copyright 2021 by C.D. In the mid-70s, some Star editors were even reluctant to print the word Mafia, Maloney later wrote. Witnesses who might have confirmed John Larry Rays expanded version of events are dead. We are also conveniently located near shopping, dining, and entertainment options. 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. Seated at right, facing Mrs. Dowling, are county sheriff's deputies Edward Kowalski (left) and Vincent Neuner. An attorney of the same name Andrew Leonard was the longtime general counsel for Hartmann Publishing, the original owner of the RFT. O'Brien knew the owner of the Paddock Frank "Buster" Wortman the East Side mob boss. By the time Maloney returned home, his mother had remarried. While there, he remembers, Malcolm X was murdered. After his return to Missouri, his parole officer committed Maloney to State Hospital No. OBrien arranged for the Ray brothers to spend the night at a nearby apartment above an illegal gambling den also operated by Wortman. Though he avoided further trouble with the law, Gruender acted as a courier for Wortman. 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? 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 always writing somethingstories, critiques, opinion pieces and, yes, poetry.. It was like he was from another planet. By then the Star had been bought by Capital Cities, a media chain with a history of poor labor relations. In June 1964, at Hinkleys urging, Warden E.V. (Post-Dispatch), A close-up of a bullet hole in the front windshield of Melvin Beckman's car. James Earl Ray subsequently fled north of the border, but there is no indication that he participated in such a caper. 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. The convicted assassin spent the rest of his life in the Tennessee prison system. The truck driver attributed his lung cancer to his occupational exposure to radiation in the late 1950s and early 1960s. But his mother remained faithful: She never gave up. If the remark bothered Maloney, he didnt show it. After returning to the United States, he occasionally talked to his brother by phone. Callow, however, is not the only link between the mayor and the radioactive waste that has plagued the region since it first began piling up as a byproduct of Mallinkcrodt Chemicals work on the Manhattan Project. Prosecutors said Wortman evaded $50,793 in taxes due from glitzy gambling halls and smoky bookie joints. By the time Maloney returned home, his mother had remarried. Maloney added to his underworld knowledge in prison, where he befriended fellow inmate John Paul Spica, a St. Louis Mafia soldier. Maloney also tagged along when his stepfather drove to Jefferson City to visit a friend still incarcerated at the penitentiary. It was uncanny.. He rejected Maloneys poem but continued to correspond, providing him with professional advice and personal guidance. The Kansas City Mafia wielded considerable economic cloutcontrolling several banks [and] owning ten percent or more of the taverns and nightclubs in the city. Gruender, a housepainter, had a string of arrests and convictions for car theft and burglary dating back to 1926. Much of the authors personal knowledge of his brothers exploits is limited to involvement in James Earl Rays escape from the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City in April 1967, a year before Kings murder. But Sonnenscheins trail extends further into the past. Daniel Waugh drove a cab at night and chased old mobsters by day. Wortman did not like having his picture taken, but couldn't avoid it during the seven-week trial. The prison series later won the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association. In her first letter, Hinkley advised Maloney to seek divine guidance, but she also offered him a more down-to-earth deal. Their stories ran as a four-part series in April 1973. Wortman, Dowling and a third man were found guilty Feb. 26, 1962, of conspiracy to avoid income taxes. Edith was a strangely magnetic girl. We are also conveniently located near shopping, dining, and . 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 back in Kansas City, a rift had developed among three branches of the local mob: the Cammisano, Spero and Bonadonna clans. 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. The delays in communications eventually killed his deal with Random House. He was found shot to death and stuffed into the trunk of his car. The jurors were dragged back for a grilling, but no one drew suspicion. Maloney thought of Menn as the father he never had. (Edward Burkhardt/Post-Dispatch), Buster Wortman's home at on Grandview Drive on the western outskirts of Collinsville in February 1954. Before his contract expired, the Star hired him as a full-time general-assignment reporter. 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. John Larry Ray, a convicted bank robber, spent more than a quarter-century behind bars himself. 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). Take-Out/Delivery Options. (Buel White/Post-Dispatch), On March 3, 1962, six days after the jury verdict, the bodies of Elmer "Dutch" Dowling (left) and Melvin Beckman were found sprawled on the pavement of Wolf Branch School Board (now Huntwood Road), north of Belleville. Wortman later moved into a home built upon the island, reached by a wooden bridge -- and always guarded by gunmen. Maloney also tagged along when his stepfather drove to Jefferson City to visit a friend still incarcerated at the penitentiary. In 2000, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversaw a partial radioactive cleanup at the Spectrulite plant. Moreover, Jerry Ray, John Larry Rays surviving brother, disputed John Larrys account in a telephone interview from his home in McMinnville, Tenn., in October. Moreover, Jerry Ray, John Larry Rays surviving brother, disputed John Larrys account in a telephone interview from his home in McMinnville, Tenn., in October. For those under 21 years of age, we offer sodas, teas, waters, Gatorades, Red Bull energy drinks, and Nescafe coffee. As a result, he was put in solitary four times and sentenced to the hole another 18 or 20 times. A neighborhood setting, within minutes of key places such as Emerson Electric, Boeing, Express Scripts and major highways 70, 270 & 367. A famous urban destination spot for the St. Louis metropolitan with gentlemen clubs and nightclubs, but the Ill Side, which represents St Louis' only section that is in the state of Illinois, is a community that has many misunderstandings, especially within the East St Louis ghetto. OBrien knew the owner of the Paddock Frank Buster Wortman the East Side mob boss. It was uncanny.. 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. His stepfather, Julius Dutch Gruender, an ex-con, became Maloneys less-than-sterling guardian. Talk about stares. 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. While there, he remembers, Malcolm X was murdered. The next day I called Bonadonna, Maloney recalled later. It was curious, too, how they seemed to hate Joe more than me, although our names appeared together on stories. When they parted, he watched his brother walk down the back alley alone. 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. O'Brien arranged for the Ray brothers to spend the night at a nearby apartment above an illegal gambling den . Wortman had died in Alexian Brothers Hospital in St. Louis five days before after undergoing throat surgery. This was the town of Tom Pendergast, one of the most powerful Mafia/machine bosses in U.S. history, Maloney wrote. 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. . Asked why John Larry Ray would incorporate a stopover in St. Louis into his story, his brother replies: I guess to dramatize the book. Maloney expanded his connections in the literary world, writing to such luminaries as R. Buckminster Fuller, John D. MacDonald, William Buckley and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. In those days the Kansas City Star printed a poem on the editorial page every day, so I mailed the poem to the Star. 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. 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. Emilio Grau Sala - "Paddock" Pars 1969, 20th Century oil on canvas by Spanish Artist E. Grau Sala For Sale at 1stDibs | paddock lounge east st louis 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.. In the ensuing fight, the pistol fired a second time, striking Thiemann in the leg. For those under 21 years of age, we offer sodas, teas, waters, Gatorades, Red Bull energy drinks, and Nescafe coffee. poultry; chicken; meat . Last month, the U.S. Attorneys Office in St. Louis issued a three-count indictment against St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger for his role in steering lucrative contracts and property deals in return for campaign contributions from John G. Rallo, a former shareholder in one of the family-owned construction companies CMR Construction Inc. CMR was formed 1989 by Charles N. Rallo and Michael J. Rallo, grandsons of the of founder of C. Rallo Contracting Co., which was incorporated in 1947. Morris Shenker, the go-to lawyer for mobsters, expressed ritual disappointment. 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? When he made the demand for money, he and Thiemann began struggling, according to the confession Maloney later gave St. Louis police. Its like the Mississippi River, says John Larry Ray. Less than two years later, on April 10, 1985, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported on the federal trial of Bartolotta in East St. Louis. Maloneys prison record listed him as 5-foot-9 and 145 pounds. Star reporter Harry Jones Jr. had hatched the idea of hiring him as a temporary consultant for an in-depth series of stories on prison systems in Missouri and Kansas. People [were] shot and blown up.. Dowling got his start as a robber and bootlegger in St. Louis. When he visits the Big Apple this week, he will be discussing the assassination of another black leader, the Rev. The mob continued to influence the police department, city hall, the county courthouse and the state legislature. Hartmann Publishing, owned by Ray Hartmann, sold the newspaper to the New Times, a Phoenix-based chain, in late 1998. Subscribe with this special offer to keep reading, (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). The same year, Maloneys byline disappeared from the pages of the Star when he quit the paper in a dispute over overtime pay. A subdivision now adjoins the lake, known today as Magin's Lake, named after Wortman's old bartender. All of a sudden their stories would change. Much of the authors personal knowledge of his brothers exploits is limited to involvement in James Earl Rays escape from the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City in April 1967, a year before Kings murder. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch), Frank "Buster" Wortman in the federal courthouse in East St. Louis in February 1962 during his trial on income-tax charges. Exposure to art ignited Maloneys innate creative streak. In Dowling's pocket were notes scrawled on napkins that bore the names of jurors and things they'd said in secret deliberation. I was impressed that the literary editor of a famous newspaper would write to me. Everyone was shocked. Dope was easier to get in prison than it was on the streets. It didnt take very long for that to happen. On hearing the bad news, Maloney vowed to kill Moyer and tried to escape. Kane, county coroner. 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. Prestige Lounge: By the time Lou Bonds shuttered the Prestige in the early '90s, the venue had already outlasted all of its peers in the surrounding Gaslight Square. There were captains on the guard force who owed their souls to certain convicts. Last chance! Mayor Slay leaves office next week, after serving an unprecedented four terms. 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