Seattle Vice by Rick Anderson

Author:Rick Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sasquatch Books
Published: 2010-11-17T05:00:00+00:00

Going Hollywood

“The guy’s wiggling and screaming and saying, ‘Don’t drop me, I got the money, I’ll give it back!‘”

By 1978 Frank Colacurcio had returned to his Seattle bar empire with the enthusiasm of most former inmates: where are the ladies?! He steadily expanded his topless empire with new venues and by the start of the eighties ran a handful of Seattle and King County clubs and another half dozen scattered from the Southwest to Alaska. At the moment, he was doing better than his brothers at staying out of jail. Bill Colacurcio had gone off to run a family-connected club in New Orleans, where he was convicted of illegal gambling and racketeering, having bribed undercover officers who posed as corrupt cops. Brother Sam was running topless bars in Arizona and in the family tradition also found his way to the federal pen, convicted of skimming profits. He got four years by plea-bargaining charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, theft, and trafficking in stolen property at two clubs in Phoenix and one in Tucson. Two other brothers, Patrick and Daniel, also pleaded guilty to criminal charges connected to the Phoenix and Tucson topless operations and did prison stints.

Not that anyone had forgotten Frank. A 1979 report compiled by the state patrol’s Organized Crime Unit contended that Frank controlled a “criminal organization” operating topless taverns and other businesses in the state, and looked like a good collar for any jurisdiction with a well-funded vice squad. At a later legislative hearing on crime in New Mexico, a federal investigator testified that Frank’s gang numbered about fifty throughout the West. Through his exploits, Frank was providing full-time employment for task forces—and for writers, as well, including William Chambliss. A sociologist and author, he wrote a popular 1978 book, On the Take, that delved into Seattle’s organized crime and tolerance policies. It was a generally accurate inside account, but some questioned its precision. He refers to the Blethen family’s Seattle Times, for example, as a Hearst newspaper, and his account of young Frank Colacurcio’s rape conviction—at odds with the court record—portrays Frank’s plea as “taking a fall” in return for a political deal arranged by his unnamed attorney (Al Rosellini):Frank was the son of a vegetable farmer in the county. His family was comfortable but neither notorious nor wealthy. He and some of his young friends were untouched by crime or rackets to any significant degree, but they were touched by the sin of many American men—womanizing. One of the women that Frank slept with regularly was only sixteen years old. She was also sleeping with several of Frank’s friends. The young woman was arrested, and she confessed to the police that the older men had been having sex with her for some time. The police threatened all four of them with jail sentences. The four men denied the charge, and the police had only the uncorroborated testimony of the girl.

A young lawyer who was active in politics managed the business affairs of Frank’s family. The four accused rapists fell to arguing among themselves as to how to get out of the predicament.

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