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Boom, coins all over, and youre down the street. Oftentimes, thats through back rent. "How do you define criminal?" Cole was one of the original dancers who took her complaints and vision for change to the Seattle City Council around two years ago. Sixteen years later, Wills told The Stranger that the Colacurcios had "bundled campaign funds to me, Judy, and Jim." These were scams Frank had been performing for four decades, but he still couldnt get it right. A report issued by the State Patrol Organized Crime Unit to law-enforcement agencies in 1979 alleged that Colacurcio controlled a crime group operating topless taverns and other businesses in the state. 1995: Sent to federal prison for two years after violating probation by fondling a woman applying for a job at one of his clubs. It was the site of Franks first major criminal mistake-getting caught-leading to a federal prison term and spurring a Bellevue law forbidding nude dancing in or near residential areas. But, one thing at a time. For less than a million dollars, you can own the home of deceased organized crime boss, Frank Colacurcio. The office featured an exceptionally large, handsome desk at which Frank sat proudly. Frank was breaking up with laughter when the unknowing politico raced up to the bar and ordered more drinks for me and my girl. 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). And, Colacurcio was supposed to have met with the son of New York mob boss Joseph Bonanno. Now banished to the sidelines by the terms of his probation for a tax-fraud conviction, Seattle's former topless-dance king, now nearing 80, is not allowed to work for or even frequent the adult-entertainment clubs he once ruled. They led him down the street, bloodied and looking like someone happy to be arrested. Levy contributed $600 to Jim Compton on April 18, 2002; the moratorium was passed on April 22, 2002. Im not the Mafia, he liked to say, although state investigators reported he did take a meeting in Yakima with Bill Bonanno, son of the retired New York crime boss Joseph (Joe Bananas) Bonanno. Cant remember if he got the operation or is gonna get it. Coming up in Bellevue, Washington, he grew up during the so-called "rackets era," where drugs, gambling, prostitution and corruption ensnared businessmen, government officials and police alike. 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. Frank Colacurcio, the eldest of nine children, was born to Italian immigrant farmers on June 18, 1917. Frank Colacurcio Sr., 92, left, and John Gilbert "Gil" Conte enter the federal courthouse in Seattle on Friday for arraignment on racketeering charges. [9] ), A lot of the dancers who are on the advisory committee are afraid to go in person to the meetings, Jane, a dancer in downtown Seattle told me. "Not until I'm in the grave.". 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. Cole would like to make it illegal. "It's 36 years of being with him that I've watched. One night at the club, Frank and the associate spotted the pol sitting in a booth with the busty pre-op, the pols face smeared with lipstick. [1], In the 1960s, Colacurcio acquired more interests in restaurants and nightclubs. She wont leave. "I'll never be retired retired," says Colacurcio, 78. Seattle Times staff reporter Louis T. Corsaletti contributed to this report. 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. 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. (However, most dont show up at the monthly meetings. "But theres so many rules that council members need to know." 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. That mentality seemed to be at play in a much larger issue: A strip club moratorium that had been in place since 1988. One day were sitting in the lobby of the Lake Quinault Lodge, by a big fireplace, talking business, says a former employee. In 2003, law enforcement launched a criminal investigation in the Seattle area known as "Strippergate. 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. We bantered one night over the pulsing music at the Nitelite on Second Avenue, epicenter of the Talents West topless-dance empire (in trouble with the liquor board, Frank had the place put in the name of one of his sisters). 2005: Found guilty of a misdemeanor, groping a strip-club waitress. 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. But, back to Strippergate. For me, I didn't know this was, as the kids say, a "thing" until this past April when I was researching a story about strip clubs in Seattle. Nicholas Furfaro a.k.a "Nick" - Nightclub manager, known member since 1963 and high ranking member. [3] Colacurcio later worked as a butcher, farm hand, truck driver, and pulp mill worker. He dropped out of school before completing the eighth grade and started a produce-hauling business. He thinks someone should put Fremont's Lenin statue on Sawant's lawn. 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. I was among those who talked with Colacurcio back in his more expansive days. The way they do it is by finding another reason to fire a dancer, she explained. he counters with a sly smile. Their old pal, an ex-con named Gilbert Kapuha Pauole Jr., to whom they had loaned $200,000 to start up the clubs, had skimmed the profits at the direction of Frank and Frankie. "I call it comfortable.". According to Jane, in the months after the bill was passed, she spent a night consoling a 19-year-old dancer who had been assaulted in a VIP room. The attention began in 1943. In the following years Colacurcio continued to expand his strip-club business. 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. In 1962, he opened a beer garden at the Seattle World's Fair.[1]. The story amused Franks friends, as did some of his tough-guy antics. For additional information please contact Emily Langlie, Public Affairs Officer for the United States Attorneys Office, at (206) 553-4110. Colacurcios trial was the centerpiece of local corruption scandals back then. As part of his plea agreement, FRANK COLACURCIO, JR. is 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. "I've got to go play," he says, ushering his guest to the door. SEATTLE - The son of Seattle strip club mogul Frank Colacurcio Sr. has pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of racketeering conspiracy. "[7] The investigation focused on Frank Sr, Frank Jr., and former Washington Governor Albert Rosellini for bribing members of the Seattle City Council. Jane hasnt been to any meetings physically, but shes called in anonymously, an option L&I provided when concerns about retaliation were made, L&I spokesperson Frank Ameduri told me. In March 2006, the FBI started a multi-agency task force to investigate alleged organized crime, racketeering, and cold case murders tied to Frank Sr. Thanks to a host of associates, Colacurcio was often able to remain a silent partner in the clubs. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on December 27, 1949, he was the son of Frank Colacurcio & Ethel Willis. ", "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. "These club managers dragging their feet and acting like we have to do this the right way is literally causing harm to people," she said. He had a family to support and there wasnt much call for a 65-year-old topless-bar manager. 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.) Frank then put the rod down against his side, bootlegging it as two beat cops walked up. He looked like the president of the United States or something, says a former employee. In 1959, Colacurcio was subpoenaed by the U.S. Senate Rackets Investigating Committee to testify in a nationwide probe of the coin-machine industry. Frankie lives with his wife and 14-year-old daughter in Arlington, Snohomish County, drives a 1991 Corvette and collects muscle . Now, I know that for many of you long-time Seattleites, you already remember Strippergate. He got three years. "Ive had a lot of life experience since then. Aside from a brief partnership with a friend as an interior designer, Jackie Colacurcio says she dedicated her life to raising her only son. Washingtons COVID-19 exposure notification app is scheduled to conclude May 11 in tandem with the end of the Public Health. ", 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. The following fin . Frankie pleaded guilty in 1991 to the felony charge of tax fraud but, like his father, says it was a setup. But hey, Franks a macho guy. 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. Shira Cole has been out of the dancing business for three years. Still, he professes to not even know a ballpark figure of either his income or his net worth. [5], On September 24, 2010, Frank Colacurcio Jr. was sentenced to one year in prison, fined $1.3 million and ordered to forfeit all interest in the strip clubs and related property worth more than $6 million.[10][11]. The next meeting is on Monday, February 10 at 1:30 p.m. in L&Is Tukwila offices. The indictments alleged Colacurcio Sr . Sam found his way to the federal pen in 1988 for skimming profits from topless bars in Arizona. It is unaltered from its original form. 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. Frank quit school in the eighth grade and became a truck farmer. The club was slated for demolition after following guilty pleas by the other members of the board -- identified in the lawsuit as Frank Colacurcio Jr., Frank Colacurcio Sr.'s nephew Leroy Richard Christiansen, longtime associate David Carl Ebert and Steven Michael Fueston, manager of a Tacoma club also closed through the plea. Frank Colacurcio Sr.Frank Colacurcio Sr., longtime resident of Newtown, Connecticut, passed away on September 28, 2020 at the age of 70.Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on December 27, 1949, he was the A parade of police and officials were linked to an illegal gambling/payoff system in Seattle bars and bingo parlors. He was released from prison in 2013, and entered the strip club industry again in 2014. Colacurcio, the eldest son in a family of eight children, was convicted of "carnal knowledge" with a 16-year-old girl. He owns it with a nephew and uses it for fishing expeditions in Alaska. Frank Colacurcio, Sr., 93, remains the sole defendant in the RICO case. The strip clubs run by this organization, Rick's in Seattle, Fox's in Parkland, Pierce . His brothers and sisters, raised in the big family home in north Bellevue, looked up to Frank, the oldest of seven kids. 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 (RICO) scheme to promote prostitution at the strip clubs they operate in the greater Seattle area. Business was too good and they couldn't fit all their patrons in their lot. "I never pay attention," he says every time he's asked. So were talking, and this woman comes up and starts looking at the coffee table between us. I have had more back rent in the past year than I have ever had in my nearly 15-year career of dancing., Not all clubs use back rent, according to Frank Colacurcio Jr. (Yes, that Frank Colacurcio Jr.), whothough banned from running strip clubs in Washingtonis a consultant for Kittens Cabaret. According to a Seattle Weekly report from the time, Wills never explained why she showed up at the meeting of a committee she wasn't on. 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. [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. That one peed him off, says an old friend, because it was a setup deal; they lied to get him. [6] He served more than a year at the Monroe State Reformatory (now known as the Washington State Reformatory). Frank Colacurcio Jr. a.k.a "Frankie" - Son of Frank Sr. The government will receive payment equal to the appraised value of Honeys, and the building has been bulldozed. With money earned from these businesses, Colacurcio started investing in bars, restaurants, and clubs. Robert Payton a.k.a "Bobby" - Right-hand man of Frank Sr. During the bingo-card trial, U.S. attorneys exposed Colacurcio's role in an extensive payoff and extortion system, in which Seattle and King County police were getting paid in return for tolerating illegal gambling. Besides nude dancing and doing time, their common interests apparently include a longing for females. Not a good move for an old con on parole. It was finally ended in 2007, but during that 18-year period no new strip clubs could be operated in Seattle. The city had turned down the rezoning application for the parking spots twice before 2003, once in 1989 and once in 1998.
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