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. Competing mob interests were in the midst of fighting for control of the River Quay entertainment district. Maloneys own artwork took awards at state and county fairs and was exhibited at a gallery in Paris. Stabbings and killings, robberies and rapes were common. 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. A neighborhood setting, within minutes of key places such as Emerson Electric, Boeing, Express Scripts and major highways 70, 270 & 367. Kane, the St. Clair County coroner (fourth from left). This time he made it as far as Hannibal before crashing a stolen car. Kevin Horrigan, a cub reporter at the Star in 1973, remembers Maloney as an affable colleague but one who stood apart. The conviction was only the second for the often-arrested Wortman, who had muscled to the top in the late 1940s with help from the Capone syndicate in Chicago. That arrangement was still in place in 1972. His prison record over the next few years is a litany of major conduct violation:. Though he avoided further trouble with the law, Gruender acted as a courier for Wortman. Maloney expanded his connections in the literary world, writing to such luminaries as R. Buckminster Fuller, John D. MacDonald, William Buckley and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Ratings. 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. Slay was a partner in Guilfoil Petzall & Shoemake for 20 years prior to becoming mayor. [This story was first published in January 2, 2004.]. We drove across the river to the Paddock Lounge in [East St. Louis] Illinois and I introduced him to Jimmie OBrien, Ray says. (Post-Dispatch), Elmer "Dutch" Dowling arriving at the federal courthouse in East St. Louis in a light rain during the trial. (Buel White/Post-Dispatch), Buster Wortman being driven away from the St. Clair County Courthouse in Belleville after a brief appearance before the county grand jury on July 2, 1955. View 2295 homes for sale in Paddock Lake Condominiums, take real estate virtual tours & browse MLS listings in Florissant, MO at realtor.com. People [were] shot and blown up.. 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. By the time we were cellies, Joe had straightened up his act and was staying out of trouble, working on his parole. The delays in communications eventually killed his deal with Random House. 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. But the mob kind of looked at Joe as a turncoat. In 1952 the family moved to a farm in New Florence, Mo., a small town 65 miles west of St. Louis. You can check, if they still have the records. The FBI knew that the Rallo Construction Co. had alleged ties to the Chicago Mafia for decades. Three River Quay nightclubs were soon torched or bombed, and the list of gangland hits rapidly grew. 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. C.D. The delays in communications eventually killed his deal with Random House. Missouri incorporation records show that Gerhard J. Petzall, a senior partner in the politically-connected law firm of Guilfoil Petzall & Shoemake, sat on the board of directors of Spectrulite for years and continued act as an attorney for the company until 2009. She visited. Sonnenschein must also hand over five parcels of property in Brooklyn, Ill., where the now-defunct Free Spirit Massage Parlor was located. You cant stop one place and jump to another place.. On hearing the bad news, Maloney vowed to kill Moyer and tried to escape. I was even more impressed that he did not ask why I was in prison, or for how long. She sent money, clothing, food, stamps and other items. Printable Racing Calendar & Promotions Schedule As a result, Maloneys letters to Menn started coming back undelivered. voice be heard! Beneath the outward generosity, however, Gruender was an angry and hardened man who drank heavily and sometimes abused his wife and stepson. While absent without leave, Maloney worked briefly for a carnival in Florida before returning to Missouri. Maloney, I realize you have a job to dobut do you have to be so intense?. 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. Tasty dishes in East Saint Louis. A private drive connected the bridge to South Mulberry Road. Maloney was 19 years old when he committed the crime. Latest reviews, photos and ratings for Spanky's Lounge at 1434 Piggott Ave in East Saint Louis - view the menu, hours, phone number, address and map. After his return to Missouri, his parole officer committed Maloney to State Hospital No. Shenker got the convictions reversed. Dowling was convicted of assault in the case, but he won a reversal from the Missouri Supreme Court. Offered by GALERIA LUIS CARVAJAL. After returning to the United States, he occasionally talked to his brother by phone. He encouraged me to keep working on the poem, and asked me to stay in touch with him. Their stories ran as a four-part series in April 1973. (Jack January/Post-Dispatch), Another view of excavation for the mysterious moat and island in April 1956. An earlier version of this story appeared in the St. Louis Journalism review in 2008 and Focus/midwest magazine in 2010. Edith was a strangely magnetic girl. After six weeks of observation at Fulton, Maloney was allowed by the parole board to enlist in the Army. Meanwhile, OBrien was supposed to check with Wortman about a proposed diamond heist. 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. In advance of his release, Tom Eblen, then the Stars city editor, had written a letter to Maloney, offering him a three-month contract at a monthly salary of $550. He encouraged me to keep working on the poem, and asked me to stay in touch with him. Witnesses who might have confirmed John Larry Rays expanded version of events are dead. The only thing his real father ever gave him was his name. 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. By then the Star had been bought by Capital Cities, a media chain with a history of poor labor relations. While in prison, Gruender met and befriended Elmer Dutch Dowling and Isidore Londe, lieutenants of East St. Louis mob boss Frank Buster Wortman. We worked on the fifth floor of the prison hospital, which is to say the psych ward. 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? It was like he was from another planet. The Paddock Lounge also boasts an extensive beverage menu*. 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. For those under 21 years of age, we offer sodas, teas, waters, Gatorades, Red Bull energy drinks, and Nescafe coffee. It was like he was from another planet. Dope was easier to get in prison than it was on the streets. This time he made it as far as Hannibal before crashing a stolen car. Wortman later moved into a home built upon the island, reached by a wooden bridge -- and always guarded by gunmen. East St. Louis Community College Center. Thiemann died as a result of the wounds he sustained in the fracas. The couple then took a cab to the Soulard neighborhood in South St. Louis. He was found shot to death and stuffed into the trunk of his car. After returning to the United States, he occasionally talked to his brother by phone. 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. Over the next two years, eight more mob-related murders would go down before the violence subsided. He was one of those guys who was constantly fidgeting, or his knee was pounding up and down. Last chance! He was a gutsy little guy. poultry; chicken; meat . Magin was a defendant in the 1962 tax case, but was acquitted. Play "The Decider" and let your Maloney ended up moving to the West Coast. Truth at Last is his intriguing but meandering account, a navigation of the uncharted waters of the two siblings lives. 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. 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. Its far-flung empire stretched all the way to Las Vegas, where the KC mob oversaw the skimming of millions of dollars from casinos. I was impressed. On Aug. 26, 1961, Maloneys girlfriend, Edith Rhodes, was murdered near Huzzah Creek in rural Crawford County, Mo. Competing mob interests were in the midst of fighting for control of the River Quay entertainment district. Before the details of that caper could be hashed out, however, the Ray brothers got jittery and split for Chicago. 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. His editors opposed the idea. 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. They both concluded that their fears were unfounded, says John Larry Ray. 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. Circuit Court for the Southern District of Illinois. In advance of his release, Tom Eblen, then the Stars city editor, had written a letter to Maloney, offering him a three-month contract at a monthly salary of $550. The Kansas City Mafia wielded considerable economic cloutcontrolling several banks [and] owning ten percent or more of the taverns and nightclubs in the city. The photo caption doesn't identify individual pall bearers, but the accompanying article says they included mob big shots John Vitale, Art Berne, Tony Giordano and Louis Shoulders Jr. (Post-Dispatch), The defense team poses for photographers on Feb. 22, 1962, the day the jury began deliberations. This was the town of Tom Pendergast, one of the most powerful Mafia/machine bosses in U.S. history, Maloney wrote. The same year, Maloneys byline disappeared from the pages of the Star when he quit the paper in a dispute over overtime pay. But Richard Callow, the mayors longtime political consultant, does make a cameo appearance in the film. Maloneys formal education had ended in the ninth grade, but Menn recognized raw talent when he saw it. He was not from another planet, but he was from another time. She kept her end of the bargain. 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. and the proprietorship known as Paddock Liquor Company, and the names (or identifying descriptions) of the books and records in which the alleged conspiracy sought to cause . 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. 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. 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. Instead, James Earl Ray appeared edgy and expressed apprehension about his future. The judge put him on probation. In May 1991, Stoneking informed the FBI that Berne had told him that the Rallo Construction Company belonged to the Chicago La Costa Nostra. Maloney added to his underworld knowledge in prison, where he befriended fellow inmate John Paul Spica, a St. Louis Mafia soldier. 4.4. Back home, he muscled out the Shelton brothers and took over the East Side rackets. Paddock Lounge burns arson suspected. It was uncanny.. In June 1964, at Hinkleys urging, Warden E.V. Maloney thought of Menn as the father he never had. Kim Gardner faces calls to resign, threat of removal, 4 killed, 4 critically injured in crash at South Grand Boulevard and Forest Park Avenue, What we know about the suspected driver in volleyball player crash in downtown St. Louis, Kim Gardner calls removal attempt a political stunt, defends handling of case, Brothers who did everything together, fashionista among victims in fatal St. Louis crash, Boeing to end F/A-18 Super Hornet production by 2025, Family of teen hit by driver in St. Louis leans on strength, asks for wave of prayers, Missouri attorney generals ultimatum to Kim Gardner: Resign or face removal from office. In a sense, Maloney did respect their trade. In her first letter, Hinkley advised Maloney to seek divine guidance, but she also offered him a more down-to-earth deal. Gruender, a housepainter, had a string of arrests and convictions for car theft and burglary dating back to 1926. Dowling and bodyguard Melvin Beckman met the mystery man in Belleville, who apparently decided to shoot first. Maloney worked on his writing for as much as six hours every evening. 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 moved back to Kansas City, perhaps drawn by memories of his glory days. I was impressed that the literary editor of a famous newspaper would write to me. 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.. But John Larry Ray believes that his brother maintained contact with OBrien after their hasty departure. If they were surprised to hear the word "guilty," they didn't show it. Bonadonna was one of Maloneys confidential sources. The two returned to St. Louis early the next morning on a Greyhound bus. The truck driver attributed his lung cancer to his occupational exposure to radiation in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 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? 1 in Fulton for psychiatric observation. In the city of St. Louis, there were once twenty bars located between Bates on the north and the city limits on the south. 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. Before the details of that caper could be hashed out, however, the Ray brothers got jittery and split for Chicago. He is awaiting sentencing before Judge Catherine D. Perry in August. A version of this story appeared in Illinois Times, April 2, 2008. Meanwhile, Menn had interested Random House in publishing a book of Maloneys poetry. All of a sudden their stories would change. View the menu for Paddock Lounge and restaurants in Fitchburg, MA. Welcome to Ivy Ultra Lounge, the premier upscale night life attraction located in downtown East. In subsequent tape-recorded telephone interviews with Maloney, Bonadonna said that the Mafia had also targeted him for execution. Given where hed come from, its easy to figure out why.. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch). 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. The next year, Maloney ran away again. Witnesses who might have confirmed John Larry Rays expanded version of events are dead. The blacks slept as many as eight to a cell. I heard he was in Florida someplace., They sipped beer together for a couple of hours, says John Larry Ray. Maloney was also keenly aware that local law-enforcement officials were hesitant to use the M-word. 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