran as a four-part series in April 1973. O'Brien knew the owner of the Paddock Frank "Buster" Wortman the East Side mob boss. Gruenders association with these gangsters continued long after his parole. For those under 21 years of age, we offer sodas, teas, waters, Gatorades, Red Bull energy drinks, and Nescafe coffee. Warden Nash committed suicide. The Detroit and St. Louis Mafia families are related. It might have been recycling. After his fourth escape from Boonville, juvenile authorities transferred him to Algoa, the states intermediate reformatory, where his behavior worsened. More important, Maloney understood that the roots of the problem ran deep in the Kansas City political establishment and business community and that there was a kind of mass denial regarding corruption. In 1975, Maloney and Jones teamed up again to cover the corruption and violence surrounding a power struggle among factions of the Kansas City Mafia. I asked him if hed read the story, and if it had helped him any. I tried to contact OBrien but I couldnt find him, says John Larry Ray. Exposure to art ignited Maloneys innate creative streak. Gruender, a housepainter, had a string of arrests and convictions for car theft and burglary dating back to 1926. 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. On the basis of this anecdote, co-author Barsten speculates that James Earl Ray was subjected to the CIAs behavior-modification program known as MK-Ultra. Maloney frequented the mob hangouts at night to develop leads. If the remark bothered Maloney, he didnt show it. After his return to Missouri, his parole officer committed Maloney to State Hospital No. The housepainter soon introduced his young stepson to the underworld, taking Maloney with him on occasional visits to the Paddock Lounge, Wortman's bar in East St. Louis, which was a hangout for organized crime figures. After the Star ran a story implicating Cammisanos brother William Willie the Rat Cammisano in the Bonadonna slaying, members of the two families demanded to rebut the allegation, which was based on an FBI affidavit. The current owners of the sex businesses operating on his property were not charged. He wrote to me as if I were just another person, another young writer.. 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. Maloney had no way of knowing the significance that his verse would ultimately play in redirecting his life. Post-Dispatch artist Albert Schweitzer made this drawing of the courtroom because no cameras were allowed inside. Maloney thought of Menn as the father he never had. Otherwise, he rolled his own from pouches of Ozark-brand tobacco, manufactured and distributed for free at the Missouri Penitentiary. A private drive connected the bridge to South Mulberry Road. Webbes father had been convicted of income tax evasion in Nevada in 1983 related to his interests in the Aladdin Casino in Las Vegas, which was then controlled by the Detroit Mafia. Oddly enough, Spectrulite remained an active corporation in Missouri with Petzalls name appearing in its annual reports long after the business had filed for bankruptcy in federal court in East St. Louis, Ill. Exposure to art ignited Maloneys innate creative streak. You never knew whom you might have trouble with. Having been a convict, they thought he should have respected their trade a little more than he did.. The defendants departed the federal courthouse, 750 Missouri Avenue, free on appeal bond. Kane, county coroner. Moreover, Jerry Ray, John Larry Rays surviving brother, disputed John Larrys account in a telephone interview from his home in McMinnville, Tenn., in October. There were men in prison who were said to make more money each year from dope and gambling than the warden was paid. His second novel, The Chain, is based on his years behind bars, including his incarceration at the Missouri Penitentiary and the old St. Louis City Jail. He is awaiting sentencing before Judge Catherine D. Perry in August. Maloney added to his underworld knowledge in prison, where he befriended fellow inmate John Paul Spica, a St. Louis Mafia soldier. Maloney joined the newspapers staff after being paroled in 1972. John Larry. 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. When they parted, he watched his brother walk down the back alley alone. Will you make a promise (and keep it) not to try and run awayto obey the rules of the prison and try to do whatever work is assigned to you? Sonnenschein must also hand over five parcels of property in Brooklyn, Ill., where the now-defunct Free Spirit Massage Parlor was located. (Post-Dispatch), Morris Shenker, lead defense lawyer for Buster Wortman, addresses the judge during the trial in February 1962. By then, the prison-bound poet and writer had been published in numerous other venues, including Focus/Midwest, a St. Louisbased magazine founded by Charles Klotzer, publisher of the Saint Louis Journalism Review. Given where hed come from, its easy to figure out why.. His stepfather, Julius Dutch Gruender, an ex-con, became Maloneys less-than-sterling guardian. The plant at Weaver and College streets operates today as Magnesium Elektron of North America, a non-union company and a subsidiary of Luxfur Group of Great Britain. In late 1967, the parole board indicated the possibility of Maloneys being released early the next year. Maloney argued that the Star should immediately expose the Mafias infiltration of the River Quay. Before the details of that caper could be hashed out, however, the Ray brothers got jittery and split for Chicago. I had another change of clothes, a pound of fudge, a loaf of bread, 14 silver dollars, and my old mans .38 was buried in the bottom of the sack. Despite his preparations, Maloney was quickly apprehended after stealing a car and spent the night in the Montgomery County Jail. She kept her end of the bargain. Maloneys prison record listed him as 5-foot-9 and 145 pounds. Gruender used carpentry skills acquired in prison to rehab the old farmhouse, and he showered Maloney with gifts, including a motorcycle and a shotgun. We drove across the river to the Paddock Lounge in [East St. Louis] Illinois and I introduced him to Jimmie OBrien, Ray says. Romeos Lounge. The last time John Larry Ray visited New York City was in 1965. I had another change of clothes, a pound of fudge, a loaf of bread, 14 silver dollars, and my old mans .38 was buried in the bottom of the sack. Despite his preparations, Maloney was quickly apprehended after stealing a car and spent the night in the Montgomery County Jail. He said, Youve saved my life, for the time being, anyway.. In prison he preferred Camels, when he could afford them. After the Star ran a story implicating Cammisanos brother William Willie the Rat Cammisano in the Bonadonna slaying, members of the two families demanded to rebut the allegation, which was based on an FBI affidavit. In addition to the failed escape attempt, the prison administration cited Maloney for stabbing another inmate, manufacturing zip guns, using stimulants and committing sodomy. By that time, Slay was in his second term as St. Louis mayor. We just went in there one night to sit and watch. 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