The Star published a verbatim transcript of his claims in its next edition. 4.9. In 1952 the family moved to a farm in New Florence, Mo., a small town 65 miles west of St. Louis. By any measure, he had to be considered beyond salvation, a lost cause. 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? Double Deuce Lounge. In those days the Kansas City Star printed a poem on the editorial page every day, so I mailed the poem to the Star. He was not from another planet, but he was from another time. Thiemann died as a result of the wounds he sustained in the fracas. Mugshot of Mike Lacey courtesy of the Maricopa County Sheriffs Department. He reported for the Orange County Register in 1980 and 1981. He reported for the Orange County Register in 1980 and 1981. After his return to Missouri, his parole officer committed Maloney to State Hospital No. 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? Later that year, James Earl Ray returned to the St. Louis area and met with OBrien again, John Larry Ray says. At Menns suggestion, he started writing book reviews for the Star. During a short parole in 1957, Maloney was arrested in Kansas City on suspicion of burglary and carrying a concealed weapon. Maloney moved back to Kansas City, perhaps drawn by memories of his glory days. At left is Dr. C.C. 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. But as quickly as his cell door seemed to have started to creak open, the steel bars slammed shut again. A sheriffs posse pursuing the fugitives heard the shots and found Moyer lying next to the body. Beckman was a bodyguard for Wortman and Dowling. He would serve the next 13 years at the Missouri Penitentiary, in Jefferson Cityarguably the worst prison in the United States at the time. He is awaiting sentencing before Judge Catherine D. Perry in August. Menn then sold the proposal to Cruise Palmer, the executive editor. It didnt take very long for that to happen. Webbe, a former city alderman, was convicted of voter fraud and obstruction of justice in 1985. Stabbings and killings, robberies and rapes were common. She was 16 and insisted she would commit suicide before she was 21, because she had a fear of not being beautiful. The brand varied with the decade: L&Ms or, later, Marlboro Lights. They both concluded that their fears were unfounded, says John Larry Ray. (Robert LaRouche/Post-Dispatch), The house that was built on the island. Maloney joined the newspapers staff after being paroled in 1972. 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. If you will make these promises, I will ask the warden to take you out of solitary confinement.. English . 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 had learned about it from his mobbed-up stepfather. While in prison, Gruender met and befriended Elmer Dutch Dowling and Isidore Londe, lieutenants of East St. Louis mob boss Frank Buster Wortman. C. M. Raemer U.S. Gruender, a housepainter, had a string of arrests and convictions for car theft and burglary dating back to 1926. Morris A. Shenker, St. Louis, Mo., for defendants Frank Leonard Wortman and Elmer Sylvester Dowling. He had publicly refuted the Stars story simply to keep from being killed. Rainbow Wednesdays at Club Lush #121 of 282 places to eat in East Saint Louis. Google. When he entered prison, Dwight Eisenhower was president; when he came out, the Watergate burglary had been committed. All the hoods would congregate there, drinking coffee, recalls Jones. (Post-Dispatch), A close-up of a bullet hole in the front windshield of Melvin Beckman's car. The convicted assassin spent the rest of his life in the Tennessee prison system. In 2000, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversaw a partial radioactive cleanup at the Spectrulite plant. Gruenders association with these gangsters continued long after his parole. This meant that senior editorial staffers such as Menn, who had accumulated large stock holdings in the company, could negotiate with management on a more even level. Maloney, I realize you have a job to dobut do you have to be so intense?. Until January, Sweeney headed the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, a county agency that was used to dole out the contracts to Rallo and other political contributors to Stengers campaign coffers. Maloneys prison record listed him as 5-foot-9 and 145 pounds. O'Brien arranged for the Ray brothers to spend the night at a nearby apartment above an illegal gambling den also operated by Wortman. He chain-smoked. Petzall, the mayors legal mentor, will celebrate his 86th birthday in June. Jones agreed with them. He encouraged me to keep working on the poem, and asked me to stay in touch with him. For those under 21 years of age, we offer sodas, teas, waters, Gatorades, Red Bull energy drinks, and Nescafe coffee. . He didnt see what kind of car his brother was driving, but he got the sense that someone was waiting for him. I asked him if hed read the story, and if it had helped him any. Entering the store, he pulled a hunting knife and demanded money from Joseph F. Thiemann, the 74-year-old store owner. 539 were here. Maloney worked on his writing for as much as six hours every evening. By the time we were cellies, Joe had straightened up his act and was staying out of trouble, working on his parole. It was like he was from another planet. (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. 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. Over the next two years, eight more mob-related murders would go down before the violence subsided. Dowling was convicted of assault in the case, but he won a reversal from the Missouri Supreme Court. Through her encouragement, elderly attorney Mable Hinkley began to correspond with Maloney. Moreover, Jerry Ray, John Larry Rays surviving brother, disputed John Larrys account in a telephone interview from his home in McMinnville, Tenn., in October. She corresponded. People [were] shot and blown up.. In July 1976, David Bonadonna, the father of Fred Bonadonna, owner of Poor Freddies restaurant in the River Quay, became the first victim. East St. Louis Community College Center. Prosecutors said Wortman evaded $50,793 in taxes due from glitzy gambling halls and smoky bookie joints. That arrangement was still in place in 1972. Maloney argued that the Star should immediately expose the Mafias infiltration of the River Quay. Their bodies were found sprawled across Wolf Branch School Road (now Huntwood). Maloney argued that the Star should immediately expose the Mafias infiltration of the River Quay. Arizona law enforcement authorities ruled his death a suicide. She visited. Pendergast was long gone, but his machine was anchored in place. By then, newspapers called it "Wortman's Island." He says he drove down from St. Louis in his cream-colored Thunderbird with a machine gun and other weapons in the trunk. The prison series later won the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association. Maloney added to his underworld knowledge in prison, where he befriended fellow inmate John Paul Spica, a St. Louis Mafia soldier. I told him, if youre looking for guns, I can get any gun you want from Ft. Campbell, Ky. 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. Wortman had died in Alexian Brothers Hospital in St. Louis five days before after undergoing throat surgery. He quickly became an important part of the gang that terrorized Southern Illinois in the 1920s and early. Post-Dispatch artist Albert Schweitzer made this drawing of the courtroom because no cameras were allowed inside. After returning to the United States, he occasionally talked to his brother by phone. Though he avoided further trouble with the law, Gruender acted as a courier for Wortman. They both concluded that their fears were unfounded, says John Larry Ray. A year after his parents divorced, a hit-and-run driver killed his brother, Bobby. Competing mob interests were in the midst of fighting for control of the River Quay entertainment district. He was found shot to death and stuffed into the trunk of his car. Beckman was a bodyguard in Wortman's organization. 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. Because of their advance legwork, Maloney, Jones and staff reporters Bill Norton and Joe Henderson uncovered developments in the midst of the mayhem sometimes before federal and local law-enforcement authorities.At one point Joe Cammisano called Maloney and said: Mr. Or you may simply say the wrong thing to the wrong person. His defiance dashed his hopes of gaining parole and put him at odds with the prison administration for the remainder of his sentence. 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. 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. Menn patiently waited until 1967 before publishing one of Maloneys poems in the Star. Given where hed come from, its easy to figure out why.. Otherwise, he rolled his own from pouches of Ozark-brand tobacco, manufactured and distributed for free at the Missouri Penitentiary. The Paddock Lounge also boasts an extensive beverage menu*. 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. He wrote to me as if I were just another person, another young writer.. 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. When he made the demand for money, he and Thiemann began struggling, according to the confession Maloney later gave St. Louis police. It didnt take very long for that to happen. Tasty dishes in East Saint Louis. Tucked in a peaceful neighborhood, Paddock Village Apartments offers a quaint residential setting, complete with lush green spaces. . If you are helpless, there are people who will try to make a reputation at your expense. The mob continued to influence the police department, city hall, the county courthouse and the state legislature. After the breakout, John Larry Ray says, he picked James Earl Ray up and drove him back to St. Louis. 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. That J.J. Maloney survived is remarkable. It might have been recycling. 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. Thus inspired, the IRS began digging harder into Wortman's unusual financial world. In a sense, Maloney did respect their trade. 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. The car, shot up on the inside, was found in the parking lot of the Bel Air bowling alley in Swansea. It was uncanny.. Later that year, James Earl Ray returned to the St. Louis area and met with OBrien again, John Larry Ray says. 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. The next day, Maloney returned to the newsroom not as a guest but as an employee. Because of their advance legwork, Maloney, Jones and staff reporters Bill Norton and Joe Henderson uncovered developments in the midst of the mayhem sometimes before federal and local law-enforcement authorities.At one point Joe Cammisano called Maloney and said: Mr. Wortman later moved into a home built upon the island, reached by a wooden bridge -- and always guarded by gunmen. The couple then took a cab to the Soulard neighborhood in South St. Louis. Tucked in a peaceful neighborhood, Paddock Village Apartments offers a quaint residential setting, complete with lush green spaces. Otherwise, he rolled his own from pouches of Ozark-brand tobacco, manufactured and distributed for free at the Missouri Penitentiary. After the problem came to light, the company forced its union work force to strike, filed for bankruptcy, and then reorganized under a different name, selling half the business to a foreign conglomerate. There were captains on the guard force who owed their souls to certain convicts. Gruender used carpentry skills acquired in prison to rehab the old farmhouse, and he showered Maloney with gifts, including a motorcycle and a shotgun. He encouraged me to keep working on the poem, and asked me to stay in touch with him. 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. He claims that his brother was then fronted an estimated $50,000. Bucknor for rejecting handshake: Zero class, Suspect charged in fatal shooting in downtown St. Louis, Man shot and killed after fight in downtown St. Louis, Is Kim Gardner right? Wortman made his bookmaking network pony up $20,000 for the deal. James Earl Ray also supposedly told his brother that the CIA had tapped him to be an intelligence asset. East Saint Louis, Illinois. Hinkley, a former St. Louis Globe-Democrat Woman of the Year, was an early advocate of prison reform and used her social standing to influence decisions of the Missouri Department of Corrections. When newspaper tycoon Mike Lacey, former owner of the St. Louis Riverfront Times, was busted for pimping in California this week, his arrest was long overdue. When they parted, he watched his brother walk down the back alley alone. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch). Rays late brother James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to Kings murder in 1969 but quickly recanted his confession. Maloney had no way of knowing the significance that his verse would ultimately play in redirecting his life. After returning to the United States, he occasionally talked to his brother by phone. 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. You never know for sure what is going to happen from day to day in prison. 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. Wortman's headquarters was his Paddock Lounge, at 429 St. Louis Avenue in East St. Louis. By checking liquor-license applications, Maloney determined that mobsters or their relatives secretly owned several restaurants and bars in the River Quay. 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. A version of this story appeared in Illinois Times, April 2, 2008. He chain-smoked. On the evening of Dec. 11, he picked up Rhodes in Columbia at an apartment she was sharing with another girl. The prison series later won the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association. If you are helpless, there are people who will try to make a reputation at your expense. I remember telling him, Joe, lets just wait until they start killing each other, says Jones. Maloney ended up moving to the West Coast. Maloneys formal education had ended in the ninth grade, but Menn recognized raw talent when he saw it. 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. As a result, the mayor does not appear in our documentary, The First Secret City. In his phone call he had asked his brother to pump OBrien for information. Play "The Decider" and let your All of a sudden their stories would change. Parole in 1957, maloney returned to the St. Louis police was waiting for him and stuffed into the of. 1952 the family moved to a farm in New Florence, Mo., a small town 65 miles of! 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