Privately, Stoneking referred to him as the "walking dead man. Sonnenschein is now serving a one-year sentence and was ordered to pay$1.25 million in fines and restitution.The grand jury investigation centered on the solicitations of prostitution across state lines through ads placed in the St. Louis Riverfront Timesfrom 1994 to2000. One of his shoes was a distance away. He always had taken care of his people. He would become involved in the effort to set up Spica for the kill. The nephew was an improbable mob leader who would add little criminal dignity to the high office of Mafia don. He now could begin to rebuild what was left of his life. A part-time prostitute who was a girlfriend of Berne's agreed. he said to Stram. In each case, he says, Stoneking told the truth. (Later, he got to know Hickey, who never indicated he was aware of the aborted assassination. He had arrived. Besides no one knew he would be there that night. He continued to deny he was a member of the Mafia despite documentation to the contrary. "I never thought nothing about cracking a guy," Stoneking recalled. There was nothing there for him anymore. The City of East St. Louis, Illinois is located immediately east and across the Mississippi River from downtown St. Louis. Kickbacks were common on property purchased by the unions at inflated prices. I won't touch it until you say so. By cracking people." Decisions were being made for him. A thousand years ago, huge pyramids and earthen mounds stood where East St. Louis sprawls today in Southern Illinois. In April 1986, he pleaded guilty in U. S. District Court and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Nine years later, six years after he had become an FBI informant, Stoneking related to this reporter what had happened. Rallo, a co-defendant who was also found guilty in the Stenger case, benefited from contracts funneled through the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership then headed by Sheila Sweeney, an associate of Webbe. He developed a relationship with the intended victim. During his early days in prison, he attempted to muscle in on the narcotics traffic. The caller stated that the dishwasher would be delivered between 10 and 11 that morning. "You know what I did. But he harbored a secret that would have destroyed that image and put his loyalty in question: He had a compassionate streak when it came to murder that at times drove him to disobey Berne's orders. You gonna give Jesse $714 a week like Spica? "They were just thieves. With a growing reputation as a money-maker and with Ellington as a sponsor, Stoneking was inducted into the Outfit by Berne in 1973. "Paul said Spica told him that he went to Tony Giordano and informed him of his plans to take over leadership of Local 42. New, alien emotions overcame him: self-pity, self-blame and total uselessness. But Stoneking said he was told that Spica had been ordered by Giordano to meet personally with Civella and apologize for his transgression. A new identity, including credit cards, a driver's license and other documentation, had been created for him. Instead, he spent the whole day taking me around and introducing me to his friends, kind of showing me off." But the two journalists failed to fully report the criminal background of Sorkis Webbe Jr., a crime figure who played a key role in the affair. Now, he felt the adrenaline taking control of his body. During his rambling recollections of his sordid career, Beck dropped the names of many criminal associates, including St. Louis mobsters John Vitale, Trupiano, Berne and Bartolotta. The Buick crept closer. Spica was happy to oblige and he transported a case of the explosives to Kansas City. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Berne continued his feeble denial. Paroled in the spring of 1989, he died a broken man a few years later. What could I say?" Berne as well as Giordano were answerable to Aiuppa and made no important decisions without his approval. He was prone to whimpering when things did not go his way. Stoneking and three companions took him down in his home as he was carrying armloads of jewelry boxes and display cases from his car. During Stoneking's undercover work for the FBI from 1982 to 1984, he induced Flynn to admit that he had helped dispose of $1 million in loot from a 1982 downtown jewelry store robbery. A scream pierced the room. Stoneking recalled the confrontation. Five years after skipping town, Stoneking was still making waves. They followed Hickey from the union hall toward Lambert International Airport. The wheelman was a convicted killer, who had tried to kill him before, the other a labor racketeer. The next afternoon, still partially sedated from the surgery to remove the bullets, Stoneking saw through the haze in his eyes the faint outline of a woman enter his room. "'I'm gonna be like that guy, what's his name? The reports outline the hierarchy of St.Louis organized crime and spell out its control of certain labor unions, including Pipefitters Local 562 of which Berne was a member. Stoneking had few emotions, except perhaps exhilaration, about what he was going to do. Berne was there for 30 minutes, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights 22 times in answer to questions about the Spica murder. Part of his body was found inside the car, part outside, and his legs were severed. He died as he sat in his Cadillac the night of Oct. 22, 1978, in a remote area of Jefferson County, south of the St. Louis urban area. Read More. Several years ago, they separated and then divorced. Now, Stoneking spoke with the authority of Berne himself and had access to the seats of power in Chicago occupied by Joey Aiuppa and Jack Cerone, to whom his boss answered. But for veteran crime writer and crusading editor J. Patrick OConnor, the factsor a lack of themdidnt add up. The conflict developed because the Detroit mobsters and Trupiano were leaning on Webbe Sr. to cut them in on the skim from a casino in the Bahamas, according to the FBI. Windows rattled and dishes shook in buildings two blocks away. Stoneking's first contract was a mark of his criminal manhood, a reward for his faithful service to the boss. His now-ex-wife Linda Sonnenschein, for example, was listed in 2002 as the registered agent of Platinum Inc. of Brooklyn, where the Platinum Club, a topless bar is located. He was concerned, and justly so, that the Italians were making a concerted move to take over all three Laborers' locals. Stoneking talks in the abstract about the killing. He insisted that Flynn had to be hit. Now, he was vulnerable. Jesse Stoneking. The satisfaction of his accomplishments soon became hollow. "Spica comes in. Police could only suspect, but the wise guys knew who had hit Ellington, causing Stoneking's stature in the underworld soared. Arts & Culture Theater & Performing Arts St. Louis MusicSt. For the first few hours after he heard about the bombing, Giordano believed Civella had done it. Giammanco went into hiding. The passenger door was blown 30 yards and pieces of debris were hurled 75 to 100 yards. "Don't worry about it, Jesse. Some intelligence sources believed Giordano looked upon Spica as a surrogate son. He was even more convinced he would be granted immunity. But the brothel operator also held other business interests. (LogOut/ "Come on, honey, everything will be okay." Stoneking was there with Berne and Flynn. intended to have Bartolotta, his soldier, topless club in Centreville, as a means of, flashing in the desert night, he put a .38-, caliber revolver to his temple and pulled, eflective in his later years, often reading, figures to prison. Lawrence says he tested Stonekings veracity many times by asking him questions to which he already knew the answer. You can believe it.". Stoneking took a job as a police officer, but not out of any dedication to law and order. ", "You got a man we want. Jobs on construction projects became leverage with which to get members indebted to the mob and an inducement to vote favorably in elections of officers. It was a heady thought. Legend has it that the, car, but Laurella was not held for further, remain puzzling, and, in this case, pieces. "I would have killed him if I had to," Stoneking recalled. At the age of 56, under an assumed name of Jesse McBride and living in Arizona, Stoneking committed suicide near Surprise, Ariz., while seated behind the wheel of the car he was driving that had been pulled over by local police. More recently, massage parlor kingpin Dennis W. Sonnenschein, one of their extortion targets and Bartolottas former partner, pleaded guilty in East St. Louis to an obstruction of justice charge for withholding knowledge of the Eastside prostitution rackets from a federal grand jury. He helped plan extortions, robberies, burglaries, bombings and a kidnapping, but always had to devise ways to abort them at the last minute. Change). Tony Giordano, the respected St. Louis Mafia boss, had befriended Stoneking and there was mutual respect between them. Their goal was to cover all aspects of true crime: Read More, Contents Copyright 1998-2020 by Crime Magazine | J. Patrick O'Connor Editor | E-mail CrimeMagazine.com, Designed by Orman. He said this jeweler got taken off by a couple of guys and lost more than a million in jewels. It just was a question of when, how and by whom. It was believed the bomb might have been made from the same dynamite Spica had brought him. The mafia reportedly put a $100,000 bounty on his head. Only bad memories and trouble. Flynn was prosecuted in St. Louis County Circuit Court for receiving stolen property and was sentenced to 10 years to run concurrently with the federal term. The FBI knew about an alleged connection between the Chicago Mafia and Rallo Construction Co. of St. Louis as early as 1991, according to a classified FBI report released under the Freedom of Information Act. The three others were Giordano's personal emissaries on the peace mission. He did no work and only showed up at the office to collect his paycheck. Berne, representing the East Side, controlled Local 42. "He was worried he was gonna get cracked," Stoneking explained. Under the leadership of Trupiano, it became known as the "gang that couldn't shoot straight.". Snitches were the lowest form of life. Flynn says to Tony, 'Well, Jesse's not going to get the money that this Spica gets because his union doesn't have any money. Aiuppa was convinced that Trupiano a braggart had leaked the story. I feel the same way'.". ", Hickey had escaped death by seconds. The realization that discovery of his dual role would mean instant deathwas his constant companion. The real truth about Stoneking is still an open question, one that probably will never be answered. The St. Louis mobster and federal informant died from a gunshot wound to the head. The withering cross-examination by defense attorneys seeking to break him and to discredit him. The car bomb that killed Spica in 1979 ignited St. Louis' infamous "Leisure Wars. He searched the trailer and found $3,000 hidden in a coffee canister and stuffed the bills into his pocked. "Jesse Stoneking, you're going to die," she whispered, pulling a pistol from her purse. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison. He watched Callanan for several days and decided he could not kill him. Leisure carried one piece of luggage and a briefcase, both empty and bearing identification tags with the fictitious name, address and telephone number of a man in Youngstown, Ohio. At 8 a. m., the next day, Nov. 8, Spica paid the ultimate price for his duplicity when he stepped on the brake pedal. Also available from Amazon, With the purpose of writing about true crime in an authoritative, fact-based manner, veteran journalists J. J. Maloney and J. Patrick OConnor launched Crime Magazine in November of 1998. Civella told him, 'If he ever comes in my territory, we're gonna hit him'.". He dabbled in undercover work for a while, but found that boring and unrewarding. He could have received 25 years and fined $20,000. Only the agents and Stram, whom he trusted implicitly, knew where he was. 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