Chauncey, the handsomest of the brothers, had a favorite spot at Gaetanos at a table in the far back (Table 404 to the servers who work there today), where youd see him eating his now-famous Chauncey Burger a half-pound of ground chuck, melted mozzarella and roasted Italian peppers, served with a side of the house red sauce. An icon of a desk calendar. This was kind of a petty move, but if you were looking to get under their skin, thats a good way to do it. Eugene (Checkers) Smaldone discusses his $12,000 bond, which was set for Checkers after he was arraigned on a habitual criminal charge and conspiracy charges in district court in 1953. WebUniform Crime Reporting (UCR) and Colorado Crime Statistics. Photo Credit: Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family. 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. WebCrime news from 9 News KUSA in Denver, Colorado. A young Mamie Smaldone, mother of the Smaldone brothers. 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. While costs are disproportionately felt by victims, this implies an average cost per Coloradan of $4,762 per year. 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. 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. Murder is up 47 percent in those Firestone Source: Wikipedia User Jeffrey Beall | CC BY 3.0 Overall SnackAbility 9 /10 Officers find men shot, 1 in driveway, 1 on porch after verbal As the story goes, Checkers faced down a prisoner who during the breakout had pointed a gun directly in his face uttering the words, Take that thing outta my face, and then locking himself in a room and (of course) played checkers with the two kids in turn until the danger was over. If this is indeed true, it would certainly fit with the mob tradition of ordering a friend to kill a friend. The remains of the vehicle of Leo Barnes, allegedly targeted for assassination by Clyde Smaldone, Checkers Smaldone, and Smiling Charlie Stephens. On January 29, 1974, just six months after LaGaurdia was hit, Pizzalato was found murdered as well. We covered several major events including: Today were going to dig into the era of the Smaldone brothers. At this trial, Clyde and Eugene plead guilty to lesser tampering charges and on August 20, 1955 were re-sentenced to just 12 years in prison and a $10,000 fine (so still a lot of time but not as bad as the 60-year sentence theyd been stuck with). 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. He sentenced both Clyde and Checkers Smaldone to an astonishing 60 years in prison in 1953. As previously mentioned, Coletti took over as Boss of the Pueblo family in 1953 after previous boss Charlie Blanda was sent to prison and later retired from organized crime. Retired Police Capt. The Smaldones were in partnership with Stephens, overseeing the gambling on the casino side. 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. The brothers would even begin to venture as far as Canada in order to secure top-shelf bonded whiskey. Remember, I mentioned that there was certainly a rift, and that rift proved to be the lucky thing that helped the brothers get a second trial. Anyhow, coming up next, were going to be digging into maybe a biography, and then as promised previously I am going back into a family history to cover the little-known Cerrito family out of California. The brothers would receive a new trial. Informants would claim they never put in any money, but would instead muscle in and make themselves partners in the businesses. 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. Student's Nike Air Jordan shoes stolen in burglary leads to slam Clyde and Checkers would both be released in the following year, 1934. Colorado An email obtained by DailyMail.com from Hunter Biden's laptop shows a Masimo staffer offering her the role of 'Marketing Specialist' with an $85,000 salary plus 10% bonus and 450 stock options for the NASDAQ-listed company on July 24, 2018. This was a real case of nepotism. Spinuzzi was on top of him as he was falling. The date was February 18, 1933 and the preeminent gang boss in the entire state of Colorado, Giuseppe Joe Roma, had just been assassinated. 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. Eventually, hed move on from Roxy and brought his brother Eugene in as a partner once Checkers came of proper age. Now, with many gangster stories, youll find that they typically come from broken homes, poverty, and often lack a father figure. The area represents the number 3 safest spot in Colorado. WebGaetanos was the crime familys headquarters, and the people hanging around the wood-paneled restaurant were a whos who of the Colorado underworld. Get ready, because theyd spend a lot of time in and out of court from the 1960s on. 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 Colorado, they were target #1 to take down. 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. Whats clear to me is that the Smaldones had formed close working partnerships with their counterparts in the Pueblo LCN, but it seems they were just never brought in nor did they adopt the formal rules of Cosa Nostra. A gun like this can only be used to kill someone.. 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. An elderly Clyde and Mildred Smaldone pose with their sons Gene (top left) and Chuck (top right). Upon leaving prison, Clyde, ever the shrewdest brother of the bunch, saw which way the wind was blowing and made his move to retire from active family participation. Papers at the time would laud the victory, but would also notateand this is importanta rift between the judge in the case and law enforcement (specifically federal law enforcement), with the Greeley Daily Tribune relating the following: Two Smaldones Each Given 60-Year Terms The Kianis hosted a fundraiser for Biden at their Irvine, California home in January 2020, bundled more than $1 million for Biden and gave another $1 million to his inaugural committee. 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. In the end, in this case the government wasnt able to pin anything major on them, but theyd ultimately plead out to the simple charge of gambling, with each man paying a $150 fine and $8.81 in court costs. 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. Judge Denounces U.S. Attorney General and FBI for Laxity in Investigation of Jury Tampering. Theres no doubt that the stories about their generosity are true. Of course, they would from time to time run up against issues with the police, but Clyde made a habit of paying off the right peopleor decorating the mahogany as he would put itto ensure that his business could continue to operate. WebPages in category "Gangs in Colorado" The following 13 pages are in this category, out of 13 total. 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. Miraculously, Pernee, who was blown out the passenger side door she was about to shut, received only cuts and bruises. 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. He used to tell Chauncey and Paulie. 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. Hes not a guy you wanted to piss off. Youd think thatd be the most notorious incident of Spinnizis mob career, but it certainly wasnt. 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. 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. In later years, Clyde and Checkers were less involved in the familys rackets, and youngest brother Clarence, known as Chauncey, took over. The dominant players were the Carlino brothers, but they had many rivals and went to war with their own kin in the Danna family for almost the entire decade. 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. This was an argument and a dispute between Joseph Nucci and Checkers that pretty much went from shouting to shooting really, really quickly. Earlier bosses Blanda and Coletti reputedly found it difficult to keep Scotty under control and felt he brought unwanted publicity to the Colorado organization. He sentenced both Clyde and Checkers Smaldone to an astonishing 60 years in prison, which at their age at the time was essentially a life sentence! Sam Carlino (second from left) stands next to a man believed to be Ralph Smaldone around 1931. It would start off, in my opinion from a legal perspective, pretty innocuously and would go in a direction that they did not expect. But everything they were doing pretty much put things in a position where there was no way they would come off well in this trial. His runners would be none other than his sons, Clyde and Checkers. Clyde by that point was entering his teens and Eugene Checkers Smaldone was not far behind during the early days of Prohibition. Now you would think that the brothers story would end there, but it seems they had a bit of luck on their sides. 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. Only through the efforts of the Treasury Department and the use of their agents was the investigation carried on to a successful conclusion. Hopefully that will be of interest to viewers since other families arent talked about nearly as often. Standing are Eugene Smaldone (far left) and Clyde Smaldone (center. 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. He said these decisions and moves are likely related to payments made to LLCs from legitimate businesses as a way to launder money to Biden's family members. A On August 7, 1963, the body of Robin Walkie Talkie Roberts, was found murdered and lying in a ditch in a fairly well-to-do subdivision in Denver. Clyde would be the first-born son in 1906 followed by five more sons: Eugene (born 1910), Anthony (born 1914), Andrew (born 1917), Ralph (born 1921), and Clarence (born 1924). The total cost of crime in Colorado exceeded $27 billion in 2020. He is buried in Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Jefferson County, Colorado. Mom Accused of Hosting Teen Sex Parties 'Tore my Life Apart 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. So ultimately, Eugenes simple issue with back-taxes of $5,000, would turn itself into first the ridiculous sentence of 60 years, but finally the 12 years and a $10,000 sentence. A mafia history podcast that digs deep into the true-crime biographies of real-life mobsters with focus on the plots, sub-plots, and real facts behind Cosa Nostra, as well as movies and televison. 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. A small-time gambler of modest means, Roberts had registered several arrests for gambling as well as extortion. Their first move would be to partner with a man named Ova Elijah Smiling Charlie Stephens, who was known as a gambling kingpin in the Denver area from the 1930s into the 1950s. Some of the people associated with them died violently.. Everyone knows about Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde and the family from The Well only charge you $2 a case [for gasoline and other expenses].. Angela Blackmoore murder: Pair deny instrumental roles in her Okay, thats it for this episode! Ralph A. Smaldone, Pauline Smaldone, and Clarence "Chauncey" Smaldone some time in the 1940's. But Walkie Talkie had another problem (and even bigger problem). Left to right are Americus Quintana, Joe Salardino, Chauncey Smaldone, attorney Ed Barlock and Michael Tomeo. Each of the men were sentenced to 180 days in jail. Clyde Smaldone was the oldest brother and veritable leader of the Smaldone organization. In fact, the beginning of their era would start with a relative thud as for the first time in their lives they would spend significant time behind bars. As a young child Chaucey roamed the neighborhoods in North Denver with another young Italian youth named Paulie Villano, who was in fact his cousin despite only a four year age difference. Statistics. 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. In April of 1970, Checkers Smaldone and Joe The Ram Salardino would be arrested and indicted by a grand jury and charged with assault to murder, assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy. Now, there were certainly other members, but I wont bore you by going through every single one. View gallery. As a result of this information making its way out, the authorities were able to conduct successful raids on the club leading the the arrest of Clarence Smaldone, Villano, and Salardino. 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. While he was in power, in line with the truest principles of Omert, his memory would conveniently fail him when asked about his friends. 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). 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. In 1974, hed get a 1-year sentence for gambling, and that same year the federal government would contend that he, along with Joe Bonnano, were conspiring to take over all of organized crime in Colorado. Fiore "Fats" Smaldone and Louis A. Smaldone, family members who were tried with the Smaldone brothers in their 1953 jury tampering trial. Man on trial for alleged sexual violation of Christchurch bar Mama 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.