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. Maloney was 19 years old when he committed the crime. He didnt bring him to St. Louis. 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. Moreover, Jerry Ray, John Larry Rays surviving brother, disputed John Larrys account in a telephone interview from his home in McMinnville, Tenn., in October. 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. So hundreds of men carried a knife or had one they could get to one in an emergency. That arrangement was still in place in 1972. Maloney also tagged along when his stepfather drove to Jefferson City to visit a friend still incarcerated at the penitentiary. For those under 21 years of age, we offer sodas, teas, waters, Gatorades, Red Bull energy drinks, and Nescafe coffee. Despite the low wages, the offer was priceless because it cinched his parole. He would serve the next 13 years at the Missouri Penitentiary, in Jefferson Cityarguably the worst prison in the United States at the time. We drove across the river to the Paddock Lounge in [East St. Louis] Illinois and I introduced him to Jimmie OBrien, Ray says. He called me one time, asking about a gun, John Larry Ray says. Frank L. "Buster" Wortman (December 4, 1904 - August 3, 1968) was an American St. Louis-area bootlegger, gambler, criminal gang leader, and a former member of the Shelton Brothers Gang during Prohibition.Wortman would eventually succeed the Sheltons, and take over St. Louis's gambling operations in southwest Illinois until his death. But as quickly as his cell door seemed to have started to creak open, the steel bars slammed shut again. 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. 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. Pendergast was long gone, but his machine was anchored in place. In 1952 the family moved to a farm in New Florence, Mo., a small town 65 miles west of St. Louis. They both concluded that their fears were unfounded, says John Larry Ray. O'Brien knew the owner of the Paddock, Frank "Buster" Wortman, the East Side mob boss. On hearing the bad news, Maloney vowed to kill Moyer and tried to escape. She kept her end of the bargain. He encouraged me to keep working on the poem, and asked me to stay in touch with him. In 1948, he equipped it with the novel luxury of air-conditioning. 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. All the hoods would congregate there, drinking coffee, recalls Jones. 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. The Paddock Lounge & Club Supper Room, East St Louis, IL. Arizona law enforcement authorities ruled his death a suicide. Jesse Stoneking, the unnamed informant cited by the FBI in the report, died of a gunshot wound to the head in Arizona in 2003. A Look Back Two mobsters found guilty in East St. Louis in 1962. 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. 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. It was like he was from another planet. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch), In 1956, workers began digging an oval lake and fashioning an island near South Mulberry Road southeast of Collinsville. His replacement, Harold R. Swenson, imposed extreme restrictions on all communications with editors and publishers to stop a book from being published by another prisoner, a notorious escapee. The next day, he says, they met with Joe Burnett, another criminal, at a Manchester Avenue bar: The reason we went there was to try and put some money into James pocket. Burnett referred them to safecracker and burglar James Obie OBrien. He was between jobs, collecting unemployment benefits. In a sense, Maloney did respect their trade. He had publicly refuted the Stars story simply to keep from being killed. 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. Their stories ran as a four-part series in April 1973. Tasty dishes in East Saint Louis. Maloney worked on his writing for as much as six hours every evening. The brand varied with the decade: L&Ms or, later, Marlboro Lights. The delays in communications eventually killed his deal with Random House. Maloney had been in solitary confinement for nearly four months after his escape attempt when Hinkley contacted him. 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. But as quickly as his cell door seemed to have started to creak open, the steel bars slammed shut again. Maloney excelled as a feature writer but eventually became better known as an investigative journalist covering a wide range of issues, including labor racketeering, white-collar crime, drug trafficking and mental health. 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. By the time we were cellies, Joe had straightened up his act and was staying out of trouble, working on his parole. A week after the trial, one was shot to death along with his body guard. (Robert LaRouche/Post-Dispatch), The house that was built on the island. 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. Magin was a defendant in the 1962 tax case, but was acquitted. Arizona authorities ruled it a suicide. Joseph John Maloney Sr., a shoemaker by trade, walked out of his sons life in 1943, when he was 3 years old. 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. Truth at Last is his intriguing but meandering account, a navigation of the uncharted waters of the two siblings lives. While confined at the hospital, Maloney met and fell in love with a fellow patient, 16-year-old Edith Rhodes, who had been transferred from Chillicothe. (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. Search for: Search. The last time John Larry Ray visited New York City was in 1965. 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. Bonadonna disappeared in 1978, presumably into the federal witness-protection program. Having written it, my next problem was deciding where to send it. He claims that his brother was then fronted an estimated $50,000. 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. A year after his parents divorced, a hit-and-run driver killed his brother, Bobby. Maloney moved back to Kansas City, perhaps drawn by memories of his glory days. On Aug. 26, 1961, Maloneys girlfriend, Edith Rhodes, was murdered near Huzzah Creek in rural Crawford County, Mo. poultry; chicken; meat . I heard he was in Florida someplace., They sipped beer together for a couple of hours, says John Larry Ray. I told him, if youre looking for guns, I can get any gun you want from Ft. Campbell, Ky. 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. She had eloped from the state mental hospital in Fulton and gone on another crime spree, this time with a 22-year-old hoodlum from Flat River. Among those standing near the bodies are Dr. C.C. Take-Out/Delivery Options. Beckman's shot-up car was found in the parking lot of a bowling alley in Swansea. Maloney argued that the Star should immediately expose the Mafias infiltration of the River Quay. The mob continued to influence the police department, city hall, the county courthouse and the state legislature. She had eloped from the state mental hospital in Fulton and gone on another crime spree, this time with a 22-year-old hoodlum from Flat River. 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. In subsequent tape-recorded telephone interviews with Maloney, Bonadonna said that the Mafia had also targeted him for execution. 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. A subdivision now adjoins the lake, known today as Magin's Lake, named after Wortman's old bartender. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Located at 601 James Thompson Blvd., it also will be a one-stop service center for Illinois' Workforce Advantage program. Back home, he muscled out the Shelton brothers and took over the East Side rackets. I remember telling him, Joe, lets just wait until they start killing each other, says Jones. 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 said, Youve saved my life, for the time being, anyway.. You never knew whom you might have trouble with. 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 first, I Speak for the Dead, is a fictionalized account of Kansas Citys mob war, drawn straight form his clip file. Kevin Horrigan, a cub reporter at the Star in 1973, remembers Maloney as an affable colleague but one who stood apart. Scheduled for completion in the fall of 2003, it will be shared by East St. Louis Community College, Southern Illinois University and the Illinois Department of Employment Security. In her first letter, Hinkley advised Maloney to seek divine guidance, but she also offered him a more down-to-earth deal. If you are helpless, there are people who will try to make a reputation at your expense. A version of this story appeared in Illinois Times, April 2, 2008. Bonadonna was one of Maloneys confidential sources. John will tell you he brought him [James Earl Ray] to St. Louis, Jerry Ray says. Witnesses who might have confirmed John Larry Rays expanded version of events are dead. John Larry. Asked why John Larry Ray would incorporate a stopover in St. Louis into his story, his brother replies: I guess to dramatize the book. If you will make these promises, I will ask the warden to take you out of solitary confinement.. If you will make these promises, I will ask the warden to take you out of solitary confinement.. During a short parole in 1957, Maloney was arrested in Kansas City on suspicion of burglary and carrying a concealed weapon. 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.. [This story was first published in January 2, 2004.]. The two reporters began knocking on doors, talking to area business owners. James Earl Ray worried that Kings presence in the city might somehow block his getaway plans, his brother says, and he never provided any clues about what else was making him so uneasy. Thiemann died as a result of the wounds he sustained in the fracas. At the same time, dissension was brewing in the newsroom. 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. Paddock Village Apartments offers one-of-a-kind 2 bedroom apartment homes and 2 or 3 bedroom townhomes. Stelzer An earlier version of this story appeared in the St. Louis Journalism review in 2008 and Focus/midwest magazine in 2010. Its like the Mississippi River, says John Larry Ray. 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. The Star published a verbatim transcript of his claims in its next edition. While absent without leave, Maloney worked briefly for a carnival in Florida before returning to Missouri. Jones and Maloney collaborated for months on the prison project, sharing the reporting and writing duties. She corresponded. His defiance dashed his hopes of gaining parole and put him at odds with the prison administration for the remainder of his sentence. Wortman died in a St. Louis hospital Aug. 3, 1968, at age 63 after throat surgery. Maloney then wrested the gun from his victim and fled. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, U.S. He was a gutsy little guy. It didnt take very long for that to happen. The convicted assassin spent the rest of his life in the Tennessee prison system. Barbecue, Barbeque, Bar. In those days the Kansas City Star printed a poem on the editorial page every day, so I mailed the poem to the Star. John Larry Ray, a convicted bank robber, spent more than a quarter-century behind bars himself. Maloney sensed that the feud was about to erupt into open warfare. Through her encouragement, elderly attorney Mable Hinkley began to correspond with Maloney. He called me one time, asking about a gun, John Larry Ray says. 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 also worked diligently to establish a national writers association for prisoners. Investigators also snooped around the secretive construction of a house, and lake surrounding it, southeast of Collinsville. 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. You never know for sure what is going to happen from day to day in prison. Talk about stares. Subscribe with this special offer to keep reading, (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). Its far-flung empire stretched all the way to Las Vegas, where the KC mob oversaw the skimming of millions of dollars from casinos. He rejected Maloneys poem but continued to correspond, providing him with professional advice and personal guidance. 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 even more impressed that he did not ask why I was in prison, or for how long. Menn then sold the proposal to Cruise Palmer, the executive editor. After his return to Missouri, his parole officer committed Maloney to State Hospital No. A version of this story appeared in Illinois Times, April 2, 2008. East St. Louis Community College Center. 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. I told him, if youre looking for guns, I can get any gun you want from Ft. Campbell, Ky. For many of . 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. Maloneys formal education had ended in the ninth grade, but Menn recognized raw talent when he saw it. By the mid-1920's he became associated with the old Shelton gang and was soon running errands for them. He was kind of fearless, says Jones. An earlier version of this story appeared in the St. Louis Journalism review in 2008 and Focus/midwest magazine in 2010. The home had been built two years before. While there, he remembers, Malcolm X was murdered. 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. 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