Firestone Source: Wikipedia User Jeffrey Beall | CC BY 3.0 Overall SnackAbility 9 /10 I dont know anything about this gang stuff.. 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. They know what you guys are doing. They wouldnt listen to Dad, partly because he was drinking and partly because they didnt want to. 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 other book Id recommend (which I cited several times this episode) would be Smaldone: The Untold Story of An American Crime Family by Dick Kreck with foreward from Chuck and Gene Smaldone. William Calvaresi, Dupont tavern operator and Jerry Benallo, Jr., were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment each, and Michael Bonnalo of Wheat Ridge to 10 years. 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). So talk about a real Clint Eastwood moment.toughballs of steel right there! As of 2008, adjusted gross proceeds (total bets minus payouts) from gambling in Central City, and two other approved cities topped $715 million annually. 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. Five victims Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25,her eight-year-old son Daniel Enrique Laso, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and Josu Standing are Eugene Smaldone (far left) and Clyde Smaldone (center. 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. As was expected in those days of first-born sons, Clyde would labor with his father in the fruit and vegetable business. I knew a lot of them, but I cant remember their names. I done nine and a half years of my life for him. 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. He would definitely become an important member of the family as well. 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. Colleagues and arresting officers alike described Clyde as a gentleman. It is open to the public, law enforcement agencies and internal staff, with They would begin making good money, and gambling would go on to be the Smaldones primary source of revenue for the next several decades. Now if someone disagrees, Im willing to debate, but nothing in my documentation or research indicated that they ever became true LCN, though youll see them reported as such especially in the 1970s and 1980s. This event as we mentioned would leave a huge power vacuum in the Colorado underworld, and the Smaldones would be the ones who would eventually fill it. Only through the efforts of the Treasury Department and the use of their agents was the investigation carried on to a successful conclusion. Tom Lahey, who grew up a block from Gaetanos, said the following about the Smaldones and based upon my research the sentiment rings true: They did a lot of good in north Denver. A photo of the staff at Gaetanos kitchen with Smaldone family patrich, Mamie Smaldone (far right), cooking. Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone arrives in court after being charged wit bookmaking in 1965. The funeral, in which the Smaldones contributed two of the most massive floral arrangements at Romas funeral, was attended by over 2,000 people. 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. This restaurant would go on to become an institution in Denver, and it would become the primary base of operations for the Smaldone organization. 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. Tributes to a kind-hearted rugby player have poured in from family, friends and fellow team members after he was stabbed to death near a nightclub in Cornwall. In addition to being shot in the head three times, hed been beaten and stabbed in the face numerous times. On July 17, 1995, then 19-year old Salazar was drinking at his mother's house with some of his partners or fellow gang members. In the 1950s, hed be identified as one of the top leaders in the Colorado Mafia, and in 1953 hed do 3 years after an income-tax evasion conviction. He sentenced both Clyde and Checkers Smaldone to an astonishing 60 years in prison in 1953. From Gaetanos, the Smaldones ruled north Denver from the 1930s through the 1970s. I dont care who he was. The Kianis hosted a fundraiser for Biden at their Irvine, California home in January 2020, bundled more than $1 million for Biden and gave another $1 million to his inaugural committee. They werent afraid to push a button on anyone who got out of line. Clyde Smaldone hides his face from a photographer in 1952. Calogero "Charles" Blanda (left), Boss of the Pueblo LCN Family, from 1931-1953 being led from a courtroom in the early 1950's with another Pueblo LCN member, Tom "Whiskers" Incerto (right, hat covering face). DENVER Although Colorado may not have been a hotbed of organized crime, one infamous crime family made it clear that the Centennial State was their Like a good-cop, bad-cop routine, Checkers was the Smaldone with the tough-guy reputation. Thirteen months after they went away, Judge Ritters decision would be thrown out after the sentences would be ruled as excessive by the US Supreme Court. Crimes affiliated with gangs on the From the time Gaetanos opened in Denvers Little Italy neighborhood in 1947, everyone knew it as the mobs hangout. His body would be discovered in the backseat of his Cadillac in a lot behind the same Alpine Inn that LaGuardia had just left (six months earlier). As the story goes, Checkers faced down a prisoner who during the breakout had pointed a gun directly in his face uttering the words, Take that thing outta my face, and then locking himself in a room and (of course) played checkers with the two kids in turn until the danger was over. Federal agents said the heavy sentences levied against the brothers brought to an end a gambling empire which at one time grossed millions of dollars in slot machines, racetrack betting and other illegal operations.. The 2020 statewide crime data release marks an improvement in the timeliness for which the CBI will provide statistics to the public in the future. Man, 25, critically ill in hospital after serious assault on Elgin High According to documentation I found relating to the People vs. Spinuzzi in 1962, the circumstances of the shooting as communicated in court were as follows: The deceased was a musician employed at the Five Queens Club in Pueblo, Colorado. The club featured roulette, blackjack, and crap games. Five people, including an eight-year-old child, were killed in the Friday night violence in San Jacinto County. This is bad. In both cases, the Smaldones (as they would throughout their lives) would deny any involvement, and as youll see during the rest of this video, I think there is a fine line between things that they actually did versus overzealous prosecution and sentences handed out by a government that had it in for them. Now, lets step back out for just a second and give a brief background on the Smaldone brothers, and just how they fit into the overall picture by the early 1930s. Shortly after the assassination police detained and questioned many suspects including two brothers who were allegedly top lieutenants for Roma: Clyde Flip Flop Smaldone and Eugene Checkers Smaldone. Anthony Smaldone takes a photographer's camera in 1955. This is why I referred to him as a Frank Costello-esque figure earlier on in the episode. Spinuzzi was born in 1907 in Napoleonville, Assumption Parish, Louisiana. Cracks at Dept. Creating safer and more resilient communities across Colorado. It certainly was a long episode, but again something that I found to be a very interesting and compelling story that I really want to share with my channel. Similar to the approach from law enforcement against Al Capone in Chicago, Vigil and Melville decided to focus on the angle of evasion of state income taxes and began working to catch the brothers and members of their organizations within that dragnet versus focusing on their more obvious crimes. They left shortly after noon and went to a motion picture house, they said, differing, however, on the house they attended, Clark said. There were powder burns on the deceaseds hand where the bullet had gone through. 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. We had friends every place in the United States. Not saying it wasnt true, but a reach. The trio were sent to prison in the mid-1930's. Foster Symes, who was the presiding judge in the 1933 trial of the Smaldone brothers. On August 7, 1963, the body of Robin Walkie Talkie Roberts, was found murdered and lying in a ditch in a fairly well-to-do subdivision in Denver. In the early 1950s, the Smaldone brothers would begin to increasingly draw the ire of authorities, and it would eventually lead to the slow downfall of their organization. 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). In early 1952, and its just going to keep building from here, Vigil would keep up the pressure when two law enforcement officials (so this is indirectly hitting at the Smaldones) were indicted for lying about payoffs they received to ignore gambling in their respective counties. Smaldones bond would be set at $500,000 while Salardinos was set at $300,000. 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). And so iIt wasnt long after the war before both Chauncey and Paulie joined Clyde and Checkers Smaldone in the family business so to speak, getting deep into gambling and sports parlay cards. They said, Hell, we get a lot of stuff out of there too. 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 Leo wasnt so lucky. Always the entrepreneur, Clyde Smaldone was always looking for ways to expand the organizations gambling empire. 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. Clarence "Chauncey" Smaldone (left) and Paul "Fat Paulie" Villano (right) surrender to start jail terms in 1968. Theyre going to kill me., (Kennedy offered Roberts protection, which he declined), By God, within twenty-four hours they found this guys body. The brothers would receive a new trial. As I shared in Part One, Denver and Pueblo, Colorado in the 1920s was a veritable shooting gallery. Banner headlines across the The Denver Post read Smaldone Brothers Get 60-year Terms and Verdict Spells End for Smaldone Gang.. Their hope was that the jury would be fair minded, but the reality was that the government wanted to hammer the brothers. Okay, lets quickly touch on the Pueblo LCN before we close the episode. His brother lighted a cigar as officers led him handcuffed from the court room and sent up clouds of smoke. My goal will be to tell the entire history of those families so that people get a glimpse of what the Mafia was like outside the primary hubs of New York and Chicago. Everyone knows about Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde and the family from The You could find family patriarch Clyde Smaldone Gaetano is the Italian equivalent of Clyde seated at the bar, always at his spot furthest from the door. Because everything at that time was rationed and difficult to come by, you could make a killing on the black market, and many mobsters did. 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. WebPages in category "Gangs in Colorado" The following 13 pages are in this category, out of 13 total. Earlier bosses Blanda and Coletti reputedly found it difficult to keep Scotty under control and felt he brought unwanted publicity to the Colorado organization. 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. Now as I mentioned above, after his semi-retirement Clydes drinking would become pretty problematic so much so that his sons would put him in alcohol rehabilitation on several occasions throughout the rest of his life until he was finally able to kick the habit (which wouldnt happen until much later in his life). Leo Barnes testifies after his car was blown up and he was injured in a murder attempt for which Clyde Smaldone, Checkers Smaldone, and Smiling Charlie Stephens were sent to prison in the mid-1930's. The relationship was based on friendships, and the Smaldones needed someone to handle the operations in Southern Colorado, so they turned to their trusted friends in Pueblo. In 2008, there were 158,236 crimes reported in 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. An elderly Clyde and Mildred Smaldone pose with their sons Gene (top left) and Chuck (top right). After pulling together enough money to buy a horse and wagon, he began making deliveries all over town, including the wealthier neighborhoods. It wasnt long before the duo was making good money, so much so that they were able to help their parents out even more by buying toys for their siblings, clothes for their mother and father, and even helping to fix up the family house. An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. As a result of this incident, Stephens, Clyde and Checkers each got 7 to 10 years in the state penitentiary for conspiracy to commit murder. However, at this point the damage was done as the two brothers, whod built the empire together would eventually have a falling out over the situation. Officers find men shot, 1 in driveway, 1 on porch after verbal As you might expect with a man of his temperament, he would have a long history of problems with law enforcement, being charged for bootlegging, extortion in Las Vegas, burglary, theft, counterfeiting, income tax evasion, as well as numerous counts of gambling and bookmaking.
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