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. He rejected Maloneys poem but continued to correspond, providing him with professional advice and personal guidance. Dope was easier to get in prison than it was on the streets. He was between jobs, collecting unemployment benefits. Maloney had been in solitary confinement for nearly four months after his escape attempt when Hinkley contacted him. He went to prison for slugging a liquor agent in 1933 at a still near Collinsville. 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. The couple then took a cab to the Soulard neighborhood in South St. Louis. But his rise from convicted murderer to award-winning investigative reporter for the Kansas City Star is a feat unparalleled in the annals of American journalism. The two reporters began knocking on doors, talking to area business owners. For Sale on 1stDibs - "Paddock" Pars 1969, 20th Century oil on canvas by Spanish Artist E. Grau Sala, Canvas, Oil Paint by Emilio Grau Sala. voice be heard! 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. In the mid-70s, some Star editors were even reluctant to print the word Mafia, Maloney later wrote. The last time John Larry Ray visited New York City was in 1965. But as quickly as his cell door seemed to have started to creak open, the steel bars slammed shut again. 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. Though he avoided further trouble with the law, Gruender acted as a courier for Wortman. After going bankrupt in 2003, Spectrulites owners sold the company, but continue to hold a stake in the operation and the property itself. Through her encouragement, elderly attorney Mable Hinkley began to correspond with Maloney. The housepainter soon introduced his young stepson to the underworld, taking Maloney with him on occasional visits to the Paddock Lounge, Wortman's bar in East St. Louis, which was a hangout for organized crime figures. Stoneking, the informant who testified against Bartolotta and dozens of other St. Louis mobsters in the 1980s, died of an apparent suicide in Maricopa County, Arizona a year ago (2003). They also interviewed city and federal law-enforcement authorities and pumped confidential sources for information. In her first letter, Hinkley advised Maloney to seek divine guidance, but she also offered him a more down-to-earth deal. Search the Largest Online Newspaper Archive Show article text (OCR) Save to Ancestry Clipped from St. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis, Missouri 05. Menn then sold the proposal to Cruise Palmer, the executive editor. The next year, Maloney ran away again. If you are young and good looking, you can count on being confronted again and again. 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. 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. More important, Maloney understood that the roots of the problem ran deep in the Kansas City political establishment and business community and that there was a kind of mass denial regarding corruption. 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. Testifiying against Bartolotta was FBI informant Jesse Stoneking, who the defense claimed had intimidated and entrapped the St. Louis organized crime figure. He said, Youve saved my life, for the time being, anyway.. A short time later, he went to federal prison for slugging a liquor agent during a raid on a still near Collinsville. His second novel, The Chain, is based on his years behind bars, including his incarceration at the Missouri Penitentiary and the old St. Louis City Jail. Eunice Dowling, widow of Dutch Dowling, testifies during a St. Clair County coroner's inquest on March 6, 1962, investigating her husband's murder. (Buel White/Post-Dispatch), On March 3, 1962, six days after the jury verdict, the bodies of Elmer "Dutch" Dowling (left) and Melvin Beckman were found sprawled on the pavement of Wolf Branch School Board (now Huntwood Road), north of Belleville. The brand varied with the decade: L&Ms or, later, Marlboro Lights. Warden Nash committed suicide. copyright 2021 by C.D. Ratings. At the same time, dissension was brewing in the newsroom. Maloney then married a former inmate of the girls reformatory at Chillicothe, and they moved to Alabamabut the marriage fell apart. They drove to Kansas City together and toured the Stars editorial offices. Maloney joined the newspapers staff after being paroled in 1972. But his rise from convicted murderer to award-winning investigative reporter for the Kansas City Star is a feat unparalleled in the annals of American journalism. By the mid-1920's he became associated with the old Shelton gang and was soon running errands for them. Barbecue, Barbeque, Bar. On Dec. 19, 1945, at the age of 14, Maloney ran away from home for the first time.I was prepared, Maloney recalled later. Double Deuce Lounge - 601 S 10th St, East St Louis. A year after his parents divorced, a hit-and-run driver killed his brother, Bobby. In later years he worked as a freelance writer and as an editor for the alternative press. Over the next year and a half, Maloney was put in solitary confinement dozens of times for attempting to escape, instigating a riot and other infractions. Maloney joined the newspapers staff after being paroled in 1972. Red Apple BBQ & Lounge - 2112 St Clair Ave, East St Louis. Maloney added to his underworld knowledge in prison, where he befriended fellow inmate John Paul Spica, a St. Louis Mafia soldier. Maloney had no way of knowing the significance that his verse would ultimately play in redirecting his life. . The brand varied with the decade: L&Ms or, later, Marlboro Lights. Maloney had garnered the editors attention in 1961 through a poem he had submitted to the Star, which then printed verse on its editorial page each day. The Paddock Lounge & Club Supper Room, East St Louis, IL. Log In. After six weeks of observation at Fulton, Maloney was allowed by the parole board to enlist in the Army. She was 16 and insisted she would commit suicide before she was 21, because she had a fear of not being beautiful. Five more years would elapse before Maloney finally made parole, during which time Menn continued to support and encourage his writing. 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. Menn became his mentor, giving guidance and critiquing his poetry and prose. Prosecutors said Wortman evaded $50,793 in taxes due from glitzy gambling halls and smoky bookie joints. On his death, in 1915, the founder of the paper, William Rockhill Nelson, had willed the Star to his employees. 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. Though he avoided further trouble with the law, Gruender acted as a courier for Wortman. The mob continued to influence the police department, city hall, the county courthouse and the state legislature. But back in Kansas City, a rift had developed among three branches of the local mob: the Cammisano, Spero and Bonadonna clans. Bar, Nightlife Hours: 601 S 10th St, East St Louis (618) 874-8447. In 1948, he equipped it with the novel luxury of air-conditioning. 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.. Jones agreed with them. Instead, James Earl Ray appeared edgy and expressed apprehension about his future. Its far-flung empire stretched all the way to Las Vegas, where the KC mob oversaw the skimming of millions of dollars from casinos. 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. While at the Register, he covered a series of murders attributed to the Freeway Killer, a name of his invention. In the city of St. Louis, there were once twenty bars located between Bates on the north and the city limits on the south. After Maloney punched Thiemann in the face several times, the old man agreed to hand over the cash. 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. James Earl Ray subsequently fled north of the border, but there is no indication that he participated in such a caper. Maloney had reached his nadir. 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. The judge put him on probation. Gruenders association with these gangsters continued long after his parole. "We drove across the river to the Paddock Lounge in [East St. Louis] Illinois and I introduced him to Jimmie O'Brien," Ray says. He didnt bring him to St. Louis. Moreover, Jerry Ray, John Larry Rays surviving brother, disputed John Larrys account in a telephone interview from his home in McMinnville, Tenn., in October. The prison series later won the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association. At left is Dr. C.C. The jurors were dragged back for a grilling, but no one drew suspicion. The white convicts slept three to a cell (except for several hundred in one-man cells). There were men in prison who were said to make more money each year from dope and gambling than the warden was paid. Despite his abominable record, the state had little choice but to parole him in January 1959, a few months after he turned 18. At the time of his marriage to Maloneys mother, he had only been out of the Missouri Penitentiary for a year. Beckman was a bodyguard for Wortman and Dowling. James Earl Ray worried that Kings presence in the city might somehow block his getaway plans, his brother says, and he never provided any clues about what else was making him so uneasy. Paddock Village Apartments in St. Louis, MO offers two bedroom lofts, two bedroom apartments, and two and three bedroom townhomes. 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. I remember telling him, Joe, lets just wait until they start killing each other, says Jones. He was assigned to the Army Signal Corps School at Fort Gordon, Ga. His military career lasted just three months: He went AWOL on Nov. 3, 1959. Sonnenschein was indicted because the ads drew customers and prostitutes across state lines, which is a federal crime. We are also conveniently located near shopping, dining, and entertainment options. Born in St. Louis, Frank first worked as a molder for a steel casting plant in East St. Louis. He was assigned to the Army Signal Corps School at Fort Gordon, Ga. His military career lasted just three months: He went AWOL on Nov. 3, 1959. 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? He was not from another planet, but he was from another time. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch), Elmer "Dutch" Dowling in 1938, when he was 32 years old and a suspect in the attempted murder of a prospective trial witness. Kane, the St. Clair County coroner (fourth from left). Having written it, my next problem was deciding where to send it. As a result, Maloneys letters to Menn started coming back undelivered. He died of kidney failure and complications of liver disease at Nashville Memorial Hospital on April 23, 1998. Maloney argued that the Star should immediately expose the Mafias infiltration of the River Quay. Maloney added to his underworld knowledge in prison, where he befriended fellow inmate John Paul Spica, a St. Louis Mafia soldier. A prison psychiatrist who evaluated Maloney shortly after his arrival characterized him as a socially diffident individual who seems to take a half-humorous rejection of the whole affair. If Maloneys initial demeanor seemed inappropriately aloof given the circumstances, it didnt take long for his mood to turn into a malevolent rage. She kept her end of the bargain. [This story was first published in January 2, 2004.]. Stabbings and killings, robberies and rapes were common. Vintage Matchcover: The Paddock Lounge & Club Supper Room, East St Louis, IL | eBay The Paddock Lounge & Club Supper Room, East St Louis, IL. . I dont know.. Hal Goldsmith, the prosecutor in the Stenger case, previously served as an Assistant U.S. attorney in East St. Louis in the 1990s, which was Bernes territory. This time he made it as far as Hannibal before crashing a stolen car. Latest reviews, photos and ratings for Romeos Lounge at 787 N 53rd St in East Saint Louis - view the menu, hours, phone number, address and map. Jones and Maloney collaborated for months on the prison project, sharing the reporting and writing duties. But the bankrupt, Illinois-based company, which had been sold to a foreign concern, remained an active corporation in Missouri for six years after its apparent demise; proof that there is life after death at least in the legal world. Then married a former inmate of the Missouri Penitentiary for a year brother... And critiquing his poetry and prose infiltration of the River Quay 16 and insisted would!, says Jones i remember telling him, Joe, lets just wait until they killing! 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