He stated that Robert Shanks had established an alibi placing him in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, at the time the murder was committed, but that he had been charged as an accessory after the fact., On August 16, 1963, Eugene Checkers Smaldone, Clyde George Smaldone, Michael Anthony Tomeo and Joseph Salardino were picked up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for questioning in the Robbins murder case., Captain John Hindes of the Denver Police Department stated that all of these suspects refused to answer any questions concerning the murder.. Like most other mobsters of their era, they did what they had to do early on to survive and prosper, and grew their empire in the American way, just not on the right side of the law. 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. 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. Here Are 7 Mobsters From Colorado That Committed Unspeakable Acts. Of course that made it pretty easy for customers to trust him. Enter the youngest brother, Clarence Chauncey Smaldone. This actually surprised me in my research as I went into these episodes thinking they were LCN, so its just the latest example of me believing one thing and my research uncovering another. Leave | Department of Labor & Employment - Colorado Murder is up 47 percent in those With Checkers and Clyde gone, it was Chauncey and Paulie who ran the familys operations, and it was generally understood in the Denver underworld that they were in charge, and they did their best to hold things together for the family until the older brothers got out of prison. Even with the reduction in prison time and the fine, the brothers still felt as if theyd been double-crossed by the legal system and would maintain over the years that they had not participated in any jury tampering of any kind, especially Clyde. They did do some bad things. Some of the highlights from this years Colorado Crime Stats report include: Colorado reported 30,942 incidents of Motor Vehicle Theft in 2020, reflecting a 38.6% increase compared to 2019 numbers. Photo Credit: Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family. And though he wouldnt do any time as a result, the Apalachin arrest would be the one to raise his profile so much so that in a Life Magazine article in 1967 he was named as the boss of Colorado. Clarence "Chauncey" Smaldone (left) poses with an elderly Clyde Smaldone (center). None of his friends dared call him that. 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. There has never been anything like it. He would go to trial in 1962. You see, as the trial was going on, there were also rumors based on testimony coming out of a federal grand jury that members of the organization had attempted to bribe jurors in Checkers first tax-evasion trial to which the accused would plead innocent. Hed been missing for three months. Blackmoore, 21, was bludgeoned and stabbed 39 times not long after a pizza was delivered to her home on the evening of August 17, 1995. This is kind of the peak. Even in their heyday, when The Denver Post waged a media campaign against organized crime, the newspapers Roundup Magazine gave Clyde and Checkers credit for helping destitute north Denver families with milk and groceries, secretly paying college tuition for local boys, and funding Catholic orphanages. The Smaldones were well known for giving back to the community. But his low profile would change as in 1957, Colletti attended the ill fated Apalachin Conference in upstate New York and was one of the men that was arrested in the subsequent raid, outing him nationally as a mobster. Clyde Smaldone, cigar in mouth, standing on a Denver sidewalk in front of cars sometime in 1940s. Canadian bonded whiskey would end up being such a success that the brothers would find themselves on the road for weeks at a time. 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. 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.. Denver organized crime ring "The Family" stole vehicles and Now unfortunately during the trial in which both he [Walkie Talkie] and Eugene Smaldone were co-defendants, his fate would be sealed when Denver Detective Duane Red Borden, an organized-crime investigator whod essentially dogged the Smaldones for years, took the stand to testify and was forced to reveal and confirm that Roberts was in fact his informant. This was of course was not good at all. In 2008, there were 158,236 crimes reported in My hope is to cover most of the history behind this family which ran most of the rackets in and around Denver, Colorado throughout the 1930s through the 1980s. crime family Eventually, Raffaele changed careers and took up work as a fruit and vegetable peddler. Photo taken at Gaetanos restaurant sometime in the 1950s. Ten out of 11 of them have nothing but great things to say about the family, he said. Pete Carlino (left) and Giuseppe "Joe" Roma shake hands outside a Denver Police Station answering reporters' questions after Roma posted Carlino's $5,000 bond in June of 1931. I spent my money and I asked him to pay me the money I spent. Please note: the data set for 2020 may contain incomplete information due to the fact not all law enforcement agencies may have submitted crime statistics for this reporting period. And a lot of the description I just provided makes Checkers seem like kind of a bad dude, but dont forget that he also had a big part in taking care of the local community, and there was even an infamous story of him saving a little girl (the wardens niece from when he did time in prison) and another child from being kidnapped as part of a planned a prison break by other inmates. The remains of the vehicle of Leo Barnes, allegedly targeted for assassination by Clyde Smaldone, Checkers Smaldone, and Smiling Charlie Stephens. 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. No pun intended, but this bust would give authorities all the ammo that they would need to convict Checkers Smaldone, Chauncey Smaldone, as well as Paulie Villano on charges of loan-sharking, income-tax evasion, as well as firearms violations. While the group was doing 6 months in jail for the charges, there were reports that came out in the Rocky Mountain News before the Smaldones were released on bond claiming their prison time was hardly hard time: various reports claimed they were being allowed the run of the jail, had a deputy sheriff preparing hot sandwiches for them on request and were using a jail telephone to make calls.. 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. In addition, he was known as a man who regularly failed to pay his gambling debts. Denver, CO 41 Denver, CO Memorial fund to assist family of woman killed by rock thrown into her vehicle; Hopefully that will be of interest to viewers since other families arent talked about nearly as often. He was present at the Mob Summit in Apalachin in 1957. The deceased became involved in the argument. It was nepotism at its finest. According to sources, Charley didnt have the look of a mobster (he wore large thick glasses), but had a stout build standing just 55 and weighing close to 200lbs, and a long arrest record that included pinches for burglary, grand larceny, and weapons violations and did jail-time on several occasions. 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. WebUnder Colorado CRS 18-4-202, a person commits first-degree burglary by knowingly entering someone elses property with the intent to commit a crime, and committing an assault on someone or having explosives or a deadly weapon. 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. 2010. They would scout their rivals to find out where they kept their liquor, and when the opportunity was right theyd swoop in. Crime in Colorado - Colorado Crime Map | SpotCrime They would use their power and intimidation to muscle in on many local gambling establishments including Mountain View Club and others. In reality, the truth is probably somewhere in between as Im sure they had a hand in some unsavory things over the years, but as youll see later on, there was clearly a bias against them from a law enforcement perspective. They know what you guys are doing. They wouldnt listen to Dad, partly because he was drinking and partly because they didnt want to. According to Clyde, and despite his fathers involvement in a barroom business, his parents were ignorant of Prohibition laws, and the feds true targets were himself, his brothers, and their associates. Pictured: Joe and Hunter Biden stand with the president's sister Valerie Biden Owens in Ireland on April 14.Read the full story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12014459/Trump-calls-Bidens-crime-family-Watergate-times-10.html?ito=msngallery, Kiani (pictured right) had already demonstrated his rich generosity toward the Biden family, donating $500,000 personally and another $1 million through his company to the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children. 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 Carlino, Sam. Based on my research, there were indications that the Smaldone brothers had a close relationship at times with the Carlino brothers, and they would end up working either for or in close partnership with the Giuseppe Joe Roma organization as well in the early 30s. The operation included the Smaldones, their enforcer Paul Enrici, and also included members of the Pueblo LCN including Blackie Mazza. Rather than continue the life of a hardcore mobster, he preferred to take in the sun outside his cheese store and greet the occasional well wisher. OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. An informant years later related that undoubtedly these men intended to kill West but the latter jumped out of the automobile as it was proceeding through downtown Denver streets, started screaming, and raised such a commotion that his assailants fled the scene. While the brothers were in prison, the 1957 Apalachin raid had occurred along with many congressional hearings on organized crime, and law-enforcement scrutiny was significantly ratcheting up with the Kenneddy administration leading governmental efforts to take down the mob across the country. Again, this is not a good look with a witness telling the public that youre threatening to blow up a building if things dont go your way. Trump, 76, seized on the claims from Rep. James Comer to attack his presidential rival by accusing the Biden family of corruption on a mass scale on the same day Joe Biden launched his re-election campaign.'What Congressmen James Comer and Jim Jordan have revealed about the "Biden Crime Family" would be Watergate times 10, if this news was revealed just 10 years ago,' he said in a post on his Truth Social platform. This was certainly a gamble, and they werent in the clear, as the five other co-defendants in the case still had to go on trial for 13 counts of jury-tampering, and the witness testimony didnt come off well for the Smaldone brothers and their compatriots. '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. So if you remember, the brothers Clyde and Eugene would be released from Leavenworth and would return home to Denver in 1934, but by that point things had changed. An elderly Clyde and Mildred Smaldone pose with their sons Gene (top left) and Chuck (top right). 2020 Statewide Crime Statistics Available | Colorado Bureau of 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. Now you would think that the brothers story would end there, but it seems they had a bit of luck on their sides. 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. Family of Colorado man killed by police demands answers after This is why I referred to him as a Frank Costello-esque figure earlier on in the episode. He would definitely become an important member of the family as well. 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. Our media is totally corrupt. Christof Kreb Killed Wife, Kids in Triple Murder-Suicide: Sheriff Scotty was a mean devil. And if you want to get technical, and if you want to get to a legal term, that's called being a foreign agent. He retired from the family in 1972, and thereby passed the mantle of Boss to Joseph Scotty Spinuzzi. All of these enterprises also played well into their other stream of income, which of course was loan-sharking (a service that goes hand in hand with nearly any gambling enterprise), and the duo would have a lot of money on the street as they say in the underworld, which would pull in fairly good revenue for the Smaldone organization. And while the Smaldone family certainly was not destitute, they still had a lot of mouths to feed, and as was normal of the times, the boys would put in work to help support the family. A bondsman signs bail bond for Clarence "Chauncey" Smaldone in 1960. A spokesperson for Comer told DailyMail.com that the panel is not yet providing the names of additional family members who may have benefitted from the deals. 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. Also, if youre listening to the audio-only version, subscribe and if youre willing leave me a rating and review to tell me what you think of the content. So those things were all connected together, and so was the hit on Pauline for that matter. They werent afraid to push a button on anyone who got out of line. 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). THATS THE TRICKY THING about figuring out the Smaldones. A copy of the front page of the menu at Gaetano's Restaurant in the late 1940's and 1950's. In October of 1953, the Smaldone brothers would surprise everyone (including their co-defendants) by making what would prove the be a fateful decision to plead out to two charges of conspiracy after pleading not guilty earlier in the month. 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. Each of the men were sentenced to 180 days in jail. Spinuzzi would become involved in a vending-machine business and would also own a bar (Turks Tavern) with his brother, Tony Turk Spinuzzi. Visit our profile page here and hit the follow button above for more of the news you need. 5. which did cause that person, a member of that persons immediate family, or someone with whom that person was having or previously had a continuing relationship to suffer serious emotional distress. 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. 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. WebBrowse crime in Colorado by city, county, schools, and surrounding areas that display crime maps showing crime incident data down to neighborhood crime activity including, During the arrest, Chauncey would be found to have $1,535 on his person, which was confiscated by authorities for back taxes owed. A shot was heard. The feds would confiscate Turks Tavern, both mens bank accounts, Tonys 1951 Oldsmobile, and Scottys 1950 Cadillac, but both men would pay fines and avoid jail time. Most predicted that the men, especially Checkers, would likely die behind bars. The death of Roma led to a significant vacuum in the Denver underworld that would be filled in time by the enterprising Smaldone brothers in partnership with their southern Colorado allies in the Pueblo Mafia. 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. Theyre going to kill me., (Kennedy offered Roberts protection, which he declined), By God, within twenty-four hours they found this guys body. Paulie, who never married and remained a bachelor his entire life, was said to be a ladies man, and was always up for a good time, regularly spending freely on alcohol, beautiful women, and taking frequent trips to Vegas to partake in all of those things. Members of the Smaldone mob including both Clyde and Checkers were arrested and questioned in the murder, but authorities ultimately focused on a St. Louis hood named Sam Shanks, an associate of both the Smaldone family as well as the St. Louis Cosa Nostra family, who they believed had been imported to whack out Roberts. In Part One of this two-part series on the Colorado Mafia, we laid out how the organization that would later become known as the Smaldone Crime Family, which ran organized crime in Denver and much of Colorado during the 20th century, came to be. Trump calls the Bidens a 'crime family' that is 'Watergate times 10 He was certainly tough, but more often than not used his brain to make money and advance his interests by knowing and influencing the right people. Fiore "Fats" Smaldone and Louis A. Smaldone, family members who were tried with the Smaldone brothers in their 1953 jury tampering trial. In pronouncing sentences Judge Ritter charged that the U.S. attorney general and Federal Bureau of Investigation had refused to assist in the jury tampering investigation which smashed the Smaldone gang. Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone is frisked by a deputy sheriff during a raid on a Smaldone-operated pool hall in 1953. For example, crime stats for April 2021 will be accessible to the public at the beginning of June 2021. After the war, he returned to Denver and moved with his wife and 2 children into an apartment directly above Gaetanos, beginning work first at a filling station that he and Paulie Villano owned at West 46th Avenue and Pecos Street. Paul "Fat Paulie" Villano gives the photographer a stern looking while signing a property bond in 1972. In January of 1966, Chauncey was again arrested as one of 20-28 people brought it and charged with gambling, along with cousin Paul Villano and associate Joseph The Ram Salardino. According to a report in the Fort Collins Coloradoan: The Smaldones, Spinelli and Brindisi told Clark they visited Roma from 10 a.m. until afternoon Saturday in an effort to borrow money. Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family. One of these men, a former lawyer named Charles S. Vigil, had been appointed as the U.S. District Attorney for Colorado in 1951 by President Harry Truman, who himself of course was famously mobbed up and was an acquaintance of none other than Clyde Smaldone. There also was a darker side to the Smaldones. The Lutz family was found alive and well in Arizona. Hed really be kind of in and out from this point without really doing too much major time during the 60s and the 70s. Still, the place is saturated with their memory. As with every other murder where the Smaldones were suspected, the two hits would never be solved. Pete Carlino (left) and Sam Carlino (right). He would be buried at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Jefferson County, Colorado. Authorities in Colorado on Monday identified the suspect who allegedly killed his wife and two of their children before taking his own life in an apparent triple murder-suicide as 55-year-old Christof M. Kreb. 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. Joseph "Scotty" Spinuzzi, Boss of the Pueblo LCN family from around 1972 until his death in 1975, in his younger days. Six Crimes that Altered Life in Colorado Forever - Uncover Colorado Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone (left) and Clyde Smaldone stand and listen as habitual crime charges against them read in 1953. Clyde Smaldone walks through Denver courthouse in 1953. 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. Hed Sunday punch you, but he could stand up and fist fight you too. As a matter of fact, I tend to think of Clyde as someone similar to a Frank Costello type within the Colorado underworld. And according to autopsy reports (this is where it gets truly heinous), Cohen was alive (though he may not have been conscious) when he was put into the lake. Like a good-cop, bad-cop routine, Checkers was the Smaldone with the tough-guy reputation. 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). In addition to their gambling empire, the Smaldones were wise enough to take advantage of the opportunities created by economic conditions stemming from World War II and moved the family into selling rationed goods on the black market. It was just a fact of life at the time. John Skip LaGuardia, murdered in 1973, allegedly due to issues he had with the Smaldone family. Angela Blackmoore murder: Pair deny instrumental roles in her They was all right making moonshine, but to sell it, they didnt have a diplomatic way of talking to people to get business. In the end, the Stephens-Barnes affair would end in an assassination attempt that would get the Smaldone brothers embroiled in some serious legal trouble. Maybe we can work out something a little better. I told them how much I paid [$66 a case at the time] and he said, Gee, Im gonna talk to Al [Capone] about that. I told them where I could load it, where they could bring it across the Mississippi to Burlington, Iowa. They returned to the Roma home after word got around that Mrs. Roma had found her husbands body at 1:45 p.m. and then voluntarily went to police headquarters. He is also buried at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Jefferson County. Firestone Source: Wikipedia User Jeffrey Beall | CC BY 3.0 Overall SnackAbility 9 /10 Paulie, in addition to running Gaetanos, would also get into bookmaking, where his reputation was flawless, meaning that when he won he collected, but when he lost he paid pretty quickly. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share by email. Chauncey, as his friends and family called him, was born on February 8, 1924, and was the youngest of the eleven children born to Raffaele and Mamie Smaldone. Colorados Carlino Brothers: A Bootlegging Empire. By the time it was all said and done, his criminal record would stretch over seven decades, and though hed be a suspect in several murders, he was never actually convicted of killing anyone. In concert with local government officials however, the Smaldones struck a deal to provide the financing for a new water system, restore a number of houses, and provided the backing for a lunch program for town schoolchildren in exchange for the ability to operate their gambling operation without interference from law enforcement. Colorado Crime Statistics However, the brothers success was a double-edged sword and the empire theyd built would begin to unravel very soon after this. JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/Stuff A man connected with Mama Hooch bar in Christchurch is on trial this week. Clyde was never able to forgive his younger brother, whose fault it was that they wound up in prison. Banner headlines across the The Denver Post read Smaldone Brothers Get 60-year Terms and Verdict Spells End for Smaldone Gang.. 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). Everyone knows about Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde and the family from The In July of 1950, the United States Senate would identify the Smaldones as well as their contemporaries as the men in control over the underworld in Colorado, shining a major national spotlight on the two gangs operating in Northern and Southern Colorado. This was a real case of nepotism. Seeing as though I am really in touch with the times, I recently discovered the HBO hit The Sopranos and have been watching an episode or two every night after my husband and sons fall asleep. Max Melville, who served as Colorados deputy attorney general when prosecuting the Smaldone brothers in the 1950's. 'Read the full story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12014459/Trump-calls-Bidens-crime-family-Watergate-times-10.html?ito=msngallery, Biden's son Hunter, 53, is being investigated by Republican-led committees over his business dealings, with inquiries into his tax affairs and purchase of a gun. A few days after this incident Colosacco went to talk things over with the Smaldones in their office at Gaetanos Restaurant and there Clyde and Eugene Smaldone told him if he and his partner desired to continue their gambling activities at Priolas farm, it would be necessary henceforth to pay to Smaldones 50% of the gambling proceeds. A family of four who vanished months ago has been located, according to the Newton, Illinois, Police Department. 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. The Colorado Crime of Stalking 18 In addition to my other sources, I leveraged these books heavily and they are both pretty good reads about a family that is largely unknown to many around the country. Aside from the charges, the bigger issue for the Smaldones was that the younger Smaldone was arrested with a local hood and mob novice named Robin Roberts, who was known in the street as Walkie Talkie for his habit of being a compulsive talker, loud-mouth, and a person who generally liked to horn in on peoples conversations. Web353,528 total crimes reported in Colorado in 2020, reflecting a 3.9% increase from last year. 8 most wanted sex offender. Jerry Benallo (left) and William Cavalresi (right), Smaldone Family members who were tried with the Smaldone brothers in their 1953 jury tampering trial. While testifying for Mazza during this trial, Clyde Smaldoneclearly agitated (and youre going to see that both Clyde and Checkers did not like photographers)snapped on a Denver Post photographer taking pictures outside the courtroom, snarling the following: The next time you shoot my picture, Im going to punch you in the nose..