Wortman, Dowling and a third man were found guilty Feb. 26, 1962, of conspiracy to avoid income taxes. The Paddock closed in 1967. You never know for sure what is going to happen from day to day in prison. Menn patiently waited until 1967 before publishing one of Maloneys poems in the Star. Don't sit on the sidelines. 4.9. Inside your new home, you will find window coverings, spacious walk-in closets . View the menu, check prices, find on the map, see photos and ratings. Despite his abominable record, the state had little choice but to parole him in January 1959, a few months after he turned 18. John G. Rallo, also known as Johnny Roller for his long hours spent at the crap tables in Las Vegas, and fellow accomplice Sheila Sweeney were charged one week after Stenger pleaded guilty. Asked why John Larry Ray would incorporate a stopover in St. Louis into his story, his brother replies: I guess to dramatize the book. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. James Earl Ray subsequently fled north of the border, but there is no indication that he participated in such a caper. Arizona authorities ruled it a suicide. I heard he was in Florida someplace., They sipped beer together for a couple of hours, says John Larry Ray. 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 had publicly refuted the Stars story simply to keep from being killed. After returning to the United States, he occasionally talked to his brother by phone. 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. Everyone figured Wortman took care of it. Beckman was a bodyguard for Wortman and Dowling. Three River Quay nightclubs were soon torched or bombed, and the list of gangland hits rapidly grew. 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. If you are young and good looking, you can count on being confronted again and again. He had seen his share of bloodshed. Last chance! Maloney was also keenly aware that local law-enforcement officials were hesitant to use the M-word. Menn then sold the proposal to Cruise Palmer, the executive editor. As a result, Maloneys letters to Menn started coming back undelivered. Otherwise, he rolled his own from pouches of Ozark-brand tobacco, manufactured and distributed for free at the Missouri Penitentiary. He says he drove down from St. Louis in his cream-colored Thunderbird with a machine gun and other weapons in the trunk. The two reporters began knocking on doors, talking to area business owners. At the time of his release, he had served 13 years of a life sentence for killing a South St. Louis confectionery owner during an attempted robbery. I was impressed that the literary editor of a famous newspaper would write to me. She was 16 and insisted she would commit suicide before she was 21, because she had a fear of not being beautiful. The truck driver attributed his lung cancer to his occupational exposure to radiation in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 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. Latest reviews, photos and ratings for Romeos Lounge at 787 N 53rd St in East Saint Louis - view the menu, hours, phone number, address and map. 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. Thiemann then reached into his back pocket as if to get the money and came out with a revolver and fired one shot, which apparently went over his [Maloneys] head. Maloney reacted by stabbing the storeowner in the stomach. . Maloney then married a former inmate of the girls reformatory at Chillicothe, and they moved to Alabamabut the marriage fell apart. 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. I was even more impressed that he did not ask why I was in prison, or for how long. Thiemann died as a result of the wounds he sustained in the fracas. Vintage The Paddock Lounge And Club Room Restaurant Menu St. Louis Ave East St Louis from 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. Dennis W. Sonnenschein will have plenty of time to reflect on his business career over the next year. Search the Largest Online Newspaper Archive Show article text (OCR) Save to Ancestry Clipped from St. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis, Missouri 05. 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. (Edward Burkhardt/Post-Dispatch), Buster Wortman's home at on Grandview Drive on the western outskirts of Collinsville in February 1954. Joseph John Maloney Sr., a shoemaker by trade, walked out of his sons life in 1943, when he was 3 years old. They also interviewed city and federal law-enforcement authorities and pumped confidential sources for information. 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. The photo was taken in April 1958. Kevin Horrigan, a cub reporter at the Star in 1973, remembers Maloney as an affable colleague but one who stood apart. The reasons for murder and mayhem made little sense to anyone except the convicts. . There were men in prison who were said to make more money each year from dope and gambling than the warden was paid. We worked on the fifth floor of the prison hospital, which is to say the psych ward. Having been a convict, they thought he should have respected their trade a little more than he did.. He chain-smoked. I asked him if hed read the story, and if it had helped him any. David Moyer, who confessed to the slaying, first told authorities that the girl shot herself and he had fired a second shot to end her pain. In 2000, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversaw a partial radioactive cleanup at the Spectrulite plant. Prosecutors said Wortman evaded $50,793 in taxes due from glitzy gambling halls and smoky bookie joints. Stelzer An earlier version of this story appeared in the St. Louis Journalism review in 2008 and Focus/midwest magazine in 2010. Meanwhile, OBrien was supposed to check with Wortman about a proposed diamond heist. Maloney ended up moving to the West Coast. A week after the trial, one was shot to death along with his body guard. 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. On Dec. 19, 1945, at the age of 14, Maloney ran away from home for the first time.I was prepared, Maloney recalled later. For those under 21 years of age, we offer sodas, teas, waters, Gatorades, Red Bull energy drinks, and Nescafe coffee. The reasons for murder and mayhem made little sense to anyone except the convicts. The report goes on to say that Berne told [Stoneking] that if Chicago wanted to buy property, businesses, get loans or some other such financial transaction it would be done through Rallo Construction Company in St. Louis.. In those days the Kansas City Star printed a poem on the editorial page every day, so I mailed the poem to the Star. Investigators dug up the tale of a mystery figure who had promised Wortman he could fix the jury. 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. Having written it, my next problem was deciding where to send it. He was kind of fearless, says Jones. It was uncanny.. He reported for the Orange County Register in 1980 and 1981. Sam Reese, an older convict who had gained national recognition for his oil paintings and cartoons, served as his role model. (Post-Dispatch), Elmer "Dutch" Dowling arriving at the federal courthouse in East St. Louis in a light rain during the trial. Goldsmiths boss at that time was then-U.S. Attorney Charles Grace, who initiated wide-ranging probes of organized criminal enterprises during his tenure. Eunice Dowling, widow of Dutch Dowling, testifies during a St. Clair County coroner's inquest on March 6, 1962, investigating her husband's murder. 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. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch), Frank "Buster" Wortman in a St. Louis police mug shot in 1933, when he was 28 years old and member of the Shelton gang on the East Side. Welcome to Ivy Ultra Lounge, the premier upscale night life attraction located in downtown East. No charges were filed against Wortman. 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 . Talk about stares. After the breakout, John Larry Ray says, he picked James Earl Ray up and drove him back to St. Louis. His defiance dashed his hopes of gaining parole and put him at odds with the prison administration for the remainder of his sentence. In later years he worked as a freelance writer and as an editor for the alternative press. Despite the low wages, the offer was priceless because it cinched his parole. The mob continued to influence the police department, city hall, the county courthouse and the state legislature. 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 Kansas City Mafia wielded considerable economic cloutcontrolling several banks [and] owning ten percent or more of the taverns and nightclubs in the city. Gruenders association with these gangsters continued long after his parole. 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.. Maloney owed his freedom to Thorpe Menn, the Stars literary editor, who had supported his parole and helped him get his job at the newspaper. I was glad to get out of there. Before they departed, Jones overheard the bodyguard to Carl Corky Civella threaten to rape Maloney. Gruender, a housepainter, had a string of arrests and convictions for car theft and burglary dating back to 1926. You never knew whom you might have trouble with. 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. Paddock Village Apartments in St. Louis, MO offers two bedroom lofts, two bedroom apartments, and two and three bedroom townhomes. Although the property was listed in his estranged wifes name, Linda Sonnenscbein wasnt charged, either. By then the Star had been bought by Capital Cities, a media chain with a history of poor labor relations. People started dying. This time he made it as far as Hannibal before crashing a stolen car. The house remains a private residence. C. M. Raemer U.S. After his return to Missouri, his parole officer committed Maloney to State Hospital No. His prison record over the next few years is a litany of major conduct violation:. On the evening of Dec. 11, he picked up Rhodes in Columbia at an apartment she was sharing with another girl. Last chance! Bonadonna was one of Maloneys confidential sources. The FBI knew that the Rallo Construction Co. had alleged ties to the Chicago Mafia for decades. A version of this story appeared in Illinois Times, April 2, 2008. Testifiying against Bartolotta was FBI informant Jesse Stoneking, who the defense claimed had intimidated and entrapped the St. Louis organized crime figure. Shortly before 8 p.m., Maloney dropped Rhodes off at the apartment of an acquaintance, then walked to a nearby confectionery, located at 1100 Lami Ave. He is scheduled to be arraigned May 10. 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. At Menns suggestion, he started writing book reviews for the Star. They preferred a more cautious approach, advising that the coverage be focused more indirectly on corruption inside the citys liquor-control agency. C.D. The convicted assassin spent the rest of his life in the Tennessee prison system. At the time of his marriage to Maloneys mother, he had only been out of the Missouri Penitentiary for a year. She also acted as Maloneys liaison with the outside world. Through her encouragement, elderly attorney Mable Hinkley began to correspond with Maloney. Books sent to him for review were screened by the prison administration and sometimes rejected.Instead of zip guns or knives, Maloney fought back with the law as his weapon. O'Brien knew the owner of the Paddock Frank "Buster" Wortman the East Side mob boss. 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. Webbe, a former city alderman, was convicted of voter fraud and obstruction of justice in 1985. He was between jobs, collecting unemployment benefits. 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). Eventually, the government charged him with income-tax evasion. 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. Maloney frequented the mob hangouts at night to develop leads. It didnt take very long for that to happen. Spectrulite never operated its manufacturing plant in Missouri. 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