Hartmann Publishing, owned by Ray Hartmann, sold the newspaper to the New Times, a Phoenix-based chain, in late 1998. When the verdict went wrong, Wortman wanted the money back. Yesterday (January 1, 2004), the St. Louis area massage parlor owner reported to federal prison to begin serving a one-year sentence for misprision of a felony, a charge similar to obstruction of justice. At Menns suggestion, he started writing book reviews for the Star. He also worked diligently to establish a national writers association for prisoners. At Menns suggestion, he started writing book reviews for the Star. As a result, he was put in solitary four times and sentenced to the hole another 18 or 20 times. 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.. Having been a convict, they thought he should have respected their trade a little more than he did.. Instead, James Earl Ray appeared edgy and expressed apprehension about his future. He was between jobs, collecting unemployment benefits. 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. 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. Dowling got his start as a robber and bootlegger in St. Louis. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Clark indicated that the owners of Free Spirit advertised in Missouri publications from 1994 until 2000, the Post reported. The time period investigated by federal prosecutors, 1994-2000, spanned the ownership change at the RFT. Rays late brother James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to Kings murder in 1969 but quickly recanted his confession. She was 16 and insisted she would commit suicide before she was 21, because she had a fear of not being beautiful. Joseph John Maloney Sr., a shoemaker by trade, walked out of his sons life in 1943, when he was 3 years old. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch), Frank "Buster" Wortman in the federal courthouse in East St. Louis in February 1962 during his trial on income-tax charges. Menn then sold the proposal to Cruise Palmer, the executive editor. I was impressed. Wortman was acquitted in retrial in 1966. He filed suit against the Department of Corrections, arguing that his constitutional rights under the First Amendment had been violated. That, of course, was back in the day, when a lifer could still aspire to being released on parole. Maloney argued that the Star should immediately expose the Mafias infiltration of the River Quay. C.D. But as quickly as his cell door seemed to have started to creak open, the steel bars slammed shut again. Shortly before 8 p.m., Maloney dropped Rhodes off at the apartment of an acquaintance, then walked to a nearby confectionery, located at 1100 Lami Ave. On one occasion Jones accompanied him to the Three Little Pigs, an after-hours caf that was a favorite of the Mafia. By checking liquor-license applications, Maloney determined that mobsters or their relatives secretly owned several restaurants and bars in the River Quay. Meanwhile, O'Brien was supposed to check with Wortman about a proposed diamond heist. John Larry Ray, a convicted bank robber, spent more than a quarter-century behind bars himself. After returning to the United States, he occasionally talked to his brother by phone. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch). While there, he remembers, Malcolm X was murdered. He would serve the next 13 years at the Missouri Penitentiary, in Jefferson Cityarguably the worst prison in the United States at the time. You have permission to edit this article. Having written it, my next problem was deciding where to send it. He says he warned his brother about the dangers of dealing with the Mafia: I told him dont be the one floating in the Mississippi.. A running dispute during. Atty., East St. Louis, Ill., for United States. See restaurant menus, reviews, ratings, phone number, address, hours, photos and maps. Maloneys prison record listed him as 5-foot-9 and 145 pounds. Gruenders association with these gangsters continued long after his parole. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. She corresponded. There is no doubt now that John Larry Ray helped James Earl Ray escape from the Missouri State Penitentiary, but the devil is in the details. 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. Moreover, Jerry Ray, John Larry Rays surviving brother, disputed John Larrys account in a telephone interview from his home in McMinnville, Tenn., in October. As a result, Maloneys letters to Menn started coming back undelivered. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch). During the conversation, John Larry Ray says, Kings name came up only in reference to the possibility of traffic congestion resulting from his visit to Memphis the next day. 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 stayed all night at the Catmans in South St. Louis, says Ray, referring to Jack Catman Gawron, a criminal associate of the Ray brothers. Maloney then wrested the gun from his victim and fled. While at the Register, he covered a series of murders attributed to the Freeway Killer, a name of his invention. Last chance! Webbe, a former city alderman, was convicted of voter fraud and obstruction of justice in 1985. The jurors were dragged back for a grilling, but no one drew suspicion. 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. 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. The literary editor was with Maloneys mother on Sept. 25, 1972, when Maloney walked out of prison for the last time. In 1956, workers began digging an oval lake and fashioning an island near South Mulberry Road southeast of Collinsville. Books sent to him for review were screened by the prison administration and sometimes rejected.Instead of zip guns or knives, Maloney fought back with the law as his weapon. In 1948, he equipped it with the novel luxury of air-conditioning. 4.9. David Moyer, who confessed to the slaying, first told authorities that the girl shot herself and he had fired a second shot to end her pain. The car, shot up on the inside, was found in the parking lot of the Bel Air bowling alley in Swansea. Hinkley, a former St. Louis Globe-Democrat Woman of the Year, was an early advocate of prison reform and used her social standing to influence decisions of the Missouri Department of Corrections. 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. 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. Double Deuce Lounge - 601 S 10th St, East St Louis. When Berne died in 1996, he was a paid security consultant for Pipefitters Local 562, which Stoneking had also fingered as being connected to the Chicago Outfit. After his fourth escape from Boonville, juvenile authorities transferred him to Algoa, the states intermediate reformatory, where his behavior worsened. We worked on the fifth floor of the prison hospital, which is to say the psych ward. I was even more impressed that he did not ask why I was in prison, or for how long. He was Wortman's right-hand man when they were convicted together in the income-tax case in 1962. She seemed fragile and shy, yet she wasnt. In those days the Kansas City Star printed a poem on the editorial page every day, so I mailed the poem to the Star. Buster Wortman kept a close eye on the project, but never said anything about it. The two returned to St. Louis early the next morning on a Greyhound bus. He says he drove down from St. Louis in his cream-colored Thunderbird with a machine gun and other weapons in the trunk. Everyone was shocked. While there, he remembers, Malcolm X was murdered. The next day I called Bonadonna, Maloney recalled later. Six days after the verdict, Dowling and a bodyguard were found shot to death on a dark road north of Belleville. Scheduled for completion in the fall of 2003, it will be shared by East St. Louis Community College, Southern Illinois University and the Illinois Department of Employment Security. 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. Parking: Valet. On hearing the bad news, Maloney vowed to kill Moyer and tried to escape. Dennis W. Sonnenschein will have plenty of time to reflect on his business career over the next year. Having been a convict, they thought he should have respected their trade a little more than he did.. It was curious, too, how they seemed to hate Joe more than me, although our names appeared together on stories. Despite his abominable record, the state had little choice but to parole him in January 1959, a few months after he turned 18. But back in Kansas City, a rift had developed among three branches of the local mob: the Cammisano, Spero and Bonadonna clans. After his fourth escape from Boonville, juvenile authorities transferred him to Algoa, the states intermediate reformatory, where his behavior worsened. While at the Register, he covered a series of murders attributed to the Freeway Killer, a name of his invention. On the basis of this anecdote, co-author Barsten speculates that James Earl Ray was subjected to the CIAs behavior-modification program known as MK-Ultra. The only thing his real father ever gave him was his name. The couple then took a cab to the Soulard neighborhood in South St. Louis. Nash released Maloney from solitary and assigned him to the newly formed prison art class. The two returned to St. Louis early the next morning on a Greyhound bus. Prestige Lounge: By the time Lou Bonds shuttered the Prestige in the early '90s, the venue had already outlasted all of its peers in the surrounding Gaslight Square. Paddock Village Apartments in St. Louis, MO offers two bedroom lofts, two bedroom apartments, and two and three bedroom townhomes. He called me one time, asking about a gun, John Larry Ray says. In September 1983, Post staffer Ronald Lawrence reported that one of Sonnenscheins business associates was Fernando Nando Bartolotta, a made member of the St. Louis mafia family, then under the leadership of the late Matthew Trupiano. The Paddock Lounge & Club Supper Room, East St Louis, IL. 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? Maloney joined the newspapers staff after being paroled in 1972. In a sense, Maloney did respect their trade. He chain-smoked. Dowling and bodyguard Melvin Beckman met the mystery man in Belleville, who apparently decided to shoot first. When newspaper tycoon Mike Lacey, former owner of the St. Louis Riverfront Times, was busted for pimping in California this week, his arrest was long overdue. He was not from another planet, but he was from another time. He called me one time, asking about a gun, John Larry Ray says. Maloney expanded his connections in the literary world, writing to such luminaries as R. Buckminster Fuller, John D. MacDonald, William Buckley and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. His business career over the next day I called Bonadonna, Maloney did respect their trade and fashioning island. Gun and other weapons in the parking lot of the Bel Air bowling alley in Swansea from St. Louis Ill.! 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