Sentencing in suitcase murders | Podcast, King County Councilmember proposes regional ban on public drug use, King County Crisis Care Levy passing in first election results, Washingtons COVID-19 exposure notification app to end May 11, Firearms scheme leads to federal charges | King County Crime Dive. Jane isnt her real name. Earlier this summer, I put up a Facebook post about Wills and Strippergate-a City Hall scandal involving illegal lobbying and political money laundering by Frank Colacurcio, a vicious gangster. He had to have the honor. A year later, a grand jury indicted Colacurcio; his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr.; and four associates involved in operating four Western Washington strip clubs. Although Colacurcio never testified, Committee Counsel Robert F. Kennedy did question him about his alleged racketeering activities in Seattle. Franks star began its notorious rise in the late 1950s, amid a series of hearings and newspaper reports pointing to him as the man behind illegal gambling, prostitution, and payoffs at clubs in downtown Seattle and around the state. The investigation focused on Frank Sr, Frank Jr., and former Washington Governor Albert Rosellini for bribing members of the Seattle City Council. Nightlife figure and nightspot owner were the euphemisms of the day in a town historically disregarded by big-time organized crime (except as a quiet spot for East Coast witness-protection mobsters to hide out). He got three years. Francis Colacurcio Sr. (June 18, 1917 July 2, 2010)[1] was an American mobster and boss of the Seattle crime family known for running strip clubs in Seattle, Washington. We never did tell the guy he was smooching another guy.). After release from prison in 1985 for tax evasion, he continued to receive consulting fees from Huns Inc., one of the corporations that runs adult-entertainment clubs. However, as Barnett and Feit wrote, Strippergate could not be talked about without talking about the moratorium, which many outlets were ignoring: In the wake of Strippergateand in the context of a questionable moratoriumit's clear the public and press have a hypocritical view of strip clubs. He had a family to support and there wasnt much call for a 65-year-old topless-bar manager. Business was too good and they couldn't fit all their patrons in their lot. The woman said Frank first asked her to go home and cuddle and be lovey, then kissed her and offered her money. He told me, through interruptions when he would yell at his GPS to quit "yapping" at him, that he thought "it should be up to every business on how they run their business. His son, Frank Colacurcio Jr., already had pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge. She would also like to change restrictive zoning laws and end prohibition in clubs across the state (it is illegal to consume alcohol in Washington strip clubs.). In 2003, a criminal investigation began in Seattle known as " Strippergate " focusing on strip clubs owned by Frank Colacurcio, Sr. and his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr. Frankie lives with his wife and 14-year-old daughter in Arlington, Snohomish County, drives a 1991 Corvette and collects muscle cars as a hobby. [5], In the 1950s, Colacurcio entered the jukebox, cigarette, and vending machine businesses. What is he, 100, 150 years old? She had hosted a campaign fundraising event after the Land Use Committee vote and "Al Rosellini came and added a stack of checks to what was already a stack of checks. Immigrating first to New York, William followed other relatives to Seattle and became a hard-working truck farmer in South King County. Saturday, May 31, 2014. Each year, existing club owners like Deja Vu's Roger Forbes donated to the council around the time when the moratorium was being voted on. "The majority of the attention we got wasn't deserved.". It was the site of Franks first major criminal mistake-getting caught-leading to a federal prison term and spurring a Bellevue law forbidding nude dancing in or near residential areas. | Learn more about Frank Colacurcio Jr's work experience, education, connections & more by visiting their profile on LinkedIn. The U.S. Senate Rackets Committee ordered Frank to show up for its hearings on organized crime back in the late 1950s after Frank was accused of threatening bodily harm to four Seattle businessmen for not buying into his operation. Frank said no way! He was 25 at the time and worked as a truck driver, hauling fruits and vegetables from local farms to wholesale distributors. stop cool math games 2 bedroom duplex for rent san antonio under 1000 More than half a century later, having achieved geriatric gangster status, amassing several million dollars from his nude- and topless-dancing operations, and with his wife of 36 years bailing out on him, Frank grabbed this other girl, 18, fondling and then offering her $500 to go to bed with him. The city needs an experienced council member, Wills said. Cole was one of the original dancers who took her complaints and vision for change to the Seattle City Council around two years ago. Their old pal, an ex-con named Gilbert Kapuha Pauole Jr., to whom they had loaned $200,000 to start up the clubs, had skimmed the profits at the direction of Frank and Frankie. "I don't think I did anything that would deliberately hurt anyone.". A lifelong . Heidi Wills, the Seattle City Council candidate currently running in District 6 against Dan Strauss, was one of the council members who found herself at the center of this major local drama. According to his divorce records, he received $480,000 in wages from Huns in 1990, most of which was paid to his attorneys for legal fees. Oftentimes, thats through back rent. I feel like Frankie, if he had to run it and his father wasn't around, I don't think he's capable of doing it.". Despite city prohibitions, the corrupt practices were tolerated by cops who profited through kickbacks and payoffs (a First Avenue bar operator today says he still has this tendency, when spying a beat cop walking through his door, to put a paper sack full of cash on the bar as he did in the 1960s, and tell the officer, Lunch.) Furfaro asked the court for mercy: Dont make him quit, he said, hes too old. Still, he professes to not even know a ballpark figure of either his income or his net worth. He got to keep the Rolex, the $400,000 home with an indoor pool at Sheridan Beach, and two other properties worth another $400,000. "I had been a council member for many years and I should have known better," Wills said. At one time, the Colacurcios dominated the topless-nightclub industry in the Puget Sound area and were financing clubs in Alaska, Arizona, Texas, Oregon and New Mexico. Colacurcios trial was the centerpiece of local corruption scandals back then. In front of us, a big man began drunkenly banging on the door, tired of waiting. At Franks trial in 1971, a nightclub owner testified he once paid Colacurcio $3,000 a month for police protection. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on December 27, 1949, he was the son of Frank Colacurcio & Ethel Willis. Sixteen years later, Wills told The Stranger that the Colacurcios had "bundled campaign funds to me, Judy, and Jim." Everyone calls Frank Francis Colacurcio Sr. just plain Frank. Frank Colacurcio Sr., 92, left, and John Gilbert "Gil" Conte enter the federal courthouse in Seattle on Friday for arraignment on racketeering charges. Frank Colacurcio Sr.Frank Colacurcio Sr., longtime resident of Newtown, Connecticut, passed away on September 28, 2020 at the age of 70.Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on December 27, 1949, he was the And despite his highly publicized trials and convictions, Franks sentences havent been necessarily harsh-he got only 30 months in prison and five years probation for the 1991 conviction because the judge figured Frank was a harmless old man. Mary Engrav answered Emergency Medicine 32 years experience. project zomboid . Boom, coins all over, and youre down the street. For example, Levy contributed $600 to Heidi Wills on April 27, 2001; the moratorium was renewed on April 30, 2001. His parole officer said a plea agreement designed by his lawyer ensured that Frankie, now 33, would be allowed to run the clubs once he was released. The indictments alleged Colacurcio Sr . The story amused Franks friends, as did some of his tough-guy antics. COLACURCIO, JR. agreed to forfeit $1.3 million in cash, all interest in the strip clubs and related property worth more than $6 million, and a $1.7 million property at 8600 Lake City Way which houses the Colacurcio company Talents West. COLACUCIO, JR. was sentenced to one year and a day in prison as called for in the plea agreement signed in June 2010. We've all done things that weren't right up to kosher.". I saw another side one night in the late 1970s. Hiring agency director and high ranking member of family. One night at the club, Frank and the associate spotted the pol sitting in a booth with the busty pre-op, the pols face smeared with lipstick. When Will Seattle Get Police Alternatives? His son, Frank Colacurcio Jr., also pleaded guilty to these charges. A lingering mystery of those long-ago probes has been a tape recording confiscated by U.S. agents from Bill Colacurcios house and said to be prime evidence of corruption by a top Seattle city official. Still, he spends nearly every day at Talents West, the cramped, cluttered Lake City hiring headquarters for the clubs. He was paroled a year later. He was behind bars for a total of about six years on separate convictions. His conviction in that case was reversed on appeal. public synchronized void methodint i string msg. The trucking business was so good he took on a partner and set up an office at Western Avenue and Madison Street in Seattle. he counters with a sly smile. "Any politician, I dont care how large or how small, takes more of an interest in people who are donating than people who are not," Colacurcio Jr. said. He knows that doing time goes with the work, says a friend, although, the odd thing is, I think he could have gotten just as rich doing it all legit. She uses that freedom to advocate loudly for what dancers need. She sits down and rubs it and pokes around and starts asking about it. The indictment lays out the actions members of the conspiracy took to promote prostitution at the clubs and their failure to stop prostitution when it was reported to them. ", The North Seattle Star, Media Hypocrisy, and Life Experience. Anders said Colacurcio Jr.'s then-wife, Teena Colacurcio Hines, collected two $600 checks for Wills' campaign from her sister and her sister's boss, and were reimbursed by Hines. In 2003, a criminal investigation began in Seattle known as "Strippergate" focusing on strip clubs owned by Frank Colacurcio, Sr. and his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr.[5] In 2008, local police and federal agents raided Colacurcio's home and business. Mr. Colacurcio had been in declining health for some time, suffering from congestive heart failure. But the detective acknowledged that nothing could be substantiated. She wont leave. Under the terms of the plea agreement, FRANK COLACURCIO, JR., and the . Three rows behind her sat Frank Colacurcio, Jr., a friend of Dadi's and onetime heir . "I've got to go play," he says, ushering his guest to the door. I would ask better questions next time. Crime family based in Seattle, Washington, Frank Colacurcio Sr., Seattle's legendary organized-crime figure, dies at 93, Everett strip club a front for brothel, feds say, Strip club sting foreshadows possible federal charges, Colacurcio Sr., five others indicted on a charge of conspiracy and racketeering, "Frank Colacurcio Jr. gets prison term, $1.3M fine", "Frank Colacurcio Jr. Federal agents say the three men, along with Colacurcio, Sr.,93,and Frank Colacurcio, Jr., 48,conspired to force club dancers to sell sex in order to pay hefty payments to club managers and keep . In a split second, Frank was out the door, long steel rod in hand. Seattle, it turns out, has a storied and very puritanical past when it comes to strip clubs, and The Stranger had a wealth of articles on the subject for me to dig into. The city had turned down the rezoning application for the parking spots twice before 2003, once in 1989 and once in 1998. Everyone organizing who still works is really brave.. Frank was among those accused of heading up a shakedown operation in which hed extort money from other bar operators, then kick back part of it to the cops. [9] . I dont have any doubts Frank will be back, says a longtime friend. Dont hit me no more, the guy pleaded, crying. Wills was fined $1,500 for not disclosing her Rossellini meeting on the record. Frank Colacurcio Jr. appeared in court Friday. "It's not for lack of trying," says former vice-unit supervisor for King County Police, Sgt. While the scandal was resolved, the appropriate council members fined, the dirty campaign funds returned, the re-zoning law repealed, and, eventually, the moratorium lifted, has enough time passed for Heidi Wills to be trusted again as a Seattle council member? He did four years, got out in 1985, and went right back at it, hiding his interests through frontmen and continuing to pocket untaxed profits. The strip clubs run by this organization, Rick's in Seattle, Fox's in Parkland, Pierce . Frank Colacurcio, Sr., ran a strip-club empire and was depicted as a sort of Godfather of the Pacific Northwest. His undisclosed testimony became part of a headline-grabbing 1960s probe of the pinball industry, which led to passage of a law banning the gambling devices in Seattle, and spilled over into the 1970s kickback/payoff scandal. . Though Colacurcio admits he isn't a "straight arrow," he hesitates when asked if he is a criminal. Colacurcio Jr. said it's about "the question of what are the customer's rights" and there "has got to be some sort of fairness in everything. The civil charges against Frank Colacurcio Sr., 89, Frank Colacurcio Jr., 45, and Marsha Furfaro, 67, who is the manager of the Colacurcios' Talents West booking agency for club dancers, will be . Sentenced to Prison in Strip Club Case Colacurcio Jr. Forfeits Millions in Cash and Property", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seattle_crime_family&oldid=1144903083, Organized crime groups in the United States, Articles with dead external links from May 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 March 2023, at 06:01. A daughter of Seattle's Oromo community, Biftu Dadi was remembered as a smart, spirited young woman. The Colacurcio Bros. Amusement Co. (Frank, Bill, and other brother Sam), was rumored to be strong-arming customers and sabotaging rivals. ", "He said that the neighbors didnt want to see additional parking because they didnt like the strip club that had been there for ages," Wills said, "and that he would erectsorry for the play on wordsa large barrier to prevent noise and other altercations from being visible to the surrounding neighbors, and that they would hire a parking lot attendant. This is where the women are. Colacurcio Jr. was fed up with the zoning laws and the city council not listening to his business's pleas. . [4] In the 1970s, Colacurcio met with Bonanno crime family member Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno in Yakima, WA to discuss a business relationship. These were scams Frank had been performing for four decades, but he still couldnt get it right. In 1991, Frank Sr. and Frankie were back in court. In April 2006, the state supreme court reinstated money laundering and political corruption charges from Strippergate charges against Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. On June 2, 2008, local police and federal agents raided Frank Sr.'s home in Lake Forest Park, the Talents West offices, and multiple strip clubs in three counties. Kinney believes the Colacurcios have no connection to East Coast crime families but are "their own variant of organized crime" - a notion Colacurcio has long scoffed at. The woman was running before her feet hit the ground. Wills also did not disclose that she had met with Rossellini before the vote. Mr. Colacurcio had been in declining health for some time, suffering from congestive heart failure. 1995: Sent to federal prison for two years after violating probation by fondling a woman applying for a job at one of his clubs. The mostly cash businesses kept investigators close on his trail, trying to expose crimes associated with the strip clubs. Progress may not be tangible until this summer. Male writers, anyway. Nearly six years ago, Seattle police and federal authorities broke up the strip club empire of the late Frank Colacurcio with prostitution and corruption raids in King and Pierce counties. The next meeting is on Monday, February 10 at 1:30 p.m. in L&Is Tukwila offices. Brutal spasms aside, Frank never quite made the criminal big time. I do understand that retaliation threat, Cole told me, I understand completely. Cant remember if he got the operation or is gonna get it. Aside from a brief partnership with a friend as an interior designer, Jackie Colacurcio says she dedicated her life to raising her only son. While the council members who got embroiled in Strippergate were absolved of any criminal liability, the Colacurcio donations, while the biggest, were not the first they'd received from strip club owners. Theyll try to make sure they rack up a lot of back rent and are in debt to the club, Jane said. This was a big disappointment to the head of the party, who was Franks old friend. One day were sitting in the lobby of the Lake Quinault Lodge, by a big fireplace, talking business, says a former employee. His house is jammed between its neighbors on a busy strip of Bothell Way Northeast in Lake Forest Park. Crime family based in Seattle, Washington. Frank Colacurcio Jr., 47, of Seattle, is the heir to his father's strip club empire, which has waned in recent years as cities have restricted nude dancing. Frank Colacurcio, Sr. died in June 2010, still under indictment for the RICO conspiracy. Frank Colacurcio Jr. a.k.a "Frankie" - Son of Frank Sr. But the dancers often arrive needy and vulnerable. If passed, the property tax levy will help fund behavioral health infrastructure in the region. That's been my one drawback. annabel henley don henley's daughter; west philly shooting last night; how do i check my hdb tenant status; frank colacurcio construction. Colacurcio, the eldest son in a family of eight children, was convicted of "carnal knowledge" with a 16-year-old girl. [10] On July 2, 2010, boss Frank Colacurcio, Sr. died at the age of 93. Frank Colacurcio, Sr., 93, remains the sole defendant in the RICO case. "And they say theres no greater teacher than experience.". Was a guy. [9] In April 2010, Colacurcio Sr.'s nephew Leroy Richard Christiansen along with club manager Steven Michael Fueston, Colacurcio Sr.'s close associate David Carl Ebert, and Colacurcio Sr.'s driver John Gilbert Conte all pleaded guilty to prostitution and racketeering. The moratorium gave Seattle's existing strip clubs "a lock on the market" and "a competitive lock on the dancers," according to Stranger reporting from the time. This case represented a difficult problem of proof because of the respondents background.). "Quasi-judicial rules are really important," Wills said. I talked with Frank Colacurcio Jr. to see what he recalled from the 16-year-old event. The King County prosecutor at the time determined that Wills was naive and there was no wrong-doing on her part. Jane said that the clubs are worried theyll get sued by customers.