Jane isnt her real name. For the fifth time in 52 years, Frank went off to prison. Frank Colacurcio Jr - Stratford, Connecticut, United States In the early 1990s, Colacurcio pleaded guilty to tax fraud at strip clubs he ran in Alaska and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. She uses that freedom to advocate loudly for what dancers need. Each year, the council reviewed the moratorium. Though requirements of his probation ordered him to stay away from the topless business, Frank nonetheless had an office in the agency, witnesses say, complete with some of his infamous press clips on the wall. He had to have the honor. Colacurcio Family Obituaries | Colacurcio Last Name Obits In 1981, Junior testified as a hostile government witness "I look at Frank Colacurcio as my dad, my friend and a very special person." Colacurcio says he doesn't spend much time wondering how things might have been. He's been banned from working in the adult entertainment industry for life and said he is currently a "consultant" for a strip club called Kittens Cabaret in Georgetown. In 1991, Frank Sr. and Frankie were back in court. Owner of 1-800-DRIVEWAY in the 203 area code. Going off to the slammer has been nothing more than an inconvenience for Frank. Hadn't they made the inroads to prevent this? "[7] The investigation focused on Frank Sr, Frank Jr., and former Washington Governor Albert Rosellini for bribing members of the Seattle City Council. Frank didnt have a high regard for women; between the first assault in the 1940s and the last in the 1990s, there were myriad dancers, girlfriends, and prostitutes with Franks pawprints all over them, former employees say. Sixteen years later, Wills told The Stranger that the Colacurcios had "bundled campaign funds to me, Judy, and Jim." In 2005, both Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. were indicted, but in February 2006 the judge dismissed the charges. Its one of those wood-burl tables, for sale for $600. Immigrating first to New York, William followed other relatives to Seattle and became a hard-working truck farmer in South King County. The Colacurcio Bros. Amusement Co. (Frank, Bill, and other brother Sam), was rumored to be strong-arming customers and sabotaging rivals. The folklore that I remember growing up here in Seattle is that this was organized crime, if you will, and Mr. Colacurcio has no history suggesting that; there is no history of violence, there is no history of witness intimidation, there is no history of narcotics trafficking. ", The North Seattle Star, Media Hypocrisy, and Life Experience. Wills told The Stranger during our endorsement meeting this year that Rosellini was a mentor to her and had asked her to "help solve a small business issue. Was Former Seattle Family Part of Official Mafia? That is a source of outrage to some and frustration to others. This settlement 's'made between Frank lacurcio, Jr. and Fr Colacurcio, Sr., (jo' ly, "Respondents") an ayne Barnett, Exe tive Director of the eattle Ethics and E tions Commission (co ectively, the "Parties". One became the object of affection of a local politician who was friendly with Frank, he says. The divorce settlement left her with several properties in addition to the Poulsbo house and $3,000 a month, but she says she is hardly living in luxury. The indictments alleged Colacurcio Sr . 86 - died November 30, 2011 at her home. Frank Colacurcio, Sr. died in June 2010, still under indictment for the RICO conspiracy. Frank was breaking up with laughter when the unknowing politico raced up to the bar and ordered more drinks for me and my girl. Their old pal, an ex-con named Gilbert Kapuha Pauole Jr., to whom they had loaned $200,000 to start up the clubs, had skimmed the profits at the direction of Frank and Frankie. Which is not to say that the story of Frank Colacurcio, 79, Seattles next-best thing to a criminal godfather, has necessarily reached its final chapter. At Franks trial in 1971, a nightclub owner testified he once paid Colacurcio $3,000 a month for police protection. This political involvement meant persuading his friends and associates to donate the maximum limit to city council candidates. Frankie lives with his wife and 14-year-old daughter in Arlington, Snohomish County, drives a 1991 Corvette and collects muscle . She sits down and rubs it and pokes around and starts asking about it. Frank Colacurcio Jr, son of the Boss of the Colacurcio Criminal Org/Family (Seattle). 2003 epilogue: Frank Colacurcio Sr. was eventually released from prison, is retired, lives in Seattle, and fishes in Alaska regularly. This agreem is binding Wills even told The Stranger, almost laughing, that, "The Dej Vu guy [Forbes] maxes out to every council member every year, right around the moratorium. His undisclosed testimony became part of a headline-grabbing 1960s probe of the pinball industry, which led to passage of a law banning the gambling devices in Seattle, and spilled over into the 1970s kickback/payoff scandal. This case represented a difficult problem of proof because of the respondents background.). Francis Colacurcio Sr. (June 18, 1917 July 2, 2010)[1] was an American mobster and boss of the Seattle crime family known for running strip clubs in Seattle, Washington. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Todd Greenberg and Tessa Gorman. Granted, it was on a snow day for Seattle Public Schools and most dancers couldnt find childcare, Cole said. That conviction was reversed on appeal. I talked with Frank Colacurcio Jr. to see what he recalled from the 16-year-old event. They led him down the street, bloodied and looking like someone happy to be arrested. That was his deal, he didnt trust anyone. A bill partially unwinding a 2021 policing reform clears the Legislature. For Sale: Colacurcio house in Lake Forest Park He pauses. "The donations were a way to get their attention. USDOJ: US Attorney's Office - WAW Frank said no way! That mentality seemed to be at play in a much larger issue: A strip club moratorium that had been in place since 1988. I keep saying that Id like to talk about other issues, but theres not enough time, Cole said. Each year, existing club owners like Deja Vu's Roger Forbes donated to the council around the time when the moratorium was being voted on. He looked like the president of the United States or something, says a former employee. The Seattle crime family, also known as the Colacurcio crime family[1][2][3] or Seattle Mafia, is a crime family based in Seattle, Washington. Rather than marry, hed do the time, and did: two years for carnal knowledge. During a 197O trial, in which Colacurcio was found guilty of assaulting a former bartender who was a police agent, a detective testified that the nightclub operator also was being investigated for vice, narcotics, dangerous drugs, assaults and prostitution. "Dancers tolerate a lot of bad behavior," Jane said. In court, Frank politely asked the judge if, before he started serving his time, he could maybe take a trip to Canada and Alaska, and spend the summer-perhaps the last summer ever, your honor-fishing off his boat. In a deposition in the divorce case, his mother, Jackie, wondered if Frankie was up to the job. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Business rivals claimed that he used threats to control the trade. She has been to a number of the advisory committee meetings and confirmed that "there hasnt been a huge number of people actually in the room" and only a small number of dancers were present. Hello, and welcome to Strippergate 101, a history lesson. I talked with Frank Colacurcio Jr. to see what he recalled from the 16-year-old event. Frankie pleaded guilty in 1991 to the felony charge of tax fraud but, like his father, says it was a setup. That manifested in a bill that accomplished four main things: putting panic buttons in VIP rooms, implementing a customer blacklist for bad actors, creating a mandatory training for dancers to complete, and establishing an adult entertainer advisory committee. In 2003, a criminal investigation began in Seattle known as "Strippergate" focusing on strip clubs owned by Frank Colacurcio, Sr. and his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr.[5] In 2008, local police and federal agents raided Colacurcio's home and business. "I did not know what they were. Other Colacurcio brothers had run-ins with the law. His appeal on the first tax conviction failed, however, and Frank went off to the federal lockup. I mean, this is the scariest thing thats ever happened to me. Still, he professes to not even know a ballpark figure of either his income or his net worth. Media attention became rampant. Theres still quite a road ahead. With this final sentencing, the government will move to take control of the Ricks, Sugars and Talents West properties and put them up for sale. Robin Price's daughter A Life of Crime . Colacurcios trial was the centerpiece of local corruption scandals back then. July 2, 2010. Frank said they werent fighting fair. His parole officer said a plea agreement designed by his lawyer ensured that Frankie, now 33, would be allowed to run the clubs once he was released. But in 2003, when the council voted on the zoning issue again, it passed 5-4, thanks in part to three Seattle city council members: Judy Nicastro, Jim Compton, and Heidi Wills, who collectively had received $36,000 in their campaign coffers from the Colacurcios and people connected to them. The indictment further details how credit card machines and ATMs were used to facilitate the prostitution and how the proceeds of prostitution were laundered through various bank accounts. While the scandal was resolved, the appropriate council members fined, the dirty campaign funds returned, the re-zoning law repealed, and, eventually, the moratorium lifted, has enough time passed for Heidi Wills to be trusted again as a Seattle council member? Seattle's Frank Colacurcio - YouTube They were in separate prisons, notes a Seattle detective. So Frank goes to work and tracks the guy down in San Francisco. "I see it no differently than a Denny's, a Fred Meyer or a Hard Rock Cafe," he says. "It takes a lot for them to say, 'This guy is out of line,' because were trying to make money. One of his attorneys, John Wolfe, told a federal judge last year that Franks Mafia links were local myth: I mean, there is a lot of folklore about this gentleman. There was no guarantee that they would vote for or against it.". He spied on the girls, on the office help, watching people have sex. Now, I know that for many of you long-time Seattleites, you already remember Strippergate. A parade of police and officials were linked to an illegal gambling/payoff system in Seattle bars and bingo parlors. Two Colacurcios face charges over 'Strippergate' "But theres so many rules that council members need to know." Heidi Wills, the Seattle City Council candidate currently running in District 6 against Dan Strauss, was one of the council members who found herself at the center of this major local drama. Saturday, May 31, 2014. As Frankie put it a while back to a Seattle Times reporter, discussing his six-month tour of duty in the federal system, It didnt bug me that much except you dont have women, which is horrible. The key to a good business, he says, is consistency. Cole would like to make it illegal. He started our conversation talking about how he didn't even remember Heidi Wills and has only been paying attention to Council Member Kshama Sawant's race. "You keep so busy, I've got so many things on my mind.". Mary Engrav answered Emergency Medicine 32 years experience. . "How do you define criminal?" Last year, strippers (also called dancers) organized with Working Washington to get their concerns about the industrya highly regulated mess that has created a virtual monopoly in the stateheard by legislators. ", First of all, Jane told me, I think if someone is blacklisted from a club they would be embarrassed to sue the clubmost of our customers are married men. Cant remember if he got the operation or is gonna get it. In 1959, Colacurcio was subpoenaed by the U.S. Senate Rackets Investigating Committee to testify in a nationwide probe of the coin-machine industry. In the following years Colacurcio continued to expand his strip-club business. Still, he spends nearly every day at Talents West, the cramped, cluttered Lake City hiring headquarters for the clubs. But hey, Franks a macho guy. When Jane spoke out about workplace issues last year the club retaliated in sneaky ways. He knows that doing time goes with the work, says a friend, although, the odd thing is, I think he could have gotten just as rich doing it all legit. Boom, coins all over, and youre down the street. Frank, meanwhile, was working on another regular appearance behind bars. Since the divorce settlement, ex-wife Jackie Colacurcio has lived in a modest bayfront home in Poulsbo, trying to avoid the spotlight. "I call it comfortable.". Conviction overturned on appeal; case awaiting retrial. Bill went on to New Orleans where he was convicted in the 1980s for racketeering. Suddenly, the glass in the door shattered and flew into the club. frank colacurcio construction "It's 36 years of being with him that I've watched. They only meet once a month for three to four hours. In exchange, federal prosecutors agreed to dismiss fourteen other charges. "None will last if not run properly.". Each year, they voted to extend it. best 10mm semi auto rifle. Frank Sr.: from modest roots to racketeer | The Seattle Times (A longtime Colacurcio associate recalls there were three pre-operative transsexuals or transvestites who danced as women at Franks clubs. Crime family based in Seattle, Washington, Frank Colacurcio Sr., Seattle's legendary organized-crime figure, dies at 93, Everett strip club a front for brothel, feds say, Strip club sting foreshadows possible federal charges, Colacurcio Sr., five others indicted on a charge of conspiracy and racketeering, "Frank Colacurcio Jr. gets prison term, $1.3M fine", "Frank Colacurcio Jr. We never did tell the guy he was smooching another guy.). Frank Colacurcio Jr. Forgive me while I rehash an issue you probably thought was long-dead. Sam found his way to the federal pen in 1988 for skimming profits from topless bars in Arizona. Frank Colacurcio Jr, son of the Boss of the Colacurcio - Reddit The Strippergate scandal was first broken by the North Seattle Star, now-defunct Lake City paper. A lingering mystery of those long-ago probes has been a tape recording confiscated by U.S. agents from Bill Colacurcios house and said to be prime evidence of corruption by a top Seattle city official. "I have no way of knowing," he says. "At some point, the issue was brought up that no ones going to look at [the lot]," Colacurcio Jr. said, declining to say who told him this. In 1991, Frank, 73, and Frankie, 28, were convicted for failing to pay income taxes on profits skimmed from two clubs in Alaska-the Good Times and the Wild Cherry-between 1980 and 1989. At 73, age was clearly becoming a factor in the continuation of Franks pro-crime crusade. Sentencing in suitcase murders | Podcast, King County Councilmember proposes regional ban on public drug use, King County Crisis Care Levy passing in first election results, Washingtons COVID-19 exposure notification app to end May 11, Firearms scheme leads to federal charges | King County Crime Dive. plate heat exchanger sizing software. After her conversation with Rossellini, Wills showed up at the Land Use Committee, which she was not a member of, and cast a key vote in favor of the re-zone. Sudden sharp pain under right rib cage when bending over ", According to legal documents, property records and what can be extracted from his memory, Frankie is connected to Sugar's, Honey's, Rick's, Fox's, Papagayo's and Babe's dance clubs. [2], Born to immigrant parents from southern Italy, Colacurcio was the eldest of nine children, and worked on his father's vegetable farm in Seattle. During the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones told COLACURCIO, JR. It appears you followed in the footsteps of your father your entire life. You are at a crossroads right now in what you do in your life. The case was investigated by the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and Seattle Police Department with assistance from the King County Sheriffs Department, Everett Police Department, Snohomish County Sheriffs Office, and the Pierce County Sheriffs Office. "I'll never be retired retired," says Colacurcio, 78. He got three years. Frank Colacurcio Jr. appeared in court Friday. Frank Colacurcio Obituary - Monroe, CT - Dignity Memorial She told the officers Frank had sexually attacked her during a visit to his family home in Bellevue. The judge politely refused; after all, how would it look for a probation officer to be supervising the boss of a nudie joint? [6] He served more than a year at the Monroe State Reformatory (now known as the Washington State Reformatory). public synchronized void methodint i string msg. While the public was outraged because the apparent cozy relationship between Rick's and city hall led to eight new parking spaces, they've ignored the same cozy relationship year after year when it has led to a de facto ban on new clubs. Franks star began its notorious rise in the late 1950s, amid a series of hearings and newspaper reports pointing to him as the man behind illegal gambling, prostitution, and payoffs at clubs in downtown Seattle and around the state. Colacurcio Family, Seattle - GangsterBB.NET In fact, Consolidated has donated nearly $9,000 in the last four yearswell over $1,000 coming around moratorium time. "I don't break the law, but who knows? With the permanent closure of these strip clubs, divesting the defendants of millions of dollars, and the transfer of the club properties to the government, Seattle is now a safer and cleaner place to live, said Marcus Williams, the IRS Special Agent in Charge of the Pacific Northwest. In some cases he owns the property; in others he works as a "consultant.". (In a related 1991 case, Nick Furfaro, Franks old friend since they started up the Magic Inn on Union Street in 1963, was convicted of a tax violation and, as part of his short sentence, was told he had to give up his job running one of Franks places, Sugars, the North Seattle soda-pop-and-nude-dancing emporium. The city had turned down the rezoning application for the parking spots twice before 2003, once in 1989 and once in 1998. Forbes contributed $600 to Wills in the spring of 2001. He was a stocky rock of a man, 5-7, 180 pounds, a fisherman when he wasnt angling for money and women, who flashed a well-practiced angelic smile. Hey Frank, one said with a smile and a wave, standing over the battered, near-comatose man, this guy giving you trouble? In 1988, Sam pleaded guilty to profit skimming, Daniel pleaded guilty to obstructing an investigation by providing false information to investigators and prosecutors, and Patrick Colacurcio pleaded guilty to attempted trafficking in stolen property, all related to the operation of topless bars in Arizona. At the same time, the local prosecutor said the Colacurcios' business efforts had "all the earmarks" of a well-financed attempt to take control of the jukebox business in Seattle. Francis Colacurcio Sr. (June 18, 1917 - July 2, 2010) [1] was an American mobster and boss of the Seattle crime family known for running strip clubs in Seattle, Washington. The Stripper King | Seattle Weekly I was among those who talked with Colacurcio back in his more expansive days. A year later, a grand jury indicted Colacurcio; his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr.; and four associates involved in operating four Western Washington strip clubs. "In adult entertainment, the beat goes on.". Frank Colacurcio, Sr., ran a strip-club empire and was depicted as a sort of Godfather of the Pacific Northwest. In April 2006, the state supreme court reinstated money laundering and political corruption charges from Strippergate charges against Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. On June 2, 2008, local police and federal agents raided Frank Sr.'s home in Lake Forest Park, the Talents West offices, and multiple strip clubs in three counties. "I had been a council member for many years and I should have known better," Wills said. A federal grand jury indictment unsealed today charges FRANK COLACURCIO, SR, his son FRANK COLACURCIO, JR, and four of their close associates with a Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization . Nearly six years ago, Seattle police and federal authorities broke up the strip club empire of the late Frank Colacurcio with prostitution and corruption raids in King and Pierce counties.

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