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Saturday, March 27, 2004

The Democratic National Convention Hosted by Delaware North 

Delaware North, formerly Emprise Corp., owns Fleet Center in Boston, where the Democractric presidential convention will he held this summer. Emprise was convicted of racketeering along with St. Louis Mafia leader Tony Giordano and members of the Detroit Mafia in 1972.

Delaware North also holds the concessions contract at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Here's a partial list of Delaware's North's operations:

Delaware North's holdings and operations reads like a tourism and
hospitality industry "Who's Who." The client list includes Yosemite
National Park, the Kennedy Space Center, U.S. Mint operations in
Philadelphia and Denver, Los Angeles International Airport,
Boston's Logan International Airport, the St. Louis Cardinals,
Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians and Dallas Mavericks.


Contributors to Delaware North's PAC in 1996 

22 contributions listed for DELAWARE NORTH COMPANIES INCORPORATED POLITICAL
ACTION COMMITTEE

BIDDIX, PATRICK T
6/19/96 $200.00
SATELLITE BEACH, FL
SPORTSYSTEMS CORPORATION -[Contribution]

BISSETT, BILL
6/27/96 $1,000.00
ORCHARD PARK, NY 14127
DELAWARE N ORTH COMP INCORPORATED -[Contribution]

DALLAS, JOHN C
6/25/96 $200.00
WHEELING, WV 26003
SPORTSYSTEMS CORPORATION -[Contribution]

FERNBACH, JOHN P
6/14/96 $750.00
AUSTRALIA, ZZ
DELAWARE NORTH COMP INTERNATIONAL -[Contribution]

FRAKER, GARY C
6/17/96 $2 00.00
YOSEMITE, CA 95389
YOSEMITE CONCESSION SERVICES -[Contribution]

JACOBS, CHARLES M
7/17/96 $1,000.00
MARINA DEL REY, CA 90292
IVR -[Contribution]

JACOBS, JEREMY M
6/13/96 $2,000.00
EAST AURORA, NY 14052
DELAWARE NORTH COMP INCORPORATED -[Contributi on]

JACOBS, JEREMY M JR
7/3/96 $1,000.00
BUFFALO, NY 14216
DELAWARE NORTH COMPANIES INCORP -[Contribution]

JACOBS, LISANN
7/1/96 $1,000.00
BUFFALO, NY 14216
HOMEMAKER -[Contribution]

JACOBS, LOUIS M
7/1/96 $1,000.00
EAST AURORA, NY 14052
DELAWARE NORTH COMPANIES INC -[Contribution]

KELLER, BRYAN J
6/26/96 $300.00
WILLIAMSVILLE, NY 14221
DELAWARE NORTH COMP INCORPORATED -[Contribution]

LUCIANO, DANIEL A
6/25/96 $250.00
FOUNTAIN HILLS, AZ 85268
AMERICAN GREYHOUND RACING INC -[Contribution]

LUTHER, JON L
6/19/96 $500.00
E AMHERST, NY 14051
CA ONE SERVICES INC -[Contribution]

OLSEN, HARRY J
7/16/96 $500.00
DELAND, FL 32724
DAYTONA BEACH KENNEL CLUB -[Contribution]

REICHENBACH, MARGARET LYNN
7/15/96 $1,000.00
WEST HARTFORD, CT 06117
HOMEMAKER -[Contribution]

ROBINSON, KATIE JACOBS
7/16/96 $1,000.00
BRONXVILLE, NY 10708
HOMEMAKER -[Contribution]

STEPHENS, RICHARD T
7/11/96 $1,000.00
EDEN, NY 14057
DELAWARE NORTH COMPANIES INCORP -[Contribution]

SULTEMEIER, RONALD A
6/28/96 $1,000.00
ORCHARD PARK, NY 14127
SPORTSYSTEMS CORPORATION -[Contribution]

THOMPSON, MICHAEL F
7/11/96 $300.00
WILLIAMSVILLE, NY 14221
SPORTSERVICE CORPORATION -[Contribution]

TRYBUS, JANICE R
7/1/96 $300.00
E AMHERST, NY 14051
DELAWARE NORTH COMPANIES INCORPORAT -[Contribution]

VISSER, JAN
6/22/96 $300.00
WILLIAMSVILLE, NY 14221
SPORTSERVICE CORPORATION -[Contribution]

WALKER, MICHAEL D
7/6/96 $500.00
WILLIAMSVILLE, NY 14221
DELAWARE NORTH COMPANIES INCORP -[Contribution]

Another Tax Dodge: Michael Pulitzer Sells Himself a Condo 

*** THIS DATA IS FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY ***

PROPERTY TRANSFER RECORD FOR ST LOUIS COUNTY, MO

Buyer: PULITZER, MICHAEL E; THE INDENTURE TRUST MICHAEL E PULITZER, Trust

Buyer Mailing Address: 625 S SKINKER BLVD, SAINT LOUIS, MO 63105

Seller: PULITZER, MICHAEL E

Seller Mailing Address: 625 S SKINKER BLVD, SAINT LOUIS, MO 63105

Property Address: 625 S SKINKER BLVD, SAINT LOUIS, MO 63105

**************************** SALES INFORMATION *****************************


Sale Date: 1/28/1998

Recorded Date: 10/9/1998

Book/Page: 1800/1497

Document Number: 1218

Deed Type: INTRA-FAMILY TRANSACTION

Legal Description: UNIT: 1602; SUBDIVISION: 625 SKINKER CONDOMINIUM;
RECORDER'S MAP REFERENCE: MB16 PG28

*************************** PROPERTY DESCRIPTION ***************************


Land Use: CONDOMINIUM›

GOP Pioneers: DeWitt, Reynolds and Brauer 

Pioneer George W. Bush's $100,000 Club


Political Contributions:
Bush Gubernatorial Races: $10,000
Name: William O. DeWitt, Jr. Republican Hard Money: $46,750
Occupation: President, Republican Soft Money: $5,000
Reynolds DeWitt & Co. Democratic Hard Money: $0
Industry: Finance
Home: Cincinnati, Ohio Democratic Soft Money: $0
Federal PAC Hard Money: $0
Total Contributions: $61,750
Soft Money from Employer: $100,000
to Republicans:$100,000
to Democrats: $0

DeWitt and Pioneer Mercer Reynolds III owned Spectrum 7,
the oil company that bailed out Bush’s hemorrhaging Bush
Oil Co. in ’84. Both of these partners—wh o also own
fast-food and convenience store interests—were big
President Bush donors and major investors in the Texas
Rangers baseball team, which made Bush a millionaire 15
times over. Much of this profit derived fr om a large
equity stake that other partners in the investment
gifted to Bush as well as the $135 million that local
taxpayers forked out for the Rangers’ new Ballpark in
Arlington. DeWitt, whose family once owned th e
Cincinnati Reds, is an owner of the St. Louis Cardinals
with Pioneer Stephen Brauer. The Cardinals’ owners are
clamoring for a new $370 million stadium to be financed
with tax-exempt bonds—despite major recent exp enditures
to remodel Busch Stadium. “For the Cardinals to be a
great franchise, a new ballpark is critical for St.
Louis,” says DeWitt. The new stadium would have 1,800
fewer seats than Busch, but would feature high-profit
luxury boxes.

DeWitt and Emprise: A St. Louis Thing Since 1949 

In 1949, William DeWitt Sr., the father of St. Louis Cardinals majority owner, purchased controlling interest in the St. Louis Browns baseball club, a now-defunct American Leauge franchise.

At the time, the price of the sale was estimated to be $1 million, according to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. DeWitt's partner in the deal was his brother Charles Dewitt.

"Announcing the completion of the transaction, Bill DeWitt declared: "We are in this by ourselves. We have no backers," the Globe-Democrat reported.

Deeper into the story, however, Globe-Democrat sports writer Martin J. Haley reported that the DeWitts had raised a portion the sale price by selling off the concessions at old Sportsman's Park to the Jacob Brothers of Buffalo.

The Jacobs brothers started out as peanut vendors, but their professional sports interests grew into an empire, which still exists. They made much of their fortune by loaning it out at high rates to professional sports team owners

In 1972, Emprise Corp., the Jacobs' privately held company, was convicted in a federal trial in Los Angeles for consorting with St. Louis Mafia boss Tony Giordano and members of the Detroit Mafia. Emprise and the mobsters were charged by the Justice Department with secretly holding controlling interest in the Frontier Casino in Las Vegas.

Emprise changed its name to Delaware North, after the negative publicity surrounding the car-bombing death of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles in 1977. At the time of his murder, Bol es was investigating ties among Emprise, a local dog track owner and the mob.

Delaware is now controlled by Jeremy Jacobs, the son of one of the original owners. Nowadays, the St. Louis media rarely, if ever, talks about the subsidiaries of Delaware North that are still involved in various facets of professional sports, including concessions contract at major league venues nationwide.


Brauer's 2003 Property Tax Record: Still Skating After All These Years 

Hunter Farm is still a farm, according 2003 St. Louis County Records, which are available online. Hunter Farm, the 400-acre estate of St. Louis Cardinal owner Stephen F. Brauer, is located in affluent west St. Louis County, Mo.

Half of Brauer's suburban estate is zoned as agricultural or mixed residential and agricultural. Because of the zoning Brauer pays less property tax on hundreds of acres of prime real estate.

The 52-acre parcel already cited in previous Media Mayhem postings was appraised by the county in 2003 at $13,460, according to St. Louis County Department of Revenue records. The County assessed the value for this tract is $1,620.

By comparison a ten-acre tract that I own in rural Jefferson County, Mo. is appraised at approximately $28,000.

My Source of Property Records 

The St. Louis County property records that I am citing regarding Hunter Farm, which is owned by Cardinal's partner Stephen Brauer, came from Lexis-Nexis database. When I was reporter at the Riverfront Times, the newspaper subscribed to an expanded version of Lexis that includes property records for the entire United States. But when I last checked Brauer's local property holdings it 2000 and records were for his tax payments from the preceding year -- 1999.

The Size of Hunter Farm: 300 or 400 Acres? 

St. Louis Cardinal owner Stephen Brauer's estate in St. Louis County is it 300 acres or 400 acres? Property records I checked listed about 296 acres in his name. But in the late 1990s, his mother still lived on the grounds. That could explain the acreage question. Also, press accounts list the estate as being in the St. Louis County towns of Creve Coeur or Town and Country. Hunter Farm is probably in both. If it's 400-acres, that's an entire section of land.

Time to check the tax rolls online and report back.

"Kimmy" Brauer Makes Jerry's 25 List 

The Golden Rule must apply to Stephen Brauer and his wife "Kimmy." Brauer owns Hunter Engineering and is a co-owner of the St. Louis Cardinals.

St. Louis County charged Brauer only $90.00 property tax in 2000 for 50 acres of land that are a part of Hunter Farm, where Kimmy and Stevie cuddle. St. Louis County also generously agreed to loan Brauer and his baseball partners $45 million so they could see their dream come true -- a new downtown baseball stadium.

But the Brauers don't just take they give. Stevie and Hunter Engineering, for instance, gave $450,000 to the GOP in 2000. And when George W. Bush comes to St. Louis to take part in mock presidential debates, Kimmy and Stevie host Bush in grand style at Hunter Farm.

Moreover, in 1996, Kimmy was also been recognized by St. Louis Post-Dispatch gossip columnist Jerry Berger for her charitable work. Berger named Kimmy to his top 25 list of influential St. Louisans. Kimmy has co-hosted or co-chaired charity events for the Variety Club, Mercantile Library and St. Louis Opera Theater.

Tralier Trash Pay More Taxes Than Card's Owner 

Well, I just stumbled across another campaign finance detail heretofore unreported by Media Mayhem. St. Louis Cardinal owner Stephen Brauer's company, Hunter Engineering, donated $200,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2000. Brauer, as a n individual, contributed $200,000, making for a grand total of $450,000 to the GOP.

The St. Louis County Council has since rewarded Brauer and other Cardinal owners, giving them a $45 million, no interst, 30-year loan to help build a new, private baseb all stadium in downtown St. Louis.

Brauer lives at Hunter Farm, a 300-acre enclave in the wealthy suburban community of Town and Country in St. Louis County. In 2000, he paid about $52,000 in property tax. Brauer's tax bill, however was cut significantl y by zoning over half his property agricultural. It is called Hunter "Farm," after all. So let's give the zoning decision the benefit of the doubt. Let's say the Brauer really is a farmer, or at least a gardner. Maybe he gets his hands dirty and grows tom atoes and hauls them down to Soulard Market on Saturdays and sells them under an assumed name. Maybe I should do the same.

I own 10-acres of land in rural Jefferson County, about 60 miles from St. Louis, near De Soto, Mo. A tornado hit the place last year and caused all kinds of damage, lots of downed tree. But I didn't get a nickel of assistance money from the government even though the entire county was ruled a national disaster. My land is wooded; there's a froggy pond at the bottom of the hill; and an old 1965 White Star mobile home at the top. My nearest neighbor is at least a block away in any direction. Jefferson County zoned my property as a mix of residential and agriculture. I pay about $300 a year in property tax for my 10 acres.

By compar ison, in 2000, St. Louis County taxed St. Louis Cardinal's owner Brauer $89.62 for 52.39 acres of land at Hunter Farm in the tony suburb of Town and Country. Let me repeat that: Brauer paid $89.62 in property taxes for more 50 acres of prime real estate in St. Louis County.




Friday, March 26, 2004

A Better Idea: Confiscate Hunter Farm and Turn it Into a Park 

In 1999, Stephen F. Brauer, St. Louis Cardinal owner and president of Hunter Engineering, avoided paying tens of thousands of dollars in property taxes because part of his holdings in West St. Louis County were zoned as agricultural.

Brauer paid a little over $52,000 in property tax for the nearly 300 acres that he owns in Town and Country, a wealthy suburban community of St. Louis County. His estate is called Hunter Farm.

His tax bill was kept lower because St. Louis County zoned two lar ge parcels of the land as agricultural.

More than half of Hunter Farm has been taxed at a lower agricultural rate, according to tax records. A 118.37-acre tract zoned for mixed agricultural and residential use, with an address of 460 N. Woods Mill Road, was given a total accessed value of $15,000. Brauer paid $1,453.00 in taxes on this parcel in 1999.

The most striking example of how Brauer's property taxes were reduced is the 52.39-acre parcel of land, with an address of 13500 Ladue Road. Brauer pai d only $89.62 in property tax on this tract in 1999.

The following year, 2000, Brauer donated $250,000 to the Republican National Committee..

The Midwest White House, Where the Land is Cheap 

When George W. Bush comes to St. Louis for a presidential debate at Washington University, he stays at Cardinal owner Stephen Brauer's Town and Country estate, Hunter Farm. Brauer, who is president of Hunter Engineering in Bridgeton, has been a Republican contributor for years. In 2000, for example, Brauer contributed $250,000 to the Republican National Committee, according to campaign finance records.

Brauer and other Cardinal owners have been granted a $45 million, no-interest, 30-year loan from St. L ouis County to help build a new, private baseball stadium in downtown St. Louis.

Hunter Farm, the Brauer Estate, essentially serves as the Midwest White House for Bush when he travels here. The value of the manse four years ago was placed at $2.1 millio n by St. Louis County.

The property records describe the building as having been built in 1928. It has five bathrooms and six bedrooms (somebody has to share, if there's a full house). There are six fireplaces, a pool and a detached 3-car garage. The property of the mansion itself includes 5.5 acres of ground.

But a good chunk of Hunter Farm, which is in suburban St. Louis County, has been accessed at agricultural evaluation levels. For example, 2000 St. Louis County property records value a 52.39-a cre tract at Hunter Farm as being valued at $13,500. Brauer only paid $89.63 in property tax for this this tract in 1999.

This is a guy who is getting $45 million handed to him by St. Louis County. In the presidential election year of 2000, Brauer donat ed a quarter million to the Republicans, while paying a fraction of that in taxes to St. Louis County. Does anybody at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch care? Or do I have to break it down more clearly?

You Paid for It: 131 Barton Ave., Palm Beach, Florida 

St. Louis Cardinals owner Stephen Brauer and his wife Camilla, aka, "Kimmy," of 9630 Ladue Rd., St. Louis County, Mo., had enough spare change laying around their Hunter Farm estate a few years back to purchase a second home in Palm Spring, Fl.

The Bra uers plunked down $2.9 million for a single-family residence at 131 Barton Ave. on Oct. 9, 1998, according to Palm Spring County property records. The sellers of the property were reported to be Brooke R.F. and Clive Oatley.

Maybe the Florida purchase strapped Brauer for cash because he and other Cardinal owners recieved $45 million, no-interest, 30-year "loan" from St. Louis County last year to help build a new, privately-owned stadium in downtown St. Louis. The public funds for the private initiative will come from the County's hotel and tourism tax.

At the same time that the County is helping subsidize a private construction project for Brauer and the other Cardinal owners, it is requesting voter approval of a regressive one-eighth sales tax increase to pay for the shortfall in the County parks system.

Proponents of the tax, including St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bill "Malibu" McClellan and KMOX radio announcer Charles Brennan say that critics who compare the two issues are adding apples and oranges.

McClellan recently criticized the city of St. Louis for wasting $75,000 on an academic study of urban problems. But he doesn't make as big an issue about the $45 million "loan" to Brauer and the other owners, who are all fat-cat Repu blicans and donors to George W. Bush. On Donnybrook, Malibu has referred mockingly to retired Post-Dispatch reporter Fred Lindecke, an opponent of the public finaning for stadiums, as "Dr. No."

Brennan, on the other hand, has been known to hob nob with wealthy casino investors, who in the 1990s, were trying to cut a deal with St. Louis County to open a gambling den in Lemay. If the deal would have went through it would added millions to their personal fortunes. Those who would have benefited in clude partners in the Pastsa House Co. restaurant chain and three Rallo Brothers, who run a construction company here.

On last's night's Donnybrook public affairs television program Brennan said, "What's wrong with taxing the poor another eighth-cent?""

Call the Make Up Man 

Was it my television set or did Donnybrook panelist Wendy Wiese really have red rouge smeared all over her cheeks about an inch thick on last night's broadcast?

No Sweat: Joan Dames Society Column 

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 11, 1993

Party-Goers Keep Cool in Hard Hats at Hunter Farms Picnic

Kimmy Brauer gave a hard-hat picnic at high noon on June 30, when the thermometer read 92 degrees Fahrenheit and weather officals reported high humidity. Surprisingly it seemed 10 degrees cooler and much drier under the shade trees on the wind-swept hill, the highest point on Hunter Farm. The green field stretched into the distance. To the west, the large lake shimmered silver through breaks in a line of trees. The backdrop for the picnic was the skeleton of a large pavilion being built at Hunter Far, probably the site of many parties in the future. ... With her picnic, Brauer was making a point. Here was the chairman of the council's board of tr ustees, Ted Wetterau, denbonair in his business suit, shirt and tie, staying crisp, not wilting. Here was the council's executive director Pat Rich, serenely attired in jacketed dres, stocking and medium-heeled shoes. Kimmy was chic in pants, stockings a n d blazer. No one was sweating.

Baseball and World Diplomacy  

Cardinal owner Mercer Reynolds was named ambassador to Switzerland by George W. He made George W. a millionaire by bringing him into the Texas Rangers organization in the 1980s with his partner William DeWitt Jr. Both of them have thrown tons of money into W's campaign coffers.

George. W. also named Cards owner Stephen Brauer of Hunter Engineering in St. Louis to be ambassador to Belgium. When W wings into St. Louis he stays at Brauer's estate in Town and Country, Hunter Farms. Brauer treats his horses better than the homeless people who walks the streets of downtown St. Louis. The horses live in an air conditioned barn with hardwood floors.

A Kentucky Colonel Plays Ball  

Cardinal owner G. Watts Humphrey Jr. sits on the board of Churchill Downs and is chairman of Blood Horse Inc., publisher of the largest horse breeding magazine in the United States. A steel magnate from Pittsburgh, Humphrey owns an 800-acre getaway near H arrodsburg, Ky. He is the grandson of the secretary of the treasury in the Eisenhower administration. Humphrey's wife is a horse breeder, who bred Genuine Risk, winner of the 1980 Kentucky Derby.

Hey Neighbor! Cards Owners Live Together 

Several of the Cardinals owners live in Indian Hills, a tony surburb of Cincinnati. The list includes:

Dudley Taft, billionaire descendant of President William Taft and a cousin of Bob Taft, governor of Ohio. His Indian Hills bungalow is valued at $685,200.

Thomas Williams, president North American Properties Inc. His 3,997-square-foot shanty in Indian Hills is worth 3.2 million, according to county property records.

William DeWitt Jr., George W.'s bud and heir to the baseball dynasty of his father. Dewitt's 10-room hovel in Indian Hills is appraised at $764,000 by the Hamilton County, Ohio accessor's office.

Mercer Reynolds, named ambassador to Switzerland by George W. Reynold' humble home in Indian Springs is valued at $2.8 million.

Robert Castellini, the Cincinnati produce king and major GOP donor. Castellini's cabin in Indian Hills is worth a mere $470,000.


A Ponzi Scheme by Any Other Name 

In anticipation of President George W. Bush throwing the first pitch of the opening game at next month's opening game of the St. Louis Cardinals, let's take a closer look at the Card's owners, starting with 74-year-old Michael Pulitzer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch .

In March 2001, Pulitzer Inc. agreed to buy four percent of the St. Louis Cardinals. The terms of the deal were undisclosed. In 1996, Pulitzer was set to be a part of the original partnership that bought the team from Anheuser-Busch, but Leauge rules provided owners to have a stake in more than one professional team. At that time, Pulitzer's brodcasting company had an interest in the Arizona Diamondbacks.

To circumvent the guidelines, Pulitzer essentially did an end run by selling his company's interest in the Diamondbacks to Hearst-Argyle Television, a corporation that doesn't bear his name. But the trade off amounted to a shell game because in 2001 the press reported that Michael Pulitzer owned $93.9 million in Hearst-Argyle stock.



Thursday, March 25, 2004

Where's the Meat?  

Donnybrook panelists Charles Brennan and Wendy Wiese are two slices of stale white bread. ˇ

The Man Who Waters the Workers' Beer 

The 1978 Justice Department report on the infiltration of organized crime into labor unions lists the John F. Gibson, former business agent for Miscellaneous Hotel Workers Local 430 in St. Louis.

JOHN F. GIBSON (International Secretary-Treasurer) Gibson was the former
President and a full-time Business Agent of Local 430, Miscellaneous Hotel
Workers, St. Louis, Missouri. As a bartender in St. Louis, Gibson was a protege
of Johnny Vitale of the St. Louis organized crime family. He is also close to
Morris Shenker, the powerful teamster lawyer

Locals 42 and 110 Mobbed Up, 1978 

A Justice Department report on organized crime's influence over labor unions prepared for the White House in 1978 gave the following summaries on Laborers Locals 42 and 110 of St. Louis:

Local 110 - St. Louis. A business manager of the Local is D. Raymond Massud of
the Syrian faction of the St. Louis syndicate. His son, John Massud, serves on
the executive board. Leo Briguglio, an associate of Anthony Giardano, St. Louis
LCN boss, is also on the executive board. Anthony Leisure, also a member of the
Syrian faction, and a suspected fence, is a business manager. Francis Michaels,
brother of Jimmy Michaels, head of the Syrian faction, is employed as an
organizer. Matt Trupiano, a suspected member of the LCN, now an international
representative, was an organizer for Local 110 until 1974.

Local 42 - St. Louis. The individuals in power in this Local were once a part of
the late Buster Wortman gang. T. J. Harvel, president, is a strong arm man and a
retired burglar. He was a close friend of mobster Lou Shoulders. Harvel was with
Shoulders on the ill fated fishing trip in 1972 when Shoulders was killed in a
violent explosion upon starting his car. Harvel is also secretary treasurer of
the East St. Louis Laborers District. Council. Harvel's son is a business manager
for Local 42.

Taxi! Local 777 Boss Joe Glimco 

Anthony "Nino" Parrino, the St. Louis Mafioso to whom Teamster Local 682 president Robert Sansone was alleged be connected in 1991, is a small fry compared to Chicago's Joe Glimco. Glimco is the mob character to whom three officials for Teamster Local 777, Chicago's taxi drivers union, were accused of having ties. The 1991 case against Sansone -- a prominent name in St. Louis politics and business -- overshadowed the other charges brought against the Chicago Teamster officials by the federal administrato r overseeing the union. Three trustees for Teamster Local 777 here were accused of associating with the late Joe Glimco. Here's the skinny on Glimco, courtesy of the Illinois Police and Sheriff's News web site:

"... syndicate hoodlums like Joe Glimco (n ee: Giuseppe Glielmi), the long-time boss of Teamster's Local 777 of the Taxicab Driver's Union. Glimco was the outfit's top labor czar who muscled into at least 15 different Teamst er locals in the 1950s an d 1960s. He was a power in the jukebox and coin machine industry for many years, with a well-deserved reputation for vicious cunning and ruthlessness. In a 30-year slant of Joey's life he was arrested 38 times on a variety of charges stemming fr m armed robbery to murder. Appearing before the Kefauver Committee of the U.S. Senate in 1950, Glimco took the Fifth Amendment 80 times. Proving this was no fluke, Joey clammed up before another committee of note - the Senate McClellan Committee, citing his Fifth Amendment privileges 152 times. ..."

[read more about Glimco and his pals in Chicago]

The 1991 Teamster Crackdown 

In Oct. 3, 1991, the The Chicago Tribune reported that Robert C. Sansone, president of Teamsters Local 682 in St. Louis, failed to oust Mafia member Anthony "Nino" Parrino from the vice-presidency of the local. Parrino had previously been ind icted in on federal racketeering charge relating to his part in running a bookie operation under St. Louis Mafia boss Matthew Trupiano in the 1980s.

Other Teasmster officials accused of mob ties included Joseph Kosey, secretary-treasurer of Local 777; M urlene Herron, a trustted for Local 777; Joseph Murray, a trustee of Local 777; and James L. Coli, secretary-treasurer for Local 727. Local 777 represents Chicago's cab drivers.

The officials of Local 777 were accused of associating with Mafia member Joseph P. Glimco.

The official for Local 727 in Chicago was charged with failing to act after learning that Joseph Talerico, a business agent for the local, had ties to a member of organized crime.

The charge against Sansone brought many high-ranking public officials to his defense including, then-St. Louis Mayor Vince Schoemehl; the late Buzz Westfall, St. Louis County Executive; William Webster, former Missouri attorney general; Thomas Eagleton, former U.S. senator; and lobbyist John Bardgett, former Missouri Supreme Court judge.

The stir over the accusations concerning Sansone in St. Louis directed attention away from the Local 777 officials.

State Senator Jelly Roll Hogan: Serving St. Louis from the Roaring 20s to the New Frontier 

The origins of modern political power in St. Louis date back to the 1920s and Edward J. "Jelly Roll" Hogan's gang. The gang leader's influence over city and state politics lasted for decades and can still be felt today. As a state senator Hogan was named a delegate to Missouri Constitutional Convention in 1943-44. In 1962, one year before his death, steamfitter boss John "Doc" Lawler asked 77-year-old Hogan to come out of retirement and run for a seat in the state senate, again, but he declined.

Back in the Roaring 20s, Lawler's brother-in-law, John F. Dougherty, was a member of Egan's Rat's, a rival Northside Irish gang. Dougherty was present when gang leader William T. Egan, a city constable, was gunned down at 1400 Franklin Avenue (now Martin Luther King Drive) on the night of Oct. 31, 1921.

Dougherty later served as St. Louis Sheriff from 1945 to 1948. During that period, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Dougherty was associated with the Eastside gang headed by Frank "Buster" Wortman, who also held a steamfitter's union card. In addition, the Post-Dispatch also reported that the sheriff had an interest in the Hyde Park Casino in East St. Louis and was involved in a gangland war to take over the gambling rackets in the Chicago suburb of Cicero.

Hogan's criminal career began during Prohibition when he battled competing gangs for control of the bootlegging trade in St. Louis. During the span of a few years, 23 murders were attributed to the gangland warfare in St. Louis.

Egan, Hogan's nemesis, was the Democratic Committeeman of the 5th Ward. His lieutenant was armed robber William P. "Dinty" Colbeck, who was gunned down after being released from prison on Feb. 17, 1943. Egan's murder was never solved, but Hogan's brother Jimmy was suspected of the hit job.

Some of the slayings were gangland executions that took place in remote areas of St. Louis County. Others were carried out through a series of drive-by shootings in the streets of St. Louis. For example, Jacob H. Mackler, the Hogan gang's attorney, was riddled with bullets in his car the night of Feb. 21, 1923 1730 North 12th Street.

Mackler's murder was followed by that of Egan soldier George Ruloff. Not long after Mackler's death, the bodies rival bootleggers and hoodlums Joseph Cammarata, Joseph "Green Onions" Cipolla and Everett E. Summers were found in ditches and fields in then-rural areas of St. Louis County.

Hogan himself came under attack more than once. In March 1923, he exchanged shots with Isadore "Izzy" Londe and Elmer Runge at Grand and St. Louis Avenue. A 13-year-old boy was killed during the shoot out.

The Hogan gang hung out at the Maxwellton Inn and race track on St. Charles Rock Road, where they planned the the $260,000 robbery of an armored mail truck in downtown St. Louis on April 2, 1923. Several weeks later they pulled off a mail robbery in Staunton, Ill. that netted $54,000.

Ray Renard, one of Hogan's men, eventually snitched on his criminal partners, which resulted in lengthy prison sentences for those involved in the mail truck robberies. Renard moved to California and became a consultant for Hollywood gangster movies.

After the gang war ended, Hogan became the business agent for soft drink workers union in St. Louis and continued to serve as a state senator.

When. Forest Smith of Missouri announce his candidacy in 1948, Hogan joined forces with his former enemies to help elect Smith governor. Both sides supported Smith because they realized that his election would be an opportunity to re-establish illegal gambling rackets. Among those who Hogan formed an alliance were former Egan members Frank "Buster" Wortman and Dougherty, who by then was serving as sheriff.

Hogan was also a close political ally of Kansas City boss Charles Binaggio, who took over control of that city's machine following the ouster of Thomas J. Pendergast.

source: Herbert A. Trask, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Aug. 16, 1963


The Mess at Rosemont Continues 

from today's Chicago Sun-Times:
The man Blagojevich named as a special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board is Washington, D.C., lawyer Eric H. Holder Jr., who was deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton. He will have subpoena power to review Gaming Board documents.

"If, in fact, something shows up -- for example, mob ties and mob connections to Rosemont -- I can't imagine how Rosemont could possibly be the place that would host that 10th license," Blagojevich said. "Hopefully, what Mr. Holder will find out won't be what a lot of people fear might be here.""

Quote of the Day 

"Books are memory's hard copy." -- Richard Rhodes

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

The 1992 Conrad "Pete" Baetz Interview 

I found this portion of my 1992 Riverfront Times interview with House Select Committee on Assasinations investigaton Conrad "Pete" Baetz. Baetz was on leave from the Madison County (Ill.) Sheriff's Department in 1978. Baetz developed HSCA witness Russell G. Byers, who claimed he had received a contract offer to king the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966. Baetz was allegedly directed to Byers, after a misfiled FBI report turned up in St. Louis. The report was based on information provided to the bureau by informant Richard O'Hara, a criminal associate of Byers, in 1973. Byers was a suspect in the Jan. 29, 1978 St. Louis Art Museum burglary along with Sam White. White's body was found in Madison County, Ill. on June 11, 1978. The murder remains u nsolved. In 1992, Baetz, a law enforcement officer in Madison County in 1978, claimed he had never heard of White's murder.

C.D. Stelzer: Samuel Ernest White, an associate of Russell Byers who was implicated along with him in the 1978 St. Louis Art Museum
burglaries was found murdered in Madison County one week after he had visited FBI offices in St. Louis. Was White's murder
case ever solved? Do you know any reasons why the murderer(s) chose to either kill White or dump his body in Madison
County?


Conrad "Pete" Baetz: To be real honest with you, and I swear this is an honest answer, that's the first time I ever heard of him. I remember the Remington bronze, it just doesn't hook up in my head.

That's how the committee got his name because they (the FBI) suspected him (Byers') of being the mastermind of the Art
Museum (thefts). Maybe I'm wrong.


Yeah, because the way it came up, we had asked the FBI. We wanted everything they had that had to do with Martin Luther King
and they furnish ed it. Their file is called the MURKIN file, 95 volumes. What they also did, there was a continuing flag for
anything with Martin Luther King's name on it. Well, midway through our investigation, the FBI, in a routine audit of reports (I
guess they have a routine destruction date or something like that), they come up with an informant's statement that went back to
the time when Sutherland [patent lawyer John Sutherland, who allegedly offered Byers $50,000 to kill the Rev. Martin Luther King] made
the offe r to Byers. And Byers bragged about it to somebody else who was an FBI informant. ... But the reason it was developed by the committee was not because anybody was looking at the Art Museum except as background on Byers after his name came up. It's becaus e an FBI informant had told them that Byers had said he was offered $50,000 to kill King. So it wasn't developed as a result of the Art Museum. It was the result of the conversation Byers had with the FBI informant.

Let me make sure I've got this clear. I know you just got done explaining it, but it (Byers' name) came up after the investigation by the committee asked the FBI to look into things pertaining to Martin Luther King.

There was an ongoing request by the committee to the FBI that any and all documentation in their files dealing with Martin Luther King be forwarded. Well, out of the blue the FBI forwarded this saying, `We just came across it during a routine audit and misfiled it or whatever.' At that point, when the FBI volunteered th at information to the committee, it was the first time the committee had heard of Russell Byers.

Richard O'Hara was the FBI informant that allegedly provided the information that Byers had been offered $50,000 to murder
King back in 1974. Why did the FBI office in St. Louis refrain from forwarding this information to Washington?


See the FBI, as far as they were concerned, the King homicide was solved, closed case. So if somebody comes up with some information there, unless they really push it, they're going to file it. It's just as if we got information on the Lindbergh kidnapping. ... Our interest in O'hara was minimal because the only value O'hara had to us was as a lead. He furnished a lead to the FBI. And the FBI furnished us that lead. As far as O'Hara being a co conspirator or anything like that that never came up.

The Byers Dossier 

July 26, 1978
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
J. Pulitzer
A 46-year-old Rock Hill man has told the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he was once offered $50,000 to kill the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the New York Times reported today.

Russell G. Byers, a former auto parts dealer who was implicated last January in the theft of several statues from the St. Louis Art Museum, said he turned down the offer in late 1966 or early 1967, according to the New York Times.

New York Times
no byline
July 26, 1978

ST. LOUIS, July 25, -- A 46-year-old man here has told the House assasintions committee that in late 1966 or early 1967 he turned down an offer of $50.000 to arrange the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Russell G. Byers, a former auto parts dealer, acknowledged in an interview with the New York Times that he had told the committee that two men from Imperial, Mo. had offered him the money on behalf of a group of businessmen to kill the civil rights leader, who was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Both men have since died, but their wives said they did not believe the story.

July 27, 1978
no byline
St. Louis Globe-Democrat

" ... Byers was charged with burglary in the theft of four statues from the St. Louis Art Museum Jan. 29. One of the statues was the famous "Bronco Buster," by Frederic Remington.

Three other statues by Auguste Rodin, the French sculptor, were stolen in another museum burglary Feb. 20.

John A. Crenshaw, 25, a transient laborer, was also charged in the Jan. 29 burglary and is now in jail awaiting trial.

Charges against Byers were dropped April 27 by Circuit Attorney George Peach after Crenshaw said he wouldn't testify against him. ..."


July 27, 1978
New York Times
by Anthony Marro

Washington. July 26, -- Information concerning an alleged plot to assassinate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. remained unchecked for five years becuae an agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's St. Louis office disregarded a basic regulation concerning the dissemination of criminal information, bureau officials acknowledged today.

Homer Boynton, the chief spokesman for the bureau, said the handling of the information had been in "violation of established rules and procedures." But he also said the bureau was convinced that the mishandling resulted from an "administrative error" and not from an any attempt to block a full investigation of the murder, which occurred five years earlier. ...


July 27, 1978
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Gerald Boyd and J. Pulitzer

Washington -- A House committee investigating the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is seeking the testimony of James Earl Ray as a result of allegations by Russell G. Byers of Rock Hill that Byers was offered a $50,000 to kill King, the Post-Dispatch has learned.

Sources close to the investigation said that testimony this spring by Byers, 46, of the 9300 block of Fredric Court had raised questions among committee members of a conspiracy to kill King. ...

The Post-Dispatch was told that the committee might never have heard from Byers had he not become implicated in last winter's burglaries at the St. Louis Art Museum. A routine check of his file at the St. Louis FBI office turned up a version of Byers' allegations written five years ago and inadvertly misfiled, sources told the Post-Dispatch.

The file search on Byers was requested by local officials investigating the Art Museum burglaries, sources told the Post-Dispatch. An FBI spokesman in Washington said it was forwarded in March to the Washington office for use by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, which is investigating King's death. ...



Everybody Knows the Dice Are Loaded 

Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu

by Leonard Cohen

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Everybody knows; everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows; everybody knows
That'ss how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin'cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows

Welcome to Bushville 

If I was a federal employee, I'd already be collecting a pension. Instead, I worked in the "private" sector for a quarter century. And in the private sector, you're supposed work until you drop dead or you're 62. Those in control, of course, would prefer that you drop dead. As the Baby Boomers all draw closer to retirement, what does the Wizard of Oz, Mr. Greenspan, say?: "We have to reduce benefits and increase retirement age." This is a guy who never labored in his life. I can't even squeeze $4,000 fr om th e state of Missouri of unemployment benefits that are in my name in the state's coffers because I don't "qualify" to collect the unemployment insurance, which I earned. Of course, the state will say I didn't earn it. My employer paid it into the sys tem. I n short, we're all wage slaves. Those believe otherwise are in denial. Believe me, it doesn't hit home until it happens to you regardless of how "progressive" you think you are. I've paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes during my life. Fe deral and state income taxes, Social Security tax, city earning tax, property tax, personal property tax, sales tax, luxury tax, gasoline tax. But at 53, I'm expected to go out and get a job at McDonald's. Why pay more taxes into into inequibable system t o help keep it propped up? I'd rather ride the rails.

Say Uncle 

Have you had your fill or would you like to suffer just little more. Millions of jobs gone. The Republicans are trying to say that umemployment is down, but that's because they don't count the people whose unemployment benefits have already expired. Congress cooks the books and says that unemployment is down so there's no need to extend federal benefits. People have to go to Canada to get prescription drugs they can afford, while we're spending a billion dollars a month to defend oil interests in Iraq. Millions and millions of people have no health insurance. The mayor of St. Louis, a Democrat, cuts the public health budget, while kisses George W.'s cronies butts so they can build a new baseball stadium downtown. The guy's whose president wasn't even elected. Jobs are being outsourced to India and Mexico by the thousands every month. ... It's great country, if you're rich. But we all know this and you don't have to be an PhD to understand it.

Talk Show Protocol: Am I on the Air? 

I never listened to Rush, but I do tune in to NPR.

"Hello? Am I on the air?"

"Turn your radio down."

"Huh?"

"Turn Your Radio down"

"Oh."

"That's Better."

"Thank you for taking my call."

"You're welcome."

"It's an honor to speak with you and your guest."

"Thank you."

"I've listened to your show for years and this is the first time I've called up."

"What's your comment?"

"That's it."

"Thank you for calling."

"Thank you for taking my call."

"You're welcome."

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

"Hello, You're on the Air."

"Hello, thank you for taking my call. Thank you for taking my call. ..."



You Say You Want a Revolution, Hey, Hey, I'm Ready 

2000 All Over Again?
Gov. Jeb Bush is acting to stop voting reform in Florida that would guarantee a paper trail for all ballots cast in the state in this year's presidential election. If the Republicans and their backers in the U.S. Supreme Court steal the national election, again, I think it would be appropriate to go beyond the Constitution for redress of grievances.

Absolute Despotism?

"...That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of Life, Liberty an d the pursuit of Happiness, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness ... when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw such Government and to provide new Guards for their f uture security. ..."

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

To Arms! International Banking Excludes Proletariet 

Wbile the off-shore scams and international banking frauds soar around the globe at the speed of a broadband Internet connection, it's still impossible to get a personal check cashed from from England in the United States.

Rule of the Bonesmen 

John Kerry and George W. are both members of Yale University's secret society, Skull and Bones. Here's a Bonesmen reading list courtesy of Public Information Research .


SKULL BONES

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (6-8, 316)
* Bird,K. The Color of Truth. 1998 (27, 59-62)
* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (21-2)
* Diamond,S. Compromised Campus. 1992 (177-8, 329)
* Esquire 1977-09 (84-9, 148-50)
* Gritz,J. Called to Serve. 1991 (626-7)
* Hatfield,J.H. Fortunate Son. 2000 (33)
* Havill,A. Deep Truth. 1993 (28)
* Lewis,C. The Buying of the President 2000. 2000 (196)
* Loftus,J. Aarons,M. The Secret War Against the Jews. 1994 (362)
* Swanberg,W.A. Luce and His Empire. 1972 (41)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (14, 117-36, 340-1)
* Thomas,E. The Very Best Men. 1996 (92)
* Thomas,K. Keith,J. The Octopus. 1996 (76)
* Vankin,J. Conspiracies, Cover-ups, and Crimes. 1991 (196-8)
* Washington Post 1991-04-16 (A1, 8)
* Yakovlev,N. Washington Silhouettes. 1985 (374-5)




The names below are mentioned on the listed pages with the name
SKULL BONES



ACHESON DEAN G

* Esquire 1977-09 (87)

ADGER SIDNEY A

* Lewis,C. The Buyin g of the President 2000. 2000 (196)

ANDERSON NED

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (129-132)

ASHLEY THOMAS W.L.(LUD)

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (132)

BARNES BEN F

* Lewis,C. The Buying of the President 2000. 200 0 (196)

BEERS CLIFFORD

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (126)

BIGLOW LUCIUS HORATIO JR

* Hatfield,J.H. Fortunate Son. 2000 (33)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (132-133)

BISSELL RICHARD MERVIN JR

* Bird,K. The Color of Truth. 1998 (59)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (126-127)

BISSELL WILLIAM TRUESDALE

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (126)

BOOK SNAKE

* Havill,A. Deep Truth. 1993 (28)

BOREN CARRIE

* Havill,A. Deep Truth. 1993 (28)

BOREN DAVID LYLE (D-OK)

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (8)
* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (22)
* Havill,A. Deep Truth. 1993 (28)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (129)

BRADFORD AMORY HOWE

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (128)

BRADY NICHOLAS F

* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (22)

BREWSTER KINGMAN

* Bird,K. The Color of Truth. 1998 (61)

BROWN BROTHERS HARRIMAN

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (14)

BROWN THATCHER M

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (128)

BUCKLEY JAMES LANE

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (8)
* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (21)
* Vankin,J. Conspiracies, Cover-ups, and Crimes. 1991 (197)

BUCKLEY WILLIAM F JR

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (8)
* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (21)
* Diamond,S. Compromised Campus. 1992 (177-178)
* Esquire 1977-09 (85 149)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (128-129)
* Vankin,J. Conspiracies, Cover-ups, and Crimes. 1991 (196)

BULLITT WILLIAM CHRISTIAN

* Swanberg,W.A. Luce and His Empire. 1972 (41)

BUNDY HARVEY HOLLISTER

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (8)
* Bird,K. The Color of Truth. 1998 (27)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (127)

BUNDY MCGEORGE

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (8)
* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (22)
* Esquire 1977-09 (85)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (127)
* Vankin,J. Conspiracies, Cover-ups, and Crimes. 1991 (197)

BUNDY WILLIAM PUTNAM

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (8)
* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (22)
* Esq uire 1977-09 (85)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (127)
* Vankin,J. Conspiracies, Cover-ups, and Crimes. 1991 (197)

BUSH GEORGE H.W.

* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (21-22)
* Loftus,J. Aarons,M. The Secret War Against the Jews. 1994 (362)
* Thomas,K. Keith,J. The Octopus. 1996 (76)
* Vankin,J. Conspiracies, Cover-ups, and Crimes. 1991 (196-198)

BUSH GEORGE W

* Lewis,C. The Buying of the President 2000. 2000 (196)

BUSH JONATHAN (UNCLE OF GEORGE W. BUSH)

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (130 132)

BUSH NEIL MALLON

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (131)

BUSH PRESCOTT SHELDON

* Bird,K. The Color of Truth. 1998 (61)
* Loftus,J. Aarons,M. The Secret War Against the Jews. 1994 (362)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (14 130-132)

CASEY WILLIAM JOSEPH

* Vankin,J. Conspiracies, Cover-ups, and Crimes. 1991 (196)

CAULKINS JOHN ERWIN

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (132)

CHAFEE JOHN H (R-RI)

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (117)
* Vankin,J. Conspiracies, Cover-ups, and Crimes. 1991 (196)

CHALLENGE INC

* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (21)

CITIBANK

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (14)

CLARK WILLIAM JUDKINS

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (132)

COFFIN HENRY SLOANE

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (128)

COFFIN WILLIAM SLOANE

* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (21)
* Esquire 1977-09 (1 49)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (128 341)
* Vankin,J. Conspiracies, Cover-ups, and Crimes. 1991 (196)

CONNELLY WILLIAM JAMES JR

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (132-133)

COOK GEORGE III

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (132)

CUNNINGHAM HUGH

* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (21-22)

DAVISON ENDICOTT PEABODY

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (130 132)

DAVISON F TRUBEE

* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (22)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (124-126)

DAVISON HENRY POMEROY (HARRY)

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (124-125)

DE MOHRENSCHILDT GEORGE S

* Thomas,K. Keith,J. The Octopus. 1996 (76)

DIETER ROBERT

* Hatfi eld,J.H. Fortunate Son. 2000 (33)

DILWORTH J RICHARDSON

* Esquire 1977-09 (85)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (341)
* Yakovlev,N. Washington Silhouettes. 1985 (375)

DRAPER WILLIAM H III

* Covert Action Information Bulletin 19 90-#33 (22)

DRESSER INDUSTRIES

* Loftus,J. Aarons,M. The Secret War Against the Jews. 1994 (362)

DSOUZA DINESH

* Washington Post 1991-04-16 (1)

GATES ARTEMUS LAMB

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (125-126)

GOW ROBERT H

* Co vert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (22)
* Vankin,J. Conspiracies, Cover-ups, and Crimes. 1991 (197)

GRAYSON GORDON

* Bird,K. The Color of Truth. 1998 (62)

GREEN FITZHUGH

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (132)

GREEN MARSHAL L

* Bird,K. The Color of Truth. 1998 (61)

GRIMES DAVID CHARLES

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (132)

HADDEN BRITON

* Swanberg,W.A. Luce and His Empire. 1972 (41)

HARKEN ENERGY CORPORATION

* Lewis,C. The Buying of the President 2000. 2000 (196)

HARRIMAN EDWARD HENRY

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (14)

HARRIMAN E ROLAND

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (14 125)

HARRIMAN W AVERELL

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (8)
* Esquire 1977-09 (85)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (14)

HARRISON GEORGE LESLIE

* Bird,K. The Color of Truth. 1998 (27)

HERSEY JOHN R

* Esquire 1977-09 (150)

HODGSON GODFREY

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (8)

ILLUMINATI

* Esquire 1977-09 (87-88)

INGALLS DAVID SINTON

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (125-126)

J.P. MORGAN COMPANY

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (125)

JAMES ELLERY S

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (131)

JENKINS RICHARD ELWOOD

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (132)

JOHNSON CLAY

* Hatfield,J.H. Fortunate Son. 2000 (33)

KAHN OTTO H

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (14)

KAH GARY

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (316)

KERRY JOHN FORBES (D-MA)

* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (22)
* Vankin,J. Conspiracies, Cover-ups, and Crimes. 1991 (197)

KUHN LOEB COMPANY

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (14)

LAROUCHE LYNDON HERMYLE

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (340-341)

LATHAM AARON

* Esquire 1977-09 (148)

LILLEY JAMES RODERICK

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (8)

LORD WINSTON

* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (22)

LOVETT ROBERT ABERCROMBIE

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (8)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (125-126)

LUCE HENRY ROBINSON

* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (22)
* Esquire 1977-09 (85)
* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (127-128)

MACK RICHARD GERSTLE

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (132)

MACLEISH ARCHIBALD

* Esquire 1977-09 (150)

MADDEN JOHN B JR

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (117)

MALLON HENRY NEIL

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (131)

MARSHALL GEORGE C (GEN)

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (8)

MATTHIESSEN F O

* Esquire 1977-09 (150)

MCCAIN JOHN S III (R-AZ)

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (131)

MEYER FRANK S

* Diamond,S. Compromised Campus. 1992 (329)

MOORE RICHARD A

* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (22)
* Esquire 1977-09 (88)

MOSELEY THOMAS WILDER

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (132)

PAULEY EDWIN WENDELL

* Loftus,J. Aarons,M. The Secret War Against the Jews. 1994 (362)

PFAU GEORGE HAROLD JR

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (133)

PIONZIO DINO JOHN

* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (22)

POMEROY HARRY

* Tarpley,W.G. Chaitkin,A. George Bush. 1992 (127-128)

POWERS THOMAS MOORE

* Esquire 1977-09 (148)

PRICE RAYMOND K JR

* Esquire 1977-09 (88)

RUSSELL TRUST ASSOCIATION

* Bird,K. The Color of Truth. 1998 (61)
* Esquire 1977-09 (88)

SCROLL KEY

* Esquire 1977-09 (87 89)
* Havill,A. Deep Truth. 1993 (28)

STEWART POTTER

* Covert Action Information Bulletin 1990-#33 (22)
* Esquire 1977-09 (85)

STIMSON HENRY LEWIS

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (8)
* Esquire 1977-09 (85)

TAFT ROBERT A SR

* Bainerman,J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (7-8)




Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Former WMX Exec Opens the Door to the Mob in Rosemont 

from a March 2001 Chicago Trib story on the mobbed up Emerald Casino in Rosemont, Ill.:

"... Mob-tainted shareholders wound up as proposed owners of the Emerald, the board said in its complaint, because Emerald
officials, led by former Waste Management executive Donald F. Flynn, failed to investigate the background of other investors. According to the complaint, Flynn told the board he knew nothing about some proposed owners because 'if they were willing to come up with the money, I didn't really care.' ..." 

WMX Background 

It's amazing what I've got stashed on this harddrive. Here's a 1992 profile of WMX, (Waste Mangaement) which provides details as to the company's scope of operations and its origins in nothern Illinios. Included is the fact that WMX is big in Saudi Arabia. Is anybody surprised?

WMX Technologies, Inc.


OVERVIEW
Like a jolly green giant, WMX Technologies, Inc. (formerly Waste Management, Inc.) has grown far beyond its humble origins as a small-scale garbage collector into the largest environmental service agency in the world. WMX provides a comprehensive range of services worldwide, including environmental consulting, design engineering, solid waste management and recycling, and hazardous waste management. It also builds water treatment and trash-to-energy plants.

Although North American waste disposal remains the core of WMX business, the company is expanding, both geographically and operationally. With Europe as the main focus for WMX subsidiary Waste Management International's 1992 business, the firm acquired new businesses in France and Finland to add to its operations in 7 other European countries. With the increased spending on environmental cleanup by Asian countries, WMX sees Asia as its growth market.

To further enhance its range of services, WMX spun off its 4th publicly traded subsidiary, Rust International, as its technological, engineering, and construction consulting arm in 1993. Reinforcing this expansion of technological services was the name change of the parent company from Waste Management, Inc. to WMX Technologies, Inc.

WMX has operations in 21 countries and its revenues for 1993 are estimated at $10 billion. The company's depth of experience, range of services and access to capital place it in a strong position for further international expansion.


WHEN
In 1956 Dean L. Buntrock joined Ace Scavenger Service in Illinois, which had 12 collection trucks and $750,000 per year in revenues. Under Buntrock's leadership the company expanded into Wisconsin.

In the early 1970s a growing number of waste service companies were forming. In 1971 Waste Management, Inc., emerged when Buntrock joined forces with H. Wayne Huizenga, who had bought 2 waste routes in Broward County, Florida, in 1962. (Huizenga retired in 1983 and went on to control Blockbuster Video, the #1 video rental chain in the country.) Both companies had grown rapidly during the 1960s, as concern with air quality prompted bans on residential and industrial on-site waste burning. Waste Management, with customers in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin, reported earnings of $1.2 million on revenues of $16.8 million its first year. In the 1970s it made acquisitions in Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Canada.

In 1975 the company bid on and won a contract in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (service started in 1978) and formed its international subsidiary. Other foreign contracts followed, and the company now operates in 20 foreign countries including Argentina, Venezuela, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Waste Management also divided into specialty areas, forming Chemical Waste Management (76% owned, 1975) and offering site cleanup services (ENRAC, 1980) and low-level nuclear waste disposal (Chem-Nuclear Systems, 1982). Expansion in this period included a great coup - the acquisition of 60% of competitor SCA of Boston (1984).

Recent projects include joint ventures for the sale of recyclable materials with DuPont, Stone Container Corporation, and American National Can and a partnership with The Henley Group that created Wheelabrator Technologies (22% owned in 1988; now 56%). In 1988 Waste Management contracted to dispose of approximately 90% of the wastes from the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

For many years WMX has been targeted, and in some cases fined, for violation of antitrust laws (paying $2 million in fines) and pollution ordinances (coughing up $12.5 million in fines for the Vickery, Ohio, hazardous-waste facility, 1985). Chemical Waste Management challenged an Alabama tax charged on out-of-state waste brought into its Emelle site, which receives hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous waste annually. The $72-a-ton tax had already begun to depress profitability. The court found in Chemical Waste Management's favor in 1992.

WMX's international sales grew by 35% in 1992, accounting for 17% of total revenues. In June 1993 WMX opened the most modern hazardous waste-treatment plant in the world: a $150 million plant in Hong Kong.


NYSE symbol: WMX
Fiscal year ends: December 31


WHO
Chairman and CEO: Dean L. Buntrock, age 61, $1,650,000 pay
President and COO: Phillip B. Rooney, age 48, $1,282,500 pay
SVP, Treasurer, and CFO: James E. Koenig, age 45, $601,800 pay
VP: William P. Hulligan, age 49, $595,000 pay
VP: Jerome D. Girsch, age 47, $525,000 pay
SVP, Law and Compliance: J. Steven Bergerson, age 50
SVP: D. P. Payne
SVP: Jerry E. Dempsey
VP: Jerry W. Caudle
VP: Thomas R. Frank
VP Human Resources: John Machota
Auditors: Arthur Andersen & Co.


WHERE
HQ: 3003 Butterfield Rd., Oak Brook, IL 60521
Phone: 708-572-8800
Fax: 708-572-3094

The company has over 12 million residential and one million commercial clients in the US and Canada and operates in another 19 countries.

÷

WMX's 97 10-K  

Waste Management, aka WMX, is mentioned as a player in the Emerald Casino scandal. Here's what the company reported to the SEC in 1997:

In November and December 1997, several alleged purchasers of the Company's
stock brought purported class action lawsuits against the Company and several
of its current and former officers in the United States District Court for the
Northern District of Illinois. Each of the lawsuits asserts that the
defendants violated the federal securities laws by issuing allegedly false and
misleading statements in 1996 and 1997 about the Company's financial
condition. Among other things, the plaintiffs allege that the Company employed
accounting practices that were improper and that caused its publicly filed
financial statements to be materially false and misleading. The lawsuits
demand, among other relief, unspecified monetary damages, attorneys' fees and
the costs of conducting the litigation. The Company intends to defend itself
vigorously in this litigation. In January 1998, the 14 purported class actions
were consolidated before one judge in the Northern District of Illinois.
Plaintiffs have until May 1998 to file a consolidated amended complaint. It is
not possible at this time to predict the impact this litigation may have on
the Company, although it is reasonably possible that the outcome may have a
materially adverse impact on its financial condition or results of operations
in one or more future periods.

The Company is also aware that the Securities and Exchange Commission has
commenced a formal investigation with respect to the Company's previously
filed financial statements and related accounting policies, procedures and
system of internal controls. The Company intends to cooperate with such
investigation. The Company is unable to predict the outcome or impact of this
investigation at this time.

A lawsuit by an alleged Company stockholder purporting to represent a class
of the Company's stockholders has been filed in the Chancery Court in and for
New Castle County, Delaware (although the Company has not yet been served)
against the Company and members of its Board of Directors alleging breaches of
fiduciary duty by the defendants in connection with the Merger with USA Waste.
The lawsuit seeks, among other things, to have the Merger enjoined and to
recover unspecified damages. The Company believes the suit to be without merit
and intends to contest it vigorously.

The Company and certain of its subsidiaries are also currently involved in
other civil litigation and governmental proceedings relating to the conduct of
their business. While the outcome of any particular lawsuit or governmental
investigation cannot be predicted with certainty, the Company believes that
these matters will not have a material adverse effect on its financial
condition or results of operations.

"No Nose" DiFronzo, Waste Management and the Mess in Rosemont 

The stage for the current scandal over the license for a casino in Rosemont, Ill. started in 2001, when the Illinois Gaming Board took away Emerald Casino Inc.'s license for failing to reveal organized crime associates connected to the casino, according t o the Chicago Tribune.

Sorting out the players in this ongoing controversy is a difficult task. My understanding is that after the license was revoked a partnership including Isle of Capri and Argosy, the owner of the Alton Belle, bid for the l icense.

Among those reported to have ties to Chicago crime boss John "No Nose" DiFronzo was brothers Joseph and Vito Salamone, investors in Emerald's operations in Rosemont, Ill.

Although it's a long-shot, it's worth noting that an individual with the same last name as the Salamone brothers was found dead at a North St. Louis County apartment complex late located on Larimore Road late last year. The cause of the person's death was undetermined, according to a Post-Dispatch two-graf brief. The death was more unusual because it was the second questionable death to occur at the same apartment complex in the same week, the Post-Dispatch. There is nothing to tie the incident to the Salamones of Chicago and it probably unrelated. So it's a sure bet that nobody will look into the remote possibility that the North County deaths had anything to do with what's going on across the river. [read the Trib story]x

News from This Century for a Change 

The Chicago Tribune reported today that Gov. Rod Blagojevich is calling for an indepedent investigation into the awarding of a casino license by the Illinois Gaming Board to Isle of Capri even the board's staff recommended against the choice.
.
"The fact that you have all of these allegations of nefarious people
involved and possibly in a position to benefit from this license, that to simply trust the Gaming Board I think is asking the taxpayers and all of us too much," Blagojevich said.

Blagojevich was spurred to call for the independent investigation after Lisa Madigan, the state's attorney general, questioned the decision. Last year, the governor named his chief financial contributor to the board. The controversy over Illinois' tenth gaming license, has developed after the previous licensee for a casino in Rosemont, Ill. was kicked out of the state for hiding its ties to organized crime.

Thomas R. Green Clips Missing 

The clip envelope or envelopes containing news stories on St. Louis County real estate and insurance man Thomas R. Green are missing from the Mercantile Library, where the now-defunct St. Louis Globe-Democrat files are now archived. In the 1960s, Green was a co-owner of the Dunes casino in Las Vegas with Morris Shenker, mob lawyer; Charles "Kewpie" Rich and Sydney Wyman, St. Louis bookies and associates of Chicago organized crime figures. Green owns the National States Insurance Company and forme rly owned real estate in the Delmar Loop in University City, including the Tivoli Building. The clips for Jack Molasky, a business partner of Green and his uncle, Max Lubin, are also missing.

Hitching the Horse to the Cart 

One Giant Clip Job

In case you just tuned in, I've been covering the more obscure edges of a long-forgotten criminal enterprise that took place in St. Louis in the 1970s. Maybe it's time to look at the circumstances directly surrounding th e 1978 Art Museum burglaries in a more linear fashion:

the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Monday, Jan. 30, 1978
no byline
Three sledgehammer-wielding thieves smashed open a plate at the St. Louis Art Museum late Sunday night and stol e four statues, including one bronze by Frederic Remington, the 19th Century American cowboy artist.

Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1978
J. Pulitzer, aka, "The Kid"
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined St. Louis police investigating the theft of four scupltures Sunday night from the St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park.

March 5, 1978
no byline
Russell G. Byers, the man police have called the mastermind behind the Jan. 29, break-in at the St. Louis Art Museum, was charged Friday with burglary in the break-in.

Monday, March 13, 1978
Charlene Prost
Two bronze statues stolen from the St. Louis Art Museum were recovered by police over the weekend but authorities still have no idea who took them.

Sat urday, April 8, 1978
David Fink and Becky McReynolds
An anonymous telephone call led to the recovery of Frederic Remington's "Bronco Billy," the 23-inch bronze statue stolen from the St. Louis Art Museum Ja. 29. It is the last of the four statues taken in that theft to be recovered.

The 19th-Century statue, valued at $50,000, was found Friday night in one of six yellow receptacles in front of Goodwill Industries, 4140 Forest Park Aveune. The large sidewalk boxes are used to collect clothing and other articles donoted to the organization.

The anonymous call was received by Capt. John G. Walsh, commander of the police department's burglary and robbery unit. Walsh said he was watching television about 8:30 p.m. when the call came.

date unknown
Becky McReynolds
Russell G. Byers has been in the news frequently in recent months in connection with the theft of seven statues in two separate incidents at the St. Louis Art Museum.

Byers was described by police -- for a while -- as t he "mastermind" behind the first theft of four statues, including Frederic Remington's "Bronco Billy," Jan. 29. Three other statues, all by the French sculptor Francois Auguste Rodin, were taken in a second burglary Feb. 20.

However, all charges against Byers were dropped after the statues were recovered. Police had received anonymous phone calls leading them to the locations of the missing statues.

Byers had been implicated by another suspect in the thefts, John A. Crenshaw, 25. On Feb. 28, police raided the Byers home in the 9300 block of Fredric Court, Rock Hill. None of the stolen statues was recovered, but 138 other items, believed to be stolen, were confiscated.

Since the first burglary, two men believed to be associates of Byers and Crenshaw, and also believed to have been involved in the first museum theft, have met violent deaths.

On Feb. 17, the body of Charles H. Gunn, 29, was found behind the 5900 block of Hamilton Terrace. Gunn, who had been identified by Crenshaw as an accomplice, ha d been shot in the head.

On June 11, the body of Samuel Ernest White, 42, was found in a field in Madison County. He had been shot three times and his body was severely burned.

When Byers was arrested March 2, he gave his occupation as a vending-machi ne dealer. Police records show many arrests for him in St. Louis and St. Louis County since 1960. ...

Byers was charged in the art museum burlary after police said Crenshaw led them to the first statue to be recovered and implicated Byers as a middle-man. That charge was dropped April 27 after Crenshaw told St. Louis Circuit Attorney George S. Peach that he would not testify against Byers. ...

date unknown
Carter Stith
The only person charged and held in connection with the thefts ear lier this year from the St. Louis Art Museum has pleaded guilty in connection with the January theft of four statues

John A. Chenshaw, 25, pleaded guilty Tuesday of burglary and stealing.

He also pleaded guilty to tampering with an automobile and assault and assault in an unrelated incident in April 1977 in which policeman Edward Magee. ...

The FBI learned of Byers' claim in 1973 but misfiled a memorandum on it. The information did not surface until a routine file search at the time of the Art Museum thefts.

June 1978
Sally Bixby Defty
The body of a man found in a Madison County field a week ago has been identified as Samuel Ernest White, 42, believed to have been a conspirator in the first of two burglaries at the St. Louis Art Museum.

Sunday, July 2, 1978
Sally Bixby Defty
The full story of the St. Louis Art Museum burglaries early this year may never be known, even though police announced a confession, charged two men and recovered all seven stolen statu es.

Now all charges have been dropped against Russell Byers of Rock Hill, whom police once descrdibed as the mastermind behind the first burglary, on Jan. 29, when Frederic Remington's "Bronco Buster" and three other statues were taken. ...

St. Louis C ircuit Attorney George Peach said that the burglary charge against Byers in connection with the first break-in was dropped because, without Crenshaw's testimony, the case was too weak.

"I made him the best deal I could offer," Peach said. "I brought him to the office three of four times -- but he didn't want to buy what I was selling." ...Byers faced a second charge growing out of a search made at this house in the 9300 block of Fredric Court on the morning of Feb. 28, hours after the police say Crenshaw confessed to the Art Museum burglaries and said Byers had six missing statues.

The statues were not found, but police did find eight lithographs stolen from the Arts International gallery in Clayton in 1976. Byers was charged in St. Louis County with receiving stolen goods.

On May 25, however, that charge was dismissed when the witnesses -- the policemen who had made the search and the director of the gallery -- did not appear in court.

Marjorie Pond, director of Arts International, said she did no t appear because she had been told that the case would be thrown out of court.

Gerrold Chapnick, assistant county prosecuting attorney, said the case was too weak because of the length of time between the burglary and the recovery and because of the dif ficulty of proving that Byers had known the works were stolen. Corroborating testimony that had been expected from Crenshaw did not materialize. ...

[Crenshaw had been brutally beaten by jailers (St. Louis deputy sheriffs) at the St. Louis City workhouse before he decided not to testify. Two suspects killed and one one beaten to the point where he refused to testify.]






And Now a Moment of Space for the Late Spalding Gray 


George Peach: We Know Nothing. Yeah, Right.  

On Monday, March 13, 1978, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Charlene Prost reported that two of the stolen bronzes from the St. Louis Art Muesum heists were recovered over the weekend, "but authorities still have no idea who took them."

Prost's story quotes, then-Circuit Attorney George Peach: "'I think we're dealing with some really sophisticated people,' said ... Peach, who has been working with police on the investigation. 'I don't think they would make the mistake of leaving fingerprints.'" ...

The break in the case allegedly came at late Saturday night, when Capt. John Walsh of the burglary and robbery squad received a call at his home from a woman who directed the police to room 204 at the Quality Courts Hotel at 5120 Oakland Avenue, which was near the old Musial & Biggies restaurant.

The female caller told Walsh that she wanted to return a favor to Walsh, Prost reported.

The two recovered statues were 18th-Century German bronzes, entitled Prudence and Hope.

Interestingly, March 13, 1978 is allegedly the date that the St. Louis office of the FBI found a 1973-4 informant's report indicating that Art Museum burglary suspect Russell Byers had bragged about receiving a $50,000 contract offer to kill the Rev. Martin Luther King. The info rmant who allegedly provided the information was one of Byer's criminal partners, Richard O'Hara. The report, which had previously not been forwarded to FBI headquarters, was turned over to the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

The previous wee k, on M arch 5, 1978, The Post-Dispatch reported that Byers had been charged as the mastermind in the Jan. 29 Art Musuem break-in.

The police searched Byers' Rock Hill home after John "Johnny Cool" Crenshaw confessed to participating in both A r t Museum heists. On Feb. 28, Police recovered a 17th-Century St. Sebastian boxwood sculpture taken in the Feb. 20 Art Museum burglary in a garage at the rear of the residence in the 4000 block of Vest Avenue, where Crenshaw was hiding. out.

Crenshaw told the pol ice that Byers had planned the first break-in on Jan. 29., paying him and Charles Gunn $700. Sam White, the middle man who recruited Crenshaw and Gunn, was found murdered in Madison County, Ill. on June 11, 1978.

Prior to his death, White was in t erviewed at the St. Louis FBI office on May 30, 1978. The FBI investigated his murder, but federal prosecutors refused to puruse the case because certain parties associated with the Art Museum burglaries had been granted immunity from prosecution.

The identitie s of those who received immunity from the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's officer in return for giving back the stolen art objects has never been revealed. Byers, however, did receive immunity for his testimony before the House Select Committe e o n Assassina tions in the summer of 1978. How broad-based was the immunity granted to Byers by the HSCA?

Conrad "Pete" Baetz, the Madison County Deputy who worked as an investigator for the HSCA, developed Byers as a witness. In 1992, Baetz denied to the Riverfront Times any knowledge of Sam White's murder or the victim's criminal association with Byers.

It also appears that Peach was lying when he told Prost that authorities had no idea who was involved in the Art Museum burglaries. The stautes were returned over a series of weeks as a part of deal worked out among the sponsors of the crime, the FBI, and the St. Louis police burglary squad, commanded by Capt. John Walsh.

Prost put the lie in the lede of her story. just as I put Baetz's lie in my sidebar. Reporters have duped by the cops on this case for decades and done nothing about it themselves. One thing that Peach told the truth about was the fact that the circuit attorney's office was working with the police to investigate the crime. The other thing that Peach wasn't lying about was that authorities were dealing with "sophisticated people." He might have also described those people as having power and influence within the local and federal law enforcement establishment; an individual or group who possessed enough juice to literally get away with murder. Sam White, an Afro-American with a long criminal record, knew too much. He had knowledge of the planning of the crime and those involved.

It appears that prosecutors on the local and federal level let somebody get away with murder, which make them accomplices after the fact.

A Military Analogy 

A good reporter is like Charlie; a guerrilla fighter who knows the terrain. When newspapers such as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Riverfront Times parachute reputed hotshot reporters and editors into town, the recruitment is doomed to fail because these people have no idea where they are. They are, in a sense, invaders. St. Louis is a foreign country to them. They don't speak the language and they don't understand the history of the power structure.

What does a guy from Seattle know about St. Louis?

No-thing.

The people who own the newspapers like it that way, obviously.

The Portable Post 

The Tuesday edition is the workingman's favorite because it fits in his back pocket.

Rules for Reporters 

1. Survival. If you don't, you can't tell the story.
2. Remember journalism is the first line of history.
3. Place the subject within context.
4. Truth is in the details.
5. Keep sources in low places.
6. Doubt everything.
7. Play dumb, don't be dumb.
8. Listen.
9. Write it down or you'll forget it.
10. No good work goes unpunished.
11. Leave the pack at the press conference.
12. The more light you shed, the more heat you take.


Monday, March 22, 2004

Bar Room Carl Tunes Out 

Time to leave the airwaves to their own devices, catch a breeze and drive down to CBGB's listening to a bootleg of Miles Davis' Jack Johnson. Remember, send your money to Media Mayhem today.

Thomas Crone's Word of the Day 

As heard on KDHX tongight:

hector to bully in a blustery way.

Other favorites I've learned from Herr Crone:

swimmingly As in, how are things going?

Swimmingly.

daft Herr Crone's description of our former colleague Melinda Roth. Yes, indeedy, but she could write hard news, couldn't she, Tomasito?

Yeah, Gaslight Square, let's tiptoe through through the rubble with Mr. Schneider one more time with feeling.

It's fund drive time at KDHX. Divert your contribution this direction.

Shakedown in the Park 

In Feburary 1976, St. Louis Globe-Democrat reporters Robert H. Teuscher and Mike Montgomery reported on an internal police investigation into a shakedown scheme that targeted homosexuals in Forest Park carried out by police officers in St. Louis' 2nd District, then commanded by Commander Capt. Edmund H. Moran.

Sources told the Globe that Moran and other police officers directed those who were arrested to use the Virginia Walsh Bond Co. to post bail. The police would then charge the o ffenders with a felony count (which was later reduced by the court) so that the bond would be set higher. The owner of the bond company was John J. "Buddy" Walsh, who had a criminal record dating back to the 1930s. After the scandal broke, the courts qui t honoring Walsh's bail service because it is illegal for a felon to operate such a business in the state of Missouri.

Richard Beck, a bank extortionist, car bomber and burglar, worked for Walsh.

Forest Park was part of the old Second Police District i n St. Louis. In 1978, the park would make crime headlines again when burlgars broke into the St. Louis Art Museum twice, stealing seven statutes, including bronzes by Rodin and Remington.

Three of the stautes were recovered at Finer Iron and Metal Co.'s scrap yard at 5900 Machester. Finer was already the subject of a federal investigation, which was looking into a possible racketeering charges against assailants who had attacked Sydney Finer, the co-owner, in 1977.

After Finer was arrested on theft cha rges, he complained that he had been set up. The head of the burglary squad at that time was Capt. John Walsh.

One of the suspects in both the Art Museum burglaries and the assault on Finer was Sam White, who was found murdered in Madison County, Ill. in June 1978.

Police suspected that the first Art Museum burglary, which occurred on the night of Jan. 29, 1978, was masterminded by Russell Byers, but Byers was never went to trial for the crime. All the statutes were recovered, following an immunity agreement that was worked out with the cops. Exactly who got immunity has never been revealed. But it's clear from FBI reports that the immunity deal played a part in the decision of the U.S. Attorney's decision not to prosecute the Sam White murder case. Byers went on to become the star witness before the House Select Committee on Assassinations in the summer of 1978, claiming that he had received a contract offer to kill the Rev. Martin Luther King in 1966 from two St. Louis businessmen, who by then were dead.

A witnes s told the FBI that White, the murder victim, had been stealing for St. Louis police officers before his death.

To reiterate:

1. 2nd district cops were shaking down gays in Forest Park in 1976. Those who were arrested were directed to Buddy Walsh's bonding service. Walsh was a car thief and tax cheat who had criminal record dating back to the 1930s.

2. Sidney Finer complained in 1978 that he was set up to take the fall in the St. Louis Art Museum burglary case.

3. A witness told the FBI that Sam White, who was found murdered in June 1978, was part of a theft ring operated by St. Louis Police.

4. Sam White's body was found in Madison County, Ill., where the sheriff was being investigated on racketeering charges by the feds.

5. The congressional investigator, Conrad "Pete" Baetz, who was a deputy sheriff in Madison County, Ill., tells me in 1992 that he never heard of Sam White even though he developed Russell Byers as a witness for the House Select Committee on Assassinations and Byers was suspected of planning the first Art Museum burglary.

Migoya: "They're Stonewalling Me" 

In in 1993-94 or thereabouts, the Riverfront Times hired David Migoya, a former reporter for the Belleville News-Democrat. At the News-Democrat, Migoya had won tops honors from the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) organization for his series on a property scam by slumlords in East St. Louis. After he coming over to the RFT, he began investigating another Eastside story, the racketeering case against gambling czar Thomas Venezia.

Migoya worked on the story f o r the better part of a year, complaining all the while that the federal indictments were sealed and that prosecutors were stonewalling him. Venezia was also involved in the topless bar business on the Eastside with Amiel Cueto and Robert Romanik. All three men would be convicted on various racketeering charges and sentenced to federal prison.

Migoya was eventually fired. He had written a total of one cover story during his tenure at the RFT and it had nothing to do with his big investigative project.

Aft er he left, D.J. Wilson moved into space. A few years later, the RFT moved from its downtown location in the Shell Building to its new offices in the Tivoli Building in University City.

During the move, Wilson unearthed some scraps of paper tha t Migoya left behind. That D.J. didn't throw the scraps out a long time before is not surprising because he never threw anything out, choosing instead to create piles of abstract paper sculptures that rose anywhere from three to five feet high.

The Migoya stuff that D.J. found looked like it had come out of RFT publisher Ray Hartmann's waste basket. The material included crumpled notes, appointments and lunch dates, including one with ad man Mike Lipel at Cafe Zoe. The purpose of the Migoya's scrap-paper file on Hartmann remains unknown but it suggests that he was more than a little interested in the business routine of his employer.

Migoya never did write anything about Venezia or the Eastside rackets, but after his firing he joined the staff of the Detroit News and wrote a series of articles about a federal case against the Detroit Mafia, which involved illegal interests in Las Vegas casinos dating back to the 1960s.

New Times: Promoting The Oldest Profession Since 1970-Something 

culled from the federal suit against PT's, a trusted advertiser of the Riverfront Times:

" ... Congress has been concerned with the operation of interstate prostitution enterprises at least since its passage of the Mann
Act, now at 18 U.S.C. se cs. 2421-24, in 1910. Bribery of local
law enforcement and government officials is just the sort
of corruption connoted by the term "racketeering" and
targeted by various federal statutes. Most pertinently, the
Lowrie organization commingled funds fr o m its legitimate
and its i llegal businesses and funneled proceeds of illegal
activities through legitimate financial channels. This proc-
ess conceale d the source of the funds and coincided quite
well with popular images of "money laundering." The ex-
tensive, multi-state nature o f the illegal activities of the
Lowrie enterprise thus suggests that the spirit, as well
as the letter, of the money launde ring statute was prop-
erly served in this case. ..."

Reporting with Your Eyes Closed: Overlooking the Federal Case Against PT's and Other Minor Details 

Money laundering, prostitution and racketeering ignored by the RFT

If you go back and check out the stories of Bruce Rushton focusing on the Metro East that appeared in the Riverfront Times, over the past few years, you'll find that they delved into the corruption of public officials. One story that comes to mind had to do with the mayor of Brooklyn, Ill. which, of course, is among the Eastside towns that features topless clubs and massage parlors. The people who Rushton overloo ked in his stories are the owners of the businesses within these communities who have themselves been charged with crimes, including Dennis Sonnenschein, the late Hal Lowrie, Robert Romanik, Amiel Cueto, Thomas Venezia and others. ... Why do these crimin als get a free ride in the RFT? -- Their businesses advertise in the newspaper. How do you write about corruption in Brooklyn, Ill. and not mentions these racketeers? I don't know. It's beyond my creative writing abilities. If a reportert can pull it of f, however, it's guaranteed to keep the public uninformed and the reporter gainfully employed.

In the
Unit ed States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit

No. 95-2244

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.

DANIEL L. GRIFFITH,

Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Illinois, East St. Louis Division.
No. 93-CR-30103--William D. Stiehl, Judge.

ARGUED JANUARY 17, 1996--DECIDED MAY 29, 1996

Before POSNER, Chief Judge, and CUDAHY, and FLAUM,
Circuit Judges.

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge. For more than ten years, De-
fendant Daniel Griffith worked in a managerial capacity
for the Hal Lowrie entertainment organization. Lowrie's
organization ran a large network of nightclubs, which inclu ded
country-western clubs, topless nightclubs and, begin-
ning in 1985, brothels ("massage parlors"). In 199 3, a fed-
eral grand jury returned indictments against several per-
sons involved with the Lowrie enterprise. In a three-count
indictment, Griffit h was charged with violating the RICO
statute (Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organiza-
tions), 18 U.S.C. sec. 1962(c), conspiracy to violate the RICO
statute, 18 U.S.C. sec. 1962(d), and conspiracy to commit
money laundering, 18 U.S.C. secs. 1956 an d 371. On Feb-
ruary 13, 1995, Griffith entered a plea of guilty to all three
charges.

On appeal, Griffith raises three issues: First, he con-
tests the district court's denial of his motion to dismiss
the money laundering count of the indictment. Sec ond, he
argues that the district court misapplied the Sentencing
Guidelines in computing his sentence. Third, he disputes
the district court's rejection of his motion to invalidate
the Sentencing Guidelines on constitutional and statutory
grounds. We affi rm the district court's judgment in all
three respects.

I. Factual Background

Griffith was employed by the Hal Lowrie organization
for many years. Beginning in 1985, his primary duties
were as National Director of a chain of topless nightclubs
known as P.T.'s. However, he maintained involvement
with the "massage parlors" which are the subject of this
case. Griffith lived and worked in Denver, Colorado, while
the "massage parlors" were located in Illinois in the St.
Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area.

In late 1985 and early 1986, though residing in Denver,
Griffith directed the remodeling of one of the houses of
prostitution in Illinois and helped to select its manager.
Griffith also was one of five individuals who received
weekly cash payments o f $2000, which were skimmed
from the proceeds of the prostitution operations. These
cash payments were often sent via Federal Express. How-
ever, Griffith sometimes hand-carried both his own and
Lowrie's shares of the skimmed cash back to Denver.
Griffith knew that these funds were derived from the pro-
stitution businesses and was aware of the way in which
the finances of that business were conducted, including
the fact that the prostitutes made interstate telephone
calls to secure approval of charge car d payments for pros-
titution services.

The prostitution enterprises were aided in their endeavor
to esca pe law enforcement efforts by widespread official
corruption. Members of the Lowrie organization bribed
various local government and law enforcem ent officials in-
cluding the mayor of the Village of Brooklyn, an alder-
man, police officers and a state liq uor control inspector.
Griffith admitted in his guilty plea to having participated
in the decision to pay the mayor of the Village of Brooklyn
$ 250 per week in order to influence him not to take ac-
tion against the Lowrie prostitution enterprise.

II. M otion to Dismiss the Money Laundering Count

Griffith moved to dismiss the money laundering count
on two grounds, only one of which he press es on appeal.
Specifically, he contends that his conviction of money
laundering required the court to make a cha in of statutory
linkages which was so tenuous as to render the launder-
ing statute's application to his case constitutionally infirm.
The cha in of statutes invoked by the indictment leads
from money laundering back to RICO and thence to the
Travel Act. S tate prostitution offenses are predicate of-
fenses for the Travel Act. Griffith argues that these stat-
utes are ambiguous in their applicat ion to his conduct and,
hence, that the rule of lenity demands that the money
laundering count be dismissed. On ap peal, Griffith adds
the new argument that, in light of the Supreme Court's
recent Lopez decision, Congress lacks the authority to
punish his participation in a crime, such as prostitution,
which has traditionally been a matter of local concern.
United Sta tes v. Lopez, 115 S. Ct. 1624 (1995).

Returning to Griffith's statutory argument, we note that
the federal money laundering statute rea ds, in relevant
part:

(a)(1) Whoever, knowing that the property involved
in a financial transaction represents the proceeds of
some form of unlawful activity, conducts or attempts
to conduct such a financial transaction which in fact
involves the procee ds of specified unlawful activity--

(A)(i) with the intent to promote the carrying on
of specified unlawful act ivity;

. . .

shall be sentenced [to a fine or a term of imprison-
ment].

18 U.S.C. sec. 1956.

The money laundering count of Griffit h's indictment al-
leged the use of various bank accounts in Illinois and
Missouri, carrying the names of several leg itimate or
legitimate-appearing businesses, to handle the proceeds
of the prostitution; the maintenance of various credit card
merchant a ccounts in the same names for the same pur-
poses; the use of interstate telephone calls to obtain ap-
proval of credi t card transactions in payment for prostitu-
tion services; the use of Federal Express for the inter-
state transport of skimmed cash pr oceeds for Griffith and
Lowrie in Denver; and Griffith's personal carriage of
skimmed cash to Denver for his personal b enefit and for
delivery to Lowrie.

Griffith objects to the statutory analysis which brings
his state prostitution offenses within the ambit of the
"specified unlawful activity" forming the basis of a money
laundering charge. The money laundering statu te elabo-
rates "specified unlawful activity" in some detail. State
prostitution offenses are not among the specified crimes.
However, according to the statute,

(7) the term "specified unlawful activity" means--

(A) any act or activity constituting an offense listed
in section 1961(1) of this title [with various excep-
tions];
. . . .

18 U.S.C. sec. 1956(7).

Turning to 18 U.S.C. sec. 1961(1) (which defines the predi-
cate acts for a RICO violation), we note that the offenses
listed there inclu de "any act which is indictable under any
of the following provisions of title 18, United States Code:
. . . section 1952 (relating to racketeering) . . . ." 18 U.S.C.
sec. 1961(1)(B).

Section 1952 is the Travel Act, which provides:

(a) Whoever travels in interstate or foreign com-
merce or uses the mail or any facility in interstate
or foreign commerce, with intent to--

(1) distribute the proceeds of unlawful activity; or
. . .

(3) otherwise promote, manage, carry on, or facil-
itate the promotion, management, establishment, or
carrying on, of any unlawful activity,

and thereafter performs or attempts to perform [any
of the acts specified in subparagraphs (1), (2), and (3),
shall be fined or imprisoned].

18 U.S.C. sec. 1952(a). The Trav el Act provides its own defini-
tion of "unlawful activity," which includes "any business
enterprise involving . . . prostitution of fenses in violation
of the laws of the State in which they are committed . . . ."
18 U.S.C. sec. 1952(b).

Griffith's st ate prostitution offenses, which involved the
use of facilities of interstate commerce, seem to meet the
definition of "unlawful activity" under the Travel Act.
Travel Act violations are among the list of predicate of-
fenses for a RICO charge. Any of the se violations can,
in turn, constitute the "specified unlawful activity"
covered by the money laundering statute. Thus, Griffith,
in using interstate facilities to conduct RICO affairs in-
volving prostitution, and in carrying out financial trans-
actions furthering the prostitution enterprise, subjected
himself to a money laundering prosecution.

Griffith complains, however, tha t the indictment employed
a sequence of tenuous statutory connections to convert
a minor state offense into a major violation of federal law.
In that respect, the breadth of the federal money launder-
ing statute has engendered some criticism. While we ha ve
upheld convictions based on a stacking of statutes very
much like that challenged here, we have voiced concern
that these cases "demonstrate[ ] how an aggressive
United States Attorney can use the money laundering
statute as a means to take over from s tate prosecutors
the prosecution of long-established state crimes and, in
the process, secure more draconian sentences and in crease
the population of the already overcrowded federal prisons."
United States v. Montague, 29 F.3d 317, 318 (7th Cir.
1994). See also United States v. Campione, 942 F.2d 429
(7th Cir. 1991). Thus, Griffith's complaint is not novel and
has earlier evoke d concern.

But, it is not our function to critique statutes--either
alone or in combination. Congress, which, of course, is the
statutory font, recently rejected an attempt by the Sen-
tencing Commission to tie sentences for money launder-
ing to sentences for the underlying criminal conduct. This
approach would have reduced the sentences imposed in
cases like this one. This r efusal by Congress to adopt an
ameliorative measure indicates an intent to impose strict
punishment for money laundering, even when it is associ-
ated with relatively minor underlying offenses.

In any event, Griffith's suggestion that the money laundering
statute is either vague or ambiguous as applied to
the facts of this case is simply unfounded. The statutory
structure inv olved is admittedly somewhat complicated--it
takes three steps to get from state prostitution to federal
money laundering. But complication is not tantamount to
unconstitutional vagueness. Here, each step in the stat-
utory analysis is well-defined. The l ink between statutes
is provided by the definitions of prerequisite unlawful
activity in the respective statutes. In combinati on, these
linked statutes provide a clear path from prostitution to
money laundering. When each intermediate step in an
analytica l chain is clear and unambiguous, the final step,
though perhaps a surprise, is clear and unambiguous as
well.

In this ca se, Griffith's involvement with the Lowrie
organization exposed him to federal prosecution and this
is not even surprising. Griffith's criminal activity lies near
the core of longstanding congressional concerns. Congress
has been concerned with the operation of interstate prosti-
tution enterprises at least since its passage of the Mann
Act, now at 18 U.S.C. secs. 2421-24, in 1910. Bribery of local
law enforcement and government officials is just the sort
of corruption connoted by the term "racketeering" and
targeted by various federal statutes. Most pertinently, the
Lowrie organization commingled funds from its legitimate
and its i llegal businesses and funneled proceeds of illegal
activities through legitimate financial channels. This proc-
ess conceale d the source of the funds and coincided quite
well with popular images of "money laundering." The ex-
tensive, multi-state nature o f the illegal activities of the
Lowrie enterprise thus suggests that the spirit, as well
as the letter, of the money launde ring statute was prop-
erly served in this case.

Further, we reject Griffith's argument that the relation-
ship of his activities to interstate commerce is too tenuous
to support federal jurisdiction under Lopez. One can
imagine a scenario where a local prostitution offense might
lack a federal dimension. Here, however, unlike the gun
possession near a school in Lopez, Griffith's actions in
their essence involved interstate commerce.

III. Application of the Sentencing Guidelines

Griffith argues that the district court misapplied the
Sentencing Guidelines. He was sentenced using a base of-
fense level of 29 for the RICO count s. Because of the
Guideline multiple-count sentencing provisions, this base
offense level was actually derived from the mo ney laundering
guideline. On the money laundering count itself, Grif-
fith was sentenced at the statutory maximum of five years
(whic h was less than his sentence as finally computed at
level 29). He contends that it is unfair that he should
receive a sen tence, calculated from the money launder-
ing guideline, which is longer than the statutory maximum
for money laundering.

Griffith's sentence was computed using the grouping
provisions of the Sentencing Guidelines. USSG secs. 3D1.1,
3D1.2, 3D1.3. Thes e provisions dictate the extent to which
multiple convictions result in concurrent, rather than con-
secutive, sentences. The basic ph ilosophy of the group-
ing provisions is to assign sentences based on the harm
inflicted, rather than on the way in whic h the prosecutor
framed the indictment.

Because all three counts of which Griffith was convicted
involved "substantially the same harm" they were all ap-
propriately included in a single group./1 Following the man-
date of the Guidelines, the sentenci ng court then used
"the offense guideline that produces the highest offense
level" to determine the appropriate "total punishment"
for all of Griffith's criminal conduct. USSG sec. 3D1.3. The
highest offense level among Griffith's three counts of con-
vic tion corresponded to the money laundering count. Grif-
fith's "total punishment" was based on this offense level
of 29.

Once the to tal punishment has been determined accord-
ing to the grouping rules, the Guidelines require the im-
position of an agg regate sentence corresponding to the
total punishment. The Guidelines specify precisely how the
total punishment is to be allocated to the counts of con-
viction. Ordinarily, when a single offense level is assigned
to a group of counts, "except as otherwi se required by
law (see sec. 5G1.1(a), (b)), the sentence imposed on each . . .
count shall be the total punishment . . ." and the sen-
tences run concurrently. USSG sec. 5G1.2(b)./2

Because, in Griffith's case, the total punishment corre-
sponding to offense level 29 was greater than the stat-
utory maximum for the money laundering count, the
"except as otherwise required by law" pro viso was in-
voked. According to USSG sec. 5G1.1(a), "[w]here the statu-
torily authorized maximum sentence is less th an the min-
imum of the applicable guideline range, the statutorily
authorized maximum sentence shall be the guideline sen-
tence." Follo wing these explicit guideline instructions, the
sentencing court imposed the total punishment on each
of the RICO cou nts and the statutory maximum on the
money laundering count.

The Guideline text leaves no doubt as to the correct-
ness of this interp retation of the multiple-count sentenc-
ing provisions. The Commentary to sec. 5G1.2 (which is, of
course, binding o n the federal courts) reiterates that "[t]o
the extent possible, the total punishment is to be imposed
on each count."

Griffith maintains that, in spite of this, the sentencing
court's interpretation should be rejected because it "de-
prive[s] him [of] a sentencing limited by the statutory max-
imum set by Congress." Def. Br. at 27 n. 3. He argues
basically that, since the offense level which dictated his
total punishment originated with the money laundering
guideline, he is, in effect, being subjected to a sentence
for money laundering in excess of the statutory maximum
(even though the sentence was technically imposed on the
RICO count s). This argument, while seemingly plausible,
is fallacious. Griffith was not convicted solely of money
laundering. The sentence imposed upon him, while it cor-
responds to the base offense level for the money launder-
ing count, is imposed as a total pun ishment for all of his
criminal conduct.

The aggregate computation of this sentence as higher
than the statutory maximum for money laundering follows
directly from the fact that the money laundering guideline
imposes base offense levels which frequent ly exceed the
statutory maximum for the offense. As noted, Congress
has explicitly rejected a recent proposal by the Sentenc-
ing Commission to reduce the money laundering offense
levels to correspond more closely to those assigned to the
underlying crimi nal activity. Since the current, relative-
ly high offense levels come into play only when a defen-
dant has, as here, been convicted of multiple, related of-
fenses, one can only infer from the Congressional action
that high sentences for money launderin g are consistent
with Congressional intent in these multiple-count circum-
stances.

Thus, the sentences imp osed by the district court follow
from a correct application of the Sentencing Guidelines,
were within the statutory maximum for each offense and
were, so far as we can discern, in accord with the intent
of Congress.

IV. Constitutionality of the Sentenc ing Guidelines
as Applied to Griffith

Griffith's final argument on appeal is that the Sentenc-
ing Commission's actions in promulgating the Sentencing
Guidelines are invalid in various respects: that the Sen-
tencing Commission's actions have, in prac tice, violated
the separation of powers; that the Commission's failure
to promulgate rules for its proceedings violates the due
process clause; that the Guidelines violate the bicameral
passage and presentment requirements; and that the Guide-
lines are inconsistent with the statutory mandates which
dictate the powers of the Commission.

A. Separation of Powers

The Supreme Court upheld the S entencing Guidelines
and the Commission in the face of a separation of powers
argument in Mistretta v. United States, 488 U.S. 361
(1989). Griffith argues, however, that the functioning of
the Commission since that decision mandates that the
separation of powers question be reevaluated in two re-
spects. First, he claims that, in practice, the functioning
of the Sentencing Commission has undermined its char-
acterization as a rulemaking body within the judiciary and
revealed the Commission to be a "Junior Varsity Con-
gress." Second, he contends that the executive branch,
through its prosecutors, exercises undue sway over the
Sentencing Commission's activities.

1. The Sentencing Commission as "Junior Varsity
Congress"

Griffith's argument that the Co mmission is inappropri-
ately engaged in the promulgation of legislation is not
significantly different from the proposition advanced and
rejected in Mistretta. While Griffith seeks to distinguish
his argument on the grounds that it is addressed to the
ac tual functioning of the Sentencing Commission rather
than to its inherent structure, he does not succeed in
showing that there is some aspect of the current situa-
tion that would render the reasoning of Mistretta no
longer applicable.

Griffith repeat s the argument that the Sentencing Com-
mission exercises powers properly preserved to the legis-
lature. H e does not, however, demonstrate that its exer-
cise of legislative power is more extensive than already
acknowledged by the Supreme Court in Mistre tta. The
Court was well aware, when it decided Mistretta, that the
promulgation of Sentencing Guidelines w as not entirely
analogous to the promulgation of rules of procedure and,
further, that the Commission's work would be "significant-
ly political." Mistretta, 488 U.S. at 393. However, the
Court noted that "[o]ur separation-of-powers analysis does
not turn on the labeling of an activity as 'substantive' as
opposed to 'procedural', or 'political' as opposed to 'judi-
cial.' " Id.

Instead, the Court based its ruling on its conclusion that
"locating the Commission within the Judicial Branch pose[s]
no thr eat of undermining the integrity of the Judicial
Branch or of expanding the powers of the Judiciary be-
yond constitutional bounds by uniting within the Branch
the political or quasi-legislative power of the Commission
with the judicial power of the court s." Id. This conclu-
sion was based, in large degree, on the fact that the
power to determine sentences had always resided in the
judicial branch and on the extent of Congressional over-
sight of the Commission's activities.

Griffith's arguments do no t call into question the Court's
conclusion that the Commission would not tread on the
toes of the Congress. Specifically, he argues that, because
th e Commission has been unresponsive to the concerns
of the judiciary and because Sentencing Guidelines cas es
now compose a substantial fraction of the federal court
docket, the expectations upon which the Mistretta deci-
sion rested are now exposed as unre alistic. We fail to see
how either of these specific criticisms advances Griffith's
argument.

Griffi th's argument is that the Commission (which is
part of the judicial branch) is exercising legislative author-
ity properly reposed in Congress./3 Any f ailure of the Com-
mission to respond to judicial criticism of the Guidelines
is not a separation-of-po wers matter, however, since both
the Commission and the Judiciary reside in the same
branch. In any event, at least without further elabora-
tion, the argument that the Commission does not respond
to judicial concerns seems plainly untenable, given the fa ct
that three of the Commission's seven members are federal
judges.

The observation that federal judges now expend a sub-
stantial amount of effort interpreting the Sentencing Guide-
lines is true but immaterial. The thrust of this argument
is apparen tly that the frequency with which the Guidelines
are litigated reveals their importance. This is not a new
insight. The sentencing decision has always b een of great
importance and has always been made by the judiciary.
In the past, sentencing decisions were rarely litigated due
to their highly discretionary nature. The frequent litiga-
tion of Sentencing Guidelines issues does not indicate that
the judic iary has invaded a field formerly occupied by
Congress or that Congress has improperly delegated its
own legislative authority to the judiciary. Indeed, Con-
gress now exercises more authority over sentencing deci-
sions, through its ability to reject the Commission's pro-
posals, than it did in the pre-Guidelines era.

In sum, Griffith has not succee ded in advancing any
persuasive arguments for departing from the Supreme
Court's prior analysis of the separation of powers issue
as applied to the "legis lative" power of the Commission.
Id. at 380-97.

2. Prosecutorial Influence on Sentencing

Griff ith also argues that the executive branch, through
its prosecutors, holds inappropriate sway over the Sen-
tencing Commission, and, hence, over the judicia l branch.
Griffith did not raise this argument in the district court
and the government argues that it is forfeited on appeal.
A successful allegation of prosecutorial intrusion into the
sentencing process might survive plain error review, how-
ever. In a ny event, though he raises an interesting and
important issue, which has been the subject of much
scholarly comment, Griffith's particular arguments in this
regard cannot prevail.

Griffith first complains that the Guidelines have, on the
whole, increased the severity of criminal sentences and
alleges that "the Commission has come to be widely per-
ceived as closely identified with the Department of Jus-
tice, and as little more than an arm of that department."
Def. Br. at 41. While it may be the case that prosecutors
on the whole favor increased sentences, Griffith presents
us with no rationale no r anything beyond a supposed pub-
lic perception that links the higher sentences resulting
from the Guidelines to that prosecutorial preference.

Next, Gr iffith points to USSG sec. 5K1.1, which requires
a motion from the government before a downward depar-
ture for "substantial assistance to authorities" may be
granted. He argues that the result of this guidelines pro-
vision is that "[w]ithout the 'permission' of the U.S. Attor-
ney, the courts are required to apply the rigid criteria set
out in the guideline manual and impose the often draconian
sentences provided therein." Def. Br. at 42. However, the
departure for substantial assistance is only one of a num-
ber of provisions which allow judges to depart from the
rigid application of the guideline s and it is the only type
of departure which the government must approve. We
might agree that the Guidelines, taken as a whole, con-
strain the discretion to depart in an undesirable manner.
However, the decision to condition a departure for sub-
stantial assistance to the government on a prosecutorial
motion does not necessarily indicate undue prosecutorial
influence on the framing of the Sentencing Guideline s.
How else would a court determine whether a defendant
had "substantially assisted" the governm ent if not to ask
the government's representative? Thus, the existence of
this departure provision does not support Griffith's argu-
ment that the Sentencing C ommission is dominated by the
executive branch.

B. Procedural Due Process

Griffith next a rgues that the failure of the Commission
to adopt written rules and regulations governing its pro-
cedures violates due process. This argument was not spe-
cifi cally raised below, Griffith having raised merely a
broad due process challenge and the govern ment argues
that the argument has been forfeited. In any event, the
argument fails on the merits.

Griffith contends that the failure of the Commission to
ena ct rules or regulations has allowed it to be arbitrary
and capricious in fashioning the Guide lines and that he,
in particular, has suffered from the Commission's failure
to follow the statutory directive to "insure that the guide-
lines reflect the genera l appropriateness of imposing a
sentence other than imprisonment in cases in which the
defen dant is a first offender who has not been convicted
of a crime of violence or an otherwise serious offense. . . ."
28 U.S.C. sec. 994(j).

Griffith's contention that the Sentencing Reform Act re-
quires the Commission to promulgate rules and regula-
ti ons governing its procedure is simply unsupported. He
refers, in this regard, to 28 U.S.C. sec. 994(o). Nowhere does
that subsection mandate the adoption of proced ural rules
by the Commission. As the government points out, the
Commission is authorized to adopt such rules, 28 U.S.C.
sec. 995(a)(1), if necessary. The Commission has apparently
not found it necessary to do so. The Congressional ap-
proval requirement c losely cabins the discretion of the
Commission in designing the Guidelines. Thus, the Com-
mission need not promulgate rules for its proceedings in
order to provide due process.

In any event, while the Sentencing Reform Act directs
that sentences othe r than imprisonment are appropriate
for first offenders who have committed relatively minor
crimes, Congress' rejection of the money laundering guide-
line amendment demonstrates that it apparently does not
view money laundering as one of these minor crim es. Act
of October 30, 1995, P.L. 104-38 (1995).

C. Bicameral Passage and Presentment Challenges

The argument that the Sentencing Guidelines violate the
Presentment Clause has been previously rejected by this
court as inconsistent with Mistretta. United States v. Macias,
930 F.2d 567 (7th Cir. 1991). In light of this prior precedent,
G riffith's argument on this point is patently meritless.

D. Statutory Challenges

Lastly, Griffith argues that the Guidelines violate var-
ious statutory mandates intended to limit the Commis-
sion's discretion. These include: the requirement that the
Guidelines be formulated to minimize the likelihood that
prison capacity will be exceeded, 28 U.S.C. sec. 994(g); the
requirement that first offenders who have commit ted re-
latively minor offenses receive non-prison sentences, 28
U.S.C. sec. 994(j); the requirement that sentences be no
greater than necessary to comply with the purposes of
punishment, 18 U.S.C. sec. 3553(a); the requirement that no
limitation be place d on the information about an offender
which may be considered by a court in imposing sentence,
18 U.S.C. sec. 3661.

As the government points out, Griffith fails to explain
how he has been specifically injured by any of these al-
leged failings of the Commission and thus lacks standing
to pursue them. The suggestion that the money laun der-
ing guideline violates 28 U.S.C. sec. 994(j) by not prescrib-
ing a sentence other than a term of imprisonment for
cases such as his is, as already noted, contradicted by
Congress' rejection of the Commission's attempts to pro-
vide lower sentences f or that offense.

V. Conclusion

In conclusion, we affirm Griffith's conviction and sen-
tence. The district court correctly refused to dismiss the
money laundering count, since the statutes involved were
neither vague nor ambiguous. The court also co rrectly
applied the grouping provisions of the Guidelines in calcu-
lating Griffith's aggregate sentence and the sentences
imposed on the respective counts were proper. Finally,
we reject, as inconsistent with Mistretta, Griffith's argu-
ments that the Sentencing Guidelines are unconstitutional
as applied to his case.

AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES
/1
More specifically, Counts 1 and 2 were first grouped
according to sec. 3D1.2(a) and then that group was further
grouped with Count 3 according to sec. 3D1.2(d).

/2
If, as was not the case here, the maximum allowable
penalty for the count carrying the highest statutory max-
imum is insufficient, sentences are to be imposed con-
secutively to the extent necessary to achieve the required
total punishment. USSG se c. 5G1.2(d). Griffith makes
reference, as apparently the government did in the course
of the sentencing proceedings, to this subsection.
However, this subsection has no application to this case,
since the statutory maximum for the RICO count was suf-
ficient to encompass the calculated total punishment.


He does not argue that the Commission usurps the
judicial authority to impose sentence.



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