frank colacurcio jr daughter

This story originally was published by Seattle Weekly sibling Eastsideweek on July 10, 1996. Released in 1976, he hadnt missed a beat in prison, and walked out still the reigning prince of nude and topless dancing. Frank Colacurcio Sr., 92, left, and John Gilbert "Gil" Conte enter the federal courthouse in Seattle on Friday for arraignment on racketeering charges. Nightlife figure and nightspot owner were the euphemisms of the day in a town historically disregarded by big-time organized crime (except as a quiet spot for East Coast witness-protection mobsters to hide out). Frank Colacurcio Sr. and his son Frank Jr. and four close associates were indicted in 2009 for conspiring to use their four Western Washington clubs as fronts for prostitution and money laundering. Colacurcio Jr. said it's about "the question of what are the customer's rights" and there "has got to be some sort of fairness in everything. Colacurcio Jr. was fed up with the zoning laws and the city council not listening to his business's pleas. "I see it no differently than a Denny's, a Fred Meyer or a Hard Rock Cafe," he says. I feel like Frankie, if he had to run it and his father wasn't around, I don't think he's capable of doing it.". He spied on the girls, on the office help, watching people have sex. "We've always been very close; he's always given me advice on everything," he says. [10] In June 2010, Colacurcio Jr. pleaded guilty to a racketeering and conspiracy. "It didn't bug me that much except you don't have women, which is horrible," he says. The city had turned down the rezoning application for the parking spots twice before 2003, once in 1989 and once in 1998. She had hosted a campaign fundraising event after the Land Use Committee vote and "Al Rosellini came and added a stack of checks to what was already a stack of checks. FRANK COLACURCIO JR, 48, and corporate defendant MM MR RM CORPORATION were sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle for conspiracy to commit RICORacketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. . Despite city prohibitions, the corrupt practices were tolerated by cops who profited through kickbacks and payoffs (a First Avenue bar operator today says he still has this tendency, when spying a beat cop walking through his door, to put a paper sack full of cash on the bar as he did in the 1960s, and tell the officer, Lunch.) Frankie pleaded guilty to a single felony tax charge. Scandal-ridden Seattle strip club to shut down | king5.com In front of us, a big man began drunkenly banging on the door, tired of waiting. They were in separate prisons, notes a Seattle detective. Writers liked him. 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. In the end, crime never pays, and the results of this investigation prove that.. Yet he is consistently vague about how many dancers he employs and how many clubs he runs. Suddenly, the glass in the door shattered and flew into the club. Franks empire expanded steadily, and by the end of the decade he ran a handful of Seattle and King County clubs and another half-dozen scattered from the Southwest to Alaska. Colacurcio Family, Seattle - GangsterBB.NET Strip club mogul's son pleads guilty | The Spokesman-Review Rosellini was not charged in the investigation. Topless joints are cash operations and Frank learned quickly how to skim off the top, avoiding taxes. July 2, 2010. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Seattle strip club boss Frank Colacurcio Sr., longtime scourge of law [8], On June 30, 2009, Frank Sr., Frank Jr., and four associates were indicted by a federal grand jury on racketeering and other charges stemming from years-long investigations into allegations of prostitution and money laundering. Dont hit me no more, the guy pleaded, crying. The strip clubs run by this organization include Ricks in Seattle, Foxs in Parkland, Pierce County, Honeys in Everett and Sugars in Shoreline. He was always good for a quote about government prosecutors wasting their time on him instead of real criminals and would surround himself with naked women during in-club chats. We never did tell the guy he was smooching another guy.). The woman said Frank first asked her to go home and cuddle and be lovey, then kissed her and offered her money. All except Frank Sr. reached plea deals with the government resulting in his four remaining clubs being . What is he, 100, 150 years old? The King County prosecutor at the time determined that Wills was naive and there was no wrong-doing on her part. "How do you define criminal?" Charges were never filed, but when rival operators claimed the brothers threatened them with bodily harm if they didn't join the Colacurcio Bros. Amusement Co., the Seattle City Council refused to renew William Colacurcio's operating license. Under the terms of the plea agreement, FRANK COLACURCIO, JR., and the . Ann Forbes, also of Consolidated, maxed out to Wills in the spring of 2001. By Posted sevier county septic records Still, he professes to not even know a ballpark figure of either his income or his net worth. Still, he spends nearly every day at Talents West, the cramped, cluttered Lake City hiring headquarters for the clubs. Not surprising, Frank and his busy cash registers caught the eye of authorities. And currently, thats getting clubs and dancers, alike, to agree on rules around these laws and getting the adult advisory committee to come up with the mandatory training for dancers. In June 2008, the FBI, IRS and local police raided the then-90-year-old Colacurcio's home and other . So Frank goes to work and tracks the guy down in San Francisco. The city needs an experienced council member, Wills said. 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. The Colacurcio Bros. Amusement Co. (Frank, Bill, and other brother Sam), was rumored to be strong-arming customers and sabotaging rivals. Sixteen years after "Strippergate" helped cost her a city council seat, Heidi Wills is running for council again. If he gets out of prison alive this time, Id be surprised. 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. Frank Colacurcio Wikipedia Republished // WIKI 2 For example, Levy contributed $600 to Heidi Wills on April 27, 2001; the moratorium was renewed on April 30, 2001. His appeal on the first tax conviction failed, however, and Frank went off to the federal lockup. After the business succeeded, he and Franks mother, also Sicilian, moved the family to the then-rural, farmlike Eastside of the 1930s. In 2005, both Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. were indicted, but in February 2006 the judge . In fact, he credits the trouble with making the good times seem better. The investigation focused on Frank Sr, Frank Jr., and former Washington Governor Albert Rosellini for bribing members of the Seattle City Council. Frank Colacurcio Jr. appeared in court Friday. In 1959, Colacurcio was subpoenaed by the U.S. Senate Rackets Investigating Committee to testify in a nationwide probe of the coin-machine industry. Brutal spasms aside, Frank never quite made the criminal big time. Look at the money theyre throwing at him. Susan Byrnes, Katherine Long, Louis T. Corsaletti. In a split second, Frank was out the door, long steel rod in hand. Crime family based in Seattle, Washington. In 1981, U.S. prosecutors charged him with skimming profits from the Brass Tiger in Federal Way and the Bavarian Gardens in Factoria. "Because in my opinion, he's the one that has all the authority," she said in a deposition. frank colacurcio construction Eight current or former dancers make up the committee. A parade of police and officials were linked to an illegal gambling/payoff system in Seattle bars and bingo parlors. "The majority of the attention we got wasn't deserved.". 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. And despite his highly publicized trials and convictions, Franks sentences havent been necessarily harsh-he got only 30 months in prison and five years probation for the 1991 conviction because the judge figured Frank was a harmless old man. He was self-employed for many years. Having too much back rent is an easy excuse to fire a dancer. The Colacurcio family owned strip clubs all over Washington and nine other states; Frank Sr. had been convicted on charges of racketeering, prostitution, filing false tax returns, and carnal knowledge (for having sex with an underage girl); Frank Jr. had been convicted of racketeering conspiracy; and in general the family was pissed whenever the media called them the mob or mob-adjacent. Earlier this summer, I put up a Facebook post about Wills and Strippergate-a City Hall scandal involving illegal lobbying and political money laundering by Frank Colacurcio, a vicious gangster. Mary Engrav answered Emergency Medicine 32 years experience. There was no guarantee that they would vote for or against it.". Sentenced to Prison in Strip Club Case Colacurcio Jr. Forfeits Millions in Cash and Property", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seattle_crime_family&oldid=1144903083, Organized crime groups in the United States, Articles with dead external links from May 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 March 2023, at 06:01. This was Franks favorite place. Prosecutor and now-retired U.S. Sen. Brock Adams threatened him with prison for contempt. Strippergate (Seattle) and Related Topics - hyperleap.com 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. "In adult entertainment, the beat goes on.". The Strippergate scandal was first broken by the North Seattle Star, now-defunct Lake City paper. In various recorded conversations, the Colacurcios and their associates dissuaded dancers and managers from reporting acts of prostitution and repeatedly returned dancers who were arrested for and caught in acts of prostitution back to the clubs. When Jane spoke out about workplace issues last year the club retaliated in sneaky ways. After release from prison in 1985 for tax evasion, he continued to receive consulting fees from Huns Inc., one of the corporations that runs adult-entertainment clubs. 2005: Found guilty of a misdemeanor, groping a strip-club waitress. [4] In the 1970s, Colacurcio met with Bonanno crime family member Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno in Yakima, WA to discuss a business relationship. public synchronized void methodint i string msg. Colacurcio strongly denied it. Each year, they voted to extend it. Later, while out on parole, Colacurcio was convicted of fondling a woman applying for a job at one of his clubs. The tapes contents never surfaced from the investigation back then, but, says a former Colacurcio associate today, The tape was a recording Bill made of a city councilman describing how the payoff system worked, how the cops picked up the money and then passed it down the line-to him and others. So were talking, and this woman comes up and starts looking at the coffee table between us. Rick's owners face civil charges Seattle newspapers were never quite sure what to call Frank. One of the main sticking points for the clubs is the customer blacklist that would ban bad acting customers. Business rivals claimed that he used threats to control the trade. Seattle crime family - Wikipedia He says his one indulgence is his boat, a 38-foot Bertram called 4PLAY, worth about $80,000. The 1991 conviction, his fourth, brought his running total at that point to nine years in stir the past two decades, and 11 years since 1943. 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". In depositions, Colacurcio has said he often had $100,000 in cash on hand. Frank Colacurcio, Sr. died in June 2010, still under indictment for the RICO conspiracy. "It's not for lack of trying," says former vice-unit supervisor for King County Police, Sgt. Frank Colacurcio Sr., longtime resident of Newtown, Connecticut, passed away on September 28, 2020 at the age of 70. 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. Anders said Colacurcio Jr.'s then-wife, Teena Colacurcio Hines, collected two $600 checks for Wills' campaign from her sister and her sister's boss, and were reimbursed by Hines. "Any politician, I dont care how large or how small, takes more of an interest in people who are donating than people who are not," Colacurcio Jr. said. "I had been a council member for many years and I should have known better," Wills said. PDF The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission in The Maiters of Frank In 1957,[2] he was subpoenaed to testify before the U.S. Senate Rackets Committee. He looked like the president of the United States or something, says a former employee. (She got the Lincoln, the $350,000 house in Kitsap County, stocks, and other property. I'm not going to accuse every doofus who slaps my ass because Im trying to make a profit. That dancer over there, he said, pointing to a topless woman writhing under amber-colored lights on a mirrored stage, thats a guy. Seattle, it turns out, has a storied and very puritanical past when it comes to strip clubs, and The Stranger had a wealth of articles on the subject for me to dig into. His house is jammed between its neighbors on a busy strip of Bothell Way Northeast in Lake Forest Park. Frank quit school in the eighth grade and became a truck farmer. 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. Brother Bill, who became known as the Pinball King of Seattle, and Frank, the Jukebox King, were accused of illegally undercutting competitors in the vending, jukebox, pinball, and cigarette machine business. Besides nude dancing and doing time, their common interests apparently include a longing for females. Saturday, May 31, 2014. In 2003, law enforcement launched a criminal investigation in the Seattle area known as "Strippergate. FRANK COLACURCIO, JR. and corporate defendant MM MR RM CORPORATION both pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle to Conspiracy to Commit RICORacketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. Bill was convicted in 1980 of racketeering and gambling in New Orleans. asks a longtime Seattle detective. As part of his plea agreement, FRANK COLACURCIO, JR. is also barred from participating in any adult entertainment enterprise in the state of Washington for the three-year term of supervised release which will follow his prison sentence. They dont want management to see them there and retaliate against them, myself included.. The big guy was on the pavement, screaming, holding his bloody hands over his battered face as Frank continued to raise the rod to full extension over him. Boom, coins all over, and youre down the street. They only meet once a month for three to four hours. Frank Colacurcio Jr. a.k.a "Frankie" - Son of Frank Sr. Not a good move for an old con on parole. Under the terms of Colacurcio Jr.'s plea agreement, he will be sentenced to a year and a day in prison. In court, the judge looked down and saw a much younger Frank this time. 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. That's been my one drawback. Frank Colacurcio Jr., 47, of Seattle, is the heir to his father's strip club empire, which has waned in recent years as cities have restricted nude dancing. As president of his dads company and combined interests, Talents West and Huns Entertainment of Seattle, Frank Jr. finds himself facing the same nagging problems as Frank Sr.: cops, moralists, probation officers, and zoning laws. In his 1974 federal court tax-evasion trial, Colacurcio conceded he had interests in a number of establishments but said he often kept his interests secret to avoid being denied liquor licenses by the state Liquor Control Board. She also didn't know that she had to disclose that she had met with Rosellini before the council vote, or what Rosellini's history was with the Colacurcios. Wills, who served one four-year term, 2000-03, as an at-large city councilmember, is currently . "None will last if not run properly.". The civil charges against Frank Colacurcio Sr., 89, Frank Colacurcio Jr., 45, and Marsha Furfaro, 67, who is the manager of the Colacurcios' Talents West booking agency for club dancers, will be . A lifelong . For Jane, she would feel much more comfortable advocating for herself and her fellow dancers by saying these kinds of things in meetings if she knew there would be no professional ramifications. The indictments alleged Colacurcio Sr . Bill went on to New Orleans where he was convicted in the 1980s for racketeering. 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. Shira Cole has been out of the dancing business for three years. Frank Colacurcio - Wikipedia [9] In April 2010, Colacurcio Sr.'s nephew Leroy Richard Christiansen along with club manager Steven Michael Fueston, Colacurcio Sr.'s close associate David Carl Ebert, and Colacurcio Sr.'s driver John Gilbert Conte all pleaded guilty to prostitution and racketeering. Son Frankie and his associates paid $1.8 million for the Papagayos property three years ago, and Frank himself is listed in court papers as worth at least $2 million, some of which he split with his wife during a 1993-94 divorce. 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. Besides, Frank was colorful. Immigrating first to New York, William followed other relatives to Seattle and became a hard-working truck farmer in South King County. By 1962, Colacurcio had an interest in several bars, restaurants or nightclubs, including a beer garden at the World's Fair, and had brought topless dancing to Seattle. . [1], In the 1960s, Colacurcio acquired more interests in restaurants and nightclubs. Rather than marry, hed do the time, and did: two years for carnal knowledge. schneider funeral home mt vernon in obituaries frank colacurcio construction. He was 93. "It's 36 years of being with him that I've watched. She uses that freedom to advocate loudly for what dancers need. They sized up their odds, took a deep breath, and pleaded guilty. Bios of the six men indicted | The Seattle Times 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. When questioned about the meeting, Frank Colacurcio replied with I went to Yakima to pick hot peppers, but I didnt pick no bananas.[4] The mention of bananas was a reference to the Bonnano family, which was involved in an internal war referred to by the media as the "Banana Wars". But it wasnt until 1971 that he was first convicted of racketeering-conspiracy and importing illegal bingo cards into Washington-and served two years in federal prison. If passed, the property tax levy will help fund behavioral health infrastructure in the region. 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. However, as Barnett and Feit wrote, Strippergate could not be talked about without talking about the moratorium, which many outlets were ignoring: In the wake of Strippergateand in the context of a questionable moratoriumit's clear the public and press have a hypocritical view of strip clubs. "I've never been an extravagant person," he says, quickly adding, "I have what I desire.". We've all done things that weren't right up to kosher.". ", He says the several months he spent in prison were "more or less a vacation.". Robin Price's daughter A Life of Crime . Many of them written by Erica C. Barnett. Although Colacurcio never testified, Committee Counsel Robert F. Kennedy did question him about his alleged racketeering activities in Seattle. Writing to the court, prosecutors noted that this sentencing is a final chapter in a long running criminal enterprise. He was a subject of ongoing federal investigations into organized crime in the city and was suspected of being an organized crime boss. The mostly cash businesses kept investigators close on his trail, trying to expose crimes associated with the strip clubs. He violated his terms in one fell swoop in May 1995-grabbing, kissing, and propositioning a teenager he was interviewing for a topless job. Cole would like to make it illegal. One day were sitting in the lobby of the Lake Quinault Lodge, by a big fireplace, talking business, says a former employee. "Frank Colacurcio Sr., Seattle's legendary organized-crime figure, dies at 93", "The Stripper King: The story of Frank Colacurcio, the Bellevue boy who built a notorious nightlife empire", "Colacurcio family no stranger to controversy", "Seattle strip-club magnate Frank Colacurcio Sr. dies at 93", "Strip Club Operator and Long Time Alleged Seattle Crime Boss Frank Colacurcio Dead at 93", "Colacurcio Sr. sentenced for assault in club", "Police, feds raid strip clubs: Corruption", "Colacurcio Sr., five others indicted on a charge of conspiracy and racketeering", "Frank Colacurcio Jr. gets prison term, $1.3M fine", "Frank Colacurcio Jr. sentenced to prison in strip club case Colacurcio Jr. forfeits millions in cash and property", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frank_Colacurcio&oldid=1142781914, This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 10:07. His son, Frank Jr., 34, himself an ex-con convicted of skimming bar profits and avoiding federal taxes, continues to operate the primary family enterprise, nude dancing clubs. "It takes a lot for them to say, 'This guy is out of line,' because were trying to make money. 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. Dads legacy to son, thus, was that Babes dancers last year had to keep some of their clothes on. It ended much like it began-with some girl calling the cops. Kinney believes the Colacurcios have no connection to East Coast crime families but are "their own variant of organized crime" - a notion Colacurcio has long scoffed at. (However, most dont show up at the monthly meetings. Pauole was at that point an unindicted co-conspirator safely ensconced in the witness protection program, and in order to stay there, and out of prison again, was ready to finger Frank and Frankie. The government seized the properties, including Sugar's, in 2010. He was behind bars for a total of about six years on separate convictions. Frank will be 82 if and when he gets out by 1999. That mentality seemed to be at play in a much larger issue: A strip club moratorium that had been in place since 1988. Franks star began its notorious rise in the late 1950s, amid a series of hearings and newspaper reports pointing to him as the man behind illegal gambling, prostitution, and payoffs at clubs in downtown Seattle and around the state. The assets of the Colacurcio organization were frozen by the government in June 2008 following a two-year investigation. He pauses. It is up to you, depending on your conduct, to ensure there is no sequel. Judge Jones observed that COLACURCIO, JR. was on the radar screen of the government, and the judge noted that prosecutors would not hesitate to ask that COLACURCIO, JR. be sent back to prison if he violated the terms of his supervised release. "I have no way of knowing," he says. Barnett.) "But theres so many rules that council members need to know." Frankie lives with his wife and 14-year-old daughter in Arlington, Snohomish County, drives a 1991 Corvette and collects muscle . ", "He said that the neighbors didnt want to see additional parking because they didnt like the strip club that had been there for ages," Wills said, "and that he would erectsorry for the play on wordsa large barrier to prevent noise and other altercations from being visible to the surrounding neighbors, and that they would hire a parking lot attendant. "He gives me advice on what shoes to wear.". Colacurcio: No Regrets -- `I'll Never Be Retired Retired. Not Until I'm ", Nathalie Graham reported on city hall for. The indictment follows the restraining order filed . I doubt they want to out themselves as having been in a strip club and having been accused of bad behavior.. And even the road to that progress is difficult for dancers who see these improvements, while necessary, as merely scratching the surface in an industry that many are desperate to change in bigger, more sweeping ways. And no fishing trip. Washington Strippers Won New Workplace Protections Last YearSo Where

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