Before moving to Frank's current city of Lynnwood, WA, Frank lived in Puyallup WA and Seattle WA. 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. Please share your story tips by emailing editor@seattleweekly.com. ‘They are nothing more than push polls designed to instill distrust in government,’ says state senator. Colacurcio Brothers specializes in commercial construction and heavy dirt works throughout the Pacific Northwest. In court, the judge looked down and saw a much younger Frank this time. The pinball industry in particular was loaded with competitive violence: Five car bombings linked to the pinball battles occurred in the early 1960s, but police never solved them. 87% Upvoted. Driveway Sealing Call Frank was founded in 1998 by Frank Colacurcio Jr. A member of the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), Frank has a wealth of knowledge and experience in all facets of driveway and parking lot maintenance and attends yearly workshops and seminars to stay at the forefront of the industry. Archived. He got three years. … This case represented a difficult problem of proof because of the respondents background.). Prosecutors said the Colacurcios had skimmed profits at two Alaska topless bars. SEATTLE – More than 28 years after a Seattle auto mechanic was gunned down in what cold-case investigators say was a contract killing, a 51-year-old woman has been arrested. The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission began the investigation before referring it to the prosecutor's office for a criminal inquiry. That conviction was reversed on appeal. 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. Look at the money theyre throwing at him. In 1981, U.S. prosecutors charged him with skimming profits from the Brass Tiger in Federal Way and the Bavarian Gardens in Factoria. Besides, Frank was colorful. Was a guy. In return, theyd protect Frank and other illegal operators by not busting them. What is he, 100, 150 years old? 11 comments. 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. In 1991, Frank Sr. and Frankie were back in court. Frank said no way! They were in separate prisons, notes a Seattle detective. Take the night in San Francisco, a story never before told publicly, when he hung that fella out the window. Furfaro, 65, is an office manager at Talents West. Brutal spasms aside, Frank never quite made the criminal big time. 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). The judge politely refused; after all, how would it look for a probation officer to be supervising the boss of a nudie joint? Documents filed with the charges said the money came from a variety of Colacurcio associates, employees, friends and relatives, all of whom were later reimbursed by the Colacurcios. Frank was breaking up with laughter when the unknowing politico raced up to the bar and ordered more drinks for me and my girl. Rather than marry, hed do the time, and did: two years for carnal knowledge. Hiring agency director and high ranking member of family. Driveway Sealing Call Frank was founded in 1998 by Frank Colacurcio Jr. A member of the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), Frank has a wealth of knowledge and experience in all facets of driveway and parking lot maintenance and attends yearly workshops and seminars to stay at the forefront of the industry. Endangered L pod welcomes new orca calf, Some areas of King Co. see double-digit increases in property tax, Celeb chef Guy Fieri to open a delivery-only kitchen in Seattle, QFC to shut down two Seattle stores after hazard pay ordinance. For more than half century, the firm has delivered results and won the trust of both public agencies and private developers to improve and expand critical utilities and transportation facilities. In announcing the charges against the long-notorious, father-and-son ex-convicts as well as employees Gil Conte and Marsha Furfaro, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng said his staff found no evidence of crimes by four more prominent public figures. That one peed him off, says an old friend, because it was a setup deal; they lied to get him. This story originally was published by Seattle Weekly sibling Eastsideweek on July 10, 1996. The younger Colacurcio's attorney couldn't be reached, and Furfaro's lawyer declined comment. In most cases, checks for the campaign contributions were written for the maximum legal limit, $650 per individual or $1,300 per couple, Maleng said at a news conference. But hell, hes Frank fuckin Colacurcio, the comeback kid. 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. He knows that doing time goes with the work, says a friend, although, the odd thing is, I think he could have gotten just as rich doing it all legit. This is where the women are. 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. No problem, said the judge. Prosecutors called a number of witnesses to testify under oath in secret proceedings before an inquiry judge, King County Superior Court Judge William Downing. I was among those who talked with Colacurcio back in his more expansive days. (She got the Lincoln, the $350,000 house in Kitsap County, stocks, and other property. This was a big disappointment to the head of the party, who was Franks old friend. In a deposition in the divorce case, his mother, Jackie, wondered if Frankie was up to the job. Cant remember if he got the operation or is gonna get it. Two years after exploding on three Seattle City Council races, a political money-laundering scandal led to criminal charges yesterday against Frank Colacurcio Sr., Frank Colacurcio Jr. and two associates in their strip-club empire. "The defendants would then provide cash reimbursements to the individuals who wrote the checks for the campaign contributions," thereby evading contribution limits and causing the candidates to file false campaign finance reports. Whack, whack! 1995; Frank Colacurcio and his son, Frank Jr., whose roles in the “Strippergate” cam-paign-contribution case led to the demise of their strip-club operation last year; so-ciopathic wife killers Randy Roth and Steven Sherer; and Joel Zellmer, found guilty last year of drowning his 3-year-old stepdaughter in 2003 after taking out a Frankies plea bargain in the 1991 case allowed him to continue running the current six topless clubs (neither he nor anyone at Talents West returned calls or would comment for this story). He liked the setting, the quiet. It was easy. They sized up their odds, took a deep breath, and pleaded guilty. In 1943, Colacurcio was convicted for having sex with an underage girl. "There was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of former Governor Albert Rosellini," Maleng said, or by the three City Council members -- two of whom were subsequently voted out of office -- who received illegal campaign money. So were talking, and this woman comes up and starts looking at the coffee table between us. 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. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on December 27, 1949, he was the son of Frank Colacurcio & Ethel Willis. I waited in line with two friends-both female-outside the popular Nitelite, often crowded beyond capacity. Suddenly, the glass in the door shattered and flew into the club. Dont hit me no more, the guy pleaded, crying. The charges were filed in King County Superior Court. And no fishing trip. She wont leave. (In a related 1991 case, Nick Furfaro, Franks old friend since they started up the Magic Inn on Union Street in 1963, was convicted of a tax violation and, as part of his short sentence, was told he had to give up his job running one of Franks places, Sugars, the North Seattle soda-pop-and-nude-dancing emporium. A year later, a grand jury indicted Colacurcio; his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr.; and four associates involved in operating four Western Washington strip clubs. 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. I saw another side one night in the late 1970s. He never hung around long, and his associates kept the nudie business humming, taking their cues from Frank long-distance. Two of Franks other brothers, Patrick and Daniel, also pleaded guilty to criminal charges connected to the Phoenix and Tucson topless operations. Writers liked him. In 1988 and again in 1998, Rick’s applied to rezone the property adjacent to Rick’s to allow for additional parking. Which in-house free agents should the Seattle Seahawks re-sign? Indeed. The woman said Frank first asked her to go home and cuddle and be lovey, then kissed her and offered her money. Albert Dean Rosellini (January 21, 1910 – October 10, 2011) was an American politician who served as the 15th governor of the state of Washington for two terms, from 1957 to 1965, and was both the first Italian-American and Roman Catholic governor elected west of the Mississippi River.. During a political career that spanned 40 years, Rosellini was an activist leader who … 1947), and Albert Jr… Nonetheless, those who know him are sure he sits in prison planning his exit and his next business move. Bill wound up testifying before a grand jury, reluctantly, caving in when then U.S. We never did tell the guy he was smooching another guy.). They led him down the street, bloodied and looking like someone happy to be arrested. Some experts believe we’re on the cusp of discovering packs in King County. 2003 epilogue: Frank Colacurcio Sr. was eventually released from prison, is retired, lives in Seattle, and fishes in Alaska regularly. Where he resides today. Senior Pastor of Mosaic Christian Church, Rocklin, CA. Nonprofits, activists are expecting greater need as workers are laid off. Frank appealed his conviction, and in the meantime, in 1974, was found guilty in a second tax evasion case. UW study shows high COVID infection rates among pregnant women, Puget Sound renters will need housing assistance, Everett online heroin and meth dealer sentenced for mailing drugs nationwide, State releases data on COVID outbreaks in schools, Federal Way woman killed in Seattle shooting, Legislature examines restructuring public health in WA. I mean, this is the scariest thing thats ever happened to me. Sam found his way to the federal pen in 1988 for skimming profits from topless bars in Arizona. Neither Colacurcio responded to phone messages left at Talents West, their stripper-hiring agency and headquarters. 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. share. The U.S. Senate Rackets Committee ordered Frank to show up for its hearings on organized crime back in the late 1950s after Frank was accused of threatening bodily harm to four Seattle businessmen for not buying into his operation. Hiring agency president, general manager and bookkeeper, high ranking member. A year later, a grand jury indicted Colacurcio; his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr.; and four associates involved in operating four Western Washington strip clubs. The guys wiggling and screaming and saying, Dont drop me, I got the money, Ill give it back! The council approved the rezone on a 5-4 vote, over opposition from the city's Planning and Development Department and a hearing examiner. 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 looked like the president of the United States or something, says a former employee. Franks public persona was that of a tough but nonviolent charmer. John Wolfe, a Seattle attorney who represents Frank Colacurcio Jr., 43; and Irwin Schwartz, who represents Frank Colacurcio Sr., 88, issued a written statement saying their clients intend to plead not guilty. Pack to the future: Will more wolves come to King County? But Frank Colacurcio Jr. says he's close to broke, lost his strip club job and income, is unable to find work as a gas station attendant, and can't pay child support - or even help his ex-wife pay her water bill. Dads legacy to son, thus, was that Babes dancers last year had to keep some of their clothes on. We dont know anything, we tell her. He finds him in a hotel room and, five stories up, opens the window and holds the guy out over the street by his neck. Frankie holds down the Lake City fort of Talents West, Franks longtime dancer-recruiting agency where girls looking for waitressing jobs usually wind up disrobing for male customers in nudie joints. It was the Colacurcios' effort to persuade the City Council to permit a rezone and expansion of the parking lot that led to the funneling of campaign donations to Compton, Nicastro and Wills. Which is not to say that the story of Frank Colacurcio, 79, Seattles next-best thing to a criminal godfather, has necessarily reached its final chapter. She sits there rubbing and poking, and Frank cant say what he wants to say. Investigators identified six couples and two individuals who gave the maximum allowed contributions, and the donors' bank records showed cash deposits equal to the amount of their donations shortly after the checks were written, the document said. 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. It is unaltered from its original form. He did four years, got out in 1985, and went right back at it, hiding his interests through frontmen and continuing to pocket untaxed profits. It is punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $10,000 per count. Corporation is owned by Frank Colacurcio, Jr. Rick’s Rezone and the City Council 4. Besides nude dancing and doing time, their common interests apparently include a longing for females. 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. Immigrating first to New York, William followed other relatives to Seattle and became a hard-working truck farmer in South King County. Not a good move for an old con on parole. For the fifth time in 52 years, Frank went off to prison. John Rosellini, Albert Rosellini's son, similarly wrote a $1,300 check to the Wills campaign from himself and his wife and received a cash deposit to their bank account a day later. Factoria was the venue of the old mans onetime-flagship dance club, the Bavarian Gardens, a topless beer-and-pool pub tucked into a strip mall with a next-door massage parlor. Frank said they werent fighting fair. 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.) And despite his highly publicized trials and convictions, Franks sentences havent been necessarily harsh-he got only 30 months in prison and five years probation for the 1991 conviction because the judge figured Frank was a harmless old man. In a manner that history has not publicly recorded, the farm business evolved into a coin-operated machine business. I freaked out, she said. He had a family to support and there wasnt much call for a 65-year-old topless-bar manager. Pfeil's sister was murdered nine years earlier in an unsolved car bombing. Some of it had been contributed through Rosellini, 95, a close, decadeslong friend of the Colacurcio family. Close. Maleng said the four are free on their personal recognizance and will not be arrested. I am Frank Colacurcio Jr’s Daughter, AMA! Spokesperson says expensive and time-consuming boat recoveries happen about 20 times a year. 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. The woman was running before her feet hit the ground. Or is a guy, I dont know. The three incumbents returned $39,000 in contributions -- most of which had gone to Nicastro -- after their sources were exposed. A lingering mystery of those long-ago probes has been a tape recording confiscated by U.S. agents from Bill Colacurcios house and said to be prime evidence of corruption by a top Seattle city official. Frank Colacurcio Jr. a.k.a "Frankie" - Son of Frank Sr. 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. One became the object of affection of a local politician who was friendly with Frank, he says. Frankie pleaded guilty to a single felony tax charge. Anders said Colacurcio Jr.'s then-wife, Teena Colacurcio Hines, collected two $600 checks for Wills' campaign from her sister and her sister's boss, and … As Bob Payton, Franks personnel director (and house-sitter when Franks off doing time) said in court last year, the young job seekers regularly tell him, I have no money, Im broke, my boyfriend left me, my husband beat me, Im on welfare, can I get paid under the table-things like that. He pauses. Two Colacurcios face charges over 'Strippergate', Surprise! Frank, meanwhile, was working on another regular appearance behind bars. Its one of those wood-burl tables, for sale for $600. A new statewide report outlines how COVID-19 outbreaks have moved through Washington… Continue reading. 9 records for Frank Colacurcio. The scandal helped unseat Councilwomen Heidi Wills and Judy Nicastro in the 2003 election. In 2003, a criminal investigation began in Seattle known as "Strippergate" focusing on strip clubs owned by Frank Colacurcio, Sr. and his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr. Lawmakers in Olympia are considering an overhaul of Washington state’s public health… Continue reading. Pastor Frank Colacurcio is the senior pastor of The Rock of Rocklin and has been in ministry for over 25 years. But Frank wasnt beyond the dramatic, Hollywoodesque gangster gesture to get his point across. The following years Colacurcio continued to expand his strip-club business. 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. Colacurcio dropped out of school before completing the eighth grade and started a produce-hauling business. He spied on the girls, on the office help, watching people have sex. It ended much like it began-with some girl calling the cops. Frank was among those accused of heading up a shakedown operation in which hed extort money from other bar operators, then kick back part of it to the cops. 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). Endangered L pod welcomes new orca calf; spotted between Washington and Canada, King County begins mailing out property tax bills; some areas to see double-digit increases in rates, Celebrity chef Guy Fieri to open a delivery-only kitchen in Seattle and it's everything you expected, QFC to shut down two Seattle stores; said decision 'accelerated' after city's hazard pay ordinance, Canada makes border exemption for Point Roberts residents; will not require negative COVID-19 test, Grocery associations sue Burien over hazard pay ordinance weeks after lawsuit filed against Seattle. And Wayne Barnett, director of the city ethics commission, said its investigation "is still pending, so there remains the possibility that we can and will proceed on this, insofar that it appears that the prosecutor's office has developed new evidence that may help us see this case through.". He served m… Everyone calls Frank Francis Colacurcio Sr. just plain Frank. His ex isn't buying any of it. Nicholas Furfaro a.k.a "Nick" - Nightclub manager, known member since 1963 and high ranking member. In a split second, Frank was out the door, long steel rod in hand. Jim Compton, the only incumbent caught up in the scandal to be re-elected, failed to return two phone calls seeking comment yesterday. But even with that knowledge, he got snared again. Featured Projects. Find Frank Colacurcio's phone number, address, and email on Spokeo, the leading online directory for contact information. He had peepholes everywhere, says one of Franks ex-bartenders. He complained the feds had it in for him, and they did. Born to immigrant parents from Southern Italy, Colacurcio was the oldest of nine children. Robert Payton a.k.a "Bobby" - Right-hand man of Frank Sr. 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. Colacurcio strongly denied it. The club appeared busy, and the parking lot that was the root of the money-laundering scandal was nearly full. Study shows infection rates to be two to four times higher than expected among minority groups. He also got a reprimand from his exs lawyers for the bad habit of lying to a judge: Clearly, says an entry in court papers, the respondent [Frank] did not make a forthright and candid disclosure of his assets and financial affairs. In 1991, Frank, 73, and Frankie, 28, were convicted for failing to pay income taxes on profits skimmed from two clubs in Alaska-the Good Times and the Wild Cherry-between 1980 and 1989. That dancer over there, he said, pointing to a topless woman writhing under amber-colored lights on a mirrored stage, thats a guy. She sits down and rubs it and pokes around and starts asking about it. His brothers and sisters, raised in the big family home in north Bellevue, looked up to Frank, the oldest of seven kids. Working at the hiring agency's office on Lake City Way yesterday, Furfaro shook her head and said, "No," when asked to comment on the charges. After the business succeeded, he and Franks mother, also Sicilian, moved the family to the then-rural, farmlike Eastside of the 1930s. (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.). Frank Colacurcio. Male writers, anyway. In a 10-page affidavit accompanying the criminal charge, Harley Anders, investigator for the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, which launched the Strippergate inquiry, said the senior Colacurcio was the primary operator of Rick's for years and reportedly "still exercises final decision-making authority.".