Karl Monroe Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Karl Monroe 4
got into politics. Here they didn't, or if they tried, they didn't
succeed. And the thing went for I guess two or three years and then
drizzled off to nothing much. So much for that one.
Q: Well there's some other stories about this area that I think are
interesting also. We've come up to around the twenties. Collinsville
has been noted for the center for some of the local gangsters of the
area. And Buster Wortman of course was here and several others. And I
think this will bring us into the twenties and thirties if I'm not mistaken.
I'd like to hear something about that, what you can remember.
A: Well, Collinsville had a large Italian population who had come here
to work in the coal mines. Well, the coal mines died off in the twenties
about the same time prohibition was in power, in effect, and some of
these folks who had normally been raising vineyard on their hillsides
east of town because that was their way of life in Italy, made more of a
business out of it than they had before. And a lot of them went into
making bootleg wine. At the same time a lot of stills were set up by
people trying to make a fast buck bootlegging. There were some fortunes
made, I guess, at it. At least some people made a little money at it.
Bootlegging was illegal of course and the people who were doing it bribed
public officials, they bribed federal prohibition agents, they were
outside the law so that their activities couldn't be protected by the
law. So they became targets for other bootleg type gangsters who hijacked
their trucks and tried to steal their stuff, tried to move in on their
territories. And we had the regular things, like you saw on the Untouchables
in the movies. There were rather a large number of murders and attempted
murders right around Collinsville. We had a feeling that this was kind
of a battle ground for some of these gangs.
It was a curious thing. Although these things went on around you they
didn't really affect the law abiding people. I lived on West Clay Street.
Within four blocks of me were the residences of three different people
who were murdered in gang war activities.
Q: Who were they?
A: One of them was the father of the now retired city librarian, a
fellow named Bowers. Another one was a fellow named Colone. And the
third one was Snipe Maddalino. Snipe was the manager of the Collinsville
Park Ballroom which . . .
Q: Was that his real name, Snipe?
A: I don't know what hie real name was. He was known as Snipe. Lou
Colone, who was a brother of the Colone that was murdered, was a deputy
sheriff. Lou was tending bar at Tony Bonelle's tavern which was across
the side street from what is now the school district office. And a
younger fellow named "~oom'' Ciallala who was the curb service man--had
curb service in those days--went outside to provide curb service for a
car that honked. The people told him to get out of the way and he got
behind a tree and always swore he couldn't recognize any of them. And
they cut down on the place with a machine gun. Well, the bullets hit the
adding machine instead of Lou Colone.