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. Just minutes from highways 367, 170 and I-270, the commute to great St. Louis employers like Boeing, Express Scripts, and Emerson Electric is easy. He would serve the next 13 years at the Missouri Penitentiary, in Jefferson Cityarguably the worst prison in the United States at the time. The housepainter soon introduced his young stepson to the underworld, taking Maloney with him on occasional visits to the Paddock Lounge, Wortmans bar in East St. Louis, which was a hangout for organized crime figures. 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. In later years he worked as a freelance writer and as an editor for the alternative press. John will tell you he brought him [James Earl Ray] to St. Louis, Jerry Ray says. Their stories ran as a four-part series in April 1973. Live Racing. Maloney frequented the mob hangouts at night to develop leads. Webbes father had been convicted of income tax evasion in Nevada in 1983 related to his interests in the Aladdin Casino in Las Vegas, which was then controlled by the Detroit Mafia. In 1952 the family moved to a farm in New Florence, Mo., a small town 65 miles west of St. Louis. Talk about stares. An earlier version of this story appeared in the St. Louis Journalism review in 2008 and Focus/midwest magazine in 2010. Instead, James Earl Ray appeared edgy and expressed apprehension about his future. The home had been built two years before. 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? His editors opposed the idea. She was 16 and insisted she would commit suicide before she was 21, because she had a fear of not being beautiful. You can check, if they still have the records. In the ensuing fight, the pistol fired a second time, striking Thiemann in the leg. I heard he was in Florida someplace., They sipped beer together for a couple of hours, says John Larry Ray. Last chance! But Maloney became more devoted to writing as he matured. 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. When they parted, he watched his brother walk down the back alley alone. John G. Rallo, also known as Johnny Roller for his long hours spent at the crap tables in Las Vegas, and fellow accomplice Sheila Sweeney were charged one week after Stenger pleaded guilty. The first, I Speak for the Dead, is a fictionalized account of Kansas Citys mob war, drawn straight form his clip file. At the time, almost any local mobster was considered a suspect. In advance of his release, Tom Eblen, then the Stars city editor, had written a letter to Maloney, offering him a three-month contract at a monthly salary of $550. Despite the low wages, the offer was priceless because it cinched his parole. On hearing the bad news, Maloney vowed to kill Moyer and tried to escape. We visited every institution of correction for adults and juveniles in both Missouri and Kansas, plus Leavenworth and Marion in Illinois, which at the time was the Alcatraz of the [federal] system, says Jones. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. When they parted, he watched his brother walk down the back alley alone. There was just something there, and it didnt fit in with everybody else, says Horrigan, now an editorial writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She sent money, clothing, food, stamps and other items. Maloneys formal education had ended in the ninth grade, but Menn recognized raw talent when he saw it. On Dec. 19, 1945, at the age of 14, Maloney ran away from home for the first time.I was prepared, Maloney recalled later. Later that year, James Earl Ray returned to the St. Louis area and met with OBrien again, John Larry Ray says. He was Wortman's right-hand man when they were convicted together in the income-tax case in 1962. Beckman was a bodyguard for Wortman and Dowling. I asked him if hed read the story, and if it had helped him any. The next day, Maloney returned to the newsroom not as a guest but as an employee. I was even more impressed that he did not ask why I was in prison, or for how long. Maloney then wrested the gun from his victim and fled. Ray says his brother gave him approximately half the money and requested that he hold $10,000 of it in case he was arrested and needed to post bond. Buster Wortman kept a close eye on the project, but never said anything about it. Maloney was 19 years old when he committed the crime. . People [were] shot and blown up.. That J.J. Maloney survived is remarkable. By then, newspapers called it "Wortman's Island." The St. Louis mobster and federal informant died from a gunshot wound to the head. He drew five years, but the conviction was reversed. The last time John Larry Ray visited New York City was in 1965. (Post-Dispatch), Pall bearers carry the casket of Frank "Buster" Wortman into St. Stephen's Catholic Church in Caseyville for his funeral Mass on Aug. 8, 1968. In those days the Kansas City Star printed a poem on the editorial page every day, so I mailed the poem to the Star. He wrote to me as if I were just another person, another young writer.. But the mob kind of looked at Joe as a turncoat. The next day I called Bonadonna, Maloney recalled later. View the menu for Paddock Lounge and restaurants in Fitchburg, MA. By the time we were cellies, Joe had straightened up his act and was staying out of trouble, working on his parole. Stelzer An earlier version of this story appeared in the St. Louis Journalism review in 2008 and Focus/midwest magazine in 2010. 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. Witnesses who might have confirmed John Larry Rays expanded version of events are dead. The second incident earned him his first stint in the reformatory at Boonville. After his fourth escape from Boonville, juvenile authorities transferred him to Algoa, the states intermediate reformatory, where his behavior worsened. Paddock Village Apartments offers one-of-a-kind 2 bedroom apartment homes and 2 or 3 bedroom townhomes. Maloneys own artwork took awards at state and county fairs and was exhibited at a gallery in Paris. All of a sudden their stories would change. It was curious, too, how they seemed to hate Joe more than me, although our names appeared together on stories. A short time later, he went to federal prison for slugging a liquor agent during a raid on a still near Collinsville. 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. On Aug. 26, 1961, Maloneys girlfriend, Edith Rhodes, was murdered near Huzzah Creek in rural Crawford County, Mo. When he entered prison, Dwight Eisenhower was president; when he came out, the Watergate burglary had been committed. OBrien arranged for the Ray brothers to spend the night at a nearby apartment above an illegal gambling den also operated by Wortman. 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. He died of kidney failure and complications of liver disease at Nashville Memorial Hospital on April 23, 1998. The first, I Speak for the Dead, is a fictionalized account of Kansas Citys mob war, drawn straight form his clip file. They preferred a more cautious approach, advising that the coverage be focused more indirectly on corruption inside the citys liquor-control agency. Maloney added to his underworld knowledge in prison, where he befriended fellow inmate John Paul Spica, a St. Louis Mafia soldier. 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. He was one of those guys who was constantly fidgeting, or his knee was pounding up and down. Dope was easier to get in prison than it was on the streets. After he testified against Berne and other St. Louis area organized crime figures in federal court, the Chicago Mafia allegedly put out a $100,000 contract on his life. This meant that senior editorial staffers such as Menn, who had accumulated large stock holdings in the company, could negotiate with management on a more even level. EAST ST. LOUIS The jury had been out five days when the courtroom buzzer sounded. I told him, if youre looking for guns, I can get any gun you want from Ft. Campbell, Ky. During a short parole in 1957, Maloney was arrested in Kansas City on suspicion of burglary and carrying a concealed weapon. Ray says his brother gave him approximately half the money and requested that he hold $10,000 of it in case he was arrested and needed to post bond. He claims that his brother was then fronted an estimated $50,000. She kept her end of the bargain. Maloney also tagged along when his stepfather drove to Jefferson City to visit a friend still incarcerated at the penitentiary. The FBI knew about an alleged connection between the Chicago Mafia and Rallo Construction Co. of St. Louis as early as 1991, according to a classified FBI report released under the Freedom of Information Act. Facebook. The blacks slept as many as eight to a cell. Maloney excelled as a feature writer but eventually became better known as an investigative journalist covering a wide range of issues, including labor racketeering, white-collar crime, drug trafficking and mental health. By the time Maloney returned home, his mother had remarried. Subscribe with this special offer to keep reading, (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). He wanted to meet me. The two arranged a rendezvous in West Memphis, Ark., on the evening of April 3, 1968, at what Ray calls a back-alley bar. 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. The Department of Energy conducted the first radiological testing at the facility in March 1989, which showed elevated levels of Uranium-238 and Thorium-232. Kevin Horrigan, a cub reporter at the Star in 1973, remembers Maloney as an affable colleague but one who stood apart. By that time, Slay was in his second term as St. Louis mayor. This time he made it as far as Hannibal before crashing a stolen car. 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. Wortman's headquarters was his Paddock Lounge, at 429 St. Louis Avenue in East St. Louis. In 1975, Maloney and Jones teamed up again to cover the corruption and violence surrounding a power struggle among factions of the Kansas City Mafia. The court also ordered Sonnenschein to pay a $250,000 fine and give $1 million to Eastside charities. We just went in there one night to sit and watch. The white convicts slept three to a cell (except for several hundred in one-man cells). People started dying. He was found shot to death and stuffed into the trunk of his car. Three River Quay nightclubs were soon torched or bombed, and the list of gangland hits rapidly grew. Driving the car, and trying to hide his face with a handkerchief, is Dutch Dowling. Having been a convict, they thought he should have respected their trade a little more than he did.. By then, most of his running buddies from the joint were long dead, victims, for the most part, of their own malevolent ways. In indictments filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri against St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger on April 25, 2019, John Johnny Roller Rallo was named as a participant in a pay-to-play scheme. Menn became his mentor, giving guidance and critiquing his poetry and prose. (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. I did what all young poets do, I tried to write a nice little rhyming solution to all the problems of the universe, he later wrote. Kane, the St. Clair County coroner (fourth from left). Menn then sold the proposal to Cruise Palmer, the executive editor. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Maloney added to his underworld knowledge in prison, where he befriended fellow inmate John Paul Spica, a St. Louis Mafia soldier. 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.. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Barbecue, Barbeque, Bar. In July 1976, David Bonadonna, the father of Fred Bonadonna, owner of Poor Freddies restaurant in the River Quay, became the first victim. Five more years would elapse before Maloney finally made parole, during which time Menn continued to support and encourage his writing. These days there are less than a dozen. There were captains on the guard force who owed their souls to certain convicts. The two returned to St. Louis early the next morning on a Greyhound bus. Pendergast was long gone, but his machine was anchored in place. You never knew whom you might have trouble with. The two reporters began knocking on doors, talking to area business owners. Maloneys own artwork took awards at state and county fairs and was exhibited at a gallery in Paris. 1 in Fulton for psychiatric observation. In her first letter, Hinkley advised Maloney to seek divine guidance, but she also offered him a more down-to-earth deal. (Robert LaRouche/Post-Dispatch), The house that was built on the island. James Earl Ray also supposedly told his brother that the CIA had tapped him to be an intelligence asset. The defendants departed the federal courthouse, 750 Missouri Avenue, free on appeal bond. After his return to Missouri, his parole officer committed Maloney to State Hospital No. Bar, Nightlife Hours: 601 S 10th St, East St Louis (618) 874-8447. So hundreds of men carried a knife or had one they could get to one in an emergency. Subscribe with this special offer to keep reading, (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). Or you may simply say the wrong thing to the wrong person. The brand varied with the decade: L&Ms or, later, Marlboro Lights. He filed suit against the Department of Corrections, arguing that his constitutional rights under the First Amendment had been violated. 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. Bartolottas defense attorney was reported in the Globe as Andrew Leonard. copyright 2021 by C.D. While there, he remembers, Malcolm X was murdered. In prison he preferred Camels, when he could afford them. Wortman's headquarters was his Paddock Lounge, at 429 St. Louis Avenue in East St. Louis. By the time Maloney returned home, his mother had remarried. Born in St. Louis, Frank first worked as a molder for a steel casting plant in East St. Louis. John Larry Ray, a convicted bank robber, spent more than a quarter-century behind bars himself. Wortman died in a St. Louis hospital Aug. 3, 1968, at age 63 after throat surgery. The revelation was allegedly made in October 1974, when the two brothers shared a cell at the Shelby County (Tenn.) Jail in advance of an evidentiary hearing to determine whether James Earl Ray should be granted a trial. Gerhard J. Petzall, a former law partner of St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, was a director of Spectrulite Consortium Inc., which owned and operated an Eastside plant contaminated with radioactive waste. Maloney also tagged along when his stepfather drove to Jefferson City to visit a friend still incarcerated at the penitentiary. 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. Though he avoided further trouble with the law, Gruender acted as a courier for Wortman. The Kansas City Mafia wielded considerable economic cloutcontrolling several banks [and] owning ten percent or more of the taverns and nightclubs in the city. Post-Dispatch artist Albert Schweitzer made this drawing of the courtroom because no cameras were allowed inside. OBrien arranged for the Ray brothers to spend the night at a nearby apartment above an illegal gambling den also operated by Wortman. Federal prosecutors had charged Bartolotta and another Missouri resident with conspiring to commit interstate transportation of stolen property. The literary editor was with Maloneys mother on Sept. 25, 1972, when Maloney walked out of prison for the last time. He claims that his brother was then fronted an estimated $50,000. Menn patiently waited until 1967 before publishing one of Maloneys poems in the Star. The same year, Maloneys byline disappeared from the pages of the Star when he quit the paper in a dispute over overtime pay. They also interviewed city and federal law-enforcement authorities and pumped confidential sources for information. 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. 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. We drove across the river to the Paddock Lounge in [East St. Louis] Illinois and I introduced him to Jimmie OBrien, Ray says. In 1975, Maloney and Jones teamed up again to cover the corruption and violence surrounding a power struggle among factions of the Kansas City Mafia. 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. By any measure, he had to be considered beyond salvation, a lost cause. But as quickly as his cell door seemed to have started to creak open, the steel bars slammed shut again. After Army service in Europe during World War II, Dowling became and ally of Wortman, then on the rise in East St. Louis. He was found shot to death and stuffed into the trunk of his car. Your mother tells me that if you give your promise to do something, you keep your word, Hinkley wrote. Meanwhile, Menn had interested Random House in publishing a book of Maloneys poetry. Warden Nash committed suicide. For those under 21 years of age, we offer sodas, teas, waters, Gatorades, Red Bull energy drinks, and Nescafe coffee. 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. Maloney had no way of knowing the significance that his verse would ultimately play in redirecting his life. Jones agreed with them. Jesse Stoneking, the unnamed informant cited by the FBI in the report, died of a gunshot wound to the head in Arizona in 2003. Only in an institution can love hit that hard and that fast, Maloney wrote. Testifiying against Bartolotta was FBI informant Jesse Stoneking, who the defense claimed had intimidated and entrapped the St. Louis organized crime figure. In his phone call he had asked his brother to pump OBrien for information. I tried to contact OBrien but I couldnt find him, says John Larry Ray. It was uncanny.. 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. Exposure to art ignited Maloneys innate creative streak. Petzall, the mayors legal mentor, will celebrate his 86th birthday in June. He reported for the Orange County Register in 1980 and 1981. After the breakout, John Larry Ray says, he picked James Earl Ray up and drove him back to St. Louis. 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