He learned that a close relative who knew Berne's brother had been trying to learn his whereabouts, apparently to collect the bounty. But there is little doubt that Jesse Lee McBride and Jesse Eugene Stoneking were one and the same person. Platinum Inc., in turn, owns and operates Boxersn Briefs, a gay dance club in Centreville, Ill., according to the city liquor license. "Tony told Nick that he liked this guy, he could use him and he was very aggressive, and he gave him his word that the guy won't do anything. He wasn't a big man about 5 feet, 10 inches tall but his 200 pounds were muscled. Not only did he want to become familiar with Spica's habits and thoughts, he needed to gain his trust. Paulie Leisure wanted to control St. Louis' underworld and he was prepared to kill anyone who stood in his way. He was Wortman's right-hand man when they were convicted together in. The FBI had supplied the jewelry, which had been stolen in another case. But the trooper continued on, not even glancing at the car. "He didn't know where it was coming from. The agents were well aware of Stoneking's reputation on the streets and his ability to talk his way in and out of situations. Spica was wedged between two inexorable forces of death. She had become a Christian and had rejected his past and his lifestyle. When Trupiano found an identification card an FBI agent accidentally had dropped in Stoneking's car, he convinced him that his car had been bugged and showed him a small tape recorder to prove it. Stoneking was sentenced to three years in prison. Organized crime in St. Louis was in shambles and it could be rebuilt only on his grave. Giordano glared at him through the thick lenses of his glasses that distorted his eyes. Their incentive was the $100,000 reward, payable only upon Stoneking's death. National City, Ill., just across the Mississippi River from downtown St. Louis, was the site of vast rail yards. In the fraternal brotherhood of the Mafia, one respected friendships and loyalties. On one side was the Kansas City Mafia, which demanded his execution for violating sacred mob protocol. But the two journalists failed to fully report the criminal background of Sorkis Webbe Jr., a crime figure who played a key role in the affair. He opened a produce stand in south St. Louis where he worked every day during the summer. Instead, he spent the whole day taking me around and introducing me to his friends, kind of showing me off." Both legs were amputated and he was confined to a wheelchair. No longer did he have the mentality for it. He was concerned, and justly so, that the Italians were making a concerted move to take over all three Laborers' locals. Dinner led to drinks and rape. John G. Rallo, also known as Johnny Roller for his long hours spent at the crap tables in Las Vegas, and fellow accomplice Sheila Sweeney were charged one week after Stenger pleaded guilty. Sonny Spica. pizzeria. Art said he would think about it, but he had no intention of doing it. In the meantime, he would make his bones by being an aggressive moneymaker. ", "I would have killed him if I had to." Trupiano was also indicted with Berne for conspiring to extort money from the owners of several East Side topless nightclubs and massage parlors. A few years later, Berne rewarded Stoneking's loyalty and criminal acumen by making him his lieutenant. Petty is a driving force behind the East St. Louis Historical Society, an organization that seeks to document and share the cultural significance of the city. Paul Leisure had learned that. He introduced a wealthy, but gullible, used car dealer to an attractive woman. "Paul felt that they would be able to pretty well do whatever they wanted.". I feel the same way'.". Stoneking pulled off a scam shortly before Christmas, 1983. In 2014, Webbe introduced then-County Executive Stenger to John Rallo, who started his business career in his familys construction company, which allegedly had ties to Chicago organized crime, according to FBI records. City of East St. Louis 301 River Park Drive East St. Louis, IL 62201 Phone: 618-482-6600 On the night of November 29, 1988, near the impoverished Marlborough neighborhood in south Kansas City, an explosion at a construction site killed six of the citys firefighters. He was a stone killer, a man to be feared. Ray ain't got me with my arm around him. The real truth about Stoneking is still an open question, one that probably will never be answered. The Best Things to Do in St. Louis This Weekend, February 16 to 19. The FBI knew about an alleged connection between the Chicago Mafia and Rallo Construction Co. of St. Louis as early as 1991, according to a classified FBI report released under the Freedom of Information Act. 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. The intensity of the search for Stoneking was clearly demonstrated to me early in 1988, more than three years after the $100,000 price tag had been placed on him. His intuition, which had served him so well for years, said no. Wanted to crack 'em. Windows rattled and dishes shook in buildings two blocks away. His stentorian voice demanded attention and obedience. By late October, 1979, it was inevitable that his life would end violently. The score netted $40 in change. Leisure lost his legs in a retaliatory car bombing carried out by the Michaels gang in August 1981. You're responsible for him. One brother, Michael, a Teamsters' Union official, was killed; another, Joseph, was wounded; and Carl was partially paralyzed. I then requested another officer from dispatch. Stoneking said he was present in late in October 1979 when Civella called Giordano. The meeting with him was canceled immediately because it was feared both of us might be walking into a trap. He had second thoughts. Today, Ash is a resident artist at the House of Miles East St. Louis, a nonprofit housed inside Miles Davis' childhood home in the city. The Italians reigned over Teamsters Local 682, representing construction drivers. Jesse Stoneking, lieutenant of East Side rackets boss Art Berne witnessed the reaction. John Paul "Sonny" Spica was walking on the edge. - Nick Civella. That afternoon Flynn and Anthony Leisure practiced wiring a bomb to the brake lights and the taillights before Prater returned it. Local 53 was under the Mafia's jurisdiction and was ruled by Joe Tocco, a cousin of Giordano's. Several years ago, they separated and then divorced. It would leave a lasting impression on him. apparent reason. In 1982, he met with Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa, head of the Chicago Syndicate, and was ordained boss of the St. Louis Mafia. Only the agents and Stram, whom he trusted implicitly, knew where he was. He headed a renegade splinter group of cutthroat gangsters, including his brother, Anthony, assistant business manager of Local 110, and a cousin, David, who was not known for his intelligence. Myszak's wife, who said she had paid Spica $5,000, admitted plotting the killing, but said she had tried unsuccessfully to cancel the contract. He needed to be to service his insatiable craving for opulence. Stoneking turned onto a side street. The intended victim was preparing to move out of the area. y peers responded to music and art being taken out of many Black . All seemed tranquil and everybody was making money until September 1979 when T. J. He insisted that Flynn had to be hit. It would be a big boost for his criminal career and his self-esteem, but it also would be the catalyst for his second dilemma. He would be persona non grata and they surely would end his undercover work, maybe even have him prosecuted. Kickbacks were common on property purchased by the unions at inflated prices. Leisure offered Flynn his assistance in thwarting Spica. Until January, Sweeney headed the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, a county agency that was used to dole out the contracts to Rallo and other political contributors to Stengers campaign coffers. Ash, who lives in East St. Louis, Illinois, frequently walks through parts of t. His accomplice was arrested and came in on Stoneking. Stoneking, once known in the St. Louis area as the "Stone Killer" and the "Bully of the Mob," took his own life, using his favorite weapon of choice: a pistol. The SUV driver gave the same story, according to the report, prompting Sprong to double back and remove the road hazards. Other convicts quickly put him in Iine. But on Nov. 7 Spica regained his composure. It was no big deal. More recently, massage parlor kingpin Dennis W. Sonnenschein, one of their extortion targets and Bartolottas former partner, pleaded guilty in East St. Louis to an obstruction of justice charge for withholding knowledge of the Eastside prostitution rackets from a federal grand jury. That disloyalty quickly turned Stoneking into an FBI informant. The boss made him a part owner of a cigarette and amusement machine company he owned across the Mississippi River in Fairmont City, Ill. Paulie Leisure. We moved our daughter and granddaughter to a friend's house. One of his shoes was a distance away. So what? He searched the trailer and found $3,000 hidden in a coffee canister and stuffed the bills into his pocked. His body was mutilated beyond recognition and could be identified only through his driver's license. He was Syrian, but he also had little use for Jimmy Michaels, the long-time boss of the Syrian faction of the mob in St. Louis, to whom he once had been close. Hickey signaled to turn right onto an exit ramp. He would pay Stoneking $3,000. Not only could their cases be in jeopardy, but carelessness and arrogance could be fatal. That's when Flynn really got hot, brother. Last year, in a letter to an historical researcher, Beck wrote that Stoneking was a pathological liar, who framed several guys to drum up some business for the FBI. Beck referred to Stoneking as a real slimeball, and claimed that he had witnessed him beat his wife. But Giordano steadfastly refused. "Come on, honey, it's okay. I then heard a single gunshot from inside of the vehicle, Sprong wrote. Before Jimmy Fratianno made ratting out mob bosses fashionable, Jesse Stoneking's testimony against St. Louis mob figures was the most damaging ever heard in a courtroom. A long-buried FBI report raises questions as to why the FBI and U.S. Justice Department ignored damning allegations by a now-very dead informant. He would take the Fifth Amendment, as he knew Berne would. Berne as well as Giordano were answerable to Aiuppa and made no important decisions without his approval. More than that, they offered opportunities for graft. He grabbed his .45 automatic from under the seat. "So what?" Jesse Stoneking, the unnamed informant cited by the FBI in the report, died of a gunshot wound to the head in Arizona in 2003. More than once, the recorder he wore almost gave him away, but his mental agility saved him. It was too close to home. Arizona law enforcement authorities ruled his death a suicide. It wasn't because some hoodlum from his past caught up with him and tried to collect the $100,000 bounty on his head. Giordano was going to install Stoneking as a business agent in Local 53, a relatively poor local, and Spica as a business agent in Local 42 with a larger treasury. Jobs on construction projects became leverage with which to get members indebted to the mob and an inducement to vote favorably in elections of officers. Discrepancies abound. At the time of his suicide, he had already outlived the two most prominent mobsters whom he had betrayed. ", "It was like a parade in front of my house, people driving by and gawking. Stoneking still uses his cover name and will for the rest of his life. "Oh, shit!" ", "Come on, honey, it's okay. His car had out-of-state license plates and were registered in his cover name. He took her in his arms and held her to him. Others no longer pose a threat. Today, Ash is a resident artist at the House of Miles East St. Louis, a nonprofit housed inside Miles Davis' childhood home in the city. No longer was he important. Those considered the most dangerous were taken into custody first. What Trupiano lacked in criminal acumen, he made up with bravado. "He thought the guy was his friend, but he wasn't his friend any more. The mark was a jewelry wholesaler in rural southwestern Missouri. It was evidence of Giordano's trust in him and of Spica's increasing stature. By underworld standards, his arrest record was unimpressive and did not reflect his propensity for violence. It was a pleasant rush. A long-buried FBI report raises questions as to why the FBI and U.S. Justice Department ignored damning allegations by a now-very dead informant. Spica didn't believe in a conspiracy of silence. It was common knowledge that our daughter and infant granddaughter lived with us and were in the house during the day. Stoneking emptied his gun into the shooter, mortally wounding him. The St. Louis mobster and federal informant died from a gunshot wound to the head. They had a big argument. But he had no insurance and couldn't afford hospitalization and tests. He announced he was going on vacation to Florida for two weeks. You can believe it.". He had squandered the fortune he had made and the meager dole the FBI had given him barely sustained him. He developed a relationship with the intended victim. He don't show no respect to nobody, especially us. Stoneking didn't have much time to consider his dilemma. Flynn was indicted for violation of the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Statute. He had his wife start his car each morning. Berne pondered what to do about the rebellion in his ranks. His entre into the underworld came in 1970 when he was introduced to Berne and Don Ellington, a 300-pound associate of his who became Stoneking's partner. Instead, he stole $10,000 worth of jewelry. Several times he had appealed to Aiuppa in Chicago for recognition of his gang as a legitimate underworld faction. The FBI said it had developed information indicating that Spica had brokered the contract to kill Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Spica admitted knowing Ray, but denied any implication in King's assassination. This acquisition does more than simply expand the Center's collectionit allows scholars, designers, and craftsmen to study traditional pressed-metal (repouss . He died on Oct. 22, 1997, aftersuffering a heart attack. He forgets who we are and that ain't right. Among those who disagree is retiredSt. Louis Post-Dispatchreporter Ronald Lawrence, who maintains he, too, knew Stoneking well. "The day I'm a square-john is the day I'll die. In 1991, Stonekings name surfaced again, during an investigation of then-St.Louis Teamster boss Bobby Sansone. Some intelligence sources believed Giordano looked upon Spica as a surrogate son. He went to the girl, but she shrank from him. Webbe, was not charged. The other thug fired two shots into Stoneking's lower right chest. Stoneking and Berne were to be subpoenaed. The Buick crept closer. Circuit Court for the Southern District of Illinois. ", "He was just set up that way. The passenger door was blown 30 yards and pieces of debris were hurled 75 to 100 yards. In the July 10 and July 11, 1985 editions of the Post-Dispatch, staff reporters Ronald J. Lawrence and William C. Lhotka revealed the details of the Webbes conflict with Trupiano and his allies in Detroit. Stoneking remembered the conversation. That one there is me. ", "Yeah, that's the way you become a man. Organized crime in St. Louis would take on a new, dangerous character. In 1917, after a labor dispute, a mob of white men rampaged through the city, driving Black families from their homes and businesses . Spica stood in their way and he had made unpardonable threats. Paranoia ran deep in the underworld after Spica's murder. Stoneking expanded his criminal empire to include a profitable stolen car and chop-shop operation. Stoneking turned in its direction. He remains confined. A business agent for the union, Callanan was injured when a bomb tore through his car in 1973. St.Louis political leaders, including then-Mayor Vincent C. Shoemehl Jr. the late St. Louis County Executive GeorgeBuzz Westfall and former U.S. Sen.Thomas Eagleton weighed in on Sansones behalf, but he was,nevertheless, removed from office. He continued to deny he was a member of the Mafia despite documentation to the contrary. Stoneking later recorded a conversation in which Berne expounded on their approach to unionism. Death had stalked him many times before, but he hadn't thought much about it. The underworld waited and watched to see who would kill him first. Within days, the federal grand jury that had been hearing testimony began returning indictments. But he couldn't without Berne's approval. Von Phul's legacy as the first-known woman artist in Missouri is uniquely captured . Sprong says he then shined a flashlight through the back window and saw blood coming from the right side of the drivers head. There was no suicide note nor an easy explanatio. He had befriended James Earl Ray. His prison buddy, Carl Spero, and his brothers were locked in deadly combat with the Kansas City Mafia family of Nick Civella. The City of East St. Louis, Illinois is located immediately east and across the Mississippi River from downtown St. Louis. He brought Ellington to Berne for a meeting. On the other was the most dangerous, devious labor racketeer in St. Louis and a gang of cutthroat hoodlums who settled their disputes with bullets, bombs and mayhem. He saw it immediately, but he was not alarmed. The meeting apparently did not go well and negotiations were broken off prematurely, with the St. Louisans quickly returning home. Once, he managed to stash the recorder minutes before a suspicious gangster searched his car. Prater was at work that morning when Leisure received a telephone call from Giordano reporting Spica's murder. Documents released by the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act in October 2020 show Webbe Jr. and his late father were embroiled in a power struggle with St. Louis Mafia leader Matthew Trupiano and the Detroit Mafia in 1982. On Oct. 4, Flynn was appointed to the position with the acquiescence of Giordano. And then the hit almost came down as he left her house. Stanley Kowalski, a fringe underworld figure who was suspected of being a bombmaker, gave Stoneking a contract. When Stoneking was packed off to prison in 1981, Berne failed to take care of Stoneking's family as promised. Case Closed: Crime scene photo of the interior of the 1995 Ford Crown Victoria occupied by Jesse Stoneking on Jan. 19, 2003. So what? Saying nothing, Stoneking pulled the man up by his shirt. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporters who nailed County Exec Steve Stenger turned a blind eye to the historic influence of organized crime that presaged their reportage. The two stories reported that in the early 1980s, Webbe Jr. acted as an envoy for his father in negotiations with Trupiano, the St. Louis mafia leader, who was related to members of the Detroit Mafia through his uncle, the late Anthony Tony G Giordano, the prior boss of the St. Louis Mafia. The jazz legend is a source of inspiration for Ash,. "You gone crazy?" It was a little after 1 a.m. in 1988 when the swarthy, ruggedly handsome man stepped out onto the porch of his mother's house in north St. Louis County. Giordano shook down contractors in return for permitting them to use non-union workers at a tremendous saving. "Spica comes in. Sprong also reported that a third law enforcement officer from the Arizona Department of Public Safety also arrived at the scene about that time.The state officer, according to Sprong, watched Laurella as he and Peck approached the Ford from opposite sides. Carl Spero was killed when a bomb he was carrying accidentally detonated. "I could do that standing on my head," he said. Through his connections, Giordano also had Trupiano made an international representative of the Laborers' Union. The $100,000 contract the St. Louis Outfit had placed on his life was to be expected. The Detroit Mafia also declined to declare war on the Leisures, thereby averting further violence. He never knew that the jewelry was stolen or that Stoneking sold it again after the woman had returned it to him. That night, she playfully lifted his shirt to examine a recent abdominal surgical scar. They detected no surveillance of me. "Berne grumbled at her. In a poorly disguised attempt to gain more power for the Italians, Giordano planned to realign the mob's presence in the Laborers' locals. Spica may have unwittingly contributed to his friend's death on June 20, 1980. For the first few hours after he heard about the bombing, Giordano believed Civella had done it. In the first, in 1954, he was sentenced to 10 years. Jesse Stoneking, the unnamed informant cited by the FBI in the report, died of a gunshot wound to the head in Arizona in 2003. Leisure and his wife spent considerable time socially with Spica and his girlfriend. What could I say?" "), "He was just set up that way. The car's speedometer hovered at 50 mph. The night of Nov. 6, Anthony Leisure and Flynn went to Spica's apartment building in a suburban community, but there was too much activity in the neighborhood to install the bomb. year, Sonnenschein, the brothel operator, not cooperating with a federal grand jury. He said Tony was a sick man and wouldn't last long anyhow." He needed to know as much as he could about the victim and he was meticulous in planning details, the mark of a professional. The reports outline the hierarchy of St.Louis organized crime and spell out its control of certain labor unions, including Pipefitters Local 562 of which Berne was a member. As he ordered Laurella to continue walking towards him, Surprise police officer R. Peck arrived on the scene. He told Berne there was no way he could get close enough to kill him. The FBI knew that the Rallo Construction Co. had alleged ties to the Chicago Mafia for decades. His huge fists were lethal weapons. ", Berne continued to defend Flynn, explaining, "He's just a hot-headed Irishman, that's all." A thousand years ago, huge pyramids and earthen mounds stood where East St. Louis sprawls today in Southern Illinois. Ellington lived eight more days. Stoneking described what happened. But it was hard time. He says, 'You know, that Flynn, he ain't no mover. You rape and beat up a girl like that and you ain't got any friends. In May 1991, Stoneking informed the FBI that Berne had told him that the Rallo Construction Company belonged to the Chicago La Costa Nostra. Tony said they were gonna do as he says and that was it. Five years after skipping town, Stoneking was still making waves. Conversations secretly recorded by him clearly implicating Trupiano and Berne were key evidence. This article was condensed from more than 5,000 pages of FBI transcripts of recordings made by Stoneking and from 25 hours of taped interviews the author conducted with Stoneking in 1988. The unrest in the St. Louis underworld had been spurred by the earlier, natural death of Giorando, who had forged a pact with both Michaels and East Side rackets boss Art Berne, who represented the interests of the Chicago outfit. He never saw her again. There now was no doubt Stoneking had been a traitor of the worst kind. St. Louis boasts an arts scene that's second to none. As the trusted lieutenant of Art Berne, boss of the mob on St. Louis' East Side, and thus the Chicago Outfit's second most powerful man in Southern Illinois, Stoneking the traitor deserved execution. loyalty by doing his bidding. He sold many of his and his family's possessions just to pay bills and buy food. "They didn't hurt anybody," he explained. They had a long argument. But Spica led a double life and the low profile he maintained concealed a different man. "Anyhow, the word on the street was that Ellington wanted to do an insurance job on his car. FBI reports on interviews conducted in June 1991, obtained through Freedom of Information Act, provide details on the St. Louis mob, including Berne and Trupianos activities. Webbes father had been convicted of income tax evasion in Nevada in 1983 related to his interests in the Aladdin Casino in Las Vegas, which was then controlled by the Detroit Mafia. His partner was an FBI snitch. Spica was happy to oblige and he transported a case of the explosives to Kansas City. Loretta Berne. Spica was no stranger to murder. He turned to the agents, "See that one over there. Until Stoneking became an informant and Prater put the bomb in Flynn's hands, they would continue to believe the Kansas City Outfit had ordered the hit. Accounts vary. Nor did he fit the decisive, tough guy image of a crime lord. They were hoods from his past. He was alive when the first neighbors arrived. At the end of October, Spica made a trip to Kansas City. Stoneking was livid. The sin he had just committed was far worse. He kind of shrugged his shoulders. The ensuing two years were harrowing, yet challenging, for Stoneking.He worked for the FBI with the same passion and ingenuity with which he had pursued his criminal enterprises. A particularly horrific moment in East St. Louis' history is little known on the national stage. I'm not going to hurt you." One got out and peered through the kitchen window. The cocked thumb resembling a pistol. The money was siphoned from the $5 million in annual rent payments made to the St. Louis County Port Authority by the River City Casino, which is owned by Penn National, a Pennsylvania-based gaming corporation. The next night they were successful. Leave town or be killed. Paul J. What neither Spica nor Spero knew was that Civella had an informant inside Spero's gang. "Painting of an Indian Woman" by Anna Maria Von Phul, Missouri History Museum Head downstairs to Painting Creole St. Louis: Artist Anna Maria von Phul at the Missouri History Museum to view this small portrait among the the many scenes von Phul captured of daily life and the people of early St. Louis. Kowalski had not told him that the man had a daughter and he had not asked. The man was dead before he hit the floor. She was acquitted, but Spica was convicted a year later and sentenced to life imprisonment. He had one son, Bill, who had shunned the mob. ", "Yeah, that's the way you become a man. Prater recalled, "Paulie says to Tony Giordano, 'Oh, my God, I wonder who could have done that.' Stoneking had few emotions, except perhaps exhilaration, about what he was going to do. It was a challenge that could not go unanswered and Carl Spero escalated the internecine warfare. He always had taken care of his people. Jesse Stoneking. Spica was killed the day after Giordano had assured him of his safety. He raged. The Spica bombing offered an opportunity for Stoneking and the FBI. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. He handed him an envelope, instructing him not to open it until that night. Berne panicked when word was leaked that he might be granted immunity if he refused to testify. According to an intelligence source, Giordano told an associate, "He's not around anymore. We're both dead ducks." 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