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. 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 Bar, Nightlife. 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. Having written it, my next problem was deciding where to send it. The next day I called Bonadonna, Maloney recalled later. I asked him if hed read the story, and if it had helped him any. The judge put him on probation. All info on Romeos Lounge in East Saint Louis - Call to book a table. At the time of his marriage to Maloneys mother, he had only been out of the Missouri Penitentiary for a year. Gruender, a housepainter, had a string of arrests and convictions for car theft and burglary dating back to 1926. Driving the car, and trying to hide his face with a handkerchief, is Dutch Dowling. Thiemann died as a result of the wounds he sustained in the fracas. Given where hed come from, its easy to figure out why.. Maloney added to his underworld knowledge in prison, where he befriended fellow inmate John Paul Spica, a St. Louis Mafia soldier. 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. Wortman's headquarters was his Paddock Lounge, at 429 St. Louis Avenue in East St. Louis. Five more years would elapse before Maloney finally made parole, during which time Menn continued to support and encourage his writing. Most are from the 1930's-1980's. This one is Condition is as pictured. The plant was located across the river in Illinois. A Look Back Two mobsters found guilty in East St. Louis in 1962. Maloneys formal education had ended in the ninth grade, but Menn recognized raw talent when he saw it. The truck driver attributed his lung cancer to his occupational exposure to radiation in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The same year, Maloneys byline disappeared from the pages of the Star when he quit the paper in a dispute over overtime pay. The convicted assassin spent the rest of his life in the Tennessee prison system. A private drive connected the bridge to South Mulberry Road. He said, Youve saved my life, for the time being, anyway.. 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. Maloney sensed that the feud was about to erupt into open warfare. In May 1991, Stoneking informed the FBI that Berne had told him that the Rallo Construction Company belonged to the Chicago La Costa Nostra. That, of course, was back in the day, when a lifer could still aspire to being released on parole. The Kansas City Mafia wielded considerable economic cloutcontrolling several banks [and] owning ten percent or more of the taverns and nightclubs in the city. Over the next two years, eight more mob-related murders would go down before the violence subsided. Exposure to art ignited Maloneys innate creative streak. 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. Wortman's headquarters was his Paddock Lounge, at 429 St. Louis Avenue in East St. Louis. He says he drove down from St. Louis in his cream-colored Thunderbird with a machine gun and other weapons in the trunk. Maloney was also keenly aware that local law-enforcement officials were hesitant to use the M-word. A day after he escaped, he was in Chicago that night, and I met him and John a day afterward at the Fairview Hotel on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch), In 1956, workers began digging an oval lake and fashioning an island near South Mulberry Road southeast of Collinsville. Wortman made his bookmaking network pony up $20,000 for the deal. Menn patiently waited until 1967 before publishing one of Maloneys poems in the Star. Although the property was listed in his estranged wifes name, Linda Sonnenscbein wasnt charged, either. 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. O'Brien arranged for the Ray brothers to spend the night at a nearby apartment above an illegal gambling den . He would serve the next 13 years at the Missouri Penitentiary, in Jefferson Cityarguably the worst prison in the United States at the time. Moreover, correspondence regarding his book of poetry had to be routed through his mother. 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. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch). (Post-Dispatch), Elmer "Dutch" Dowling arriving at the federal courthouse in East St. Louis in a light rain during the trial. Menn patiently waited until 1967 before publishing one of Maloneys poems in the Star. 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. Maloney had been in solitary confinement for nearly four months after his escape attempt when Hinkley contacted him. Maloney frequented the mob hangouts at night to develop leads. They also interviewed city and federal law-enforcement authorities and pumped confidential sources for information. 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.. Dope was easier to get in prison than it was on the streets. After Maloney punched Thiemann in the face several times, the old man agreed to hand over the cash. 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. 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. In late 1967, the parole board indicated the possibility of Maloneys being released early the next year. Sonnenschein must also hand over five parcels of property in Brooklyn, Ill., where the now-defunct Free Spirit Massage Parlor was located. Live Racing. While in prison, Gruender met and befriended Elmer Dutch Dowling and Isidore Londe, lieutenants of East St. Louis mob boss Frank Buster Wortman. Offered by GALERIA LUIS CARVAJAL. 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? Despite the low wages, the offer was priceless because it cinched his parole. Maloney moved back to Kansas City, perhaps drawn by memories of his glory days. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch), Workers build a bridge to the mysterious island. After Maloney punched Thiemann in the face several times, the old man agreed to hand over the cash. 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 had publicly refuted the Stars story simply to keep from being killed. As a result, he was put in solitary four times and sentenced to the hole another 18 or 20 times. I told him, if youre looking for guns, I can get any gun you want from Ft. Campbell, Ky. He was always writing somethingstories, critiques, opinion pieces and, yes, poetry.. His stepfather, Julius Dutch Gruender, an ex-con, became Maloneys less-than-sterling guardian. By the time we were cellies, Joe had straightened up his act and was staying out of trouble, working on his parole. 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. He didnt bring him to St. Louis. The car, shot up on the inside, was found in the parking lot of the Bel Air bowling alley in Swansea. Edith was a strangely magnetic girl. You have permission to edit this article. On the evening of Dec. 11, he picked up Rhodes in Columbia at an apartment she was sharing with another girl. He was one of those guys who was constantly fidgeting, or his knee was pounding up and down. At the same time, dissension was brewing in the newsroom. On March 3, 1962, Dowling and a bodyguard were found murdered on a rural road north of Belleville. Rainbow Wednesdays at Club Lush #121 of 282 places to eat in East Saint Louis. 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. 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. At the time, almost any local mobster was considered a suspect. By any measure, he had to be considered beyond salvation, a lost cause. 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. 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. Paddock Lounge Melvin Beckman Mystery Man Wolf Branch School Road Shelton Gang Collinsville Look Back Tim O'neil Larry Coyne As featured on A Look Back Two mobsters found guilty in East. By the time Maloney returned home, his mother had remarried. 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. 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. He had learned about it from his mobbed-up stepfather. He wrote to me as if I were just another person, another young writer.. 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. 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. 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. After his return to Missouri, his parole officer committed Maloney to State Hospital No. Maloney had reached his nadir. The blacks slept as many as eight to a cell. This time he made it as far as Hannibal before crashing a stolen car. Located at 601 James Thompson Blvd., it also will be a one-stop service center for Illinois' Workforce Advantage program. Maloney also tagged along when his stepfather drove to Jefferson City to visit a friend still incarcerated at the penitentiary. C.D. He went to prison for slugging a liquor agent in 1933 at a still near Collinsville. 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. In her first letter, Hinkley advised Maloney to seek divine guidance, but she also offered him a more down-to-earth deal. Talk about stares. A sheriffs posse pursuing the fugitives heard the shots and found Moyer lying next to the body. (Post-Dispatch), Morris Shenker, lead defense lawyer for Buster Wortman, addresses the judge during the trial in February 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. Nash released Maloney from solitary and assigned him to the newly formed prison art class. I was impressed that the literary editor of a famous newspaper would write to me. 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. Ratings. He was not from another planet, but he was from another time. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch), Douglas Keith, a fingerprint specialist for the Illinois State Police, takes picture of Melvin Beckman's car, in which he and Dutch Dowling presumably were shot before being dumped onto Wolf Branch School Road on the night of March 3, 1962. Maloney joined the newspapers staff after being paroled in 1972. Entering the store, he pulled a hunting knife and demanded money from Joseph F. Thiemann, the 74-year-old store owner. 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