An Ad for the Blakeland Inn in the 1930s. They were separated by one Watson and the fight terminated. He was rumored to be a confidential informant. Sam Carlino (second from left) stands next to a man believed to be Ralph Smaldone around 1931. And on October 16, 2006, the final member of the Smaldone organization passed away when Clarence Chauncey Smaldone died in hospice at the age of 82. And if you want to get technical, and if you want to get to a legal term, that's called being a foreign agent. Over the years the Smaldones as a family and an organization were known to have helped out many families in need, they gave coal and groceries to many North Denver neighbors, went to bat with police when neighborhood kids ran afoul of the law, donated large sums of money specifically to the local Catholic Church and other community projects, and even raised money to help build a local high school. By this point, they simply wanted to be left alone. This happens roughly 10 months after the Roma assassination. Most Dangerous Cities In Colorado [2022]: Violent Crime and They said, Hell, we get a lot of stuff out of there too. But those plans would never come to fruition as he died of natural causes on September 5, 1975 (just two months after Coletti). But the business of the Smaldone family would soon change, and Raffaele along with his sons would find another means for making money: bootlegging. Barlock is explaining why Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone was jailed for contempt after he refused to answer questions at investigation into gambling and prostitution in the county. Clyde Smaldone, cigar in mouth, standing on a Denver sidewalk in front of cars sometime in 1940s. WebBrowse crime in Colorado by city, county, schools, and surrounding areas that display crime maps showing crime incident data down to neighborhood crime activity including, WebColorado CRS 18-8-103 makes it a crime to resist arrest by using threats, force or violence against the police officers or other people. The two men were very similar. Based on my research, there were indications that the Smaldone brothers had a close relationship at times with the Carlino brothers, and they would end up working either for or in close partnership with the Giuseppe Joe Roma organization as well in the early 30s. Were going to pick up where we left off in Part One. The Most Notorious Colorado Mobsters - OnlyInYourState #14: Did Joey Gallo Really Punch Neil Dellacroce (During the Gallo Wars)? A man named Ralph Pizzalato, a close friend of LaGaurdias who was allegedly present during the altercation with Checkers Smaldone that resulted in the death contract on his pal, was actually rumored to have been the shooter in this case. The pair would do around 9 of their 12 year sentence and would be released in 1962. Gaetano's Restaurant exterior (black and white) as it looks today. Ten out of 11 of them have nothing but great things to say about the family, he said. This would be gambling money, this would be loan money, and hed set them down on the table and in different piles, and there was always a big wad, sometimes four, five, six, seven thousand dollars, maybe more.. The brothers would receive a new trial. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, Oversight members have been combing through tips known as SARs - Suspicious Activity Reports - following a subpoena of the Treasury Department to look into business dealings of the president and his family members mainly his son Hunter Biden. Clyde Smaldone was the oldest brother and veritable leader of the Smaldone organization. Clarence "Chauncey" Smaldone looking cool as a ice during a jury probe in 1963. And considering how competitive and volatile the Colorado underworld would be in the 1920s, anyone who chose this as a profession did so at risk of great personal harm and even death. It had just 15 property crimes and 2 violent crimes over the course of year. You could find family Kreck, Dick. So its clear that by this point, the Smaldones were in the crosshairs and had gained a fairly negative reputation from many in law enforcement, some of their own doing and some by association with major underworld figures, despite regularly decorating the mahogany.. Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family. As of 2008, adjusted gross proceeds (total bets minus payouts) from gambling in Central City, and two other approved cities topped $715 million annually. An informant years later related that undoubtedly these men intended to kill West but the latter jumped out of the automobile as it was proceeding through downtown Denver streets, started screaming, and raised such a commotion that his assailants fled the scene. In fact, after the murder of Joe Roma in 1933, the Smaldones and the Pueblo LCN worked close together and relatively harmoniously until the group in Pueblo became defunct in the 1970s. They left shortly after noon and went to a motion picture house, they said, differing, however, on the house they attended, Clark said. Max Melville, who served as Colorados deputy attorney general when prosecuting the Smaldone brothers in the 1950's. Christof Kreb Killed Wife, Kids in Triple Murder-Suicide: Sheriff In the relationship between Chauncey and Paulie, it was often said that the latter had the brains so to speak. This is bad. An Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone talks with a group of people in 1953. An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. It would start off, in my opinion from a legal perspective, pretty innocuously and would go in a direction that they did not expect. Clarence "Chauncey" Smaldone is booked in 1966. He was mean. This is why I referred to him as a Frank Costello-esque figure earlier on in the episode. Glendale Glendale held onto its title of most dangerous place in Colorado for another year. This actually surprised me in my research as I went into these episodes thinking they were LCN, so its just the latest example of me believing one thing and my research uncovering another. There has never been anything like it. Each Christmas they donate quantities of athletic equipment to the homeless waifs and feed em good at Gaetanos, the magazine wrote. In addition to their gambling empire, the Smaldones were wise enough to take advantage of the opportunities created by economic conditions stemming from World War II and moved the family into selling rationed goods on the black market. An icon of a desk calendar. Photo taken at Gaetanos restaurant sometime in the 1950s. In 1920, at the tender age of 13, Clyde would be arrested on a burglary charge for stealing a pair of pants from a local hardware store. We covered several major events including: Today were going to dig into the era of the Smaldone brothers. An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. So in Colorado, they were target #1 to take down. Up until the Apalachin fiasco, Colletti had only minor arrests such as for drunkenness, vagrancy and disorderly conduct. They ventured to the secluded estate on the day an Arkansas judge ordered Hunter appear in court in person to participate in a bitter paternity case filed by a former stripper, with whom he had a brief affair four years ago, resulting in a daughter. Like his uncle Clyde, Paulie had a gift for story-telling, was generally considered to be charming, and loved pranks. There were two alleged witnesses to the bombing. First-Degree Burglary" in Colorado Now around this same time in 1951, Clyde and Eugene Checkers Smaldone were called before a Denver grand jury investigation on gambling (led by Melville) where as previously mentioned both men plead the Fifth over 100 times, essentially refusing to provide anything but name and address. family Clyde Smaldone relaxes and smokes a cigar in his home in the early 1960s. Now as I covered at length in Part One, bootlegging would become a critical driving force in the development and advancement of the Mafia across the country. He had the closest ties to the feared Mafia bosses to the south in Pueblo. Over the years, Clyde and his brothers would rub elbows foster relationships with many key Cosa Nostra figures across the United States including the likes of Carlos Marcello (of New Orleans), Vito Genovese and Frank Costello (out of New York), and the aforementioned Al Capone (who he met during Prohibition). He first came to national prominence when mentioned as a mob figure in the Kefauver Hearings in the early 1950s. The remains of the vehicle of Leo Barnes, allegedly targeted for assassination by Clyde Smaldone, Checkers Smaldone, and Smiling Charlie Stephens. In this photo from May 1950, the Smaldones preside over a spaghetti dinner for local youths at Gaetano's restaurant, 3760 Tejon street. stuff.co.nz Clyde and Mildred Smaldone (left) pose for a photo in 1973. This is where they were at the top of the mountain so to speak. This was an argument and a dispute between Joseph Nucci and Checkers that pretty much went from shouting to shooting really, really quickly. Spinuzzi was considered a handsome man, approximately five-foot-eight-inches tall with dark, curly hair, dark brown eyes. He would be buried at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Jefferson County, Colorado. An 2021 article by author Matt Masich in Colorado Life Magazine provided an nice, authentic summation of the brothers and the famous eatery and command post: THE LITTLE ITALIAN RESTAURANT on northwest Denvers Tejon Street has a big reputation, and not just for authentic food. Left to right are Americus Quintana, Joe Salardino, Chauncey Smaldone, attorney Ed Barlock and Michael Tomeo. Always the entrepreneur, Clyde Smaldone was always looking for ways to expand the organizations gambling empire. It was at this point when someone lying in wait stepped out from behind bushes and shot him directly in the face with a blast from a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun. In 1956, at age 32, Chauncey would be arrested for the first time on a gambling charge when he and seven others were busted at a house on 3357 Navajo Street for running an illegal barbooth game. They took an office in Denver at 34th and Pecos and began selling whiskey, both making their own as well as importing and selling other brands. In 1959, informants would indicate that Chauncey, along with Paulie Villano, and Joe The Ram Salardino (great nickname by the way) were essentially fleecing Denver business men out of thousands of dollars at a gambling club known as the Thorn Lake Club, located in Glipin County, Colorado. Ralph Carr. He used to tell Chauncey and Paulie. He was present during the famous 1957 Apalachin mob summit. Now, there were certainly other members, but I wont bore you by going through every single one. An elderly Clyde and Mildred Smaldone have dinner at Gaetano's. First, go get Colorados Carlino Brothers: A Bootlegging Empire by Sam Carlino, who is in fact the grandson of the infamous Pete Carlino and great nephew of Sam Carlino who helped build the Carlino bootlegging empire and who was in fact murdered in 1933. Additionally, the data set and comparisons from year to year may not take into account data anomalies from agencies that upgrade or switch record management systems from one year to the next. He was also a liquor store and bar owner. It was nepotism at its finest. Firestone Source: Wikipedia User Jeffrey Beall | CC BY 3.0 Overall SnackAbility 9 /10 A bondsman signs bail bond for Clarence "Chauncey" Smaldone in 1960. OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. He would immigrate to New York City and ring up several arrests in the New York and New Jersey area before moving west and settling in Pueblo, Colorado, though hed become a naturalized citizen in February of 1920 while still residing in New York. Limon, Colorado Limon has a crime rate of 53.7 violent crimes per 100,000 persons. Tributes to absolute legend rugby player stabbed to death near One of these men, a former lawyer named Charles S. Vigil, had been appointed as the U.S. District Attorney for Colorado in 1951 by President Harry Truman, who himself of course was famously mobbed up and was an acquaintance of none other than Clyde Smaldone. He had been severely beaten, then shot four times in the right side of the body. Blandas immediate successor as Boss was his trusted aide, Vincenzo James Coletti, called Black Jim for his dark complexion and coal-black eyes. Crime Insight According to Clyde, he and his brother Eugene would hang out by the railroad hurling rocks at the steam-locomotive crews that drove by, and when the crews responded by throwing chunks of coal, the boys would carry them home to help heat the house. In October of 1967, (again it just continues) Clarence and Clyde were again arrested again for their part in a $100,000 bookmaking enterprise. The family of a Colorado man who was seen on security video being struck by a squad car before he was fatally shot by police is demanding answers about the They were known to have ransacked many garages around North Denver in search of booze to sell. WebThe family is still active in the international drug trade and white collar crimes that include loan-sharking and extortion, and in the early 21st century at least four bosses of the Bonanno family were convicted of crimes, including racketeering and So theyd dodge that bullet so to speak, but the full court press from law enforcement would persist. Advertisement. Please note: the data set for 2020 may contain incomplete information due to the fact not all law enforcement agencies may have submitted crime statistics for this reporting period. Charley Blanda was born in Ames, Iowa in 1899, but at some point would move to Colorado where he would reside permanently. Police officers and EMS performed life-saving measures, but James Gamino died on the scene. Drinking turned to fist-fighting amongst each other. By this time, not only were the Smaldones operations running at full-tilt, anyone in the Denver vicinity who wanted to get into gambling essentially had to get permission to do so from the Smaldone brothers or else. The autopsy revealed a bullet hole in the palm of the hand of the deceased and another in the left nostril with the bullet lodged in the brain. At some point, he made his way to Pueblo, Colorado. According to an interview Clyde would give in later years, he and his friends would undercut other bootleggers by finding out where they hid their booze, stealing it, and selling it for a lower price. Our ongoing accessibility effort works towards being in line with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, level AA criteria. crime family Mamie Smaldone stands with her six sons, from left, Clyde, Anthony, Clarence, Eugene, Andrew, and Ralph, in front of the family bar on Tejon Street in about 1940. In the early days, hed also been arrested for bootlegging, attacking a police officer, reckless driving, stealing merchandise from local stores, and for assaulting a police informant during an illicit liquor delivery. As a young child Chaucey roamed the neighborhoods in North Denver with another young Italian youth named Paulie Villano, who was in fact his cousin despite only a four year age difference. Now its important that you know the players as the men who came next had ties into both groups at times during the 1920s and 1930s. Even in their heyday, when The Denver Post waged a media campaign against organized crime, the newspapers Roundup Magazine gave Clyde and Checkers credit for helping destitute north Denver families with milk and groceries, secretly paying college tuition for local boys, and funding Catholic orphanages. gaetanos; food; highland; restaurant; kevinjbeaty; denver; denverite; colorado; bar; Gaetano's Restaurant interior as it looks today. Judge J. They would get their first victory in 1951 when Smaldone associates Frank Blackie Mazza and Paul Enrichi were convicted of evasion of state income taxes. Comer (pictured) claims the DOJ is in a 'pickle' over 'what do you do with this many family members of the president? This is the point where the cash really begins to accumulate for the Smaldone brothers and theyd become rich. The dining room looks the same as the last time the Smaldones remodeled in 1973, and you can sit at Clydes favorite barstool. Even with the reduction in prison time and the fine, the brothers still felt as if theyd been double-crossed by the legal system and would maintain over the years that they had not participated in any jury tampering of any kind, especially Clyde. Of course that made it pretty easy for customers to trust him. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has posted the 2020 crime data for hundreds of statewide law enforcement agencies through the Colorado Crime Stats website. The sentences that ultimately would be handed out for the jury tampering and conspiracy, quite honestly in my very novice legal opinion, were quite simply nothing less than shocking. Informant described Falbo as a tough Denver hoodlum and gambler who on frequent occasions became drunk and publicly boasted that he was going out and clean out the Smaldones place. On the night of the murder, January 6, 1948, Falbo was at the Priola farm and lost $1,800 in the barbuit game in session there, whereupon he picked an argument with Eugene Smaldone who was participating in this game and berated Smaldone as a chiseler; and at the height of the argument reached out and jerked Smaldones hat brim down over his face. Gaetano's Restaurant interior as it looks today. In November of 1952, in a somewhat calculated move to irritate Clyde and Checkers, Vigil would force the Smaldone brothers to pay their $1,000 fines dating all the way back to their 1933 bootlegging convictions (almost a full 20 years later). Thereafter the deceased and his friends were pushed from the club by one Ricci and one Parlato who was the manager of the club. Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed investigations into the 'Biden crime family' were 'Watergate times 10,' after the According to reports, he pulled into his driveway, exited his vehicle, and began walking up the driveway to his house. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. His runners would be none other than his sons, Clyde and Checkers. Clyde by that point was entering his teens and Eugene Checkers Smaldone was not far behind during the early days of Prohibition. Creating safer and more resilient communities across Colorado. The body of Giuseppe "Joe" Roma, Denver gang leader. 2019. He was certainly tough, but more often than not used his brain to make money and advance his interests by knowing and influencing the right people. Members of the Smaldone mob including both Clyde and Checkers were arrested and questioned in the murder, but authorities ultimately focused on a St. Louis hood named Sam Shanks, an associate of both the Smaldone family as well as the St. Louis Cosa Nostra family, who they believed had been imported to whack out Roberts. Clyde Smaldone and his defense attorney shake hands with jurors in courtroom celebration which followed the acquittal verdict in 1953. Spinuzzi would ultimately be found Not Guilty due to insufficient evidence and would skate free of any prison time. But by this point, as Clyde had predicted in the early 1960s, law enforcement would launch a full-court press to take the family down. Taken in 1956. WebThe FAMLI program will ensure all Colorado workers have access to paid leave in order to take care of themselves or their family during life circumstances that pull them away from In 2011, there were 151,125 crimes reported in Colorado. Angela Blackmoore murder: Pair deny instrumental roles in her And a lot of the description I just provided makes Checkers seem like kind of a bad dude, but dont forget that he also had a big part in taking care of the local community, and there was even an infamous story of him saving a little girl (the wardens niece from when he did time in prison) and another child from being kidnapped as part of a planned a prison break by other inmates. The population of Denver between around 1940 was approximately 322,000 according to census records (up from ~288,000 in 1930), whereas the population of Pueblo was a meer 52,000 people (up from 50,000 in 1930). Miraculously, Pernee, who was blown out the passenger side door she was about to shut, received only cuts and bruises. And as a matter of fact, he really hated that nickname, and was never quite sure where the newspapers got it from. The operation included the Smaldones, their enforcer Paul Enrici, and also included members of the Pueblo LCN including Blackie Mazza. John J. Kincilja Jr., who was a Pueblo police officer from 1960 to 1997, would say the following about Spinuzzi: [Scotty] was plain old mafioso. Statistics. The victims were identified as Yvette M. Siegert-Kreb, 50, Felicity Kreb, 13, and Barrett Kreb, 9, the El Paso County Sheriffs Office said. They used to send food and coal to a woman whose husband had left her with small children. Pauline Smaldone, wife of Chauncey Smaldone in 1948. As a result, and to keep their parents out of jail, Clyde and Checkers struck a deal with the authorities, pleading guilty to violation of federal liquor laws in exchange for their parents release from further prosecution. Within declassified law enforcement documents, my research almost always referred to the Smaldones using the words Suspected LCN rather than official LCN (which was used to describe some of their true Mafia associates). Hed share the following about how that relationship got off the ground in an interview that was later recorded in the book that Ill be citing many times in this episode, Smaldone: The Untold Story of An American Crime Family: I went up to Chicago and got talking about getting the stuff up in Canada. In concert with local government officials however, the Smaldones struck a deal to provide the financing for a new water system, restore a number of houses, and provided the backing for a lunch program for town schoolchildren in exchange for the ability to operate their gambling operation without interference from law enforcement. ABC11 Neighborhood Safety and Crime Tracker If anyone has information about this incident, they are encouraged to contact the Clinton Police Department at 910-592-3105. Checkers was clearly the most pugnacious and probably the biggest gangster of the three brothers, but by this time he was no longer the dominating figure hed once been before going away to prison. Smaldones bond would be set at $500,000 while Salardinos was set at $300,000. Retired Denver police captain Jerry Kennedy would later recall running into Roberts, who knew he had a major problem, just days after the devastating revelation: I ran into Walkie a day or two later in that Theater Bar on Sixteenth and Glenarm, doing a routine check, and I said, How you doing, Walkie?, He says, Hey, Kennedy, theyre going to kill me., I said, Walkie, theyre not going to kill you., He says, Hey, Im telling you, Borden named me on the stand. Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone in court after being investigated in a 1963 homicide. On the afternoon of February 18, 1933, Roma would be found slumped dead in a chair in his front parlor of his home on 3404 Vallejo Street in North Denver by his wife, Nettie. WebGaetanos was the crime familys headquarters, and the people hanging around the wood-paneled restaurant were a whos who of the Colorado underworld. I mean, there's not going to be anybody left for a Christmas picture if the DOJ did their job and went in there and indicted everyone that has any type of fingerprints involved in this influence peddling scheme,' Comer claimed. Much of that increase is due to a surge in property crimes during the year. A mafia history podcast that digs deep into the true-crime biographies of real-life mobsters with focus on the plots, sub-plots, and real facts behind Cosa Nostra, as well as movies and televison. 4. JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/Stuff A man connected with Mama Hooch bar in Christchurch is on trial this week. That would have saved the government the expense of bothering with you.. Coletti would open a club, called Club Melody, in the 1940s, but outside his mob rackets he would become most known as a prominent member of the cheese industry, and was partners in the Colorado Cheese Company with none other than Joe Bonnano, whod taken up residence in nearby Arizona in the 1940s. Spinuzzi was born in 1907 in Napoleonville, Assumption Parish, Louisiana. And according to autopsy reports (this is where it gets truly heinous), Cohen was alive (though he may not have been conscious) when he was put into the lake. During the Smaldone era, Checkers was the one brother most closely aligned to the Pueblo LCN and the brother who over time had the tightest connections in general to the Mafia. Spinuzzi reputedly preferred to stay low-profile, but his colorful personality and a fiery temper, which would make staying low-profile pretty challenging. Three fellow defendants of the Smaldones drew lighter sentences. Papers at the time would laud the victory, but would also notateand this is importanta rift between the judge in the case and law enforcement (specifically federal law enforcement), with the Greeley Daily Tribune relating the following: Two Smaldones Each Given 60-Year Terms Crime | 9news.com | 9news.com THATS THE TRICKY THING about figuring out the Smaldones. In October of 1953, the Smaldone brothers would surprise everyone (including their co-defendants) by making what would prove the be a fateful decision to plead out to two charges of conspiracy after pleading not guilty earlier in the month. Jerry Benallo (left), Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone (center), and Michael Benallo (right), Sduring their 1953 jury tampering trial. Checkers rang up his first arrest at the age of fifteen in 1925 when he was caught stealing automobile accessories. As Clyde would relate in his later years, hed make a lot of important connections during this time and even formed a partnership with the Capone mob in Chicago. After getting out of prison back in 1991, Paulie returned to Denver and kept a low profile, dying in 2003 at the age of seventy-six. To get an even more in-depth look at this often overlooked time in Colorado history, check out this fascinating episode of Colorado Experience from Rocky Mountain PBS: For even more Colorado crime history, click on The Story Of The Serial Killer Who Terrorized This Colorado Town Is Truly Frightening. Ralph A. Smaldone, Pauline Smaldone, and Clarence "Chauncey" Smaldone some time in the 1940's. I spent my money and I asked him to pay me the money I spent. Outside of being a general party animal, Paulie was also known to be both smart and educated, able to talk about subjects that would go over the heads of many other toughs who entered the life as they say. Additionally, the issue of the Smaldones relationships with local politicians and police, especially in Central City were called into question. Despite their denials, Smiling Charlie Stephens, Clyde and Checkers Smaldone as well as another man, would be arrested and charged with conspiracy. He was said to have bore a striking resemblance to a young Dean Martin. Occasionally, Chauncey would work the bar at Gaetanos, and his nephew Paulie would eventually find his forte, running the restaurant for the family.

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