Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family - Softcover

Dick Kreck

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1555917062 ISBN 13: 9781555917067

Publisher: Chicago Review Press, 2010

Synopsis

Started by Italian brothers from North Denver, the high-profile Smaldone crime syndicate began in the bootlegging days of the 1920s and flourished into the 1980s. Connected to notorious crime figures, politicians, and presidents, Clyde Smaldone was the crime family's leader. Through candid interviews and firsthand accounts, Dick Kreck reveals the true sense of what it meant to be a Smaldone, not only the corrupt but also the virtuous.

Dick Kreck retired from The Denver Post after thirty-eight years as a columnist. He is the author of four other books, including Murder at the Brown Palace. He lives in Denver, Colorado.

About this title

About the Author:

Dick Kreck retired from The Denver Post after thirty-eight years as an editor and columnist. He previously worked at the San Francisco Examiner and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of four other books, and lives in Denver, Colorado.

Review:

Kreck reveals the heart and compassion as well as the murders and mayhem behind the scenes as led by this notorious crime family.---Elisa Cohen --North Denver Tribune, "Revealing Smaldone Secrets" 7/02/09

If you want to take a walk on the wild side of organized crime set in a venue that hasn't received much national news coverage or commercial fiction acclaim, this book will walk you through some new, unexplored but seamy streets.-- Sheila Propp, Editor, Fairhope Courier --Baldwin County Now Newspapers, "Crime still doesn't pay" 10/21/09

In 1933, after Denver boss Joe Roma was found "slumped in his favorite overstuffed chair in the front parlor,...riddled with seven bullets, six of them to the head," his up-and-coming bootlegging proteges Clyde and Eugene Smaldone took over his profitable operations. Over the years, the brothers and various other family members were frequently in the news, occasionally in jail, and generally in control of their realm. Theirs was an independent operation, but the Smaldones enjoyed the friendship of crime superstar Al Capone and were frequently in cahoots with New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello, to whom Clyde was particularly close. The Smaldones contributed to Denver's municipal ambience positively, too, as restauranteurs and generous contributors to charity. Kreck's detailing of the doings of a relative outpost of the racketeering industry is, besides a rich chapter in Colorado history, an excellent addition to the popular literature on organized crime. --Booklist (September 15, 2009) of Chicago, IL by Mike Tribby

About this edition

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1555917062
• ISBN 13: 9781555917067
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296