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. Maloney had been in solitary confinement for nearly four months after his escape attempt when Hinkley contacted him. The blacks slept as many as eight to a cell. James Earl Ray also supposedly told his brother that the CIA had tapped him to be an intelligence asset. Maloney added to his underworld knowledge in prison, where he befriended fellow inmate John Paul Spica, a St. Louis Mafia soldier. St. Clair County sheriff's detective William Butler (center) and Illinois State Police detective Jerry Fitzgerald dropped by the bowling alley March 11, 1962, because Beckman's shot-up car had been found in the establishment's parking lot. Sam Reese, an older convict who had gained national recognition for his oil paintings and cartoons, served as his role model. He suspects that the payoff was passed through Wortmans organization by the Chicago mob in advance of a Canadian jewel robbery in which his brother was slated to take part. Meanwhile, O'Brien was supposed to check with Wortman about a proposed diamond heist. The white convicts slept three to a cell (except for several hundred in one-man cells). We visited every institution of correction for adults and juveniles in both Missouri and Kansas, plus Leavenworth and Marion in Illinois, which at the time was the Alcatraz of the [federal] system, says Jones. He called me one time, asking about a gun, John Larry Ray says. All the hoods would congregate there, drinking coffee, recalls Jones. In the wake of the mob violence, the River Quay was all but abandoned, with only six liquor licenses remaining in the district, down from 28 a few years earlier. In the mid-70s, some Star editors were even reluctant to print the word Mafia, Maloney later wrote. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Gruenders association with these gangsters continued long after his parole. Gruender, a housepainter, had a string of arrests and convictions for car theft and burglary dating back to 1926. Dowling had been Wortman's right-hand man and was convicted along with Wortman on Feb. 26. In 2000, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversaw a partial radioactive cleanup at the Spectrulite plant. The last time John Larry Ray visited New York City was in 1965. Maloney had reached his nadir. Ratings. Printable Racing Calendar & Promotions Schedule I collared outgoing St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay at the Earth Day celebration in Forest Park back in 2013 and asked him for a spot interview. But Sonnenscheins trail extends further into the past. Having written it, my next problem was deciding where to send it. Thiemann died as a result of the wounds he sustained in the fracas. Thus inspired, the IRS began digging harder into Wortman's unusual financial world. Wortman died in a St. Louis hospital Aug. 3, 1968, at age 63 after throat surgery. I asked him if hed read the story, and if it had helped him any. Rays late brother James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to Kings murder in 1969 but quickly recanted his confession. In the wake of the mob violence, the River Quay was all but abandoned, with only six liquor licenses remaining in the district, down from 28 a few years earlier. The truck driver attributed his lung cancer to his occupational exposure to radiation in the late 1950s and early 1960s. On Aug. 26, 1961, Maloneys girlfriend, Edith Rhodes, was murdered near Huzzah Creek in rural Crawford County, Mo. Maloney had garnered the editors attention in 1961 through a poem he had submitted to the Star, which then printed verse on its editorial page each day. This meant that senior editorial staffers such as Menn, who had accumulated large stock holdings in the company, could negotiate with management on a more even level. It was the beginning of a long-term relationship carried out by correspondence. We drove across the river to the Paddock Lounge in [East St. Louis] Illinois and I introduced him to Jimmie OBrien, Ray says. The Riverfront Times publishes ads for the Eastside strip clubs and massage parlors every week. The convicted assassin spent the rest of his life in the Tennessee prison system. Maloney frequented the mob hangouts at night to develop leads. Only in an institution can love hit that hard and that fast, Maloney wrote. In the late 1990s, shortly before his death, he established a Web site, crimemagazine.com, which is maintained by his friend J. Patrick OConnor, former owner of the New Times, a now-defunct alternative weekly in Kansas City. Will you make a promise (and keep it) not to try and run awayto obey the rules of the prison and try to do whatever work is assigned to you? I was impressed. By that time, Slay was in his second term as St. Louis mayor. The only thing his real father ever gave him was his name. Much of the authors personal knowledge of his brothers exploits is limited to involvement in James Earl Rays escape from the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City in April 1967, a year before Kings murder. In 1948, he equipped it with the novel luxury of air-conditioning. I told him, if youre looking for guns, I can get any gun you want from Ft. Campbell, Ky. The conviction was only the second for the often-arrested Wortman, who had muscled to the top in the late 1940s with help from the Capone syndicate in Chicago. Their stories ran as a four-part series in April 1973. She sent money, clothing, food, stamps and other items. 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.. voice be heard! After the breakout, John Larry Ray says, he picked James Earl Ray up and drove him back to St. Louis. He had publicly refuted the Stars story simply to keep from being killed. Subscribe with this special offer to keep reading, (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). Through her encouragement, elderly attorney Mable Hinkley began to correspond with Maloney. He encouraged me to keep working on the poem, and asked me to stay in touch with him. (Post-Dispatch), Pall bearers carry the casket of Frank "Buster" Wortman into St. Stephen's Catholic Church in Caseyville for his funeral Mass on Aug. 8, 1968. He reported for the Orange County Register in 1980 and 1981. Before the details of that caper could be hashed out, however, the Ray brothers got jittery and split for Chicago. The judge put him on probation. By then, the prison-bound poet and writer had been published in numerous other venues, including Focus/Midwest, a St. Louisbased magazine founded by Charles Klotzer, publisher of the Saint Louis Journalism Review. 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. It didnt take very long for that to happen. Though he avoided further trouble with the law, Gruender acted as a courier for Wortman. The literary editor was with Maloneys mother on Sept. 25, 1972, when Maloney walked out of prison for the last time. In her first letter, Hinkley advised Maloney to seek divine guidance, but she also offered him a more down-to-earth deal. A prison psychiatrist who evaluated Maloney shortly after his arrival characterized him as a socially diffident individual who seems to take a half-humorous rejection of the whole affair. If Maloneys initial demeanor seemed inappropriately aloof given the circumstances, it didnt take long for his mood to turn into a malevolent rage. In 1952 the family moved to a farm in New Florence, Mo., a small town 65 miles west of St. Louis. Investigators also snooped around the secretive construction of a house, and lake surrounding it, southeast of Collinsville. But when his brother arrived, he showed no interest in purchasing guns. You cant stop one place and jump to another place.. . Goldsmiths boss at that time was then-U.S. Attorney Charles Grace, who initiated wide-ranging probes of organized criminal enterprises during his tenure. O'Brien arranged for the Ray brothers to spend the night at a nearby apartment above an illegal gambling den also operated by Wortman. More Info. Prosecutors said Wortman evaded $50,793 in taxes due from glitzy gambling halls and smoky bookie joints. In 1948, he equipped it with the novel luxury of air-conditioning. 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. At the same time, dissension was brewing in the newsroom. Given where hed come from, its easy to figure out why.. The couple then took a cab to the Soulard neighborhood in South St. Louis. Maloney, I realize you have a job to dobut do you have to be so intense?. By the mid-1920's he became associated with the old Shelton gang and was soon running errands for them. His stepfather, Julius Dutch Gruender, an ex-con, became Maloneys less-than-sterling guardian. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Clark indicated that the owners of Free Spirit advertised in Missouri publications from 1994 until 2000, the Post reported. After his return to Missouri, his parole officer committed Maloney to State Hospital No. That arrangement was still in place in 1972. Police never filed charges in the murders. Sonnenschein, who headed the A to Z Development Corp., admitted to the court that businesses located on his property were engaged in prostitution. Seated at right, facing Mrs. Dowling, are county sheriff's deputies Edward Kowalski (left) and Vincent Neuner. 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. He also worked diligently to establish a national writers association for prisoners. The time period investigated by federal prosecutors, 1994-2000, spanned the ownership change at the RFT. 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. View the menu for Paddock Lounge and restaurants in Fitchburg, MA. His second novel, The Chain, is based on his years behind bars, including his incarceration at the Missouri Penitentiary and the old St. Louis City Jail. Maloney had reached his nadir. He didnt bring him to St. Louis. Less than two months later, Maloney pleaded guilty to murder and armed robbery, and Circuit Judge James F. Nangle sentenced him to four concurrent life sentences. Moreover, correspondence regarding his book of poetry had to be routed through his mother. Less than two years later, on April 10, 1985, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported on the federal trial of Bartolotta in East St. Louis. Or you may simply say the wrong thing to the wrong person. While in prison, Gruender met and befriended Elmer Dutch Dowling and Isidore Londe, lieutenants of East St. Louis mob boss Frank Buster Wortman. Kane, the St. Clair County coroner (fourth from left). Wortman was acquitted in retrial in 1966. 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