Much of that increase is due to a surge in property crimes during the year. These 8 Weird Places In Colorado Are As Strange As It Gets, Spend The Night In This Incredible Colorado Home For An Unforgettable Adventure, Enjoy The Freshest Oysters And Scallops At This One-Of-A-Kind Seafood Restaurant In Colorado, Grab Some Homecooked Food And Rent A Kayak At This Awesome Spot In Colorado, This House In Colorado Has A Dark And Evil History That Will Never Be Forgotten, Here Are 7 Mobsters From Colorado That Committed Unspeakable Acts, Here Is The Most Insane, Unforgettable Colorado Bank Robbery, The Oldest Restaurant In Colorado Has A Truly Incredible History, The Story Of The Serial Killer Who Terrorized This Colorado Town Is Truly Frightening. Fast-forward to August of 1981, the FBI would finally land a serious blow to the Smaldones, when a bug theyd planted in a back office in Gaetanos picked up a conversation between Fat Paulie Villano, Checkers Smaldone, and an associate in which they were discussing the inner-workings of a silencer. Of course, the obvious point here is that family members of mob figures are typically considered off-limits, making this shooting a major breach of typical protocol. 'Our fake news media is corrupt at a level like never seen before. At this point the decedent fell backward with his head back and his hand in front of his face. They did do some bad things. Paul "The Harp" Enrichi, Smaldone family member and enforcer. Photo Credit: Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family, Raffaele "Ralph" Smaldone, father of the Smaldone brothers and patriarch of the Smaldone clan. Pete Carlino (left) and Sam Carlino (right). Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone arriving to courthouse for 1963 grand jury investigation. Police officers and EMS performed life-saving measures, but James Gamino died on the scene. A daytime burglary of a student flat netted a thief a collection of Nike Air Jordan trainers but he wasnt expecting a last-minute buzzer beater. As previously mentioned, Spinuzzi along with his boss at the time Coletti, was picked up at the 1957 mob summit in Apalachin though no charges would ultimately stick. At the time, an economic boom had hit Colorado, which meant that there were plenty of jobs available for Italians if they were willing to accept the risk of taking on backbreaking and relatively dangerous jobs working on the railroads or in the mines. 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. Democrats are furious, claiming that Comer and Republicans on the panel are drawing their own conclusions and mischaracterizing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs - unsubstantiated tips) as evidence in their probes. The judge in the case, Judge J. By Clydes account in later years, the Smaldones had successfully placed as many as 585 slot machines in drugstores, bars, and clubs all over the state of Colorado (which were made legal by purchasing a $100 federal tax stamp)so a nice little loophole. 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. If you consider the fact that in the 60s you had the Kennedy administration, you eventually had Joe Valachi, more visibility, the FBI beginning to take Cosa Nostra and the mobs more seriously, it was a good time to cut your losses and get out. Annie is a freelance writer, content editor, and marketing whiz with a background in broadcasting and a passion for chicken nachos. 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. Christof Kreb Killed Wife, Kids in Triple Murder-Suicide: Sheriff You'll receive your first newsletter soon! Thats not the attention that you want. Though the Smaldones were allowed to essentially run Denver and had huge sway across the entire state, the real official Mafia was down in Pueblo. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share by email. Five people, including an eight-year-old child, were killed in the Friday night violence in San Jacinto County. Joseph "Scotty" Spinuzzi, Boss of the Pueblo LCN family from around 1972 until his death in 1975, in his younger days. They was all right making moonshine, but to sell it, they didnt have a diplomatic way of talking to people to get business. At this time, the defendant Spinuzzi, who had been sitting in the club with Ricci and Parlato earlier in the evening, came upon the scene outside the club. By the time he got to the mid-1930s, he was in his late 20s (so still pretty young). Spinuzzi was very close with Eugine Checkers Smaldone, and the two would reportedly attend various gambling events together (along with Charley Blanda) to make shylock loans to participants whod been on the losing end. The stabbing occurred around 8:40 p.m. on January 8, 2020. The funeral, in which the Smaldones contributed two of the most massive floral arrangements at Romas funeral, was attended by over 2,000 people. Friends would recall him as a terrific tap-dancer in his youth, and he would become a champion gymnast in high school, as well as a scholarship athlete at the University of Colorado, though he would put on the weight that gave him his nickname in later years. The best hidden gems and little known destinations - straight to your inbox. Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone using a telephone and giving the photographer an ominous glare. As CrimeOnline reported, prosecutors say Stauch stabbed, shot, and beat Gannon inside the familys El Paso County home in Colorado, on January 27, 2020. Wiretaps were becoming far more common, and crimes that had previously resulted in 90-day jail sentences and light sentences were more often than not leading to several years in federal prison. And though they werent true Cosa Nostra, the Smaldones by that time certainly qualified as a mob-style enterprise. However, the Colorado Crime Stats website is the best location to review crime data in its entirety. The bullet traveled in an upward direction from its entrance in the deceaseds hand to its final resting place in his brain.. But one thing was clear, even though the family and the entire Smaldone empire was in decline by this time, it was clear that the brothers still had teeth so to speak. 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. The Smaldones were well known for giving back to the community. Similar to construction companies having to do business with the Mafia in New York City in the 70s and 80s in order to essentially get anything done, in Denver in the 20s and 30s, you pretty much had to deal with the unsavory figures of the KKK. The pair would do business with small-time gamblers, but would also be able to work with higher-stakes players as well. Just as Clyde had predicted, when the state of Colorado approved state-supervised gambling, the revenue poured in. Clarence was sentenced to 90 days while Clydes charges were dismissed. They said, Hell, we get a lot of stuff out of there too. 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. Ten out of 11 of them have nothing but great things to say about the family, he said. Everybody we had to know, we knew.. On direction from Governor Polis, the Department of Public Safety will soon announce a Statewide Task Force to work with the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority to better understand the underlying causes of increases in Motor Vehicle Theft and to develop a statewide strategy to reduce motor vehicle thefts. Later in life, when interviewed by his family, he would only offer the following: It was a long time ago, yes. First, he had street smarts which allowed him to navigate the 1920s and early 1930s relatively unscathed. The brothers would even begin to venture as far as Canada in order to secure top-shelf bonded whiskey. Hed been missing for three months. Clyde Smaldone smokes a cigar while shielding his face from photographers in 1951. Unfortunately for Clyde, that very same day hed also be sentenced to 4 to 6 years for his part in (of all things) a $450 robbery of a cigarette, candy, and popcorn truck in Caon City, Colorado. Clarence "Chauncey" Smaldone (left) poses with an elderly Clyde Smaldone (center). And so, its around this time in the 20s and early 30s that the Smaldone brothers began regularly showing up in police blotter, racking up many arrests between them. 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). He was present during the famous 1957 Apalachin mob summit. Moving forward, Colorado Crime Stats will be available with a one-month lag before becoming accessible to the public. But those plans would never come to fruition as he died of natural causes on September 5, 1975 (just two months after Coletti). So in that way, the action in Colorado during the 20s parallels most other big cities at this time which were nearly universally experiencing their own strife as well. They have denounced the 'findings,' and say the claims pushed by Comer and Oversight Republicans are merely allegations without any ties to true wrongdoing so far. Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone arrives in court after being charged wit bookmaking in 1965. A lot of times I got to thinking, because I wasnt guilty of really, really being involvedwith my brother [Checkers]. As a reminder, before we get into the episode, if youre watching on YouTube, Id just like to remind you to please smash that subscribe button and turn on the bell to get notifications when I release a new episode. While costs are disproportionately felt by victims, this implies an average cost per Coloradan of $4,762 per year. At that time, Walkie Talkie had been developing quite a bad reputation for himself. Hunter spent the weekend at the house of Joe Kiani, 58, who founded medical technology company Masimo in 1989 and is now worth an estimated $1.3 billion, according to Forbes. This is bad. Back In The Day, This Quiet Colorado Town Was A Mafia Mecca They would be charged with vagrancy. I spent my money and I asked him to pay me the money I spent. Officers find men shot, 1 in driveway, 1 on porch after verbal 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. If this kind of information came out in the past, writers would be getting Pulitzer prizes when Pulitzer prizes meant something. Now before we go further with the chronology of events, lets take a quick step back so we can provide you with a brief synopsis of who the brothers were, so that you better understand the relationship between them and the other factions. Louis F. Smaldone (left), second cousin the the Smaldone brothers, who was arrested as part of their jury tampering case in 1953. of Justice For three years, the residents of Central City and the Smaldones operated harmoniously. But Walkie Talkie had another problem (and even bigger problem). In the mindset of all of this activity and success, Clyde had managed to steward the Tejon Bar and Cafe through rough times and by 1947 it was thriving. 'After years of pursuing political dirt against the Biden family, today's statement by Chairman Comer once again proves that he has failed to uncover evidence of any wrongdoing by President Biden,' said a spokesperson for Oversight Democrats. Smaldone, Denver's Mob Family - Colorado Life Magazine 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. I found legitimate businesses that were paying the LLCs that were then turning around and laundering the money back to the Bidens,' Comer said.Read the full story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12014459/Trump-calls-Bidens-crime-family-Watergate-times-10.html?ito=msngallery, 'But I haven't found any legitimate business dealings on the Biden end. The family would set up shop in Buffalo, New York, but by 1889 after five years living in Buffalo, decided to make a change and moved the family across the country to the wide open spaces and mile-high air of Denver, Colorado. All three would be sentenced to 10 year prison terms which at their advancing age was akin to a life sentence. A year later hed be arrested again for going on an amazing car theft spree of stealing twenty-five cars in just ten days! 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). Crime Insight We brought truckloads [of food] to the orphans.. Do not sell or share my personal information. WebThis article describes crime in the U.S. state of Colorado. 'Comer and his committee have yet to name anyone except Joe Biden's businessman brother Jim, who was involved in some of Hunter Biden's dealings, and Hallie Biden, who was married to Joe Biden's late son Beau.Read the full story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12014459/Trump-calls-Bidens-crime-family-Watergate-times-10.html?ito=msngallery, Hunter and his wife Melissa Cohen were spotted at the weekend retreating to a $50 million vineyard north of Los Angeles owned by a Biden mega-donor. 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. Colletti was born in Lucca Sicula, Sicily, Italy in 1897. Following his arrest, Turcios was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault. He would run the Pueblo family as Boss from 1933 until roughly 1953 when he would pass the mantle to Vincenzo Black Jim Coletti before going away to prison. Now, I cant quite pinpoint why Im so specifically fascinated by the Smaldone brothers, but as youll see their story is pretty epic, and I think youre going to seesimilar to last episodethat there was just as much going on with organized crime in Colorado as other areas of the country, and it was well covered, but it just never got the publicity nor does it have the prestige of the East Coast mob. Again, this wouldnt be the last time they would be arrested. It was no different in Colorado, and in fact Colorado even got a head start. Sam Carlino (second from left) stands next to a man believed to be Ralph Smaldone around 1931. Most notably, Carlo Gambino made his first millions selling ration stamps during the war. Clyde looked every bit the part of an Italian-American mob boss, of average height and above-average weight, dressed immaculately in expensive suits and the look punctuated by an ever-present cigar. The three men would serve their time at FMC Fort Worth (the medical center) prison in Texas. They were two separate entities. Now, I wont get too far into it, but the younger Eugene was in severe disfavor with the entire rest of the family for his drug use, and also for tossing around the family name to get his way so to speak in underworld dealings. From Gaetanos, the Smaldones ruled north Denver from the 1930s through the 1970s. Some of the people associated with them died violently.. 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. At some point, he made his way to Pueblo, Colorado. Okay, were not going to spend a significant amount of time on the Pueblo faction of the Colorado mob, but what I will say is that according to my research the true Mafia in Colorado was the group in Pueblomeaning that this family was recognized as LCN by the Commission in New York and as such used the same rules, structures, etc. Judge Willis W. Ritter, who was known for making some pretty eccentric and bizarre rulings over the years, went with the hammer! Spinuzzi would become involved in a vending-machine business and would also own a bar (Turks Tavern) with his brother, Tony Turk Spinuzzi. So Id say they were more of the Al Capone variety of mob meaning there were no inductions, no official titles, etc. Okay, lets quickly touch on the Pueblo LCN before we close the episode. Colorado Crime Statistics We are no longer accepting comments on this article. #13: Ballplayer to Mafia Hitman, The True Story of Maurice Pro Lerner, How Prohibition contributed to the rise of the mobs, The story of the Carlino Brothers, Pete, Sam and Charlie Carlino, The Bootleggers Convention in Denver in 1931, Anthony Tony Smaldone: Brother and family leader. Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone (left) and Clyde Smaldone stand and listen as habitual crime charges against them read in 1953. Now, based on information from police sources shared with writers at the Denver Post, it was insinuated that the two murders were connected with both the attempt on the life of Pauline Smaldone, as well as the attempt by the pair to muscle in on Denver bookmaking and gambling rackets. Like her cousin Hunter, Caroline had been struggling with addiction and legal run-ins for years.Read the full story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12014459/Trump-calls-Bidens-crime-family-Watergate-times-10.html?ito=msngallery, Hunter's business deals and actions while battling drug addiction are now very much in the Republican spotlight. In their own way, they were gentlemen.. Now before we move on and briefly talk about the Pueblo LCN, here are a few other members of the Smaldone organization present on the infamous family chart that we really didnt touch on too heavily during the episode: Calogero "Charles" Blanda, Boss of the Pueblo LCN Family, from 1931-1953 in his younger days. Comer replied: 'Well, right now, we have nine. Crime is rising in Colorado. This state data shows by how much The brothers would start by running booze locally, but as time went on would expand operations and would regularly be running liquor between Denver and several Midwest cities including St. Louis, Kansas City, as well as Chicago. An elderly Clyde and Mildred Smaldone pose with their sons Gene (top left) and Chuck (top right). Using vile language, he ordered decedents friends from the premises and threatened to blow their brains out. The deceaseds friends left and Spinuzzi then proceeded toward the decedent, exchanged words with him, held a pistol about two feet from his head and then hit and viciously kicked him. While he was in power, in line with the truest principles of Omert, his memory would conveniently fail him when asked about his friends. 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. Putting that in terms of population, that gives the community a per-capita crime rate of 317/100k people. You could find family But then came the legal blow that would stop the brothers in their tracks, and would lay the foundation for the long-term decline of the familys power. 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. First-Degree Burglary" in Colorado A Joseph James Scotty Spinuzzi is the last of the Pueblo mobsters that Ill cover, and in my opinion the biggest gangster of the bunch in terms of his reputation. His passion for history, his interest in the mob, and his need to be creative and produce content led him to create this podcast where he provides his listeners with deeply-researched content on the plots, sub-plots, and real facts behind the American Cosa Nostra. In addition to running the Tejon Bar and Cafe, Clyde Smaldone began to enterprise, getting into lucrative slot-machines, beginning to dive full-force into sports parlay betting cards (which were coming into fashion around that time), and they would also partake in more traditional mob rackets including bookmarking and loan sharking. Chauncey would go on to serve in the army during World War II, serving time in the South Pacific theater. If this is indeed true, it would certainly fit with the mob tradition of ordering a friend to kill a friend. Paul "Fat Paulie" Villano leaving Federal Court in 1983. The two men were very similar. Theyre going to kill me., (Kennedy offered Roberts protection, which he declined), By God, within twenty-four hours they found this guys body. According to Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family, Chauncey was dead-on the best looking of the brothers, was much taller than his siblings (six feet), and was blessed with a full head of wavy hair and piercing dark eyes, which got him quite a bit of attention from the young Italian girls in his neighborhood. Denver organized crime ring "The Family" stole vehicles and The first of the trio of brothers whod built the family would pass away in the early 90s when Eugene Checkers Smaldone died of a heart attack at the age of 81 on March 10, 1992. Hed Sunday punch you, but he could stand up and fist fight you too. Now the business wasnt without its dangers. 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.
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