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St. Louis Crime Family #657787
07/29/12 09:33 PM
07/29/12 09:33 PM
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 986
Hamilton
Scalish Offline OP
Underboss
Scalish  Offline OP
Underboss
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 986
Hamilton
I was hoping someone can give me a chart of what remains of the LCN in St. Louis and who is in what position?

Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #657791
07/29/12 09:57 PM
07/29/12 09:57 PM
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,881
The Jokers Social Club
DickNose_Moltasanti Offline
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The Jokers Social Club
Ask the Postman


Random Poster:"I'm sorry I didn't go to an Ivy-league school like you"

"Ah I actually I didn't. It's a nickname the feds gave the
Genovese Family."
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: DickNose_Moltasanti] #657794
07/29/12 10:54 PM
07/29/12 10:54 PM
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 2,809
Scotland
Camarel Offline
Underboss
Camarel  Offline
Underboss
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 2,809
Scotland
Originally Posted By: DickNose_Moltasanti
Ask the Postman


What is the point of you? He asked a question if you can't answer leave it out there's no need for mocking.

Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #657797
07/29/12 10:58 PM
07/29/12 10:58 PM
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,881
The Jokers Social Club
DickNose_Moltasanti Offline
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DickNose_Moltasanti  Offline
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Posts: 2,881
The Jokers Social Club
I was serious, the first federal law enforcement was the Postal Inspectors


Random Poster:"I'm sorry I didn't go to an Ivy-league school like you"

"Ah I actually I didn't. It's a nickname the feds gave the
Genovese Family."
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #657798
07/29/12 10:58 PM
07/29/12 10:58 PM
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 2,809
Scotland
Camarel Offline
Underboss
Camarel  Offline
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Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 2,809
Scotland
Originally Posted By: Scalish
I was hoping someone can give me a chart of what remains of the LCN in St. Louis and who is in what position?


Pm ivy league,mukremin or hairy knuckles imo thats your best bet

Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: DickNose_Moltasanti] #657799
07/29/12 10:59 PM
07/29/12 10:59 PM
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 2,809
Scotland
Camarel Offline
Underboss
Camarel  Offline
Underboss
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 2,809
Scotland
Originally Posted By: DickNose_Moltasanti
I was serious, the first federal law enforcement was the Postal Inspectors


Lmao

Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Camarel] #657819
07/30/12 05:44 AM
07/30/12 05:44 AM
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 2,418
Secret location (WITSEC)
HairyKnuckles Offline
Underboss
HairyKnuckles  Offline
Underboss
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 2,418
Secret location (WITSEC)
Originally Posted By: Camarel
Originally Posted By: Scalish
I was hoping someone can give me a chart of what remains of the LCN in St. Louis and who is in what position?


Pm ivy league,mukremin or hairy knuckles imo thats your best bet


Scalish, don´t bother PM me, because I haven´t got a clue. I never found those guys interesting, strangely enough.


[Linked Image]
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #657822
07/30/12 07:29 AM
07/30/12 07:29 AM
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 986
Hamilton
Scalish Offline OP
Underboss
Scalish  Offline OP
Underboss
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 986
Hamilton
Thanks Camarel.

Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #657909
07/30/12 09:25 PM
07/30/12 09:25 PM
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 498
Texas
TonyG Offline
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TonyG  Offline
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 498
Texas
These are the guys who have been reported (law enforcement or newspapers) as made guys in St. Louis, with approximate age in parenthesis:

Boss - Anthony "Nino" Parrino(76)
Underboss - Joseph "Joe" Cammarata(88)
Consigliere - Giacomo "Jack" Parrino(80) / Joseph "Joe" Pisciotta(88)

Frank Palazzolo(67)
Vincent "Vinny" Cammarata(59)
Fernando "Nondo" Bartolotta(55)

There are others rumored / speculated to have been made, but cannot be verified.

No law enforcement activity in a long time.


Best way to catch the smart ones? Get an idiot working for them.
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #657911
07/30/12 09:30 PM
07/30/12 09:30 PM
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 986
Hamilton
Scalish Offline OP
Underboss
Scalish  Offline OP
Underboss
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 986
Hamilton
Cool Thanks Tony G, I heard Bartolotta had a couple of brothers that may be made as well. Also I think Tony "Olives" Olivastro.

Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: TonyG] #657939
07/31/12 04:47 AM
07/31/12 04:47 AM
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 8,534
I
IvyLeague Offline
IvyLeague  Offline
I

Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 8,534
Originally Posted By: TonyG


No law enforcement activity in a long time.


Over 20 years, from what I can tell.


Mods should mind their own business and leave poster's profile signatures alone.
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #657946
07/31/12 05:26 AM
07/31/12 05:26 AM
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 7,212
naples,italy
furio_from_naples Offline
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Posts: 7,212
naples,italy
i made a Post with the chart of the St Louis family

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthr...7826#Post587826

this is the chart


Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #657950
07/31/12 06:57 AM
07/31/12 06:57 AM
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 986
Hamilton
Scalish Offline OP
Underboss
Scalish  Offline OP
Underboss
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 986
Hamilton
Thanks Furio. I have the same chart as well. I actually heard they made one or two members. I will at some point when I have time a will make an official chart for this family. St. Louis has always interested me.

Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #657993
07/31/12 02:14 PM
07/31/12 02:14 PM
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 8,534
I
IvyLeague Offline
IvyLeague  Offline
I

Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 8,534
I don't know if you got those names from the bogus St. Louis charts that used to make their way around the internet. But there's not even close to that many guys left in St. Louis.

Little Al, who was the most knowledgeable poster I've encountered on St. Louis, could only identify 4 or 5 guys he knew to be made. There may be a couple more but it's certainly under 10 at this point. And there's no formal structure anymore. So it's pointless to start slapping position titles on guys.


Mods should mind their own business and leave poster's profile signatures alone.
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #658032
07/31/12 07:36 PM
07/31/12 07:36 PM
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 498
Texas
TonyG Offline
Capo
TonyG  Offline
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 498
Texas
Nice chart Furio and thanks for posting.

I can get you some pictures of Anthony Giordano, who is probably the most infamous boss, if you wish. I have pictures of a few other boss predecessors too, including a better picture of Vitale.

I think some of those guys are dead. I have seen most of the guys you have listed as soldiers on other lists also. The problem is they have never been verified to be "made" guys by the newspaper or law enforcement. It might be better to label them as "Rumored Soldiers".


Best way to catch the smart ones? Get an idiot working for them.
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #658040
07/31/12 08:43 PM
07/31/12 08:43 PM
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 581
Orange County, CA
Nicholas Offline
Underboss
Nicholas  Offline
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 581
Orange County, CA
How involved was the St. Louis family with Vegas skimming?


"The Feds are a business Anthony, millions of tax dollars are invested in watching your ass, sooner or later, just like you, their gonna want a return on their investment." --- Neil Mink, Tony Soprano's lawyer
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #658042
07/31/12 08:48 PM
07/31/12 08:48 PM
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 986
Hamilton
Scalish Offline OP
Underboss
Scalish  Offline OP
Underboss
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 986
Hamilton
How do we know that these guys are not made. I see alot of that around here you all really think because the feds say so that these families are not making members anymore or weren't through the 80's and 90's?

Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #658074
07/31/12 10:49 PM
07/31/12 10:49 PM
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 8,534
I
IvyLeague Offline
IvyLeague  Offline
I

Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 8,534
Originally Posted By: Scalish
How do we know that these guys are not made. I see alot of that around here you all really think because the feds say so that these families are not making members anymore or weren't through the 80's and 90's?


Call me crazy but I'll go with the feds over charts that float around the internet that come from God-knows-wherever.

Anyone who believes the St. Louis family still has 30 or so members is simply delusional. The feds had them at 35 members in the late 1960's. Then 17 members in 1980. And then less than 10 members in the late 1980's.

Beyond that, there hasn't been a mob case in St. Louis in over 20 years.


Mods should mind their own business and leave poster's profile signatures alone.
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #658104
08/01/12 03:29 AM
08/01/12 03:29 AM
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 7,212
naples,italy
furio_from_naples Offline
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naples,italy
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/louis/1.html

The Green Ones







St Louis Missouri skyline (CORBIS)


The trek by Italian criminals in New Orleans to St. Louis began shortly after the end of the Civil War. Black Hand extortion was reported in the city as early as 1876. However, Italians would not dominate organized crime in the city until after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933.

By the time Prohibition arrived, there were five gangs of importance in the St. Louis: The Sicilian Green Ones, the Pillow Gang, the Egan's Rats, the Hogan Gang, and the Cuckoos.

The Green Ones reportedly received their name from the farming communities in Sicily where they originated. The leadership of this group, brothers John and Vito Giannola and Alphonse Palizzola, came from the Stoppagleria faction of the Sicilian mafia. The trio financed their passage to United States with several robberies in 1915. Once they arrived in America the three went their separate ways John Giannola to Chicago, Vito Giannola to St. Louis, and Palizzola to Springfield, Illinois.

A few years later at Vito's urging they reunited in St. Louis where they imposed a tax on all goods sold in the city's Italian community. With little resistance, the trio went about establishing a foothold in the rackets. In 1923, Vito moved to take control of the wholesale meat industry. One recalcitrant distributor objected and was brutally murdered as an example to others. His body was found under the Kingshighway viaduct on September 16, 1923.

Finding bootlegging a more prosperous venture, the trio soon found that the non-Italian gangs dominated the liquor trade in St. Louis. Their first endeavor in this area resulted in the death of Sam Palizzola, a relative of Alphonse, in September 1924. The murder was believed to have been carried out by members of the Egan's Rats gang. When members of that gang were sent to prison in 1925, the Green Ones found a new adversary in the Cuckoos Gang.

The Green Ones struck the first blow in this battle. On September 14, 1925, John and Catherine Gray were murdered after complaining about having to purchase liquor for their Eagle Park resort from the Green Ones. The couple was shot dead in their automobile, which was then set on fire. The Cuckoos retaliated by shooting up a farmhouse hideout of the Green Ones where the gang had an alky-cooking operation. No one was injured.

On January 29, 1926, law officers Ohmer Hockett and John Balke attempted to shake down a still operation belonging to the Green Ones. After ignoring an opening offer of $200, the two men waited until "the boss" arrived. The two lawmen were greeted by four members of the gang, who then beat them unconscious. The following day they were taken into the woods and watched as their graves were dug. They were then shot and buried.

Pasquale Santino, a member of a rival gang, put the finger on Alphonse Palizzola, as he became the first of the Green Ones' leadership to be murdered. On September 9, 1927, four gunmen blasted away at Palizzola on Tenth Street. A 10-year-old boy was also killed by one of the ricocheting bullets.

Vito Giannola was the next to die. He was shot 37 times while hiding in the house of Augustina Cusumano on December 28, 1927. Giannola had chased away Cusumano's husband and was living with the woman. Two men claiming to be police officers came to the house and, after finding Giannola hiding in a secret compartment upstairs, murdered him. John Giannola went into hiding after the death of his brother and was never again a factor in St. Louis. He was said to have died peacefully in his sleep in 1955.






James Licavoli,
(POLICE)


During the short Giannola and Palizzola leadership, police records show 30 people were murdered and 18 wounded. Among the wounded was James Licavoli, the future boss of the Cleveland mafia. Police shot Licavoli as they attempted to arrest Joseph Bommarito, an associate of the Green Ones. The police killed Bommarito when he resisted arrest.

Another associate of Licavoli at this time was Giovanni "John" Mirabella who was arrested at the Statler Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio in December 1928 during the first known meeting of the national crime cartel. He and Licavoli would eventually work together in Detroit, Toledo and Youngstown. Mirabella was a suspect in the sensational murder of Detroit radio crusader Jerry Buckley in July 1930.

The Pillow Gang


One of the earliest Italian gangs was the Pillow Gang that began operating in the city around 1910. The gang's name came from its leader Carmelo Fresina, who carried a pillow with him to sit on after he had been shot in the rear end. Years later Senator Estes Kefauver would sum up Fresina's career, "Eventually Fresina, an extortionist and bootlegger, was dispatched with two bullets in the head and no longer needed his pillow."

According to historian Walter M. Fontane, between 1910 and 1914 there was an ongoing battle between Italian factions in the city that left 10 dead and several survivors deported. "Freelancing became the way of the Mafia" until new leadership came in the name of Dominic Giambrioni in the late teens. After the arrival of the Giannolas, Giambrioni was forced out in 1924. He returned 10 years later and was murdered. In 1922, Fresina arrived and joined the faction headed by Pasquale Santino. After Santino was murdered in 1927, Fresina took over the gang, which became allied with a maverick splinter group of the Green Ones led by Tony Russo. Together they waged a battle with the Green Ones.

In January 1929, after the Giannolas had been eliminated, Fresina and two members of his gang attended a meeting at the home of a Russo faction member. It was rumored that Fresina had made peace with remaining members of the Green Ones and the Russo faction felt they had been betrayed. In a wild shooting Fresina was wounded in the buttocks and his two associates killed. The Russo Gang, already depleted due to the deportation of three Russo brothers in 1928, continued to do battle with Fresina and the Green Ones until their faction "disintegrated" around 1932. Pillow gang members then turned and fought the Green Ones again after they blamed them for the death of Fresina, who was killed near Edwardsville, Illinois in 1931.

Egan's Rats


What began as a political organization forged by St. Louis Fifth Ward Democratic Committeeman Thomas Egan and Missouri State Senator Thomas Kinney, was by 1907 known as Egan's Rats. Early "political activities" included robbery, burglary and theft from railroad boxcars.

In April 1919, Thomas Egan died of natural causes and was replaced as Fifth Ward Boss by his brother William T. "Willie" Egan. During the teens, Rats' lieutenant Max "Big Maxey" Greenberg was imprisoned on federal charges of interstate theft. Willie Egan was able to pull strings, which reached all the way to President Woodrow Wilson, to get Greenberg's sentence commuted. He served just six months of a five-year sentence. Greenberg then repaid Egan by switching his allegiance to the Hogan Gang.

Greenberg fled St. Louis for Detroit where he got involved in smuggling liquor from Canada. Needing better financing he sought out Irving Wexler (Waxey Gordon) in New York, who in turn introduced him to Arnold Rothstein. Wexler and Greenberg established a successful rum running operation before Greenberg returned to St. Louis in early 1921.

Upon Greenburg's return, Egan retaliated. In March 1921, one of his gunmen fired at Greenberg while he was standing with a group of men at Sixth Street and Chester. Greenberg was wounded and political lobbyist John P. Sweeney was killed.

In the fall of 1921 rivals got even with Willie Egan when he was gunned down as he left a saloon at 14th Street and Franklin Avenue. The Rats blamed the murder of their leader on the Hogan Gang, led by Edward J. "Jellyroll" Hogan. Rumors spread that $30,000 was paid for the hit. Egan died in City Hospital refusing to name who shot him. "I'm a good sport," Egan replied before dying. A week later, Greenberg walked into police headquarters with a Hogan Gang lawyer Jacob H. Mackler and provided an airtight alibi.

The alibi didn't satisfy William P. Colbeck, Willie Egan's replacement in the Rats. "Dinty" Colbeck, was a husky plumber and a former World War I infantryman. Taking over the gang, Colbeck had surmised that Greenberg had planned Egan's death; the attorney was the payoff man, and James Hogan was one of the gunmen. Those three, plus Hogan gunmen John Doyle and Luke Kennedy, were marked for death.

The first to go was John Doyle in January 1922. Next, Rat gunmen fired on an automobile containing Mackler, Kennedy and James Hogan at Eleventh and Market Streets. No one was injured. Mackler was not as fortunate on February 21 when fifteen shots were fired into his automobile on Twelfth Street killing him instantly. The Hogan Gang responded by murdering Rat member George Kurloff in a restaurant on Franklin Avenue. The Rats retaliated by dispatching the bodies of Joseph Cammarata, Joseph Cipolla, and Everett Summers in ditches along lonely county roads. Those murders were followed by the death of Luke Kennedy, whose car was riddled with bullets in May 1922. Hogan gunmen retaliated a few days later by blasting away at Colbeck's plumbing store on Washington Avenue. The following day, Egan's Rats gunmen shot up "Jellyroll" Hogan's home.

During the trigger-happy forays that were occurring, several businesses had their windows shot out and once a young boy was hit by an automobile driven by fleeing gunmen. Public anger, caused by the mob shootings, forced police into action and Colbeck moved the gang's headquarters outside of the city to St. Louis County. The gang converted an 11-room house into the Maxwelton Club, and took over an abandoned horse and motorcycle racetrack near St. Charles Rock Road and Pennsylvania Avenue. Here the Rats raced around the track taking target practice on tin cans and whiskey bottles terrorizing the local residents.

Over a two-year period, the death toll in the Egan's Rats / Hogan Gang War reached 23. After the deaths of Doyle and Kennedy, the Rats turned their attention to Greenberg. Colbeck and William "Red" Smith were arrested while waiting outside police headquarters where Greenberg was once being questioned. The police smuggled Greenberg out a back door and the following day he fled to New York where he worked again with Wexler. In April 1933 Greenberg was murdered in an Elizabeth, New Jersey hotel.

Gang War Rages On


Edward J. "Jellyroll" Hogan, Jr. and his brother James headed the Hogan Gang. "Jellyroll" was one of six sons born to St. Louis Police Officer Edward J. Hogan Sr. "Jellyroll," born in 1886, like Thomas Egan, was involved in the political affairs of the city. He was elected to the legislature in 1916 as a state representative. After surviving the bootleg wars in St. Louis, Hogan continued in politics. In the 1930s, it was disclosed that one of Hogan's legislative clerks on the state payroll was a St. Louis brewery worker who found it "unnecessary" to travel to the capital, Jefferson City, even once during the 1937 legislative session.

In March 1923, the Rats tried to ambush Edward "Jellyroll" Hogan and Humbert Costello as they were driving on Grand Blvd. Two of the shooters, Rat gunmen Elmer Runge and Isadore Londe, were arrested and Hogan was brought to police headquarters to identify them.

"I'll identify them, all right," Hogan snapped at police. "I'll identify them with a shotgun."

Humbert Costello was known as the muscle in the Hogan Gang and was a suspect in several shootings. He was later convicted of a jewelry store robbery and sentenced to 25 years in prison. After 12 years he was able to obtain a pardon with Hogan's help. However, upon release, federal agents were waiting with deportation papers. After a long legal battle, Costello was finally deported in 1937.

Rat Gang members and Hogan hoodlums next staged a wild shootout on Lindell Boulevard. Although no one was injured, the public again was incensed. Commenting on the public's outrage over the violence, Colbeck told reporters, "We are not insensitive to the fact that the public is aroused over what the newspapers have consistently characterized as the violence attending the fights between the Hogan and Egan factions. Our men are not trying to disturb peaceful citizens and it is unfair every time violence occurs in St. Louis to attribute it to myself, my men or the rival gang."

In April 1923, with Philip Brockman, president of the Board of Police Commissioners, and Father Timothy Dempsey acting as mediators, Colbeck and "Jellyroll" Hogan agreed to peace terms. The truce lasted a few months before Rat gunmen opened up on a crowd, trying to kill James Hogan. They missed and two innocent men were killed. One, William McGee, was a state representative. Colbeck, who expressed shock about the shooting when police questioned him, blamed the incident on "boyish high spirits."

"I know three of the boys were full of moonshine and were riding around in a big touring car," Colbeck said. "They might have seen Hogan in the crowd at Jefferson and Cass and maybe took a few shots at him for fun."

By this time, Colbeck had other matters besides the continuing gang war to worry about. On April 2, 1923, Egan's Rats gunmen hijacked $2.4 million in negotiable bonds from a mail truck at Fourth and Locust Streets. The following month they struck again, getting $55,000 in cash from the Staunton, Illinois postmaster. Egan's Rats members had teamed up with members of the Cuckoos to pull off these robberies. However, when police began questioning Rat members, one of them ratted.

With Ray Rennard testifying for the government against his former Rat associates Colbeck, David "Chippy" Robinson, Oliver Dougherty, Louis "Red" Smith, Charles "Red" Lanham, Frank Hackenthal, Gus Dietmeyer, Frank "Cotton" Eppelshelmer, Steve Ryan, and Cuckoo Gang members Roy Tipton, Leo Cronin, and Rudolph "Featheredge" Schmidt all were found guilty and sentenced to terms of 25 years in Leavenworth.

Colbeck was released after 16 years in prison. He tried to get back into the rackets, but his comeback was short lived. On February 17, 1943, Colbeck was returning home at 10:30 p.m. After crossing the McKinley Bridge, a car pulled alongside his at Ninth and Destrehan Streets. A man with a Thompson opened up on Colbeck putting half a dozen slugs into him. At the age of 58, Colbeck's career was over.

After leaving prison in the early 1940s, Louis C. "Red" Smith was convicted of income tax evasion in 1955. He was fined $2,000 and sentenced to a year in jail. Authorities named Smith as having been involved in the Capone syndicate's attempted take over of the race wire service. Although questioned in several murders, Smith was never charged. He died of heart disease in September 1959.

Steve Ryan was released from Leavenworth on January 1, 1941. In 1944, he and David Robinson were arrested after a mysterious shooting that took place at the Club Royal, a gambling casino near Belleville, Illinois. Ryan then filed a petition seeking an injunction to halt alleged police persecution claiming to be arrested on many occasions without cause. The detainments, he claimed, lasted from 20 hours to as long as three days. Later in 1944, Ryan and Robinson were again arrested after the murders of Harley Grizzell and Norman Farr on the city's East Side. Still later, the two were questioned in the murder of a union boss and his driver. On trial in 1946, for extorting $10,000 from a building contractor, a grand jury said there was not enough evidence to indict them. Ryan, one of the last living members of the Egan's Rats, died on May 3, 1965 after a heart attack.






Fred "Killer" Burke
(POLICE)


The St. Louis Egan's Rats, for all intents and purposes, ceased to be an organized crime power after the imprisonment of most of its members for the 1923 robberies. Two former Rat members would gain notoriety in later years. In 1929, Fred "Killer" Burke participated in the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre. On December 14, 1929, Burke murdered police officer Charles Shelby after a minor automobile accident. Burke fled leaving his car behind. The ensuing investigation turned up a machine gun that ballistics experts tied to both the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and the murder of Frank Yale in New York City in 1928. Burke was later convicted of the policeman's murder and sentenced to life in prison. He died of a heart attack in July 1940.






Leo Vincent Brothers
(POLICE)


The other ex-Rat to gain notoriety was Leo Vincent Brothers who was convicted of the murder of Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle in June 1930. Many believe Brothers was paid to take the fall for the killing. He received the minimum sentence for the murder and served only eight years. He died of natural causes in 1951.

In 1941, Hogan was part of the Democratic effort to prevent St. Louis Republican and Governor-Elect Forrest C. Donnell from taking office by demanding a recount. The effort failed. Hogan remained in Democratic politics for 50 years, serving five terms in the state house and four terms in the state senate. In 1960, Hogan retired after being defeated by Theodore McNeal, the first black man to be elected to the Missouri State Senate. In addition to his political position, Hogan was a business agent for a soft drink bottlers' union. Hogan died at the age of 77 in 1963 after a short illness.

Cuckoo's Gang


The Cuckoos were headed by the three Tipton bothers, Herman, Ray and Roy. The gang earned a reputation for being "fast and willing shooters who would fight anyone, including themselves. Extortion from bootleggers and other gangs, robbery, kidnapping and murder for fun and profit were Cuckoo specialties."






Carl Shelton and Earl Shelton
(POLICE)


It was Roy Tipton who planned the 1923 mail truck robbery that netted its participants $2.4 million and 25 years in prison. The Cuckoos suffered minor losses in manpower from the convictions and continued on. A few months later the losses began to mount. Gang members Oliver Hamilton and Clarence "Dizzy" Daniels were sentenced to life in prison, and August "Gus" Webbe was sentenced to 10 years for the killing of St. Louis Officers Edward Griffin and John Surgant during a robbery. This was followed by Joseph "Mulehead" Simon, Jimmy Michaels, and Ben "Melonhead" Bommarito being arrested for the armed robbery of a jeweler and the attempted robbery of a shoe company payroll. Next came Milford Jones, implicated in a robbery with Carl, Bernie, and Earl Shelton. Bennie Bethel was a suspect in a Pine Lawn bank robbery, while Joseph Costello, Marvin Paul Michaels and Alfred Salvaggi were questioned in the deaths of the aforementioned John and Catherine Gray.

In 1925, Cuckoo Gang member Tommy Hayes was released from prison after serving time for a mail / payroll robbery in January 1921 in Wood River, Illinois. Hayes was considered an unusual gangster because he came from a respectable family, didn't drink or smoke, and worked out to stay in shape. Hayes' police record began in 1913 when he was 15. By the early 1920s, he had become "an efficient killer."

In the mid-1920s the Cuckoos survived a gang war with the Green Ones, in which 13 mobsters were killed. It was rumored that a truce was declared after a three-day peace conference was held between Herman Tipton and Green Ones' leader Giannola. The agreement ended when Tony "Shorty" Russo, and his brothers led a splinter group away from the Green Ones. The leadership of this renegade group was short lived when Russo and Vincent Spicuzza were found slain outside Chicago, each with a nickel in their hands, the trademark murder signature of Al Capone gunman "Machine Gun Jack" McGurn. Authorities believed the two were trying to collect a $50,000 bounty put on Capone by rival Joe Aiello.

The war continued for another two years, during which another dozen plus mobsters were killed. Among them were James Russo and Mike "the ch*nk" Longo, both murdered by Tommy Hayes. The war came to an end on July 29, 1928 after St. Louis police escorted the surviving Russo brothers William, Thomas, and Lawrence to the Union Station so they could get out of town alive.






The Birger Gang


The Cuckoos were soon involved in another gang battle as they lent their guns to Carl Shelton's East Side Gang to fight the Birger Gang. When the Birger Gang was eliminated in 1930, Shelton ordered the Cuckoos out of the East Side. When Herman Tipton refused to leave because of the sudden bootlegging wealth he was enjoying there, Shelton convinced Hayes to split from the gang and turned on Tipton. Another dozen or so killings took place during this faction war. In February 1931, Hayes led an attack on a roadhouse in which three Shelton men were killed. Shelton, suspecting a double-cross, in turn double-crossed Hayes on April 15, 1932. Hayes was found in Madison, Illinois with 12 slugs in his back. His death effectively ended the Cuckoo gang as a force in the St. Louis underworld, although, as with Egan's Rats members, many ex-Cuckoos would be around for decades.

Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #658105
08/01/12 03:33 AM
08/01/12 03:33 AM
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naples,italy
St. Louis was one of 14 cities where Senator Estes Kefauver held hearings in the early 1950s. Gambling was the focus of the committee, and to expose organized crime in interstate commerce. Colonel William L. Holzhausen, chairman of the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, was one of the first to testify and confirmed that organized gambling, facilitated by the race wire service, was the principal law-enforcement problem in the area.

Missouri Attorney General J. E. Taylor told the committee that efforts in 1938 to cut off the Pioneer News wire service were met by legal actions. A long struggle ensued to compel Southwestern Bell Telephone and Western Union Telegraph to discontinue service to the Pioneer News Company. When service was finally cut off, the company used illegal means to continue to supply race results to the local handbooks.

J. J. Carroll and John Mooney ran the largest bookmaking operation in the area. Operating out of East St. Louis, the operation was handling $20 million annually in bets. The enterprise functioned heavily in the "layoff bet business" and employed agents to work the various racetracks, betting "come back" money at the pari-mutuel machines. This last action would result in distorting the track odds with the sudden placing of heavy bets just minutes before post time. Carroll, who was the first committee witness to refuse to testify because of the television cameras, later continued his testimony in Washington D. C. at his own expense. Carroll, who saw himself as a respectable businessman and disdained the tag of gambler, glorified himself with the title of "Betting Commissioner."

One of the more unusual gambling operations discussed by the committee was run by C. J. Rich and Company. The enterprise, which grossed almost $5 million a year, used Western Union telegrams, money orders, and Western Union agents to conduct business. Telegrams placing bets would be sent to C. J. Rich in East St. Louis and the bets were then covered by Western Union money orders. Each day Western Union would accumulate the incoming money orders and issue a single check to C. J. Rich. Western Union agents were paid handsomely for their efforts and rewarded with expensive gifts. Western Union profited greatly from this arrangement. During May 1950 their billing to the C. J. Rich Company came to $26,700. With publicity from a June 1950 raid on the C. J. Rich Company, Western Union finally cancelled the account of the gambling enterprise. The committee surmised Western Union's reluctance to react prior to this was due in part to William Molasky, a well-known St. Louis gambler, being a major stockholder in the company.

The last item covered by the committee was the Pioneer News Service. Molasky was also a chief stockholder in this operation. The wire service, which once was owned by Moses Annenberg and James Ragen, effectively ended up in the hands of the Capone syndicate in the late 1940s, with muscle provided by East St. Louis gang boss Frank "Buster" Wortman.

In the mid-1940s, after what was seen as a lack of Italian leadership in St. Louis, the Kansas City mafia sent two representatives to oversee the rackets in the city, Thomas Buffa and Tony Lopiparo. Buffa, according to historian Fontane, actually arrived in St. Louis in 1922 and eventually took over leadership of the Pillow Gang after Fresina's murder. Buffa was murdered in 1946 in Lodi, California after testifying against the girlfriend of a Kansas City mobster.

Leadership of organized crime in St. Louis was sketchy at best during the late 1940s. Believed to be running the family were Lopiparo, Frank "Three Fingers" Coppola, and Ralph "Shorty Ralph" Caleca. Coppola had been involved in the drug trade in Detroit and New Orleans, as well as St. Louis, before being deported to Italy. During this period the St. Louis hoods developed closer ties to the Detroit family instead of Kansas City. Mob members from both Detroit and St. Louis were involved in narcotics trafficking. From the late 1950s to the early 1980s, three men shared prominent roles in the St. Louis underworld; Anthony G. Giordano, John J. Vitale, and James A. "Jimmy" Michaels.

Anthony Giordano was born June 2, 1914 in St. Louis. His police record began in 1938. His more than 50 arrests included charges of carrying concealed weapons, robbery, holdups, income tax evasion, and counterfeiting tax stamps. Giordano was groomed for his rise to the top by his predecessor, Anthony Lopiparo, along with Frank Coppola and Ralph Caleca. The latter two were one-time members of the Green Ones gang.

In 1950, Giordano served as a drug courier for the St. Louis mob. It is not known how many trips he made to Italy, but at least law enforcement officials observed three of them. Each time Giordano met with Frank Coppola, the deported ex-Green One who was competing with Lucky Luciano in the drug trade there. Giordano had been under the surveillance of famed Narcotics Bureau Agent Charles Siragusa. On the first two trips, Giordano and Detroit mobster Paul Cimino were unsuccessful in negotiating a heroin purchase. Cimino went back alone in the spring of 1951 and purchased 20 kilos of heroin, bringing it back in a steamer trunk with a false bottom.

To the surprise of both Coppola and the Detroit mob, the heroin had been diluted prior to the sale and Coppola needed to make good. Giordano returned to Coppola's farm in Anzio to pick up the shipment. Upon arriving, the Italian newspapers broke the story of a major international drug smuggling ring bust in San Diego. Spooked by the turn of events, Giordano returned home empty handed. Years later, Siragusa wrote that Giordano was under surveillance and had he tried to return with the heroin he would have been arrested and given a long prison term.

During his years on the rise, Giordano dressed the part of the big time gangster wearing wide-brimmed, pearl gray hats, expensive suits, coats, shoes, and rings. In the 1960s, he changed his wardrobe and took on the appearance of a blue-collar worker. During this time he and his wife lived in a conservative home in southwest St. Louis. Giordano could often be seen dressed in work clothes at one of the flats he owned in south St. Louis doing carpentry or plumbing chores.

In 1956, Giordano and two others were sentenced to four years in prison on income tax charges in connection with a vending machine business. In February 1968, he was arrested as a "suspected" gambler during a citywide crack down on gamblers.

Giordano had ties with the Metropolitan Towing Company, which had a contract with the police department to remove vehicles from crash sites and to tow stolen or illegally parked automobiles. On November 30, 1970 three members of the St. Teresa of Avila Church drove onto the lot in a van to retrieve a stolen church vehicle. Apparently the lot had a rule that allowed only two people to come in at one time. Giordano, who was in the office, ordered the van off the lot. Words were exchanged. When one of the men identified himself as a priest, Giordano grabbed him by the shirt and told him, "I'm Catholic too. You run your church and I'll run my business." He then threatened to blow their heads off with a sawed off shotgun. All of this took place in front of a uniformed police officer who ignored the incident. Warrants were soon issued for Giordano's arrest.

Giordano


In January 1971, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported that the Missouri Task Force on Organized Crime had released the results of a yearlong study on organized crime in the state. The 15-member task force claimed that organized crime in St. Louis was "engaged in labor racketeering, gambling, infiltration of legitimate businesses, loan sharking, and narcotics traffic." Three factions were identified as cooperating in illegal activities. The first group was "headed by Anthony Giordano, with John Vitale second in command," and maintained strong ties with the Detroit syndicate." Aging, former Cuckoo gangster Jimmy Michaels headed the second group; and the last group was identified as "remnants of the East Side gang that was once headed by the late Frank "Buster" Wortman."

The report went on to state that the Giordano faction was heavily dependent on gambling, from operations in the north and northwest areas of St. Louis, as its main source of income. It also claimed that in addition to gambling, the group was into disposal of stolen property and had infiltrated legitimate businesses, including the Banana Distributing Company owned by Giordano, a produce trucking company, and the aforementioned Metropolitan Towing Company. The Task Force's findings accused the Giordano led faction of using the Metropolitan Towing Company to launder illegal income and provide an outlet to market stolen auto parts.

What concerned the committee was that all three factions had infiltrated organized labor. Authorities estimated that at least 30 mobsters were working as business agents for the unions, including relatives of both Giordano and Jimmy Michaels.

In conclusion to the committee's findings, it is interesting to note that in 1997, a former police official stated, "it behooved police to puff up the local organized crime situation because by doing so, the department became eligible for mob-fighting grants from the Nixon administration."

During the mid-1970s, Giordano was indicted after he attempted to gain hidden ownership in the Frontier casino in Las Vegas. Convicted with him were Detroit mobsters Michael Polizzi and Anthony Zerilli. Giordano was sent to prison in 1975 and released in December 1977. Giordano was nominated for Nevada's infamous Black Book on March 4, 1975, but because he had been sent to prison for the infraction, he was removed in April of the following year.

Another tie between St. Louis and Las Vegas was through Morris Shenker. Described as veteran defense attorney from St. Louis, Shenker represented Teamsters' President James R. Hoffa beginning in the mid-1960s and quickly made his way up the ranks of the "Teamsters' Bar Association." He also represented leading racketeers in St. Louis and was active in Democratic politics. His client list of organized crime figures not withstanding, Shenker was appointed by St. Louis Mayor A. J. Cervantes to serve as chairman of the city's new Commission on Crime and Law Enforcement. He resigned amid allegations that money from a $20 million dollar federal grant to fight crime was going unauthorized to the commission.

Former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Ronald J. Lawrence said of Shenker:

"There is a tendency to dismiss as inconsequential the tremendous influence and power wielded inside and outside the underworld by Morris Shenker, a functionary for the St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago and other families. This largely was because most local law enforcement officers were unable to comprehend the complexity of the man and his operations."

"Shenker, a lawyer who once represented Jimmy Hoffa, was a mover and shaker and a financial genius of the caliber of Lansky. It was Shenker who tapped the Teamster Union's Central States Pension Fund to finance much of the mob's penetration of Las Vegas casinos and other ventures. Shenker's influence extended far beyond the underworld and he was able to get two of his own federal indictments killed."

"St. Louis underworld interests controlled two Las Vegas casinos the Dunes, owned by Shenker, and the Aladdin."

As early as November 1974, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was reporting that Vincenzo "Jimmy" Giammanco and Matthew M. Trupiano Jr. (both sons of Giordano's sisters) were in line to replace Giordano before he was sent away to prison. The paper also discussed the possibilities of a mob war between the mafia and the Syrians, led by Jimmy Michaels, for control of several labor unions.

On February 12, 1979, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a story that Giordano was directing organized crime activity in Colorado. The paper quoted an unnamed source as stating, "Giordano is not just an errand boy. He is overlord for Colorado and he is the commission's representative here. Territories and geographical boundaries are not important. Relationships between people are paramount, and Giordano provides that relationship with the top of the mob."

The article went on to say that Giordano, working with the Smaldone Family Eugene "Checkers," Clyde "Flip Flop," and Clarence "Chauncey" oversees gambling, loan sharking, major fencing and investments into legitimate businesses. Giordano's dealings with the Smaldones began in 1973. Authorities believe it was through this relationship that "organized crime attempted to gain control of the Pueblo, Colorado Police Department in 1977 through the selection of two St. Louisans as candidate for chief of police."

The article also revealed that influences in Colorado by the St. Louis mob went back to the mid-1960s when St. Louis gangster Sam Shanks went there to help the Smaldones re-establish control of the gambling interests after they were released from a long prison term for jury tampering. During this time, Shanks murdered a gambler turned informant. Later Shanks retired to St. Louis and was a confidant of Giordano.

On August 29, 1980, Giordano died from cancer at his South St. Louis home. He was 67. Ten days before his death, a meeting was held at the Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge at Interstate 44 and Hampton Avenue. The meeting, with members of the Colorado underworld present, was called to choose a successor. Giordano's choice was said to be his nephew, Jimmy Giammanco. However, some family members balked at the decision and instead supported Joseph Cammarata, an ex-convict who had been keeping a low profile. Reports stated Giammanco threatened Cammarato when the decision was made to promote him. When neither candidate seemed to emerge, Anthony M. "Nino" Parrino, an officer of Teamster's Local 682, was considered.

New Regimes


Jimmy Michaels' career began in the 1920s when he was known as "Horseshoe Jimmy," and was a member of the Cuckoos Gang. At 19, he was arrested for robbing the Illinois Central freight depot in East St. Louis. He skipped bond, but was recaptured a year later. He was convicted of the robbery and sentenced from 10 years to life in prison in 1929. Michaels was released briefly while the U. S. Supreme Court reviewed his conviction. While out, he was arrested as a suspect in several gangland killings. Michaels served a total of 13 years for the robbery and was paroled in 1944. He quickly got involved in gambling, and in 1959 was arrested for operating an after hours joint on Hampton Avenue.

Michaels obtained a Missouri insurance broker's license in 1959, but under a new state law introduced in 1962, it was revoked because of his felony conviction. In December 1963, Michaels, Giordano and Kansas City mobster Max Jaben were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct in a hotel room where they were registered under the name of Mrs. Frank Wortman. The charges were dismissed. When Frank Wortman went to prison on tax evasion charges in 1962, authorities believed Michaels was being groomed to take over for him. In the mid-1970s, Michaels was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, but the charges were dismissed.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a bloody struggle going on for control of Laborer's Local 42 in St. Louis. The fighting had begun almost two decades earlier. Around 1965, a "hoodlum element" led by Louis D. Shoulders, Jr., George "Stormy" Harvill, and William "Shotgun" Sanders, took control of the local. Leadership was officially in the hands of Thomas "T. J." Harvill, due to the criminal records of the others. In 1966, "Stormy" Harvill was gunned down, and in 1972 Shoulders was killed in a car bombing. When Thomas Harvill died of natural causes in 1979, ex-Cuckoos member Jimmy Michaels backed John Paul Spica for the leadership position. Spica was described as a contract killer who was released from the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1973, after serving 10 years of a life sentence for the first-degree murder of a local real estate agent. This move brought him into opposition led by Raymond H. Flynn.






Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa (POLICE)


Flynn contacted Chicago mobster Joseph Aiuppa and asked for permission to challenge Michaels' move. Flynn was told that the St. Louis family would not interfere with Flynn's actions as long as Michaels was not harmed, due to his long-standing friendship with Giordano. In November 1979, Spica was murdered by a car bomb outside his home in Richmond Heights, Missouri. After this killing, Michaels met with Giordano to appeal for help against Flynn. Giordano was rebuffed by Aiuppa and told not to interfere in the power struggle. However, he could assure Michaels that no harm would come to him.

Flynn moved against Michaels again by approaching Anthony and Paul Leisure, members of Michaels' Syrian faction, and luring them away with high salaried jobs within the union. The greedy double-cross enraged Michaels who had supported the Leisures for years and gave Anthony an officer's position in Local 110. When Giordano died from cancer in August 1980, Aiuppa informed Flynn that any arrangement that Giordano had to protect his friend Michaels was "cancelled out" by his death.

Just 19 days after Giordano's death, David R. Leisure crawled under Michaels' black Chrysler Cordoba, which was parked outside St. Raymond's Maronite Church, and planted a remote-controlled bomb under the driver's seat. Michaels left the church driving on Interstate 55 in South St. Louis County near the Reavis Barracks Road exit when Anthony Leisure detonated the bomb. The automobile bounced three feet in the air. The force of the explosion tore Michaels' legs to pieces and part of his body was hurled against a passing car.

With the death of Giordano, government sources indicated that John J. Vitale was acting boss of the St. Louis family. Vitale's status was never really clear over the years. He was reputed to be the family's consigliere. However in 1967, the U.S. Justice Department identified him as "representing the national cartel in St. Louis." Little is known of Vitale's early years. In the 1940s he served two years in prison for a narcotics violation. Over the years he had been called to testify before several congressional committees, including one into alleged ties between professional boxing and the St. Louis family.

Vitale had been a suspect in several killings, including the 1968 murder of Thomas Rodgers, owner of a mortuary supply company. In addition, he had close ties to the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, and may have had connections to the Tropicana along with members of the Kansas City mob. In October 1980, Vitale was stopped and searched by FBI agents at St. Louis' Lambert Field airport. Agents seized $36,000 in cash hidden on Vitale.

After the death of Giordano and the subsequent murder of Michaels, Vitale tried to keep peace between the warring factions. Vitale, sometimes called the "gentleman gangster" was unsuccessful. In 1981, Vitale became an informant for the FBI and fed information to them on the war going on between the Michaels' gang and the Leisures. At the age of 73, Vitale was becoming frail to the point that he needed two canes to walk. On June 5, 1982, he died from heart disease at Faith Hospital in Creve Coeur, Missouri.

One of the hoodlums that Vitale tried to set up for the FBI was Jesse Stoneking a lieutenant of Arthur Berne, the East St. Louis rackets boss who had replaced Buster Wortman. Stoneking, an ex-choirboy, had made a name for himself in the mob after being taken under the wing of Berne. Former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Ronald J. Lawrence describes Stoneking as follows:

"Stoneking's reputation for violence was partly the result of the man himself. His presence, alone, was menacing. Built more like a bull than a man, he could talk, fight or shoot his way out of a jam. His stentorian (loud) voice demanded attention and obedience. His eyes could be as piercing as laser beams, as innocent as a baby's, depending on what he wanted to convey. His words could beat a man into submission or relieve him of his wealth.

"The other part of his reputation was built on his deeds."

Stoneking was a hitman with a conscience. On October 22, 1979, he murdered a man who had raped a girlfriend of his mentor Berne. In December 1979, he killed two men who had tried to set him up for a hit. However, when Joe Cammarata found a bomb in his pickup truck and ordered a hit on the man he suspected Tommy Callanan, a union business agent whose legs had been lost to a car bomb in 1973 Stoneking refused to carry it out because Callanan was confined to a wheelchair.

Stoneking's rise to the top and eventual possible leadership of the East Side rackets, then under Berne, went into a tailspin after the death of Jimmy Michaels. First, Vitale tried to set him up for the FBI by offering Stoneking $5,000 to get a bomb. Then on September 16, 1981, FBI agents arrested him for his involvement in an interstate stolen car ring and chop shop operation. Before he went to prison, he attended a party at Berne's home. Berne's wife, who dabbled in astrology, told Stoneking that one day he was "going to go straight."

"Go straight" in the mob usually means going straight to the authorities, which Stoneking did. While having time to reflect on his life in prison and seeing that his family, or families he had two, a wife with three children and a girlfriend with three more were not being taken care of, Stoneking flipped. His undercover informant role for the FBI over the next two years would result in the imprisonment of 30 members of organized crime including Berne and Matthew Trupiano.

Less than a year after Jimmy Michaels' murder, his supporters retaliated by planting a bomb under Paul Leisure's car outside his mother's home on Nottingham Avenue on August 11, 1981. The ensuing blast cost him his right leg and left foot. In addition, his face was severely disfigured. Members of the Flynn faction struck back a month later on September 11, by wounding Charles John Michaels, Jimmy's grandson, outside the Edge Restaurant. Authorities were surprised at the shooting because Michaels, who had no record, was not involved in the union power struggle. On October 16, George M. "Sonny" Faheen, Jimmy's nephew, was killed by a bomb planted in his Volkswagen Beetle, which was in the parking garage of the Mansion House Center. Again, authorities were baffled because Faheen was a city worker and not involved in the union power struggle.

On March 24, 1982 James A. Michaels III, another grandson of Jimmy Michaels, and Milton Russell Schepp, a former St. George, Missouri police chief, were charged with the Paul Leisure car bombing. Michaels was convicted of the Leisure bombing by a federal jury on October 19, 1982. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

In another twist, Michael E. Kornhardt, charged with the murder of George Faheen, was killed on July 31, 1982 while free on bond. Police theorized he was silenced to prevent him from striking a deal with the FBI. The murder of Kornhardt proved to be the undoing of the Leisure gang. Paul, Anthony, and David Leisure, Robert Carbaugh and Steven Wougamon were charged with Kornhardt's murder.

On April 14, 1983 eight members of the Leisure faction were indicted on state capital murder charges and federal racketeering charges. The charges would be handled in separate trials. The eight men indicted were Paul Leisure, business agent for Local 42 and part owner of LN & P Company, a towing company owned by the Leisure family; Anthony Leisure, Paul's brother and a business agent for Local 110 and part owner of LN & P; David Leisure, a cousin of Paul and Anthony and a part owner of LN & P, charged with murder and assault; John F. Ramo, an employee of LN & P charged with making the bomb that killed Jimmy Michaels; Ronald J. Broderick, a business agent for Local 110; Charles M. Loewe, a LN & P employee charged with the wounding of Charles John Michaels; Robert M. Carbaugh, a part-time employee of LN & P charged with killing Michael Kornhardt; and finally Steven T. Wougamon also charged with the murder of Kornhardt. Testifying against this group would be Fred Prater, the ex-LN & P employee who had become a protected government witness. Prater admitted to the U.S. Attorney that he had built the bomb that killed Jimmy Michaels.

On April 2, 1985 bothers Paul and Anthony Leisure and their cousin David, along with Steve Wougamon and Charles Loewe were convicted. Ramo and Broderick, who had pled guilty to charges earlier in the trial, testified against them. With the last defendant, Robert Carbaugh, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. On May 1, 1985 Paul and David Leisure were sentenced to 55 years in prison. The sentence consisted of 20 years for conspiracy, 20 years for racketeering, 5 years for obstruction of justice, and 10 years for manufacturing the bombs. Anthony Leisure received 40 years and Charles Loewe received 36 years. Wougamon was sentenced at a later date. Within weeks of the convictions, the five men and Carbaugh would be indicted on state murder charges. In the second trial, Paul Leisure was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole for 50 years on December 7, 1987. Later, Anthony and David Leisure were found guilty with Anthony receiving a life sentence. David, however, in a mob rarity, was sentenced to death.

Raymond Flynn, who was tried separately, was convicted by a federal jury for his role in the car bombings and sentenced to 55 years in prison in March 1987. An appeal in 1988 reduced his sentence to 30 years.

Attorneys for David Leisure tried desperately to save their client. They argued he had diminished mental capacities and that it was his cousins who were the ringleaders. David was "merely a follower who knew no better," they claimed. The attorneys went on to state that he "was born into a poor family two months premature, wasn't toilet trained until age eight, dropped out of school in the third grade, and used alcohol and drugs as a child."

An unlikely call for clemency came from Michaels' grandson, James A. Michaels III. He wrote Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan stating, "The Michaels' family and the Leisure family have experienced enough grief for one lifetime. I feel that the execution of David would bring additional needless hardship, not only to his family, but to my family as well."

Leisure's execution was set for 12:01 am September 1, 1999. A last appeal was being reviewed stating that one of Leisure's attorneys was a drug addict at the time of the trial. The man in reality was a law student and only part of the defense team during the trial. While Leisure waited for the final appeal to be ruled upon, he had a last supper of steak, baked potato, salad, apple pie, ice cream and a Pepsi.

With all appeals exhausted, Carnahan denied clemency and Leisure was strapped to the gurney inside the death chamber at the Potosi Correctional Center. His last statement was, "I am an innocent man. The lawyer who represented me was on drugs. Tell my children, family and relatives I love them."

The only family member present was Leisure's sister. Sobbing with her head resting on a priest's shoulder, she watched as her brother mouthed the words "I love you," as a lethal dose of drugs ended his life.

Incredibly, David Leisure's death was the first execution of a member of organized crime since the electrocution of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter at Sing Sing in 1944.

On July 22, 2000 Paul Leisure died at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri where he had been incarcerated since 1993. Leisure, who was 56, suffered from heart disease.

Meanwhile the new St. Louis mob boss finally emerged. Described as low-key and elusive, Matthew M. "Mike" Trupiano, Jr. was identified by the FBI as the heir apparent to Giordano in the wake of Vitale's death in 1982. Trupiano, a nephew of Giordano, was born in Detroit and as one federal investigator stated, "He got messed up in gambling in Detroit and was sent here for some guidance from his uncle."

In May 1986, Trupiano was fined $30,000 and sentenced to four years in prison for running a gambling ring that handled bets on college and professional football games. During the trial, witnesses testified that Trupiano's bookmaking operation lost money. It was the first time federal agents had ever heard of an underworld bookmaking operation running in the red. Some insiders believed it might have been due to Trupiano's own gambling in which he lost more than won.

In transcripts of recorded conversations, Trupiano was heard to say, "He got no respect, either from mob chapters or his own underlings." Other comments overheard indicated that Italian-American businessmen kept him at arms length, and mob families cheated him out of money from the sale of a hotel in Las Vegas. Trupiano claimed his own soldiers were holding out on him from their bookmaking take. By the time Trupiano was released from prison, after serving just 16 months of the sentence, the St. Louis mob "had dwindled to a handful of soldiers."

The newspapers described Trupiano as "flashy, temperamental, profane, averse to neckties and a compulsive gambler." The FBI kept him under so close surveillance that he was arrested in 1991 for running an illegal gin rummy game in the back room of a used car dealership on South Kingshighway. Prosecutors stated that since Trupiano was an officer of Laborer's Local 110, and was playing cards on union time, that he was in effect embezzling from the union. In June 1992, the Local 110 membership voted him out of office. In October, Trupiano was convicted on one of six counts and sentenced to two and a half years in prison and told by the judge to "shun gambling in all forms."

Trupiano's health deteriorated in prison. He suffered from diabetes, underwent daily kidney dialysis, and had suffered one heart attack. He died after suffering a second heart attack at St. Anthony's Medical Center in south St. Louis County on October 22, 1997.

In the wake of Trupiano's death there are two men local mob watchers say are candidates as family leaders Joseph Cammarata and Anthony Parrino. According to Ronald Lawrence, both men are retired, "at least from their legitimate jobs." He claims Stoneking's testimony was really responsible for putting away the mob in St. Louis.

Bibliography


St. Louis Globe-Democrat

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

St. Louis Magazine, May 1989, "The Bully of the Mob", by Ronald J. Lawrence

Farrell, Ronald A. and Carole Case The Black Book and the Mob 1995 University of Wisconsin Press

Kefauver, Estes Crime in America 1951 Doubleday & Company, Inc.

The following individuals contributed to this article:

Walter M. Fontane, organized crime historian

Ronald J. Lawrence, retired investigative journalist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Barbara Miksicek, librarian for the St. Louis Police Library

Charles R. Molino, organized crime historian

Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: IvyLeague] #658141
08/01/12 01:07 PM
08/01/12 01:07 PM
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 498
Texas
TonyG Offline
Capo
TonyG  Offline
Capo
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 498
Texas
Originally Posted By: IvyLeague
I don't know if you got those names from the bogus St. Louis charts that used to make their way around the internet. But there's not even close to that many guys left in St. Louis.

Little Al, who was the most knowledgeable poster I've encountered on St. Louis, could only identify 4 or 5 guys he knew to be made. There may be a couple more but it's certainly under 10 at this point. And there's no formal structure anymore. So it's pointless to start slapping position titles on guys.


Ivy - I agree with you. There is a lot of bogus information / rumors out there.

The 7 guys I have named in my post above have been publicly identified as members by reliable sources. I have the newspaper clippings, court transcripts / judgments and police reports to back them up.

The titles in my posts come from those same sources. When Trupiano died, the Post Dispatch had an article naming the guys in those positions.

All the other guys listed on the charts / posts were associated at some time. None of them have been identified as made by reliable sources. The fact that none of them have been arrested or convicted in over 10 - 15 years strongly suggests that little, if any, structure or criminal activity remains.


Best way to catch the smart ones? Get an idiot working for them.
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Nicholas] #658146
08/01/12 01:34 PM
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Originally Posted By: Nicholas
How involved was the St. Louis family with Vegas skimming?


STL had a Vegas presence.

Morris Shenker, a STL attorney who represented Hoffa and other gangsters, was an owner investor in the Royal Nevada and the Dunes.

Sorkis Webbe, another STL attorney and politician, was one of the owners of the Aladdin for a period of time.

Both were charged with tax evasion, etc. while owners.

John Vitale was arrested at the STL Airport in 1981 upon landing from a flight from Vegas. He had $30K in his pocket, which was speculated to be from the skim.

In the mid 1970's, Tony Giordano was convicted of trying to gain hidden ownership of the Frontier. I believe he was the first person listed in the Black Book as a result.

As far as I know, no one from STL was arrested or charged during the Strawman trials, which was mostly KC and Chicago.


Best way to catch the smart ones? Get an idiot working for them.
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: TonyG] #658188
08/01/12 06:35 PM
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IvyLeague Offline
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Originally Posted By: TonyG
Originally Posted By: IvyLeague
I don't know if you got those names from the bogus St. Louis charts that used to make their way around the internet. But there's not even close to that many guys left in St. Louis.

Little Al, who was the most knowledgeable poster I've encountered on St. Louis, could only identify 4 or 5 guys he knew to be made. There may be a couple more but it's certainly under 10 at this point. And there's no formal structure anymore. So it's pointless to start slapping position titles on guys.


Ivy - I agree with you. There is a lot of bogus information / rumors out there.

The 7 guys I have named in my post above have been publicly identified as members by reliable sources. I have the newspaper clippings, court transcripts / judgments and police reports to back them up.

The titles in my posts come from those same sources. When Trupiano died, the Post Dispatch had an article naming the guys in those positions.

All the other guys listed on the charts / posts were associated at some time. None of them have been identified as made by reliable sources. The fact that none of them have been arrested or convicted in over 10 - 15 years strongly suggests that little, if any, structure or criminal activity remains.



7 made guys, I could find believable.


Mods should mind their own business and leave poster's profile signatures alone.
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: TonyG] #658195
08/01/12 07:59 PM
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Originally Posted By: TonyG
"Rumored Soldiers".



That's what people should do. Just because your related to someone or maybe have been arrested once doesn't mean your a soldier, shouldn't even be labeled an associate. If my Brother is a soldier or capo does that make me an associate?


Random Poster:"I'm sorry I didn't go to an Ivy-league school like you"

"Ah I actually I didn't. It's a nickname the feds gave the
Genovese Family."
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #658196
08/01/12 08:11 PM
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^^^reminds me of the big mob roundup and one of the guys who got arrested here (no previous arrest record) in NYC was asking for bail, the feds refused saying he was an "associate of the gambino family" and the guy responded "I didnt know I was an associate until you just said it"

LOL

Kind of felt bad for the guy, for the record his bail was denied.

Last edited by Dapper_Don; 08/01/12 08:11 PM.

Tommy Shots: They want me running the family, don't they know I have a young wife?
Sal Vitale: (laughs) Tommy, jump in, the water's fine.


Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Dapper_Don] #658197
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^^^^^ What was he being charged with?


Random Poster:"I'm sorry I didn't go to an Ivy-league school like you"

"Ah I actually I didn't. It's a nickname the feds gave the
Genovese Family."
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: DickNose_Moltasanti] #658198
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Originally Posted By: DickNose_Moltasanti
^^^^^ What was he being charged with?


shakedown, loan sharking, etc


Tommy Shots: They want me running the family, don't they know I have a young wife?
Sal Vitale: (laughs) Tommy, jump in, the water's fine.


Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Scalish] #658265
08/02/12 11:32 AM
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so when you say St. Louis has a crime presence, is it standing on its own or is it an offshoot of one of the New York Five?

Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: Jimmy_Two_Times] #658325
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IvyLeague Offline
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Originally Posted By: Jimmy_Two_Times
so when you say St. Louis has a crime presence, is it standing on its own or is it an offshoot of one of the New York Five?


I'm not sure what one means by "crime presence" but there isn't a formally structured, viable LCN family in St. Louis anymore. And there hasn't been for some time. Nothing left for New York to be connected to.


Mods should mind their own business and leave poster's profile signatures alone.
Re: St. Louis Crime Family [Re: IvyLeague] #658432
08/03/12 01:37 PM
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Originally Posted By: IvyLeague
Originally Posted By: Jimmy_Two_Times
so when you say St. Louis has a crime presence, is it standing on its own or is it an offshoot of one of the New York Five?


I'm not sure what one means by "crime presence" but there isn't a formally structured, viable LCN family in St. Louis anymore. And there hasn't been for some time. Nothing left for New York to be connected to.


Historically, STL was closely connected to Kansas City and Detroit / Cleveland. The early leaders in STL came from KC. The Licavoli's were born in STL and moved to Detroit and Cleveland.

All midwest families answered to the Chicago Outfit. STL and Chicago had an uneasy and tenuous relationship, in large part because the Outfit had a crew in East StL Illinois. The STL family was marginalized by the East Side Gang, splitting up the rackets.

I am not aware of any connections between STL and the families in these other cities since Trupiano. I have heard rumors that Parrino has met with people from Chicago and Detroit, but it has not been reported in the press.


Best way to catch the smart ones? Get an idiot working for them.
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