Stabbings and killings, robberies and rapes were common. The Detroit and St. Louis Mafia families are related. Six days after the verdict, Dowling and a bodyguard were found shot to death on a dark road north of Belleville. He would serve the next 13 years at the Missouri Penitentiary, in Jefferson Cityarguably the worst prison in the United States at the time. Fact-checking the claims on case related to St. Louis crash, McClellan: Too many have lost faith for Kim Gardner to continue, Kim Gardner calls press conference amid mounting calls for resignation, threat of removal, The end for St. Louis top prosecutor? At the time, almost any local mobster was considered a suspect. Maloney joined the newspapers staff after being paroled in 1972. The second incident earned him his first stint in the reformatory at Boonville. Given this evidence and other indictors, it is unclear why federal prosecutors in St. Louis did not now pursue the Stenger case under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which was crafted specifically to address such criminal enterprises. He was between jobs, collecting unemployment benefits. While at the Register, he covered a series of murders attributed to the Freeway Killer, a name of his invention. So hundreds of men carried a knife or had one they could get to one in an emergency. He died of kidney failure and complications of liver disease at Nashville Memorial Hospital on April 23, 1998. John Larry Ray, a convicted bank robber, spent more than a quarter-century behind bars himself. 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. The plant was located across the river in Illinois. Post-Dispatch artist Albert Schweitzer made this drawing of the courtroom because no cameras were allowed inside. Maloney moved back to Kansas City, perhaps drawn by memories of his glory days. Over the next year and a half, Maloney was put in solitary confinement dozens of times for attempting to escape, instigating a riot and other infractions. The prison series later won the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association. copyright 2021 by C.D. That J.J. Maloney survived is remarkable. She kept her end of the bargain. 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. In the ensuing fight, the pistol fired a second time, striking Thiemann in the leg. O'Brien knew the owner of the Paddock Frank "Buster" Wortman the East Side mob boss. Maloney was also keenly aware that local law-enforcement officials were hesitant to use the M-word. Maloney ended up moving to the West Coast. A judge cited him for contempt of court. 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. Beneath the outward generosity, however, Gruender was an angry and hardened man who drank heavily and sometimes abused his wife and stepson. The Paddock Lounge also boasts an extensive beverage menu*. No charges were filed against Wortman. Case Closed: Crime scene photo of the interior of the 1995 Ford Crown Victoria occupied by Jesse Stoneking on Jan. 19, 2003. But Richard Callow, the mayors longtime political consultant, does make a cameo appearance in the film. Seated at right, facing Mrs. Dowling, are county sheriff's deputies Edward Kowalski (left) and Vincent Neuner. The last time John Larry Ray visited New York City was in 1965. 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. There is no doubt now that John Larry Ray helped James Earl Ray escape from the Missouri State Penitentiary, but the devil is in the details. You can check, if they still have the records. Five more years would elapse before Maloney finally made parole, during which time Menn continued to support and encourage his writing. I was glad to get out of there. Before they departed, Jones overheard the bodyguard to Carl Corky Civella threaten to rape Maloney. While in prison, Gruender met and befriended Elmer Dutch Dowling and Isidore Londe, lieutenants of East St. Louis mob boss Frank Buster Wortman. He was not from another planet, but he was from another time. But the mob kind of looked at Joe as a turncoat. He proved to be an invaluable ally. An attorney of the same name Andrew Leonard was the longtime general counsel for Hartmann Publishing, the original owner of the RFT. View 2295 homes for sale in Paddock Lake Condominiums, take real estate virtual tours & browse MLS listings in Florissant, MO at realtor.com. 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. But his mother remained faithful: She never gave up. In November, St. Louis Post-Dispatch staffer Michael Shaw reported that Sonnenschein was sentenced to a year in jail in federal court in East St. Louis. They drove to Kansas City together and toured the Stars editorial offices. 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. A short time later, he went to federal prison for slugging a liquor agent during a raid on a still near Collinsville. 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. 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. Meanwhile, Menn had interested Random House in publishing a book of Maloneys poetry. We are also conveniently located near shopping, dining, and entertainment options. You never know for sure what is going to happen from day to day in prison. In his phone call he had asked his brother to pump OBrien for information. At Menns suggestion, he started writing book reviews for the Star. I asked him if hed read the story, and if it had helped him any. 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. Martin Luther King Jr., who died in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968. Slay was a partner in Guilfoil Petzall & Shoemake for 20 years prior to becoming mayor. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch). While absent without leave, Maloney worked briefly for a carnival in Florida before returning to Missouri. But his rise from convicted murderer to award-winning investigative reporter for the Kansas City Star is a feat unparalleled in the annals of American journalism. The Post-Dispatch ran the photograph because Wortman had refused to tell a federal grand jury where he lived. Sonnenschein, who headed the A to Z Development Corp., admitted to the court that businesses located on his property were engaged in prostitution. 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.. Everyone figured Wortman took care of it. 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? Over the next year and a half, Maloney was put in solitary confinement dozens of times for attempting to escape, instigating a riot and other infractions. The last time John Larry Ray visited New York City was in 1965. The two reporters began knocking on doors, talking to area business owners. Its the smoking that eventually killed him. Through her encouragement, elderly attorney Mable Hinkley began to correspond with Maloney. Kevin Horrigan, a cub reporter at the Star in 1973, remembers Maloney as an affable colleague but one who stood apart. A sheriffs posse pursuing the fugitives heard the shots and found Moyer lying next to the body. You have permission to edit this article. After six weeks of observation at Fulton, Maloney was allowed by the parole board to enlist in the Army. I was impressed. Stabbings and killings, robberies and rapes were common. Inside your new home, you will find window coverings, spacious walk-in closets . Webbe, a former city alderman, was convicted of voter fraud and obstruction of justice in 1985. Despite his abominable record, the state had little choice but to parole him in January 1959, a few months after he turned 18. Wortman was acquitted in retrial in 1966. A subdivision now adjoins the lake, known today as Magin's Lake, named after Wortman's old bartender. 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. Maloney had garnered the editors attention in 1961 through a poem he had submitted to the Star, which then printed verse on its editorial page each day. The FBI knew about an alleged connection between the Chicago Mafia and Rallo Construction Co. of St. Louis as early as 1991, according to a classified FBI report released under the Freedom of Information Act. The defendants departed the federal courthouse, 750 Missouri Avenue, free on appeal bond. 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. 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. 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. He was Wortman's right-hand man when they were convicted together in the income-tax case in 1962. But back in Kansas City, a rift had developed among three branches of the local mob: the Cammisano, Spero and Bonadonna clans. They also interviewed city and federal law-enforcement authorities and pumped confidential sources for information. Maloney also tagged along when his stepfather drove to Jefferson City to visit a friend still incarcerated at the penitentiary. Jones and Maloney collaborated for months on the prison project, sharing the reporting and writing duties. In July 1976, David Bonadonna, the father of Fred Bonadonna, owner of Poor Freddies restaurant in the River Quay, became the first victim. The next year, Maloney ran away again. He was not from another planet, but he was from another time. We offer freshly baked cookies for dessert, and fries or chips for a quick snack option. 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. I told him, if youre looking for guns, I can get any gun you want from Ft. Campbell, Ky. That arrangement was still in place in 1972. 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. He wrote to me as if I were just another person, another young writer.. Entering the store, he pulled a hunting knife and demanded money from Joseph F. Thiemann, the 74-year-old store owner. Dowling had been Wortman's right-hand man and was convicted along with Wortman on Feb. 26. 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. Truth at Last is his intriguing but meandering account, a navigation of the uncharted waters of the two siblings lives. Maloneys own artwork took awards at state and county fairs and was exhibited at a gallery in Paris. Edith was a strangely magnetic girl. 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. Having written it, my next problem was deciding where to send it. I remember telling him, Joe, lets just wait until they start killing each other, says Jones. Before his contract expired, the Star hired him as a full-time general-assignment reporter. 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. He didnt see what kind of car his brother was driving, but he got the sense that someone was waiting for him. On Dec. 19, 1945, at the age of 14, Maloney ran away from home for the first time.I was prepared, Maloney recalled later. At Menns suggestion, he started writing book reviews for the Star. He had his demons, says Mike Fancher, an editor who worked closely with Maloney, but I know that for the time that he worked for the Star he did some absolutely amazing work that I dont think any other journalist could have possibly done.. (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. That, of course, was back in the day, when a lifer could still aspire to being released on parole. Their stories ran as a four-part series in April 1973. A week after the trial, one was shot to death along with his body guard. Jesse Stoneking, the unnamed informant cited by the FBI in the report, died of a gunshot wound to the head in Arizona in 2003. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Given where hed come from, its easy to figure out why.. Arizona authorities ruled it a suicide. That, of course, was back in the day, when a lifer could still aspire to being released on parole. (Post-Dispatch), Elmer "Dutch" Dowling arriving at the federal courthouse in East St. Louis in a light rain during the trial. In those days the Kansas City Star printed a poem on the editorial page every day, so I mailed the poem to the Star. At the same time, dissension was brewing in the newsroom. It was like he was from another planet. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Wortman made his bookmaking network pony up $20,000 for the deal. The current owners of the sex businesses operating on his property were not charged. But his rise from convicted murderer to award-winning investigative reporter for the Kansas City Star is a feat unparalleled in the annals of American journalism. Back home, he muscled out the Shelton brothers and took over the East Side rackets. Driving the car, and trying to hide his face with a handkerchief, is Dutch Dowling. The next day, Maloney returned to the newsroom not as a guest but as an employee. He chain-smoked. Exposure to art ignited Maloneys innate creative streak. I was impressed. 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. Maloney also tagged along when his stepfather drove to Jefferson City to visit a friend still incarcerated at the penitentiary. While there, he remembers, Malcolm X was murdered. The two reporters began knocking on doors, talking to area business owners. The Paddock closed in 1967. It was the beginning of a long-term relationship carried out by correspondence. Though he avoided further trouble with the law, Gruender acted as a courier for Wortman. 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