http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4602277The Smaldones ruled a gambling empire from 1933 to the 1990s that at its height, police said, made the family an estimated $25 million a year. But by the 1990s the principals were growing old. Checkers, 81, died March 17, 1992; Clyde, 91, on Jan. 7, 1998; and Villano, 76, on Nov. 12, 2003.
When the older brothers semi- retired, Chauncey and Villano took over the gambling operations. They could often be seen together at the back table at Gaetano's, until the government decreed that they couldn't be in the restaurant at the same time because neither was allowed to consort with felons.
None of the Smaldones recruited their children to join the family business. They were, said one family friend, off-limits, thanks to their mothers.
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