His replacement, Harold R. Swenson, imposed extreme restrictions on all communications with editors and publishers to stop a book from being published by another prisoner, a notorious escapee. He called me one time, asking about a gun, John Larry Ray says. If they were surprised to hear the word "guilty," they didn't show it. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. On the evening of Dec. 11, he picked up Rhodes in Columbia at an apartment she was sharing with another girl. He was between jobs, collecting unemployment benefits. James Earl Ray also supposedly told his brother that the CIA had tapped him to be an intelligence asset. Warden Nash committed suicide. A judge cited him for contempt of court. He went to prison for slugging a liquor agent in 1933 at a still near Collinsville. Given where hed come from, its easy to figure out why.. Eventually, the government charged him with income-tax evasion. Jones agreed with them. Facebook. You can check, if they still have the records. The reasons for murder and mayhem made little sense to anyone except the convicts. As a result, Maloneys letters to Menn started coming back undelivered. 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. Gruender used carpentry skills acquired in prison to rehab the old farmhouse, and he showered Maloney with gifts, including a motorcycle and a shotgun. He was found shot to death and stuffed into the trunk of his car. The only thing his real father ever gave him was his name. I had another change of clothes, a pound of fudge, a loaf of bread, 14 silver dollars, and my old mans .38 was buried in the bottom of the sack. Despite his preparations, Maloney was quickly apprehended after stealing a car and spent the night in the Montgomery County Jail. After Maloney punched Thiemann in the face several times, the old man agreed to hand over the cash. He chain-smoked. His stepfather, Julius Dutch Gruender, an ex-con, became Maloneys less-than-sterling guardian. By the time we were cellies, Joe had straightened up his act and was staying out of trouble, working on his parole. John Larry. You have permission to edit this article. He told me then that he didnt have time to go on camera for even a few minutes to talk about St. Louis longstanding radioactive waste problem. Fact-checking the claims on case related to St. Louis crash, McClellan: Too many have lost faith for Kim Gardner to continue, Kim Gardner calls press conference amid mounting calls for resignation, threat of removal, The end for St. Louis top prosecutor? But John Larry Ray believes that his brother maintained contact with OBrien after their hasty departure. Frank L. "Buster" Wortman (December 4, 1904 - August 3, 1968) was an American St. Louis-area bootlegger, gambler, criminal gang leader, and a former member of the Shelton Brothers Gang during Prohibition.Wortman would eventually succeed the Sheltons, and take over St. Louis's gambling operations in southwest Illinois until his death. The conviction was only the second for the often-arrested Wortman, who had muscled to the top in the late 1940s with help from the Capone syndicate in Chicago. 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. Wortman was 63. But John Larry Ray believes that his brother maintained contact with OBrien after their hasty departure. A year after his parents divorced, a hit-and-run driver killed his brother, Bobby. When I went to the Missouri Penitentiary at Jefferson City, in February 1960, there were 2,500 men inside the walls, Maloney later told readers of the Kansas City Star. Born in St. Louis, Frank first worked as a molder for a steel casting plant in East St. Louis. 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. By that time, Slay was in his second term as St. Louis mayor. On March 3, 1962, Dowling and a bodyguard were found murdered on a rural road north of Belleville. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. He would serve the next 13 years at the Missouri Penitentiary, in Jefferson Cityarguably the worst prison in the United States at the time. In the mid-70s, some Star editors were even reluctant to print the word Mafia, Maloney later wrote. She kept her end of the bargain. A neighborhood setting, within minutes of key places such as Emerson Electric, Boeing, Express Scripts and major highways 70, 270 & 367. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Clark indicated that the owners of Free Spirit advertised in Missouri publications from 1994 until 2000, the Post reported. In May 1991, Stoneking informed the FBI that Berne had told him that the Rallo Construction Company belonged to the Chicago La Costa Nostra. Its the smoking that eventually killed him. After the Star ran a story implicating Cammisanos brother William Willie the Rat Cammisano in the Bonadonna slaying, members of the two families demanded to rebut the allegation, which was based on an FBI affidavit. In the ensuing fight, the pistol fired a second time, striking Thiemann in the leg. Driving the car, and trying to hide his face with a handkerchief, is Dutch Dowling. When we would go in together to interview somebody, a prisoner or the warden or the guards, wed start off and they would be talking one way and the minute they found out about Joeand what his background wasit was like administering truth serum. The plant was located across the river in Illinois. If you are young and good looking, you can count on being confronted again and again. As a result, Maloneys letters to Menn started coming back undelivered. She corresponded. St. Clair County sheriff's detective William Butler (center) and Illinois State Police detective Jerry Fitzgerald dropped by the bowling alley March 11, 1962, because Beckman's shot-up car had been found in the establishment's parking lot. If the remark bothered Maloney, he didnt show it. Moreover, correspondence regarding his book of poetry had to be routed through his mother. Maloney was 19 years old when he committed the crime. He also published two autobiographical crime novels. He also worked diligently to establish a national writers association for prisoners. For those under 21 years of age, we offer sodas, teas, waters, Gatorades, Red Bull energy drinks, and Nescafe coffee. Joseph John Maloney Sr., a shoemaker by trade, walked out of his sons life in 1943, when he was 3 years old. 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. Beckman's shot-up car was found in the parking lot of a bowling alley in Swansea. Gruender, a housepainter, had a string of arrests and convictions for car theft and burglary dating back to 1926. After six weeks of observation at Fulton, Maloney was allowed by the parole board to enlist in the Army. Maloney joined the newspapers staff after being paroled in 1972. In July 1976, David Bonadonna, the father of Fred Bonadonna, owner of Poor Freddies restaurant in the River Quay, became the first victim. By then, newspapers called it "Wortman's Island." The brand varied with the decade: L&Ms or, later, Marlboro Lights. 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. 4.4. He was Wortman's right-hand man when they were convicted together in the income-tax case in 1962. 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. [This story was first published in January 2, 2004.]. He also worked diligently to establish a national writers association for prisoners. Maloneys formal education had ended in the ninth grade, but Menn recognized raw talent when he saw it. Wortman was vacationing in Michigan when he was subpoenaed to appear in an investigation of the murder of J. Fred Koenig, a bookmaker who allegedly was angry that Wortman had taken over his operation. (Jack January/Post-Dispatch), Another view of excavation for the mysterious moat and island in April 1956. It was uncanny.. A short time later, he went to federal prison for slugging a liquor agent during a raid on a still near Collinsville. I dont know.. Exposure to art ignited Maloneys innate creative streak. Stelzer An earlier version of this story appeared in the St. Louis Journalism review in 2008 and Focus/midwest magazine in 2010. Log In. Six days after the verdict, Dowling and a bodyguard were found shot to death on a dark road north of Belleville. Play "The Decider" and let your By checking liquor-license applications, Maloney determined that mobsters or their relatives secretly owned several restaurants and bars in the River Quay. While confined at the hospital, Maloney met and fell in love with a fellow patient, 16-year-old Edith Rhodes, who had been transferred from Chillicothe. In 1948, he equipped it with the novel luxury of air-conditioning. It was the beginning of a long-term relationship carried out by correspondence. In late 1967, the parole board indicated the possibility of Maloneys being released early the next year. In the book, John Larry Ray asserts that his brother revealed to him that he had been ordered to shoot and kill a black soldier in postwar Germany while serving in the Army. (Post-Dispatch), Morris Shenker, lead defense lawyer for Buster Wortman, addresses the judge during the trial in February 1962. Maloneys prison record listed him as 5-foot-9 and 145 pounds. Nash released Maloney from solitary and assigned him to the newly formed prison art class. The Kansas City Mafia wielded considerable economic cloutcontrolling several banks [and] owning ten percent or more of the taverns and nightclubs in the city. 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. By the time Maloney returned home, his mother had remarried. Maloney then married a former inmate of the girls reformatory at Chillicothe, and they moved to Alabamabut the marriage fell apart. Stelzer, a St. Louis-based freelance writer, is working on a biography of the late J.J. Maloney. They preferred a more cautious approach, advising that the coverage be focused more indirectly on corruption inside the citys liquor-control agency. During a short parole in 1957, Maloney was arrested in Kansas City on suspicion of burglary and carrying a concealed weapon. He also published two autobiographical crime novels. She had eloped from the state mental hospital in Fulton and gone on another crime spree, this time with a 22-year-old hoodlum from Flat River. Google. OBrien arranged for the Ray brothers to spend the night at a nearby apartment above an illegal gambling den also operated by Wortman. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch). Beneath the outward generosity, however, Gruender was an angry and hardened man who drank heavily and sometimes abused his wife and stepson. The same year, Maloneys byline disappeared from the pages of the Star when he quit the paper in a dispute over overtime pay. Eunice Dowling, widow of Dutch Dowling, testifies during a St. Clair County coroner's inquest on March 6, 1962, investigating her husband's murder. Shenker got the convictions reversed. Moreover, correspondence regarding his book of poetry had to be routed through his mother. Maloney owed his freedom to Thorpe Menn, the Stars literary editor, who had supported his parole and helped him get his job at the newspaper. More than a decade earlier, a federal probe linked RFT sex ads to the Eastside rackets. In a sense, Maloney did respect their trade. 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). John Larry Ray, a convicted bank robber, spent more than a quarter-century behind bars himself. In those days the Kansas City Star printed a poem on the editorial page every day, so I mailed the poem to the Star. While absent without leave, Maloney worked briefly for a carnival in Florida before returning to Missouri. Maloney was also keenly aware that local law-enforcement officials were hesitant to use the M-word. He rejected Maloneys poem but continued to correspond, providing him with professional advice and personal guidance. Until January, Sweeney headed the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, a county agency that was used to dole out the contracts to Rallo and other political contributors to Stengers campaign coffers. His defiance dashed his hopes of gaining parole and put him at odds with the prison administration for the remainder of his sentence. Star reporter Harry Jones Jr. had hatched the idea of hiring him as a temporary consultant for an in-depth series of stories on prison systems in Missouri and Kansas. But his mother remained faithful: She never gave up. The last call he received from his brother before the assassination came on March 29, 1968: He was concerned about what was going down on some type of job. Jesse Stoneking, the unnamed informant cited by the FBI in the report, died of a gunshot wound to the head in Arizona in 2003. On Aug. 26, 1961, Maloneys girlfriend, Edith Rhodes, was murdered near Huzzah Creek in rural Crawford County, Mo. Stenger was introduced to Rallo by federal felon Sorkis Webbe Jr. in 2014, according to the federal indictment. Entering the store, he pulled a hunting knife and demanded money from Joseph F. Thiemann, the 74-year-old store owner. C.D. Spectrulite never operated its manufacturing plant in Missouri. But the mob kind of looked at Joe as a turncoat. His editors opposed the idea. In addition to the failed escape attempt, the prison administration cited Maloney for stabbing another inmate, manufacturing zip guns, using stimulants and committing sodomy. The convicted assassin spent the rest of his life in the Tennessee prison system. 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. In 2000, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversaw a partial radioactive cleanup at the Spectrulite plant. If you have money, there will be people who want it. Police never filed charges in the murders. Or you may simply say the wrong thing to the wrong person. Beneath the outward generosity, however, Gruender was an angry and hardened man who drank heavily and sometimes abused his wife and stepson. 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. poultry; chicken; meat . East Saint Louis, Illinois. In later years he worked as a freelance writer and as an editor for the alternative press. The house remains a private residence. Having written it, my next problem was deciding where to send it. His replacement, Harold R. Swenson, imposed extreme restrictions on all communications with editors and publishers to stop a book from being published by another prisoner, a notorious escapee. For many of . While confined at the hospital, Maloney met and fell in love with a fellow patient, 16-year-old Edith Rhodes, who had been transferred from Chillicothe. I dont know.. But Maloney became more devoted to writing as he matured. When he visits the Big Apple this week, he will be discussing the assassination of another black leader, the Rev. They registered at the St. Francis Hotel, at Sixth and Chestnut, under the name Mr. and Mrs. John Ducharme of Jacksonville, Fla. That evening Maloney, armed with a hunting knife, robbed the clerk at another downtown hotel. More Info. Though he avoided further trouble with the law, Gruender acted as a courier for Wortman. 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