By this point, they simply wanted to be left alone. But Comer on Sunday was adamant that his committee had uncovered significant wrongdoing.Maria Bartiromo, host of the Fox News show Sunday Morning Futures, asked Comer: 'How many family members were involved?' But those plans would never come to fruition as he died of natural causes on September 5, 1975 (just two months after Coletti). It was an instance of the power of his influential relationships paying off. That did not seem to be the case with the Smaldone family. His brother lighted a cigar as officers led him handcuffed from the court room and sent up clouds of smoke. Anyhow, there are other brothers who well cover in a bit, but lets go ahead and jump back into the timeline. In the end, all five defendants were found guilty of a total of 33 counts on October 30, 1953, with both Clyde and Checkers plead guilty of their 2 counts of conspiracy and then three counts each of offering bribes and obstructing justice (meaning their plea in reality didnt work all that well for anybody). As the most serious burglary crime, first-degree burglary is a class 3 felony that carries 4 to 12 years in prison and/or Putting that in terms of population, that gives the community a per-capita crime rate of 317/100k people. No pun intended, but this bust would give authorities all the ammo that they would need to convict Checkers Smaldone, Chauncey Smaldone, as well as Paulie Villano on charges of loan-sharking, income-tax evasion, as well as firearms violations. Clyde Smaldone sits with lawyers in 1951. Foster Symes, who was the presiding judge in the 1933 trial of the Smaldone brothers. The Lutz family was found alive and well in Arizona. stuff.co.nz Creating safer and more resilient communities across Colorado. 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. And so again, Clyde would go off to do his time in the state penitentiary in 1938 while Checkers and Stephens would go away in 1939 after a series of failed appeals. 'I cannot survive [o]n this,' Caroline wrote to Joe Biden's brother Jim. Joseph "Scotty" Spinuzzi, Boss of the Pueblo LCN family from around 1972 until his death in 1975, in his younger days. This is a remarkably disturbing number which suggests that its not a safe place to move with your family. Their hope was that the jury would be fair minded, but the reality was that the government wanted to hammer the brothers. The charge, placed under the drivers side, drove him through the cars roof, tore away part of his left buttocks, and broke his pelvis.. Please submit suggestions via this form. None of his friends dared call him that. Spinuzzi was born in 1907 in Napoleonville, Assumption Parish, Louisiana. [The Pueblo mobs] was always arguing and fighting amongst themselves about the business, and they werent capable of handling business, to tell you the truth. Murder is up 47 percent in those 3 Others Get Shorter Terms There were two alleged witnesses to the bombing. Our ongoing accessibility effort works towards being in line with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, level AA criteria. From the time Gaetanos opened in Denvers Little Italy neighborhood in 1947, everyone knew it as the mobs hangout. That would have saved the government the expense of bothering with you.. On April 19, 1937, Stephens, Clyde and Checkers Smaldone would be convicted of assault with attempt to murder and conspiracy to murder. The Smaldone organization was suspected, but no one was convicted in either murder. 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. Photo Credit: Sam Carlino. Only through the efforts of the Treasury Department and the use of their agents was the investigation carried on to a successful conclusion. His family members refused to provide any specifics about his death and declined to comment when contacted by the Rocky Mountain News. 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. A lot of times I got to thinking, because I wasnt guilty of really, really being involvedwith my brother [Checkers]. This was certainly a gamble, and they werent in the clear, as the five other co-defendants in the case still had to go on trial for 13 counts of jury-tampering, and the witness testimony didnt come off well for the Smaldone brothers and their compatriots. In Part One of this two-part series on the Colorado Mafia, we laid out how the organization that would later become known as the Smaldone Crime Family, which ran organized crime in Denver and much of Colorado during the 20th century, came to be. It was later estimated by law enforcement that the Smaldone mobs annual revenue from gambling and loan-sharking during their heyday was around $1 million per year (~$7 to $12 million per year in todays money). Clydes alcoholism along with the fact that many in the family werent ready to believe that their hey-dey had indeed passed essentially led to a changing of the guard as he became more distant from the Smaldone organization and his opinions tended to be listened to less often. The who-done-it notwithstanding, one thing was for certain after the murder. If you think about it, it makes sense. So those things were all connected together, and so was the hit on Pauline for that matter. Hed been missing for three months. They werent afraid to push a button on anyone who got out of line. They had been convicted of a charge of jury tampering. As mentioned, the Smaldones would be in and out of court, cited for contempt, but would skate free of any charges related to the Walkie Talkie homicide. Their figure indicated about 2 murders per year, which just seems so unrealistically low in comparison to the level of conflict and competition between the various groups in Denver and Pueblo at the time. Clyde Smaldone relaxes and smokes a cigar in his home in the early 1960s. Clyde Smaldone was the oldest brother and veritable leader of the Smaldone organization. Blanda died on February 20, 1969 in Pueblo, Colorado after suffering a stroke. Paul "Fat Paulie" Villano gives the photographer a stern looking while signing a property bond in 1972. Due to the fact that the city was small, with little taxable income to maintain infrastructure, by the time the Smaldones came to town, the place was in relative shamblesdespite the Summer booms in tourism. I dont understand why the Department of Justice, which is charged with law enforcement, should refuse to assist in the investigation of jury tampering in the Smaldone casesbut they did Judge Ritter said. From their bar on Tejon Street, the brothers would sell everything from black market liquor to simple daily items like canned goods, sugar, butter, meat, shoes, clothes, etc. So ultimately, Eugenes simple issue with back-taxes of $5,000, would turn itself into first the ridiculous sentence of 60 years, but finally the 12 years and a $10,000 sentence. The Most Notorious Colorado Mobsters - OnlyInYourState Clarence "Chauncey" Smaldone is booked in 1966. And that brings us back to where we began this story, in 1933, just after the assassination of Denver gang lord, Joe Roma. His hands and feet were secured with wire and a rope holding sixty pounds of railroad iron to his body and a large rock lashed to his midsection. Ralph A. Smaldone, Pauline Smaldone, and Clarence "Chauncey" Smaldone some time in the 1940's. 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. My heart sunk into my stomach.. The three men would serve their time at FMC Fort Worth (the medical center) prison in Texas. Though they were never in conflict, the relationship would never quite be the same. Despite the dangers, Clydeever the ambitious and calculating businessmansoon found that the possibilities to make money in selling hooch were incredible and made the decision to start his own business, at first partnering with local hood Roxy Stone. 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. Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone sits quietly in district court in 1953 after pleading innocent to charges stemming from a gambling raid. Well, they knew we didnt do it, but somebody shot him. 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. They were separated by one Watson and the fight terminated. In 1927, Clyde and his confederates were arrested for possession of several gallons of liquor as well as hijacking 96 pints of whiskey from a competitors truck. Clyde Smaldone walks through Denver courthouse in 1953. Paul "The Harp" Enrichi (left) and Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone (right) sit quietly in district court in 1953 after pleading innocent to charges stemming from a gambling raid. Crime Insight As West entered his automobile parked in downtown Denver, Smaldone enforcers Frank Mazza, Porky Routta, and Paul Enrichi, who long had been known as bodyguards and strong-arm men for the Smaldones, accosted West, forced him into the automobile and ordered him to drive out onto the Pecos Road outside of Denver. Bonanno worked with members of the Pueblo LCN family from the 1940's through the 1970's, and co-owned the Colorado Cheese Company with Vincenzo "Black Jim" Coletti, Boss of Pueblo from 1953-1972. Judge Willis W. Ritter, who was known for making some pretty eccentric and bizarre rulings over the years, went with the hammer! 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 Paul Clyde Villano, who came to be known as Fat Pauliesidenote (and I say this facetiously), mob nicknames have zero time for gangsters with body image issueswas born in 1928 to the eldest Smaldone sister, Corrine. Clyde would be quoted as saying the following: Anybody that we heard that needed something, they could come and theyd get money, wed get em food. While testifying for Mazza during this trial, Clyde Smaldoneclearly agitated (and youre going to see that both Clyde and Checkers did not like photographers)snapped on a Denver Post photographer taking pictures outside the courtroom, snarling the following: The next time you shoot my picture, Im going to punch you in the nose.. As of 2008, adjusted gross proceeds (total bets minus payouts) from gambling in Central City, and two other approved cities topped $715 million annually. When Barnes hit the starter, a massive black-powder explosion demolished the sedan. They would work together to hammer the Smaldone organization from multiple angles leveraging partnerships with federal, state, and local law enforcement. Each of the men were sentenced to 180 days in jail. Back In The Day, This Quiet Colorado Town Was A Mafia Mecca Now, with many gangster stories, youll find that they typically come from broken homes, poverty, and often lack a father figure. But everything they were doing pretty much put things in a position where there was no way they would come off well in this trial. Clarence "Chauncey" Smaldone (middle) walking the streets of Denver in 1973. Joseph "Scotty" Spinuzzi, Boss of the Pueblo LCN family from around 1972 until his death in 1975, in a Denver mugshot from the early 1960s. 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. 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). Fiore "Fats" Smaldone and Louis A. Smaldone, family members who were tried with the Smaldone brothers in their 1953 jury tampering trial. Fast-forward to November of 1962, Clyde and Checkers Smaldone would get out of prison after serving 9 of their 12 year sentence. At this trial, Clyde and Eugene plead guilty to lesser tampering charges and on August 20, 1955 were re-sentenced to just 12 years in prison and a $10,000 fine (so still a lot of time but not as bad as the 60-year sentence theyd been stuck with). 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. The dining room looks the same as the last time the Smaldones remodeled in 1973, and you can sit at Clydes favorite barstool. Others in the family tried to warn Checkers, but of course the father had a major blind spot for the dealings of his son, a fact which rankled many in the organization. Now, lets continue our story, Part 2 of the History of the Colorado Mob! 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. WebThe Colorado Bureau of Investigation offers this site as a means to view and analyze crime data in the state. He is also buried at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Jefferson County. For someone trying to rise in the underworld, these are not the things you want to be known for, and by themselves could lead a person into big trouble with the mob. 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. In their own way, they were gentlemen.. 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. First and foremost, I want to make it clear that the Smaldones, while gangsters for sure, were not Mafia nor was their family an official Cosa Nostra family. The 2021 costs will grow, as the violent crime rate is on pace to be the highest since 1994, a 10% annual increase.
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