. In that role, Callow has acted to tamp down public concerns about the severity of the environmental and health problems related to the troubled landfill. Joe, which is what his friends called him, and I shared a cell in C-Hall during 1965-66, recalls former inmate Frank Driscoll. 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. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch), In 1956, workers began digging an oval lake and fashioning an island near South Mulberry Road southeast of Collinsville. Rays late brother James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to Kings murder in 1969 but quickly recanted his confession. James Earl Ray subsequently fled north of the border, but there is no indication that he participated in such a caper. The St. Louis mobster and federal informant died from a gunshot wound to the head. Instead, James Earl Ray appeared edgy and expressed apprehension about his future. They drove to Kansas City together and toured the Stars editorial offices. Maloney argued that the Star should immediately expose the Mafias infiltration of the River Quay. 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. Maloney thought of Menn as the father he never had. His prison record over the next few years is a litany of major conduct violation:. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. The photo was taken in April 1958. We just went in there one night to sit and watch. I was even more impressed that he did not ask why I was in prison, or for how long. Federal prosecutors had charged Bartolotta and another Missouri resident with conspiring to commit interstate transportation of stolen property. They preferred a more cautious approach, advising that the coverage be focused more indirectly on corruption inside the citys liquor-control agency. . This time he made it as far as Hannibal before crashing a stolen car. Morris Shenker, the go-to lawyer for mobsters, expressed ritual disappointment. He says he warned his brother about the dangers of dealing with the Mafia: I told him dont be the one floating in the Mississippi.. By any measure, he had to be considered beyond salvation, a lost cause. He pitched various book proposals and collaborated on at least three different screenplay adaptations of his first novel, but none of the projects came to fruition. Witnesses who might have confirmed John Larry Rays expanded version of events are dead. C.D. It was uncanny.. Maloney had no way of knowing the significance that his verse would ultimately play in redirecting his life. 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. After the breakout, John Larry Ray says, he picked James Earl Ray up and drove him back to St. Louis. Double Deuce Lounge - 601 S 10th St, East St Louis. Buster Wortman kept a close eye on the project, but never said anything about it. Maloney added to his underworld knowledge in prison, where he befriended fellow inmate John Paul Spica, a St. Louis Mafia soldier. 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. Maloneys formal education had ended in the ninth grade, but Menn recognized raw talent when he saw it. Maloney ended up moving to the West Coast. In 1952 the family moved to a farm in New Florence, Mo., a small town 65 miles west of St. Louis. Paddock Village Apartments offers one-of-a-kind 2 bedroom apartment homes and 2 or 3 bedroom townhomes. She corresponded. Rays late brother James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to Kings murder in 1969 but quickly recanted his confession. He said, Youve saved my life, for the time being, anyway.. Entering the store, he pulled a hunting knife and demanded money from Joseph F. Thiemann, the 74-year-old store owner. I dont know.. Menn then sold the proposal to Cruise Palmer, the executive editor. In subsequent tape-recorded telephone interviews with Maloney, Bonadonna said that the Mafia had also targeted him for execution. #88 of 282 places to eat in East Saint Louis. The only thing his real father ever gave him was his name. There were men in prison who were said to make more money each year from dope and gambling than the warden was paid. Martin Luther King Jr., who died in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968. Moreover, Jerry Ray, John Larry Rays surviving brother, disputed John Larrys account in a telephone interview from his home in McMinnville, Tenn., in October. He brought him to Chicago. On Aug. 26, 1961, Maloneys girlfriend, Edith Rhodes, was murdered near Huzzah Creek in rural Crawford County, Mo. Maloney was 19 years old when he committed the crime. Buster Wortman kept a close eye on the project, but never said anything about it. He told me then that he didnt have time to go on camera for even a few minutes to talk about St. Louis longstanding radioactive waste problem. You can check, if they still have the records. Over the next two years, eight more mob-related murders would go down before the violence subsided. Menn became his mentor, giving guidance and critiquing his poetry and prose. . He chain-smoked. 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. Ray, a 75-year-old resident of Quincy, is giving media interviews in New York to promote the release of his memoir, Truth at Last, co-authored by Lyndon Barsten. 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. The next day I called Bonadonna, Maloney recalled later. He claims that his brother was then fronted an estimated $50,000. An earlier version of this story appeared in the St. Louis Journalism review in 2008 and Focus/midwest magazine in 2010. When he visits the Big Apple this week, he will be discussing the assassination of another black leader, the Rev. OBrien arranged for the Ray brothers to spend the night at a nearby apartment above an illegal gambling den also operated by Wortman. He was between jobs, collecting unemployment benefits. 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. John will tell you he brought him [James Earl Ray] to St. Louis, Jerry Ray says. The jurors were dragged back for a grilling, but no one drew suspicion. Through her encouragement, elderly attorney Mable Hinkley began to correspond with Maloney. After returning to the United States, he occasionally talked to his brother by phone. He was not from another planet, but he was from another time. Bonadonna was one of Maloneys confidential sources. Bonadonna disappeared in 1978, presumably into the federal witness-protection program. Arizona law enforcement authorities ruled his death a suicide. He rejected Maloneys poem but continued to correspond, providing him with professional advice and personal guidance. This time he made it as far as Hannibal before crashing a stolen car. Maloney ended up moving to the West Coast. "We drove across the river to the Paddock Lounge in [East St. Louis] Illinois and I introduced him to Jimmie O'Brien," Ray says. At the time of his marriage to Maloneys mother, he had only been out of the Missouri Penitentiary for a year. Mugshot of Mike Lacey courtesy of the Maricopa County Sheriffs Department. Despite the low wages, the offer was priceless because it cinched his parole. When he made the demand for money, he and Thiemann began struggling, according to the confession Maloney later gave St. Louis police. Asked why John Larry Ray would incorporate a stopover in St. Louis into his story, his brother replies: I guess to dramatize the book. Though he avoided further trouble with the law, Gruender acted as a courier for Wortman. 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. The Kansas City Mafia wielded considerable economic cloutcontrolling several banks [and] owning ten percent or more of the taverns and nightclubs in the city. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Clark indicated that the owners of Free Spirit advertised in Missouri publications from 1994 until 2000, the Post reported. He chain-smoked. Maloneys own artwork took awards at state and county fairs and was exhibited at a gallery in Paris. There were men in prison who were said to make more money each year from dope and gambling than the warden was paid. We visited every institution of correction for adults and juveniles in both Missouri and Kansas, plus Leavenworth and Marion in Illinois, which at the time was the Alcatraz of the [federal] system, says Jones. But back in Kansas City, a rift had developed among three branches of the local mob: the Cammisano, Spero and Bonadonna clans. The FBI knew that the Rallo Construction Co. had alleged ties to the Chicago Mafia for decades. Wortman did not like having his picture taken, but couldn't avoid it during the seven-week trial. Maloney then wrested the gun from his victim and fled. At a tape-recorded meeting held in the Stars conference room, Fred Bonadonna refuted any possibility that Willie Cammisano had had anything to do with the death of his father. I was impressed. Offered by GALERIA LUIS CARVAJAL. Maloney had been in solitary confinement for nearly four months after his escape attempt when Hinkley contacted him. Atty., East St. Louis, Ill., for United States. Arizona authorities ruled it a suicide. O'Brien arranged for the Ray brothers to spend the night at a nearby apartment above an illegal gambling den . Maloney worked on his writing for as much as six hours every evening. People [were] shot and blown up.. By the time Maloney returned home, his mother had remarried. Maloneys formal education had ended in the ninth grade, but Menn recognized raw talent when he saw it. East Boogie created that same passion, drive and defiant spirit in the likes of a jazz musician by the name of Miles Davis and many achievers who dared to dream of success despite the negative. A Look Back Two mobsters found guilty in East St. Louis in 1962. Maloney, I realize you have a job to dobut do you have to be so intense?. Its far-flung empire stretched all the way to Las Vegas, where the KC mob oversaw the skimming of millions of dollars from casinos. 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. Dennis W. Sonnenschein will have plenty of time to reflect on his business career over the next year. Wortman was acquitted at retrial, but he spent his last years hunkered in his island home, protected by gunmen. Petzall, the mayors legal mentor, will celebrate his 86th birthday in June. 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. After he testified against Berne and other St. Louis area organized crime figures in federal court, the Chicago Mafia allegedly put out a $100,000 contract on his life. It didnt take very long for that to happen. In 1979, the St. Louis environmental activist had interviewed a terminally-ill truck driver who had delivered uranium ingots from Mallinckrodt Chemical in North St. Louis to the Dow plant in Madison. Through her encouragement, elderly attorney Mable Hinkley began to correspond with Maloney. Truth at Last is his intriguing but meandering account, a navigation of the uncharted waters of the two siblings lives. I was impressed. The Paddock closed in 1967. He was kind of fearless, says Jones. In subsequent tape-recorded telephone interviews with Maloney, Bonadonna said that the Mafia had also targeted him for execution. Case Closed: Crime scene photo of the interior of the 1995 Ford Crown Victoria occupied by Jesse Stoneking on Jan. 19, 2003. Before the details of that caper could be hashed out, however, the Ray brothers got jittery and split for Chicago. 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. Last chance! Dowling and bodyguard Melvin Beckman met the mystery man in Belleville, who apparently decided to shoot first. He encouraged me to keep working on the poem, and asked me to stay in touch with him. Last chance! The Detroit and St. Louis Mafia families are related. At left is Dr. C.C. Sonnenscheins latest bust appears to have been part of a larger federal investigation into prostitution on the Eastside. In the late 1990s, shortly before his death, he established a Web site, crimemagazine.com, which is maintained by his friend J. Patrick OConnor, former owner of the New Times, a now-defunct alternative weekly in Kansas City. 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. Located at 601 James Thompson Blvd., it also will be a one-stop service center for Illinois' Workforce Advantage program. Though he avoided further trouble with the law, Gruender acted as a courier for Wortman. I collared outgoing St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay at the Earth Day celebration in Forest Park back in 2013 and asked him for a spot interview. Wortman later moved into a home built upon the island, reached by a wooden bridge -- and always guarded by gunmen. He had seen his share of bloodshed. OBrien knew the owner of the Paddock Frank Buster Wortman the East Side mob boss. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch). Wortman began his career hijacking liquor trucks for the old Shelton gang in East St. Louis. Dowling got his start as a robber and bootlegger in St. Louis. During the conversation, John Larry Ray says, Kings name came up only in reference to the possibility of traffic congestion resulting from his visit to Memphis the next day. Romeos Lounge. The problems at Spectrulite began in 1957 when the foundry was owned by Dow Chemical Co. Dow processed uranium at the plant between 1957 and 1961 under a subcontract with St. Louis-based Mallinckrodt Chemical Co., which was working for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Gruender, a housepainter, had a string of arrests and convictions for car theft and burglary dating back to 1926. Sam Reese, an older convict who had gained national recognition for his oil paintings and cartoons, served as his role model. After going bankrupt in 2003, Spectrulites owners sold the company, but continue to hold a stake in the operation and the property itself. At the same time, dissension was brewing in the newsroom. Welcome to Ivy Ultra Lounge, the premier upscale night life attraction located in downtown East. Its far-flung empire stretched all the way to Las Vegas, where the KC mob oversaw the skimming of millions of dollars from casinos. A story published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the previous month had spurred the government to do the testing. (John LaBusier/Post-Dispatch), Claire Stowers, a waitress at the Bel Air bowling alley, looks over mug shots of suspects in the murders of Dutch Dowling and Melvin Beckman. Stelzer, a St. Louis-based freelance writer, is working on a biography of the late J.J. Maloney. By then the Star had been bought by Capital Cities, a media chain with a history of poor labor relations. 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