Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone sitting in court in 1970. 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. 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). 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. The reference to the still was in relation to a recent gunfight in Florissant in which hijackers, reputed to have been Clyde, Checkers, Charley Blanda, and a few others, were fired upon while stealing a large quantity of alcohol from a rival gang. Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone arriving to courthouse for 1963 grand jury investigation. OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. April 28, 2023 Testimony continued Friday in the Letecia Stauch murder trial; she stands accused of killing her 11-year-old stepson, Gannon Stauch. In January of 1948, Mike Fats Falbo, age thirty, was found hanging out of the blood-spattered passenger-side door of his vehicle which had crashed into a roadside ditch in Adams County, which is just north of Denver, Colorado. And that brings us back to where we began this story, in 1933, just after the assassination of Denver gang lord, Joe Roma. 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. In 1959, informants would indicate that Chauncey, along with Paulie Villano, and Joe The Ram Salardino (great nickname by the way) were essentially fleecing Denver business men out of thousands of dollars at a gambling club known as the Thorn Lake Club, located in Glipin County, Colorado. 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. [The Pueblo mobs] was always arguing and fighting amongst themselves about the business, and they werent capable of handling business, to tell you the truth. This was an argument and a dispute between Joseph Nucci and Checkers that pretty much went from shouting to shooting really, really quickly. 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). The trial was contentious from the get-go, with the judge accusing Checkers Smaldone of the old Mafia go-to of feigning illness when in fact he actually had to have a very real appendectomy in the middle of the trial. It is open to the public, law enforcement agencies and internal staff, with stuff.co.nz Now, there were certainly other members, but I wont bore you by going through every single one. Coletti was known for keeping a pretty low profile and confined his gambling, narcotics trafficking and racketeering activities to Southern Colorado, leaving Denver to the Smaldones. Blandas immediate successor as Boss was his trusted aide, Vincenzo James Coletti, called Black Jim for his dark complexion and coal-black eyes. Get more stories delivered right to your email. 'I cannot survive [o]n this,' Caroline wrote to Joe Biden's brother Jim. Joseph "Scotty" Spinuzzi, Boss of the Pueblo LCN family from around 1972 until his death in 1975, in his younger days. 3 Others Get Shorter Terms Mom Accused of Hosting Teen Sex Parties 'Tore my Life Apart 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. From the 1920s well into the 1960s, Checkers would work closely with Clyde, though eventually through a series of events the brothers would have a falling out. Man on trial for alleged sexual violation of Christchurch bar Mama 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. 'I mean, this was the Biden family influence peddling scheme. list may not reflect recent changes. So talk about a real Clint Eastwood moment.toughballs of steel right there! Student's Nike Air Jordan shoes stolen in burglary leads to slam Everybody would make money. Joseph Civello The 10 Most Dangerous Places To Live In Colorado For 2022 1. 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. In fact, based on my research, I actually believed this number to be most likely understated. The Possible Penalties for a Conviction of the Colorado Crime of Stalking 18-3-602 are Serious. A month later, on November 23, 1953, Judge Willis W. Ritter, who was known for making some pretty eccentric and bizarre rulings over the years, went with the hammer! Armed police are searching a street in West Auckland after reports of gunshots on Monday afternoon, after a house and car appeared to have been shot at. In the early days, hed also been arrested for bootlegging, attacking a police officer, reckless driving, stealing merchandise from local stores, and for assaulting a police informant during an illicit liquor delivery. Of course that made it pretty easy for customers to trust him. The sentences that ultimately would be handed out for the jury tampering and conspiracy, quite honestly in my very novice legal opinion, were quite simply nothing less than shocking. Foster Symes, who was the presiding judge in the 1933 trial of the Smaldone brothers. Earlier bosses Blanda and Coletti reputedly found it difficult to keep Scotty under control and felt he brought unwanted publicity to the Colorado organization. family On April 19, 1937, Stephens, Clyde and Checkers Smaldone would be convicted of assault with attempt to murder and conspiracy to murder. 'There are six specific decisions that Joe Biden made either as vice president or president that are very concerning to us,' Comer told Fox. Their figure indicated about 2 murders per year, which just seems so unrealistically low in comparison to the level of conflict and competition between the various groups in Denver and Pueblo at the time. There has never been anything like it. They would work together to hammer the Smaldone organization from multiple angles leveraging partnerships with federal, state, and local law enforcement. Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone (right) and Clarence "Chauncey" Smaldone walking on a Denver sidewalk in 1982. Raffaele Smaldone (the father of the Smaldone brothers) was born in Potenza, Italy in 1882, and at the age of two immigrated with his parents Gaetano and Katrina to the United States. Pauline Smaldone, wife of Chauncey Smaldone in 1948. An elderly Clyde and Mildred Smaldone have dinner at Gaetano's. Sam Shanks, an associate of both the Smaldone family as well as the St. Louis Cosa Nostra family, and suspect in the murder of Robin "Walkie Talkie" Roberts. According to reports, he pulled into his driveway, exited his vehicle, and began walking up the driveway to his house. These two law-men, Vigil and Melville, would become part of what became known as the Colorado Crime Commission (known locally as little Kefauver after the infamous Kefauver hearings of the time), which Governor Dan Thornton put together in 1951. Eventually theyd become so busy that theyd bring their younger brother Anthony in on the business as well. Each Christmas they donate quantities of athletic equipment to the homeless waifs and feed em good at Gaetanos, the magazine wrote. Sergio Gamino was taken to an undisclosed hospital for treatment. His hands and feet were secured with wire and a rope holding sixty pounds of railroad iron to his body and a large rock lashed to his midsection. An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Clyde Smaldone and his defense attorney shake hands with jurors in courtroom celebration which followed the acquittal verdict in 1953. Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone listens intently during one of his 1953 trials. stuff.co.nz In October of 1967, Clyde and several of his associates, including Eugenes son, were arrested on gambling charges for running a $100,000-a-week bookmaking operation (that is a whopping $1.1MM in todays which means the operation was taking $52-53MM in revenue annually). As CrimeOnline reported, prosecutors say Stauch stabbed, shot, and beat Gannon inside the familys El Paso County home in Colorado, on January 27, 2020. Clyde Smaldone would famously say the following about gambling: Once the government found out how much money there was to be made in gambling, they would get into it.. However, the brothers success was a double-edged sword and the empire theyd built would begin to unravel very soon after this. Miraculously, Pernee, who was blown out the passenger side door she was about to shut, received only cuts and bruises. Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family. Chaunceys ex-wife Pauline, in an almost hard to fathom event, was shot twice in her driveway by an unknown assailant who escaped with a getaway driver. Oversight members have been combing through tips known as SARs - Suspicious Activity Reports - following a subpoena of the Treasury Department to look into business dealings of the president and his family members mainly his son Hunter Biden. The partnership between Stephens and Barnes was extremely volatile, and in the end theyd have a falling out and dissolve the partnership shortly after Barnes tried to take more control over the Blakelands operations. 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. The club featured roulette, blackjack, and crap games. Paul "The Harp" Enrichi, Smaldone family member and enforcer. While friends and police would often describe Clyde with words like gentleman, theyd often refer to Checkers as mean though some in law-enforcement thought him the school-teacher type. So there were perspectives on both sides, but of the two, he was definitely the tougher one, and youll see that. Glendale Glendale held onto its title of most dangerous place in Colorado for another year. This shift in the availability of the statistics not only ensures Colorado is more aligned with the FBIs quarterly reporting practices, but more importantly it provides increased transparency involving statewide crime data, and eliminates the lag that occurred in the past, said CBI Director John Camper. As far as personalities go, the two brothers were very different. Police officers and EMS performed life-saving measures, but James Gamino died on the scene. 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. He denied on a 2018 gun application that he used drugs, which was untrue: lying on the paperwork is an offense. or debate this issue live on our message boards. 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.. No matter how you spin it, they made their money by breaking the law first bootlegging, then running gambling rackets and loansharking. One such example was later recounted to authorities by a confidential informant: On July 21, 1951, Confidential Informant Denver T-3 reported that for many years Clyde and Eugene Smaldone, former Denver bootleggers, had been recognized as the mobsters who dominated racketeering activities in the Denver area. Clyde Smaldone hides his face from a photographer in 1952. So lets talk about some of the key players. A man connected with Mama Hooch bar in Christchurch is on trial this week. That statement would prove to be prophetic in later years when most states began to legalize many forms of gambling. 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. On January 7, 1998, the original leader and family patriarch Clyde Smaldone, the man who had his first brush with the law in 1920, whod become friends with presidents and mobsters, and whod spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers as well as charitable endeavors, passed away at the age of 91. Michael Roxie Villano: Smaldone Family member. A copy of the front page of the menu at Gaetano's Restaurant in the late 1940's and 1950's. 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. If this is indeed true, it would certainly fit with the mob tradition of ordering a friend to kill a friend. I mean, this was the Biden family influence peddling scheme,' the chairman from Kentucky continued.Read the full story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12014459/Trump-calls-Bidens-crime-family-Watergate-times-10.html?ito=msngallery, 'And when people say, well, they were involved in ventures around the world, I haven't found a legitimate business on the Biden end,' the congressman added. Now, with many gangster stories, youll find that they typically come from broken homes, poverty, and often lack a father figure. 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. Thereafter the deceased and his friends were pushed from the club by one Ricci and one Parlato who was the manager of the club. In 1927, Clyde and his confederates were arrested for possession of several gallons of liquor as well as hijacking 96 pints of whiskey from a competitors truck. A They ventured to the secluded estate on the day an Arkansas judge ordered Hunter appear in court in person to participate in a bitter paternity case filed by a former stripper, with whom he had a brief affair four years ago, resulting in a daughter. This would give the Feds the impetus they needed to launch a series of raids in Denver and Pueblo in which theyd confiscate the silencer, a .30-caliber carbine, twenty-seven stacks of ammunition, four handguns, $50,000 in cash and a treasure trove of valuable documents. Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone (left) and Clyde Smaldone stand and listen as habitual crime charges against them read in 1953. Fiore "Fats" Smaldone and Louis A. Smaldone, family members who were tried with the Smaldone brothers in their 1953 jury tampering trial. If you call that a good brotherAnd not only me. These 7 men ran Colorado's most notorious crime family - KMGH 2010. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) participated in the Columbine High School Day of Service on April 20, 2023. 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. They would begin making good money, and gambling would go on to be the Smaldones primary source of revenue for the next several decades. This is bad. Now as I covered at length in Part One, bootlegging would become a critical driving force in the development and advancement of the Mafia across the country. 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. of Justice His family members refused to provide any specifics about his death and declined to comment when contacted by the Rocky Mountain News. An 2021 article by author Matt Masich in Colorado Life Magazine provided an nice, authentic summation of the brothers and the famous eatery and command post: THE LITTLE ITALIAN RESTAURANT on northwest Denvers Tejon Street has a big reputation, and not just for authentic food. Police Chief Clark said they showed ticket stubs indicating they entered the theater at 1:55 p.m.. According to the book, Smaldone: The Untold Story Of An American Crime Family: Just before 7pm on December 8, 1936, the diminutive gambler and his wife, Pernee, climbed into their 1935 Ford sedan on the 1000 block of Grant Street, near downtown.
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