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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. But hell, hes Frank fuckin Colacurcio, the comeback kid. (However, most dont show up at the monthly meetings. [10] He was sentenced in September to a year in jail and fined $1.3 million.[10][11]. He received this advice from Rick's attorney Gilbert H. Levy, who was friends with and received guidance from Rossellini, according to the Seattle Weekly. 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. Washingtons COVID-19 exposure notification app is scheduled to conclude May 11 in tandem with the end of the Public Health. Immigrating first to New York, William followed other relatives to Seattle and became a hard-working truck farmer in South King County. "It's not for lack of trying," says former vice-unit supervisor for King County Police, Sgt. In court, the judge looked down and saw a much younger Frank this time. In front of us, a big man began drunkenly banging on the door, tired of waiting. So finally he stands up, goes over to the hotelman, peels off six $100 bills, walks back, picks up the coffee table, and throws it in the fucking fireplace! His prison time, mostly spent reading westerns, did him some good, he reasons. COLACURCIO, JR. agreed to forfeit $1.3 million in cash, all interest in the strip clubs and related property worth more than $6 million, and a $1.7 million property at 8600 Lake City Way which houses the Colacurcio company Talents West. COLACUCIO, JR. was sentenced to one year and a day in prison as called for in the plea agreement signed in June 2010. [3][6][7][8] The strip clubs owned by Colacurcio were being used as fronts for brothels. 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. Back rent is an industry-wide issue. stop cool math games 2 bedroom duplex for rent san antonio under 1000 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. The elder Colacurcio, after talking to an unexpected visitor for an hour on a recent Friday evening, suddenly looks at his watch and stands up. Frank Colacurcio Sr., 92, left, and John Gilbert "Gil" Conte enter the federal courthouse in Seattle on Friday for arraignment on racketeering charges. Frank Colacurcio Jr. appeared in court Friday. Yet he is consistently vague about how many dancers he employs and how many clubs he runs. 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. Frank was breaking up with laughter when the unknowing politico raced up to the bar and ordered more drinks for me and my girl. "That was 16 years ago," Wills said. Frank never appeared in D.C. but settled the assault charge by posting a peace bond-an old-time legal procedure that allowed him to put up $5,000 and promise not to hurt anyone for six months, or lose his money. Released in 1976, he hadnt missed a beat in prison, and walked out still the reigning prince of nude and topless dancing. No problem, said the judge. 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. 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. In 2005, both Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. were indicted, but in February 2006 the judge . "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. Still, he professes to not even know a ballpark figure of either his income or his net worth. Cant remember if he got the operation or is gonna get it. "It didn't bug me that much except you don't have women, which is horrible," he says. "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. As a result, Babes, like the well-patrolled Papagayos, went you-know-what up. L&I cannot do an inspection unless a complaint has been filed, according to Rep. Tina Orwall, who sponsored the bill last year. 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Frank said no way! Colacurcio Jr. was convicted of tax . Owner of 1-800-DRIVEWAY in the 203 area code. (At a 1985 legislative hearing on crime in New Mexico, a federal investigator testified that Franks gang then numbered about 50 throughout the West and was behind an assortment of topless-related enterprises.). In consideration of Franks perceived dotage, a judge gave him just 30 months and a $10,000 fine; Frankie got three years, with all but six months suspended, and was fined $10,000. He attended Bullard Havens Technical School. The indictments alleged Colacurcio Sr . Suddenly, the glass in the door shattered and flew into the club. Frank said they werent fighting fair. (She got the Lincoln, the $350,000 house in Kitsap County, stocks, and other property. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Todd Greenberg and Tessa Gorman. In exchange, federal prosecutors agreed to dismiss fourteen other charges. 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. One of the main sticking points for the clubs is the customer blacklist that would ban bad acting customers. 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. Members of the conspiracy were indicted in June 2009. By George Howland Jr. Heidi Wills rang my doorbell. The View from Frank Jr. ", Im a little concerned [about retaliation], Orwall told me. "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. Federal agents say the three men, along with Colacurcio, Sr.,93,and Frank Colacurcio, Jr., 48,conspired to force club dancers to sell sex in order to pay hefty payments to club managers and keep . 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. This story originally was published by Seattle Weekly sibling Eastsideweek on July 10, 1996. Crime family based in Seattle, Washington. [5], In 1943, Colacurcio was convicted for having sex with an underage girl. A parade of police and officials were linked to an illegal gambling/payoff system in Seattle bars and bingo parlors. I feel [that] Frankie-if he had to run it and his father wasnt around-I dont think hes capable of doing it. But even with that knowledge, he got snared again. 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. Franks home today is the federal correctional institution in Bastrop Texas, 30 miles out of Austin, built in 1979, holding 900 inmates whose average age is 37. Still, he spends nearly every day at Talents West, the cramped, cluttered Lake City hiring headquarters for the clubs. "I've never done anything wrong," he says, quickly adding, "Does that include traffic violations? Frankie doesn't deny that he often turns to his father for advice. [1], In the 1960s, Colacurcio acquired more interests in restaurants and nightclubs. His brothers and sisters, raised in the big family home in north Bellevue, looked up to Frank, the oldest of seven kids. Mostly, she wants the clubs to believe women. [10] In June 2010, Colacurcio Jr. pleaded guilty to a racketeering and conspiracy. Everyone organizing who still works is really brave.. 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. A year later, a grand jury indicted Colacurcio; his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr.; and four associates involved in operating four Western Washington strip clubs. ", If its so bad that she reports it, Jane said, it's "because Ive been hurt or Im scared.". In the following years Colacurcio continued to expand his strip-club business. He violated his terms in one fell swoop in May 1995-grabbing, kissing, and propositioning a teenager he was interviewing for a topless job. A former owner, Frank Colacurcio Sr., 93, died weeks later while the federal prosecution was underway. In fact, Consolidated has donated nearly $9,000 in the last four yearswell over $1,000 coming around moratorium time. Nonetheless, those who know him are sure he sits in prison planning his exit and his next business move. Whack, whack! He never hung around long, and his associates kept the nudie business humming, taking their cues from Frank long-distance. Frank will be 82 if and when he gets out by 1999. ", Nathalie Graham reported on city hall for. Thanks to a host of associates, Colacurcio was often able to remain a silent partner in the clubs. Colacurcio was indicted last year along with his son, Frank Jr., and several associates. 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. 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. Frank Colacurcio Sr., the strip-club magnate whose organized-crime exploits covered more than half a century and coincided with Seattle's history of police corruption and reform, died Friday. ", He says the several months he spent in prison were "more or less a vacation.". 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. 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). Frank quit school in the eighth grade and became a truck farmer. COLACURCIO, JR. agreed to forfeit the Talents West building at 8600 Lake City Way, admitting it was used as part . . "It's 36 years of being with him that I've watched. 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. The training will incorporate a crash course in financial independence, being an independent contractor, dealing with workplace harassment, and more. The government seized the properties, including Sugar's, in 2010. 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. Seattle newspapers were never quite sure what to call Frank. Besides nude dancing and doing time, their common interests apparently include a longing for females. "I've never been an extravagant person," he says, quickly adding, "I have what I desire.". Out of the spotlight for several years, the Colacurcio name has resurfaced in recent weeks with the opening of two adult-entertainment clubs, Papagayo's in Bellevue's Overlake area and Babe's in that city's Factoria neighborhood. Frank Colacurcio Jr. a.k.a "Frankie" - Son of Frank Sr. I freaked out, she said. Junior, 48, pleaded guilty to a racketeering-conspiracy charge in June 2010. [4] In the 1960s, Colacurcio opened topless clubs in Seattle and skimmed money. Legally theyre not allowed to retaliate, Jane explained. The few female reporters who encountered him then had a less kindly view: Frank was lecherous, even dangerous-drawbacks that male writers tended to overlook during happy hour. The charges were dismissed against Colacurcio Sr. after his death. A lifelong . Bill wound up testifying before a grand jury, reluctantly, caving in when then U.S. 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. Look at the money theyre throwing at him. Dads legacy to son, thus, was that Babes dancers last year had to keep some of their clothes on. Frank Colacurcio, the eldest of nine children, was born to Italian immigrant farmers on June 18, 1917. It is headed to Gov. The government will receive payment equal to the appraised value of Honeys, and the building has been bulldozed. Although Colacurcio never testified, Committee Counsel Robert F. Kennedy did question him about his alleged racketeering activities in Seattle. The strip clubs run by this organization include Ricks in Seattle, Foxs in Parkland, Pierce County, Honeys in Everett and Sugars in Shoreline. Three rows behind her sat Frank Colacurcio, Jr., a friend of Dadi's and onetime heir . . [6] He served more than a year at the Monroe State Reformatory (now known as the Washington State Reformatory). "Ive had a lot of life experience since then. Frankie lives with his wife and 14-year-old daughter in Arlington, Snohomish County, drives a 1991 Corvette and collects muscle cars as a hobby. 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 . That one peed him off, says an old friend, because it was a setup deal; they lied to get him. Seattle crime family. 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. At Franks trial in 1971, a nightclub owner testified he once paid Colacurcio $3,000 a month for police protection. Now, I know that for many of you long-time Seattleites, you already remember Strippergate. Hey Frank, one said with a smile and a wave, standing over the battered, near-comatose man, this guy giving you trouble? Ameduri said that L&I is working to improve this. He pauses. His death was. John Rosellini . The scandal centered on Rick's strip club, an old Lake City haunt that was famously co-owned by Frank Colacurcio Sr. and his son, Frank Colacurcio, Jr. Well take care of it, one of the cops said, pulling the man off the walk. . Frankie lives with his wife and 14-year-old daughter in Arlington, Snohomish County, drives a 1991 Corvette and collects muscle . The training has to be done by July so they havent really allotted any other time for other issues, Cole said. 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 King County prosecutor at the time determined that Wills was naive and there was no wrong-doing on her part. Frank Francis Jr. is called Frankie. She also didn't "explain why at least $8,455 from Colacurcio-connected campaign donors did not raise concerns in her mind until after weeks of media scrutiny," the Weekly wrote. But the dancers often arrive needy and vulnerable. That must have put a crimp in those father-son picnics. There has only been one rule-making meeting so far. In some cases he owns the property; in others he works as a "consultant.". Which he did. The extent of Colacurcio's involvement in the nightclub industry may never be known. The indictment follows the restraining order filed . Jane isnt her real name. The elder Colacurcio pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false income-tax returns in 1984. . That is a source of outrage to some and frustration to others. Sam found his way to the federal pen in 1988 for skimming profits from topless bars in Arizona. 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. 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. They were in separate prisons, notes a Seattle detective. The assets of the Colacurcio organization were frozen by the government in June 2008 following a two-year investigation. The courts sentences will ensure that the notorious strip clubs stay closed and that the men who operated the strip clubs be severed completely from the businesses and properties they used to run their illegal operations. "Naturally, being Italian and being a man my age, I do love women.". Besides the assault and tax-evasion convictions, Frank Colacurcio was convicted in 1971 of racketeering for bringing illegal bingo cards into the state. Where he resides today. The elder Colacurcio pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false income-tax returns in 1984. This is where the women are. The next meeting is on Monday, February 10 at 1:30 p.m. in L&Is Tukwila offices. They havent even decided which panic buttons to use (Cole and Jane both want a button that triggers flashing lights) or where to place the buttons. Frank Colacurcio Jr. Jane said that the clubs are worried theyll get sued by customers. His son, Frank Colacurcio Jr., also pleaded guilty to these charges. Many of them written by Erica C. Barnett. In a deposition in the divorce case, his mother, Jackie, wondered if Frankie was up to the job. But Frank wasnt beyond the dramatic, Hollywoodesque gangster gesture to get his point across. It ended much like it began-with some girl calling the cops. The corporations and three of the individual defendantsLeroy Richard Christiansen, 68, of Seattle, Washington, David Carl Ebert, 62, of Monroe, Washington and Steven Michael Fueston, 62, of Tacoma, Washingtonare barred from operating any adult entertainment business in Washington State for the next five years. 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. This was Franks favorite place. Prosecutors said the Colacurcios had skimmed profits at two Alaska topless bars. Business rivals claimed that he used threats to control the trade. project zomboid . Frank Jr. and the old mans associates operate a half-dozen strip joints in King and Pierce counties and most recently have opened, or tried to open, clubs in Kent and the Eastside-Papagayos Cantina in Overlake and Babes in Factoria. With money earned from these businesses, Colacurcio started investing in bars, restaurants, and clubs. But there have been several meetings with the adult entertainment advisory committee. I waited in line with two friends-both female-outside the popular Nitelite, often crowded beyond capacity. [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. "Some people would call it extravagant," the younger Colacurcio says of his lifestyle. More than half a century later, having achieved geriatric gangster status, amassing several million dollars from his nude- and topless-dancing operations, and with his wife of 36 years bailing out on him, Frank grabbed this other girl, 18, fondling and then offering her $500 to go to bed with him. Sixteen years later, Wills told The Stranger that the Colacurcios had "bundled campaign funds to me, Judy, and Jim."