Speaker 1: Mm hmmmm mm. If you've never been to Arizona, much
Speaker 1: of it is as you might expect, vast stretches of scrubby,
Speaker 1: empty desert. I'm a fan of greenery, so I've never
Speaker 1: thought of the Southwest as a place for me. But
Speaker 1: to watch storm clouds gather on the horizon, or a
Speaker 1: glowing desert sun sink into darkness is sublime. To see
Speaker 1: oranges and purple's light up the sky, mountains backlit twilight,
Speaker 1: to feel a dry breeze, It's an awe inspiring place.
Speaker 1: I had only been to Arizona once before to Tucson
Speaker 1: actually years ago, when I did a semester of grad school,
Speaker 1: I flew into profile a militia leader who hunted down
Speaker 1: undocumented immigrants with thermal cameras and a pack of German shepherds.
Speaker 1: Now back in Tucson, I had a much different mission.
Speaker 1: After a trip to Phoenix, I had only a few
Speaker 1: days left to track down sources as I investigated Jerry
Speaker 1: Paisley's claim that the missing Congressman Nick Beget and Hail
Speaker 1: Bogs were assassinated in nineteen seventy two their plane bombed.
Speaker 1: It was here in Tucson where Paisley wed Peggy Begets
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy four. It was here in Tucson where
Speaker 1: he worked for two mafia families, the Bananas and the
Speaker 1: Lick of Olie's. And it was here in Tucson where
Speaker 1: I hope to figure out once and for all, did
Speaker 1: Paisley tell the truth? From my heart Media, This is
Speaker 1: Missing in Alaska, the story of two congressmen who vanished
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy two and my quest to figure out
Speaker 1: what happened to them. I'm your host, John Wallzac. This episode,
Speaker 1: We're going to focus on two photos. It sounds simple, right,
Speaker 1: just two photos. But these photos, the red dot photos,
Speaker 1: are at the center of a web we will explore extensively.
Speaker 1: These are the wedding photos that investigators secretly obtained and
Speaker 1: marked up with stickers red dots with black numbers. Paisley
Speaker 1: is red dot number six, Peggy is red dot number seven.
Speaker 1: Standing next to them are mobsters and X cop, a
Speaker 1: judge and others. I got the photos, the originals from
Speaker 1: Tom Davis, who worked for the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Speaker 1: While working undercover in Tucson in n Davis secretly observed
Speaker 1: Peggy and Paisley's wedding in Phoenix. Davis and I spoke
Speaker 1: for more than five hours. After I left. We stayed
Speaker 1: in touch. Hey Tom, how are you? I'm doing good
Speaker 1: and sent Davis again. Is also one of the reinvestigators
Speaker 1: who conducted the pivotal Paisley interview at the Pima County
Speaker 1: Jail when Paisley first disclosed the alleged bombing of the
Speaker 1: congressman's plane. So I saw your text. You tell me
Speaker 1: what the text said and just how you found it out. Okay.
Speaker 1: I pulled up Google Match and I went to the
Speaker 1: corner of wilmotin Speedway. If you go there and you
Speaker 1: go in the main building, asked them where the old
Speaker 1: Eldo Lodge used to be. The Eldrado Lodge is where
Speaker 1: the wedding took place. Turns out it no longer exists. Well,
Speaker 1: the buildings are still there, but today they're home to
Speaker 1: the Mountain Oyster Club, a private club. I drove there
Speaker 1: with Paul Decan, our supervising producer. The outside hasn't changed,
Speaker 1: still stone. The inside, however, has been renovated. It's western
Speaker 1: in ornate, a lot of would no more seventies to court.
Speaker 1: We sat down with Pauline loftus, the manager. Could I
Speaker 1: show you two photos and see if any of it
Speaker 1: seems familiar. So these are photos from a wedding, a ceremony,
Speaker 1: and a reception that took place in nineteen four on
Speaker 1: this property when it was the El Dorado. Um m
Speaker 1: hmm not yet. Let me think about it for a
Speaker 1: little bit. I mean, most of the doorways in the clever,
Speaker 1: big archways, and this one's kind of just a small,
Speaker 1: regular doorway. It could almost be in the room that
Speaker 1: we're sitting in. Um or either that or in the
Speaker 1: lobby there's or is that a picture behind them? Is
Speaker 1: that a picture? It looks like a picture, yeah, so
Speaker 1: or is it a mirror? It's hard to tell. Gums
Speaker 1: Tree detectives. Now, the three of us wandered through the club,
Speaker 1: impairing certain features, doorways, etcetera. To what exists today? Where
Speaker 1: were the red dot photos taken? Where was the bar
Speaker 1: where investigator Tom Davis sat undercover? Um, there's a bar?
Speaker 1: Can you sure you were saying you think you know
Speaker 1: where the bar was? Could you take a We're going
Speaker 1: to go around this way. I think it wasn't here
Speaker 1: because if you look at that window. I don't think
Speaker 1: this wall was here. I think that staircase was open
Speaker 1: to upstairs because there were rooms up there, and so
Speaker 1: you would have come down the stairs. There was the
Speaker 1: bar in here and then the doorway there and that window. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we thought we found some of the spots in the photos,
Speaker 1: but it was hard to tell. So much had changed.
Speaker 1: We don't have original plans of the building. We don't
Speaker 1: know half the time. We don't know what's in the walls.
Speaker 1: So it's like we have a lot of surprises nobody
Speaker 1: so far. No. No. In fact, we had a pretty
Speaker 1: major kitchen remodel last summer, and that kept occurring to me.
Speaker 1: I would think, my god, I hope we don't find
Speaker 1: any bodies when they dig that. In the Peggy Paisley
Speaker 1: wedding photos taken at the Eldorado, red dot number three
Speaker 1: is Pete look of Oli Jr. The son of mob
Speaker 1: boss Pete horse face look of Oli Senior. Pete Jr.
Speaker 1: Was Paisley's friend. He and his wife Cathy, even accompanied
Speaker 1: Paisley and Peggy on their honeymoon in Mexico. For months,
Speaker 1: I tried to reach Pete Jr. Who still lived in
Speaker 1: Tucson to no avail now. As we left the Mountain
Speaker 1: Oyster Club, I pulled up another list of possible numbers
Speaker 1: and dialed away Hi the number. That ranger in recording
Speaker 1: the error can check the number and your call again.
Speaker 1: So apparently the rule of from is if you are
Speaker 1: an old mobster, you do not have a working phone number.
Speaker 1: None of them have working phone numbers. They're all dead.
Speaker 1: They all sound like crazy modem sound. At the end.
Speaker 1: All I want to do is to call some mobsters.
Speaker 1: I kept striking out. I've reached a number that does
Speaker 1: not accept solicitations. If you are a solicitor, please add
Speaker 1: this number to your do not call list and hang
Speaker 1: up now. Otherwise, please press one or stay on the line.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna press one, thank you, lease hold Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: sorry this mailbox has not yet been set up by
Speaker 1: the subscriber. Please try again later. Goodbye. Jee here trying
Speaker 1: to block me As a solicitor, I can't leave a
Speaker 1: voicemail somebody who doesn't want to be found. Yes, we're
Speaker 1: just gonna have to go to house then, So that's
Speaker 1: what we did. We went to Pete Lukavoli Jr's house.
Speaker 1: At first, We circled the block. Then we pulled up.
Speaker 1: I hopped out of the car and rang the bell. Nothing.
Speaker 1: I knocked nothing. We drove to his brother, Mike's house nearby.
Speaker 1: Mike Lacavoli isn't in any of the wedding photos, the
Speaker 1: red dot photos. I think, I say I think because
Speaker 1: there are a few unidentified men. Maybe he is one
Speaker 1: of the red dots. I don't know. Like Pete Jr.
Speaker 1: Mike had been friends with Paisley. When I walked up
Speaker 1: to Mike's door, I heard a muffled TV. I rang
Speaker 1: the bell, A dog barked. Someone told it to shut up.
Speaker 1: I waited. No one came to the door. The TV
Speaker 1: cut off. I knocked nothing. I wondered if the Look
Speaker 1: of OLiS had been tipped off that we were in town.
Speaker 1: I know that sound paranoid, but hear me out. The
Speaker 1: day before, I had spoken by phone with Louis Marconi,
Speaker 1: an X cop who back in the day was friends
Speaker 1: with both Paisley and the Look of Olie kids in
Speaker 1: the wedding photos. Marconi is red dot number five. When
Speaker 1: we spoke, I played dumb, testing Marconi because I already
Speaker 1: knew the answer. I asked whether or not he attended
Speaker 1: Peggy and Paisley's wedding. He said no. I told him
Speaker 1: I had a photo of him at the wedding. He
Speaker 1: said basically, okay, prove it. Send me the photo. So
Speaker 1: I cropped out everyone but him and emailed it to him.
Speaker 1: He was like, yeah, that might be me. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: I asked if he didn't recognize himself, maybe it was him.
Speaker 1: He said maybe it wasn't. That was a long time ago. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: but you don't recognize yourself. I asked him if he
Speaker 1: still spoke with the Look of Olie kids. He said no. Remember,
Speaker 1: this was the day before Paul and I went to
Speaker 1: the Look of Always Holmes. This is why I wondered
Speaker 1: if someone had tipped them off. I wondered if Marconi
Speaker 1: had tipped them off. After we left Mike lick of
Speaker 1: Ali's house, the house where someone was clearly home, but
Speaker 1: nobody came to the door. I called Marconi again. I
Speaker 1: asked again whether or not he was still in touch
Speaker 1: with the Lick of Olie kids. The day before, he
Speaker 1: said no. Today he said yes. I asked if he
Speaker 1: had alerted them that we were in town digging. He
Speaker 1: got flustered and hung up on me. Frustrated, I turned
Speaker 1: my attention to Salth Spinelli Red dot number four. Spinelli,
Speaker 1: a mobster, was Paisley's close friend, his business partner, and
Speaker 1: the best man at his wedding to Peggy Baggage. He
Speaker 1: was so close to Paisley, in fact, that even his
Speaker 1: father attended the wedding. Spinelli Sr. Is red dot number eight.
Speaker 1: At the time, I wasn't sure whether or not Spinelli Jr.
Speaker 1: Was even alive. I'm good at finding people, but he
Speaker 1: was a ghost for months. I called and called, an emailed,
Speaker 1: and emailed and mailed letters to addresses all over the place. Now,
Speaker 1: in a last ditch effort, Paul and I drove around
Speaker 1: knocking on doors. The first was a bust an empty house.
Speaker 1: The second was an apartment on the edge of town.
Speaker 1: So I just went looking for this apartment that we
Speaker 1: thought Salth Spinelli might be in, and I knocked on
Speaker 1: the door. Had to walk through this apartment complex, and
Speaker 1: it's this kind of dingy, dark little corridor, so I
Speaker 1: was hoping I didn't get jumped. Um. But I knocked
Speaker 1: on the door and I could hear a woman, and
Speaker 1: then another woman, and then I could hear them talking
Speaker 1: about me, just like who is this guy? Like, don't
Speaker 1: answer it? Should I answer it? Like he might ask
Speaker 1: about Graham or Grant, and so I don't. I'm like
Speaker 1: the hiding some old lady or I don't know. It
Speaker 1: was weird. And then I started walking away and I
Speaker 1: circled around the bill name because I said I was
Speaker 1: I was looking for Sal. And then they were completely quiet,
Speaker 1: and I stood there for like a minute, and I
Speaker 1: walked around the building started to leave, and this guy
Speaker 1: pulled up in a car and asked me, like, Hey,
Speaker 1: are you banging on the door looking for a Sal?
Speaker 1: And I said yes, and he said, oh, I don't know,
Speaker 1: no fucking Sal. So don't don't do that again. Don't
Speaker 1: bang on the door again. So this is seal possible
Speaker 1: address number two. The first one was for sale and
Speaker 1: nobody was living there. So on with Seal spelunking hunting.
Speaker 1: Please don't use this audio. We checked more addresses, but
Speaker 1: none worked. Turns out Spinelli's dead, so too is Toby
Speaker 1: levettter Red Dot number twelve, the judge who presided over
Speaker 1: Peggy and Paisley's wedding. Interestingly enough, Lovetta also presided over
Speaker 1: sal Spinelli's nine extortion trial. Go figure as afternoon Mel did.
Speaker 1: In the evening, Paul and I decided to make one
Speaker 1: final stop at the home of Alganum, Red Dot number one,
Speaker 1: except that failed to Ganum lived in a gated community
Speaker 1: and we couldn't get in by the way. Poor Paul.
Speaker 1: That day was his birthday and he was stuck driving
Speaker 1: me around Tucson looking for old mobsters. So we went
Speaker 1: back to our hotel and and then we kept working
Speaker 1: into the night. But work is a stretch. Paul is
Speaker 1: something of a foodie, so I told him to just
Speaker 1: pick a place wherever he wanted and we'd go there
Speaker 1: for dinner. Turns out he was cool with a desert
Speaker 1: tiki bar, specifically the Contiki, so dinner doubled as work.
Speaker 1: The Contiki. What a place. It's a tiki bar in Tucson,
Speaker 1: one of the oldest surviving tiki bars in the nation.
Speaker 1: This is the place where a core THNK to Jerry Paisley.
Speaker 1: Peggy Beggett allegedly dined with Joe Banano in the summer
Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy two before Nick Beggett, her husband disappeared.
Speaker 1: The inside can best be described as dark and tropical.
Speaker 1: Paul and I sat down, We ordered a few drinks.
Speaker 1: For hours, the only music that played was the Red
Speaker 1: Hot Chili Peppers. At first, we didn't tell our server,
Speaker 1: Kaylee Anne, who we were or why we were there.
Speaker 1: When we did tell her, she was, to say the
Speaker 1: least surprised. So we are standing outside the CONTI key, uh,
Speaker 1: could you tell me your name? Kyle? And how long
Speaker 1: have you works here? I've warned here I think about
Speaker 1: five months so far? And what do you know about
Speaker 1: this place? How old is it? Well, it was either
Speaker 1: sixty two or sixty three that it first got established.
Speaker 1: It started as a fine dining steak restaurant. From what
Speaker 1: I've heard, people say that the interior has barely changed
Speaker 1: besides the point that they got rid of the red
Speaker 1: carpet finally this last year. And we've had like birds
Speaker 1: and lizards outside on what is our patio now? So
Speaker 1: have you ever seen any mobsters in here? I have
Speaker 1: not seen any mobsters. Do you know who Joe Bano was?
Speaker 1: I have no idea who that is. Okay, so Banana
Speaker 1: was the guy. Have you ever seen the Godfather? Yes?
Speaker 1: Okay Banana was the guy. Who inspired Don Corleone and
Speaker 1: The Godfather, and he was he was in New York
Speaker 1: and he retired, quote retired to Tucson and he actually
Speaker 1: lived here for a very long time and died. And
Speaker 1: there's an allegation from someone who was associated with him
Speaker 1: that in the summer of nineteen seventy two that Joe
Speaker 1: Banano met with the wife of a congressman at the Contiki.
Speaker 1: But hearing this and just standing outside the Conti Ki
Speaker 1: and we've all tell us your neighbor a good Kaylee,
Speaker 1: John Paul. The three of us have all been in
Speaker 1: there for what three hours? You're probably be in the
Speaker 1: locker than us. What is what do you think here that?
Speaker 1: I mean, I just couldn't imagine that happening in the
Speaker 1: place that it is now, and considering that it's like
Speaker 1: a tiki bar. People come here like from all over
Speaker 1: the United States just to kind of collect our mugs
Speaker 1: and do other things like that in our scorpion bowl
Speaker 1: is what we're known for, which just has a lot
Speaker 1: of boozes. So it's kind of crazy to think at
Speaker 1: one point something like that could have happened because it
Speaker 1: just seems like a free loving place. But if I
Speaker 1: mean I could believe it if it really was the
Speaker 1: luxurious steakhouse that everyone made it out to be beforehand,
Speaker 1: because of course, why when mobsters go there? Right from
Speaker 1: what we know from movies, that's just that I cannot
Speaker 1: fully wrap my mind around it. From how the Conti
Speaker 1: key is now, the County keys and FBI documents, I
Speaker 1: couldn't see that. I mean, we just have a lot
Speaker 1: of fun people that come in. It's such a diverse crowd.
Speaker 1: But tell me, could you describe the Contiki to me?
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Well, you can definitely tell that it
Speaker 1: has some history to it. I mean just with the
Speaker 1: decorations and everything we've had, like a lot of them
Speaker 1: are original pieces that are in there. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just a fun place. It's so when you drive up
Speaker 1: to the Contiki, you're thinking, what is this because the
Speaker 1: buildings on the side, some of them aren't feels like
Speaker 1: some of the storefronts and all that. And you just
Speaker 1: walk inside and it's like you're in your own little oasis,
Speaker 1: and you're like, there's no way that in the middle
Speaker 1: of Tucson on Arizona could be this place. And I
Speaker 1: mean people just come here to have fun, have a
Speaker 1: good time escape. It's an island escape. And to hear
Speaker 1: the allegation that allegedly an assassination plot was hatched partially
Speaker 1: at the Contiki and that it's in FBI documents. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Tiki is supposed to be a happy place either.
Speaker 1: My manager, he's like, it's it's a Tiki day, It's
Speaker 1: a day in Tiki paradise. So I couldn't imagine that
Speaker 1: an assassination was planned in the teach. I know, I
Speaker 1: know it sounds absurd, but guess what, The conti Ki
Speaker 1: was controlled by the mob, at least in part. A
Speaker 1: few months after our Arizona trip, I traveled with another
Speaker 1: one of our producers, Chris Brown, No, not that Chris Brown,
Speaker 1: to Columbia, Missouri, where we spent a day digging through
Speaker 1: archived records at the State Historical Society of Missouri. Why Missouri, Well,
Speaker 1: we had been granted special access to a trove of
Speaker 1: valuable records. These records were compiled in the seventies by
Speaker 1: journalists working on the Arizona Project. The project launched in
Speaker 1: the aftermath of the assassination of reporter Don Bowles, who
Speaker 1: was killed in Phoenix by a car Bomb amazingly indies
Speaker 1: records which document widespread crime and corruption. Chris and I
Speaker 1: kept finding names. We recognized the Bananas, the Lick of Olie's,
Speaker 1: Jerry Paisley, Peggy Beggitte, Danny Zivinach sal Spinelli, Louis Marconi,
Speaker 1: Joeya Tarola, and the Contiki. Yes, even our beloved Contiki.
Speaker 1: I found the Conti he described three times as a
Speaker 1: mob owned business, specifically that Pete Likavoli Senior owned it
Speaker 1: at the time, at least in part. Again, the Conti
Speaker 1: key was the place where, according to Paisley, Peggy Beggett
Speaker 1: allegedly met with Joe Banano. In the records, I also
Speaker 1: found a memo dated December sixteenth, nineteen seventy six, written
Speaker 1: by Alex Dressler, the reporter who secretly observed Peggy and
Speaker 1: Paisley's wedding. The subject Bill Bonano, Joe Banano's son, Quote D. S.
Speaker 1: Forty is a confidential law enforcement source in Anchorage, Alaska.
Speaker 1: He told me that one of his confidential informants, a woman,
Speaker 1: was on a huge Air West flight to December four,
Speaker 1: ninety six from Phoenix to San Jose. On board the plane,
Speaker 1: sitting next to her was a man who identified himself
Speaker 1: as Bill Bonano. When she told him she was from Anchorage,
Speaker 1: he stated that he had a bar in Anchorage. Because
Speaker 1: of salth Spinelli and Jerry Paisley's involvement with a bar
Speaker 1: in Anchorage and the fact that they have been close
Speaker 1: to Bill Bonano in the past, it is conceivable that
Speaker 1: Banano meant that this was his bar end quote. If
Speaker 1: this source was accurate, and if Bill Bonano was referring
Speaker 1: to Paisley's bar, then he was in fact referring to
Speaker 1: the Alaska Mining Company the bar co owned by Paisley,
Speaker 1: Peggy Baggett, and Danny Zevanich as his bar, a Banano bar.
Speaker 1: Another Dressler memo, citing a different law enforcement source, said quote,
Speaker 1: the word is that Peter Locavoli Jr. Year old son
Speaker 1: of Detroit mafia boss Peter Locavoli Sr. With Jerome, Max
Speaker 1: Paisley and Salvator Spinelli, are in the process of setting
Speaker 1: up their own group. This alliance would consist of younger
Speaker 1: members of the Likavoli and Banana families and would attempt
Speaker 1: to control gambling, narcotics, trade, and prostitution organized in Western
Speaker 1: United States and Alaska. Information has it that Licavoli would
Speaker 1: head up this new organization with Paisley and Spinelli, who
Speaker 1: both hold allegiances to Joseph Bonano, who would control the
Speaker 1: lucrative Alaska market. It appears that younger members of different
Speaker 1: organized crime families, namely the Likavolian Banano families, are forming
Speaker 1: to control the operations in the Western States, including Alaska.
Speaker 1: This new venture apparently has the sanction of the old
Speaker 1: downs Joseph Bonano Senior and Peter Likavoli Senior end quote,
Speaker 1: and there was much much more. In December nineteen seventy two,
Speaker 1: according to one document, mob boss Joe Banano met at
Speaker 1: a Tucson hotel with two men, including Joeya Tarola or
Speaker 1: Joey the i Ayah Tarola again was the man Paisley
Speaker 1: claimed dined with him, Peggy Baggett and Joe Banano at
Speaker 1: the Conti Ki in the summer of nineteen seventy two,
Speaker 1: the man who allegedly gave Paisley the lock suit case
Speaker 1: with a bomb that he flew to Alaska, the bomb
Speaker 1: that allegedly killed the missing congressmen. Another memo states that
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy five, Jerry Paisley sal Spinelli and Nick
Speaker 1: Begett Jr. Attended a Banano wedding in Tucson, though it
Speaker 1: doesn't specify which wedding. Quote. We are interested in these
Speaker 1: people because of information that they are involved in running prostitutes, narcotics,
Speaker 1: and stolen goods from Arizona to Alaska, with Peter Licavoli
Speaker 1: Junior in charge of the criminal group end quote. Back
Speaker 1: in the seventies, Pete Lacavoli Junior denied these allegations. I
Speaker 1: tried several times to reach him for comment, but he
Speaker 1: didn't respond. Nick Begetts Junior declined an interview request in
Speaker 1: March nineteen seventy five, and this was deering Paisley's marriage
Speaker 1: to Peggy Baggage. An informants saw Paisley with Bill Bonano
Speaker 1: and Sal Spinelli. Quote Paisley and Spinelli are involved in
Speaker 1: the following activities and Anchorage cocaine, speed, prostitution, gambling, and
Speaker 1: stolen turquoise jewelry end quote quote Stolen turquoise jewelry is
Speaker 1: being run from Arizona through the Nick Vegats jewelry store
Speaker 1: and Anchorage end quote. Also in the archives. And yes,
Speaker 1: I know you're probably sick of me. Using that phrase.
Speaker 1: I found a copy of Jerry Paisley and Peggy Beggat's
Speaker 1: divorce settlement. Paisley and Peggy filed for divorce on March eighth,
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six, reconciled, filed again for divorce on September thirtieth,
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six, and finally were granted to divorce on
Speaker 1: November sixteenth, nineteen seventy six. As part of the divorce settlement,
Speaker 1: Peggy kept several pieces of land in both Arizona and Alaska.
Speaker 1: Paisley renounced his interest in the Nick Begets Junior jewelry store.
Speaker 1: Peggy kept a nineteen seventy six Buick Wagon, a seventy
Speaker 1: six Oldsmobile, a seventy four Jaguar, and as seventy three
Speaker 1: Dotson quote. Jerry gets the seventy five Caddy end quote.
Speaker 1: The settlement also details how Peggy, Paisley, and Danny Zevanich
Speaker 1: split up ownership of Max Inc. Their business, the one
Speaker 1: behind the Alaska Mining Company. I could go on and
Speaker 1: on and on, but I have to get to explosives.
Speaker 1: In the red Dot photos, the Paisley Peggy wedding photos,
Speaker 1: there are three unnamed men Now, via these records, I
Speaker 1: was finally able to identify one of them as Robert
Speaker 1: Thomas Smith or Bobby Smith. Paisley and Smith were business partners.
Speaker 1: They started a company called the Paisley Smith Construction Company,
Speaker 1: and guess what. In nineteen Smith was indicted on extortion
Speaker 1: charges after allegedly bombing a Tucson nightclub. Another man, Victor
Speaker 1: Vincent Livingston, was indicted alongside Smith. According to a memo
Speaker 1: I found, Livingston was quote an explosives expert who once
Speaker 1: worked for the Apache Powder Company. Smith reportedly is a
Speaker 1: driver for Livingston when they're on a job end. Quote.
Speaker 1: So here we have a man in Peggy and Paisley's
Speaker 1: wedding photo, one of the red dots, who was a
Speaker 1: driver for and indicted alongside an explosives expert who allegedly
Speaker 1: bombed a Tucson nightclub in nineteen sixty eight. But wait,
Speaker 1: there's more. A memo dated January nineteen seventy seven states
Speaker 1: that salth Spinelli, Paisley's close friend and the best man
Speaker 1: at his wedding to Peggy Baggage, had quote ties to
Speaker 1: a Robert Lloyd Lusk, who was present when Charles O
Speaker 1: Louderback was arrested in Alaska for possession of one pound
Speaker 1: of heroin, a half pound of coke, twenty one firearms,
Speaker 1: live moorder rounds, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. End quote.
Speaker 1: So Spinelli was one degree of separation from a guy
Speaker 1: arrested in Alaska for possession of drugs, guns, thousands of
Speaker 1: rounds of ammunition, and live moorder rounds. There's still more though,
Speaker 1: there's still Suitcase Charlie. Yes, Suitcase Charlie. Journalists working on
Speaker 1: the Arizona project received multiple reports that Suitcase Charlie, whose
Speaker 1: real name was Charles Cochrane, was the man who allegedly
Speaker 1: rigged the bomb that killed investigative reporter Don Bowles. A
Speaker 1: source said, quote, Charles Suitcase Cochrane should be question and
Speaker 1: about his electronics knowledge in relation to the bowls case. So,
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy six, only four years after Jerry Paisley
Speaker 1: allegedly transported a mafia bomb from Arizona to Alaska, a
Speaker 1: bomb he claimed was put on the missing Congressman's plane,
Speaker 1: we have a guy named Suitcase Charlie, who also allegedly
Speaker 1: worked for the mob, had electronic knowledge and was good
Speaker 1: at rigging bombs. Pinpointed it as the person who allegedly
Speaker 1: built the remote controlled bomb that blew up reporter Don Bowls.
Speaker 1: None of this proves anything, it's just odd. It shows
Speaker 1: that there was at least one mob connected explosives expert
Speaker 1: in Arizona in the seventies able to build a high
Speaker 1: tech bomb. And another twist. Remember, and it's okay if
Speaker 1: you don't, I get it. This is a lot of information.
Speaker 1: A man named Victor Livingston. Livingstone was the explosives expert
Speaker 1: tied to Bobby Smith. Smith attended Paisley and Peggy's wedding.
Speaker 1: Livingston was indicted in nineteen sixty eight for allegedly bombing
Speaker 1: at Tucson nightclub, and Livingston once worked for the Apache
Speaker 1: Powder Company. Well, here's the twist. In nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 1: the Arizona Republic ran a series of articles detailing how
Speaker 1: terrorists responsible for more than thirty bombings in the Philippines
Speaker 1: around nineteen eighty were trained in the desert near Tucson.
Speaker 1: And wait for it, the terrorists used explosives purchased from
Speaker 1: the Apache Powder Company. Yes, these terrorists in the Philippines
Speaker 1: were trained in the desert near Tucson by a man
Speaker 1: who bought explosives in nineteen seventy nine and nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: from the Apache Powder Company, the same Apache Powder Company
Speaker 1: for which Victor Livingston, the explosives expert with ties to
Speaker 1: Bobby Smith, worked. The same Bobby Smith who attended Paisley
Speaker 1: and Peggy's wedding and started a construction business with Paisley.
Speaker 1: According to the Republic, a smuggler involved in a terrorist
Speaker 1: ring was arrested at the Manila Airport after quote one
Speaker 1: of his suitcases was found to contain bomb components, including
Speaker 1: fifteen sticks of dynamite wrapped in brown wax paper marked
Speaker 1: amagel number one Apache Powder comp Penny Benson, Arizona, October nineteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three. So around nineteen eighty terrorists in the
Speaker 1: Philippines used dynamite with a stamped on date only one
Speaker 1: year after Nick Baggage disappeared, dynamite procured from a company,
Speaker 1: the Apache Powder Company, for which Victor Livingston worked as
Speaker 1: an explosives expert, the same Victor Livingston whose driver was
Speaker 1: Bobby Smith, the same Bobby Smith who attended the wedding
Speaker 1: of Peggy Baggage and Jerry Paisley and started a construction
Speaker 1: company with Paisley. This is a lot of information I know,
Speaker 1: so to recab. The Arizona Project records document close ties
Speaker 1: between Jerry Paisley and the Banana and Likavoli families. They
Speaker 1: showed that joe Bonano and Joey A. Tarola or Joey
Speaker 1: the I were spotted together two months after the congressman disappeared,
Speaker 1: only a few months after Banano and Iya Tarrola allegedly
Speaker 1: met with Peggy Baggage. They showed that Paisley was one
Speaker 1: degree of separation away from an explosives expert who procured
Speaker 1: dynamite from a company whose dynamite was later used has
Speaker 1: been more than thirty terrorist attacks in the Philippines. They
Speaker 1: showed that Sal Spinelli, Paisley's close friend and best man,
Speaker 1: was one degree of separation from a man arrested in
Speaker 1: Alaska with live mortar rounds. They showed the possibility that
Speaker 1: the Bananas had some steak in the Alaska mining company
Speaker 1: the Bar run by Peggy Beggett, Jerry Paisley, and Danny Zevenage.
Speaker 1: These records show so many things. Now do they prove
Speaker 1: that the missing Congressman's plane was bombed. Absolutely not. But
Speaker 1: in my opinion, it becomes harder and harder to write
Speaker 1: off Jerry Paisley's allegations when you're looking at an avalanche
Speaker 1: of documents prepared not by me, but by a team
Speaker 1: of forty investigative reporters back in the seventies, documents that
Speaker 1: back up parts of Paisley's story. The Golden Interview, the
Speaker 1: interview I wanted more than any other, was one with
Speaker 1: Jerry Paisley himself. Unfortunately, Paisley died in prison of liver
Speaker 1: cancer in September, a year before I started researching this,
Speaker 1: so I never had a chance to speak with him. However,
Speaker 1: I found something interesting an old blog written by an
Speaker 1: anonymous Arizona prisoner who used a pseudonym and mailed out
Speaker 1: dispatches that someone else posted online. The name of the
Speaker 1: blog John's Jail Journal. On it, the author wrote frequently
Speaker 1: about his friend to Tony's, a fellow prisoner he described
Speaker 1: as a mafia mass murderer who left the corpses of
Speaker 1: rival gangsters from Tucson to Alaska. Two. Tony's was quote
Speaker 1: a Detroit Irish Italian whose wit could upstage Rodney danger Fields.
Speaker 1: I was highly suspicious by this point that two Tony's
Speaker 1: was in fact. Jerry Paisley, the blogger, quoted two Tony's
Speaker 1: as saying, quote, I sent a few motherfucker's to the
Speaker 1: other side, but if they were alive today, they'd probably
Speaker 1: be trailer park trash eating out a chef Boyard Cans,
Speaker 1: so I did him a favor. He described Two Tony's
Speaker 1: as a fan of the author Tom Wolfe and as
Speaker 1: someone critical of mass market fiction. Stephen King, for one,
Speaker 1: according to two Tony's, was quote running a fucking McDonald's franchise.
Speaker 1: He's pumping out books like he's making quarter pounders. Two
Speaker 1: Tony's was also critical of pop music. His words not
Speaker 1: mine quote, Don't give me no country in Western with
Speaker 1: some hillbilly winding about how some granny got drunk and
Speaker 1: rain over him in a pickup truck. Don't give me
Speaker 1: no rap with egotistical ghetto stars singing about their bitches,
Speaker 1: big booties, how much jewelry and money and dope they've got,
Speaker 1: and how they're driving around in benzes with bottles of
Speaker 1: crystal in one hand and a crack pipe and the
Speaker 1: other gimme handles. Messiah gimme Strauss's thunder and lightning. Anyone
Speaker 1: who doesn't like that as a fucking anim sacrilegious Nietzsch
Speaker 1: was right. Life needs music. To Tony said that when
Speaker 1: he committed murder, he felt a satiating rush. Quote. It's
Speaker 1: not easy going into a heavily armed hotel room at
Speaker 1: two in the morning and blowing a guy's face off,
Speaker 1: but it gives you a feeling of living on the edge.
Speaker 1: So two Tony's seemed to be Jerry Paisley, but I
Speaker 1: wasn't a hundred percent sure. Thankfully, the anonymous blogger eventually
Speaker 1: revealed his real name, Sean Atwood, a young British man
Speaker 1: imprisoned in Arizona for trafficking ecstasy. Atwood, who was deported
Speaker 1: to the UK after he got out of prison in
Speaker 1: two thousand seven, is now a prolific author and public speaker.
Speaker 1: We spoke by Skype, and how long after you arrived
Speaker 1: in prison did you meet Jerry Paisley. I met him
Speaker 1: and late two thousand and four, I think. So when
Speaker 1: you write about Jerry, you use the pseudonym to Tony's.
Speaker 1: Did he ask you to use a pseudonym and not
Speaker 1: to use his real name. Yes, Um, is it uncomfortable
Speaker 1: for you that I know who to Tony's is What
Speaker 1: is slightly uncomfortable is that he asked me not to
Speaker 1: bring any heat on his ex and the family. So
Speaker 1: he asked that everything regarding the descriptions be substantially changed.
Speaker 1: When you say his ex, you mean one of his wives. Yes,
Speaker 1: his first wife or second Paisley's second wife was Peggy Baggage.
Speaker 1: What did he tell you about Peggy? I mean did what?
Speaker 1: Did he his marriage to her? How did he describe that?
Speaker 1: He said it was one of the happiest periods of
Speaker 1: his life, but he sucked it up. Did he say
Speaker 1: why he funked it up or what what led to it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Because of that addiction to the lifestyle and because he
Speaker 1: had got um cocaine which exacerbated his dark side. But
Speaker 1: did you did you sense any animosity on his part
Speaker 1: towards Peggy? No? I felt felt more the other way around.
Speaker 1: That he felt that that he had been in a
Speaker 1: good situation and that he had brought There are a
Speaker 1: lot of problem, problems and trouble and risk Atward stood
Speaker 1: out in prison. His nickname was England. He was an
Speaker 1: intellectual who read more than a thousand books in less
Speaker 1: than six years. Peasley took a liking to him. Can
Speaker 1: you describe Jerry to me? What was he like as
Speaker 1: a person, What was his personality like? What did he
Speaker 1: look like like when you first met him? Can you
Speaker 1: describe that? Very confident, very charismatic. He had already served
Speaker 1: a considered amount of time in prison, so he was
Speaker 1: an older guy. But like Uncle Junior character of the Sopranos.
Speaker 1: And if you ever watched a movie like Good Fellows
Speaker 1: our casino, it was like he just walked off that
Speaker 1: movie set. The way he spoke, his mannerisms just like
Speaker 1: a character of Good Fellows a casino. Eventually, Paisley asked
Speaker 1: Atwood to write his biography on the condition that he
Speaker 1: continued to mask Paisley's identity even after Paisley died. Paisley
Speaker 1: told Atwood that he wanted to protect his family. And
Speaker 1: I think this is very important because if Paisley was
Speaker 1: a full blown sociopath who just craved media and attention
Speaker 1: and notoriety and fame, why would he care whether or
Speaker 1: not he was named in his own biography. After he
Speaker 1: died in eighteen, Atwood published Paisley's biography, The Life Story
Speaker 1: of Two Tony's, in a book called The Mafia Philosopher.
Speaker 1: In parts of the book, Atwood used composite characters and situations,
Speaker 1: so I'm not going to quote from it directly. Interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: there is no mention of Paisley's claim that the Missing
Speaker 1: Congress were assassinated. Were you aware that he made these
Speaker 1: claims in ninety, that he told investigators that he transported
Speaker 1: explosives to Alaska and that he played a part in
Speaker 1: at least in terms of transporting a bomb in the
Speaker 1: plane going down. No, I was not. He never discussed
Speaker 1: that with you. Now. Now, Paisley could have discussed these
Speaker 1: claims with Atwood and asked him to keep them quiet.
Speaker 1: But Paisley is dead, so we only have Atwood's word here,
Speaker 1: and I believe him. Atwood and I discussed the issue
Speaker 1: of truth again. Who do we as a society choose
Speaker 1: to believe? Who do we instantly right off? This might
Speaker 1: sound purely philosophical, but it's not. It's very practical because
Speaker 1: if the FBI wrote off Jerry Paisley's claims in solely
Speaker 1: because of his past, because he was a criminal, that
Speaker 1: matters it means that he could have told almost anything
Speaker 1: and the Bureau would have said, this guy's a criminal,
Speaker 1: can't believe any of his claims onward, Maybe the FBI
Speaker 1: sincerely thought Paisley was lying, Maybe they just didn't want
Speaker 1: to get involved. Maybe someone told them to drop the case.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but in my opinion, if someone like
Speaker 1: Jerry Paisley makes serious, substantial claims, those claims deserved to
Speaker 1: be investigated, and other claims Paisley made were in fact
Speaker 1: investigated just by members of local and state law enforcement,
Speaker 1: not the FBI. Remember, Paisley was convicted of a second
Speaker 1: murder because he told Arizona investigator Tom Davis that he
Speaker 1: shot someone at death in a motel, and Davis actually
Speaker 1: followed up and did his job, unlike the FBI. And
Speaker 1: if you still say, well bullshit, John, let me ask
Speaker 1: you this. If your spouse or mine disappeared, and shortly
Speaker 1: thereafter you married a violent, mob connected person who later
Speaker 1: claimed they played a part in the disappearance of your
Speaker 1: first spouse, do you think invest the gators would take
Speaker 1: those claims seriously? Because I do. None of this is
Speaker 1: to say that I fully believe Jerry Paisley is to
Speaker 1: say again that his claims should have been investigated properly
Speaker 1: by the FBI. How else do you answer the question
Speaker 1: of whether or not he was telling the truth. I
Speaker 1: think that people on the outside looked at Jerry and
Speaker 1: what he said, and even today people look at him
Speaker 1: and say, well, that was a violent guy. I don't
Speaker 1: believe anything he said. Um, you know, at the same time,
Speaker 1: like I sit there looking at politicians every day who lie,
Speaker 1: and it really seems in part to be a kind
Speaker 1: of just a judgment call, like partially a class issue,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, everybody lies, and I guess the
Speaker 1: question is should should we believe anything that Jerry said?
Speaker 1: Should we believe anything that anyone says. I'm believe in
Speaker 1: critical thinking, and I'm just a reporter, So I was
Speaker 1: just the means by which Jerry could tell his story,
Speaker 1: and it's up to the reader to make that decision
Speaker 1: what they believe in, what they don't believe. I can't
Speaker 1: judge him. I mean, he saved my life in prison
Speaker 1: over a situation. He definitely had a heart, and I
Speaker 1: saw the human side of him when we said goodbye,
Speaker 1: you know, he was there was tears in his eyes
Speaker 1: when we said goodbye at the fence. He told me
Speaker 1: that I was like the sun that he'd never had.
Speaker 1: So people commit extremely violent acts, but they're still human beings.
Speaker 1: You can't write him off just because and say everything
Speaker 1: that he said his lives because he was a violent person.
Speaker 1: Everybody's got that in them. That's one thing he taught me.
Speaker 1: I asked Atwood what else Paisley shared with him about
Speaker 1: Peggy Baggage? Were you aware that her former husband was
Speaker 1: a congressman? Yeah, he told you that. Yeah, what did
Speaker 1: he say about that? He was very excitable about it,
Speaker 1: but he never like revealed a bigger picture that you're
Speaker 1: telling me. When you say excitable, what do you mean
Speaker 1: by excitable? There was a look in his eyes if
Speaker 1: there was more and it was a big deal, but
Speaker 1: he never expanded on it. If let's say that Jerry
Speaker 1: was telling the truth that there was some kind of
Speaker 1: foul play involved, why do you think he would have
Speaker 1: not told you? Okay, I can't um. I don't know
Speaker 1: whether he was involved or not. But my best guess
Speaker 1: on why he wouldn't have told me it was because
Speaker 1: he was trying to steer away anything that could hurt Peggy.
Speaker 1: Did he express regret about how he treated Peggy and
Speaker 1: treated the kids. Yes, what did he say. He said
Speaker 1: that cocaine had scrambled his decision making processes and he
Speaker 1: at this. You know, he was living in this huge house,
Speaker 1: he was loving being a dad to the kids, and
Speaker 1: his own kid would come out from Arizona and it
Speaker 1: was all hunky dory, and then he just started slipping
Speaker 1: into his owld ways. But even worse because he started
Speaker 1: murdering people and he just let the family down and
Speaker 1: brought a lot of risk and danger into the lives.
Speaker 1: Did he ever discuss taking part in any bombings for
Speaker 1: the bananas, like my understand he did. Yeah, he bombed
Speaker 1: the wigs Salon, he bombed um. It's in the book.
Speaker 1: I can't I can't specifically remember off the top of
Speaker 1: my head right now. But he dynamited a few places
Speaker 1: for the bananas. Was one of a judge's house, a
Speaker 1: judge named Ebode. Yes, that's it. Yeah, believe he did that. Why,
Speaker 1: he just was really proud of it. And that didn't
Speaker 1: seem to be any ambiguity when he was telling me that.
Speaker 1: So when I didn't want things any details changed, it
Speaker 1: just told it me straight. So do you understand why
Speaker 1: all of this is so fascinating to me? You have
Speaker 1: a guy, you know, I'm not I'm not judging you know, Jerry,
Speaker 1: I never met him, But you have a guy who
Speaker 1: was a multiple murderer, a bomber, ties to the bananas
Speaker 1: and the look of Olies. Marries the widow of a
Speaker 1: missing congressman sixteen and a half months after her husband disappears.
Speaker 1: Later tells investigators that he transported explosives to Alaska. Uh
Speaker 1: and that somebody else, another man who they later went
Speaker 1: into business with, UM told him that he put a
Speaker 1: bomb on the plane and that he was given equity
Speaker 1: in the business because of his role in the alleged assassination.
Speaker 1: You understand why this is so absolutely like fascinating to me? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I do, I really do. You know. I write books
Speaker 1: with conspiracies, um. I wrote book about Barry Sealed. They said,
Speaker 1: cocaine flying pilot and all this stuff. It's fascinating to
Speaker 1: me as well. And it's just a shame that, you know,
Speaker 1: he didn't reveal any of that to me. It's it's
Speaker 1: interesting because I would have thought that if he would
Speaker 1: tell anybody, he would tell you. And as far as
Speaker 1: I can tell other than discussing it, he never shared
Speaker 1: the story with anybody ever again, So he didn't even
Speaker 1: tell me that he discussed it with the investigations, which
Speaker 1: indicates to me that there was a lot more to
Speaker 1: that story that he didn't tell me. If he wouldn't
Speaker 1: tell me even that, and what else did he know.
Speaker 1: Back in Tucson, Paul and I worked hard as the
Speaker 1: hours ticked down toward our flight out of town. In
Speaker 1: terms of interviews, Arizona was mostly a wash. We got
Speaker 1: Tom Davis and Steve Fowler and that's about it. Most
Speaker 1: of the red Dots were dead. The rest we either
Speaker 1: couldn't reach or they wouldn't talk to us. So we
Speaker 1: decided to use our remaining time to visit places tied
Speaker 1: to the story. We visited the Sahara Motel where Paisley
Speaker 1: murdered a man. Now it's an apartment complex. We visited
Speaker 1: a plane graveyard, but that was just for fun, and
Speaker 1: at the very end, we visited the Spanish Trail Motel.
Speaker 1: It's been a long trip in Arizona. Paul and I
Speaker 1: have been here a few days and we have had
Speaker 1: people back out of interviews. We've been calling numbers left
Speaker 1: and right. Old mobsters apparently don't like phones or email.
Speaker 1: They don't really like to be contacted. So, yeah, Paul
Speaker 1: and I are standing at the Spanish Trail Motel and Tucson.
Speaker 1: The sun is almost completely behind the mountains. It's getting dark,
Speaker 1: it's breezy. The sky is pink and purple and blue,
Speaker 1: and you can see palm trees and wound the periphery
Speaker 1: of this beautiful old motel that's now completely decayed. There's
Speaker 1: rust and broken glass and needles and an old shopping
Speaker 1: card and it's very much the epitome of what you
Speaker 1: want to photograph and explorer and exploration. Uh. And one
Speaker 1: of these buildings here with the smashed out windows could
Speaker 1: have been the place that Jerry Paisley lived, or the
Speaker 1: room that he said he brought Margaret, who he later
Speaker 1: said was Peggy Baggetts, who after she met allegedly with
Speaker 1: Joe Banano. And there's only a slight glimmer of light
Speaker 1: left here at the Spanish Trail Motel. Paul, you want
Speaker 1: to hop the fence? Sure, Okay, so we're gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let Paul hop the fence first, because he's six
Speaker 1: to I'll just use Paul as a ladder. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna hop defense. We didn't hop the fence. So at
Speaker 1: the end of this trip in Arizona, we're standing on
Speaker 1: the side of a rusted out motel And honestly, there
Speaker 1: have been some surprises, but mostly it's been a frustrating trip.
Speaker 1: We haven't been able to interview many of the people
Speaker 1: that we wanted to. Nobody's answering the damn phone. We've
Speaker 1: showed up at uh Peter Likavoli's house twice today alone,
Speaker 1: so all we're doing is circling Tucson trying to find
Speaker 1: octogenarian mobsters and no answers and no answers, so the
Speaker 1: soun's almost gone and hopefully somebody doesn't jump out of
Speaker 1: bush on this creepy alley and and you know she
Speaker 1: have a shivn my rib. Thankfully, though our Arizona trip
Speaker 1: wasn't a total bust. We got two good interviews. And
Speaker 1: remember Bob Martinson, the man who broke the news to
Speaker 1: me via text that Cokey Roberts Hail Boggs's daughter died.
Speaker 1: The Bob Martinson I told you was important and asked
Speaker 1: you to remember well on September in that very same text,
Speaker 1: the one in which Bob told me Cokey died. He
Speaker 1: also sent me something I had been waiting on for weeks,
Speaker 1: the exact coordinates of where he found part of Assessma,
Speaker 1: part of what could be the missing plane. So armed
Speaker 1: with this a latitude and longitude, we were off to
Speaker 1: Alaska next time on missing in Alaska. If you were
Speaker 1: a Republican in the head of the Young Republicans Club,
Speaker 1: why were you arranging a flight for two Democratic congressman
Speaker 1: That's my own business. I don't care who are before
Speaker 1: as long as they paid the bill was like, that's
Speaker 1: where they did, but the flight was unpaid. It was
Speaker 1: a free flight. Before we go an epilogue In December nineteen,
Speaker 1: I got a voicemail from someone surprising Rosalie Banano. Rosalie,
Speaker 1: now three, is the daughter in law of Joe Banano,
Speaker 1: who she calls Mr b. In nineteen fifty six, she
Speaker 1: married his son Bill at a lavish mafia wedding. Joe,
Speaker 1: her father in law, and Bill, her husband, have both died.
Speaker 1: I called Rosalie back and left her a voicemail on
Speaker 1: her jitterbug phone, and then for a while nothing. When
Speaker 1: I called again in April. However, she picked up. She
Speaker 1: was friendly. She even asked how I was holding up
Speaker 1: in New Orleans during the pandemic. She kindly answered my questions,
Speaker 1: but didn't want to do a recorded interview. Rosalie said
Speaker 1: that she and the other Banana wives were mostly kept
Speaker 1: out of the loop. They spent their time in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: I asked if I could run some names by her
Speaker 1: to see if she recognized them, and she agreed. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: she didn't recognize most of them, including Jerry Paisley, though
Speaker 1: she said she was going to check with someone who
Speaker 1: might know more and get back to me. Rosalie did, however,
Speaker 1: remember joe Aya Tarola, the Banano lieutenant Paisley Claine gave
Speaker 1: him a lock suitcase that contained a bomb, the bomb
Speaker 1: allegedly put on the missing Congressman's plane. Aya tar Rolla
Speaker 1: is also the man who allegedly dined with Paisley, Peggy Baggett,
Speaker 1: and Joe Banano at the Contigui in the summer of
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two. Rosalie told me that Joeya Tarola and
Speaker 1: Joe Banano were close. She remembers seeing Ayah to rolla
Speaker 1: around Banano's house She said the two men respected each
Speaker 1: other a lot. Before the call ended, I had two
Speaker 1: final questions. First, did she know of any Bonano business
Speaker 1: ceilings in Alaska? She said no, but again reiterated that
Speaker 1: she was kept out of the loop. And I asked
Speaker 1: whether or not any documentation from the seventies still exist,
Speaker 1: received checks, diaries, stuff like that. She said that after
Speaker 1: Joe Banano died, she sold a trove of his old
Speaker 1: checks on eBay and made a small fortune. However, she
Speaker 1: told me that since Bill Bonano, her husband died in
Speaker 1: two thousand eight, she still hasn't gone through his filing cabinet.
Speaker 1: She said doing so might be a good project, and
Speaker 1: she said she would contact me if she found anything interesting.
Speaker 1: This week, I have two tasks for you, one specific
Speaker 1: and one vague. First, we're going to post the red
Speaker 1: dot photos online. If you recognize any of the unidentified
Speaker 1: wedding guests, let us know. Second, this episode is packed
Speaker 1: with information, so maybe listen again, take notes, and see
Speaker 1: if you can find anything we missed. If you do,
Speaker 1: let us know. You can reach us by phone at
Speaker 1: one eight three three m I A tips. That's one
Speaker 1: eight three three six four two eight four seven seven
Speaker 1: again one eight three three six four two eight four
Speaker 1: seven Evan, or you can reach us via email at
Speaker 1: tips at i heeart media dot com. That's tips t
Speaker 1: I P s at i heeart media dot com. An
Speaker 1: important note, none of the people Jerry Paisley claimed took
Speaker 1: part in or had knowledge of the alleged bombing, Joe Bonano,
Speaker 1: Joey A. Tarola, Danny Zavanich, Gene Fowler, Larry Fowler, or
Speaker 1: Peggy Baggage were ever charged with or convicted of crimes
Speaker 1: tied to any of Paisley's allegations. Peggy Beggatt and Danny
Speaker 1: Zavanache declined multiple requests for an on the record interview.
Speaker 1: Gene Fowler was unavailable for an interview. Joe Bonano, Joeya Tarola,
Speaker 1: and Larry Fowler are dead. Louis Marconi, the X cop
Speaker 1: who was friends with Paisley, also was never charged with
Speaker 1: or convicted of any crimes tied to any of Paisley's allegations.
Speaker 1: Marconi declined multiple requests to do a recorded interview. Finally,
Speaker 1: in his seventies, Pete Lookavoli Jr. And Mike Lackavoli vehemently
Speaker 1: denied reports that they were involved in organized crime rings.
Speaker 1: The Lick of OLiS didn't respond to multiple interview requests.
Speaker 1: Ben Boland is our executive producer. Paul Decan is our
Speaker 1: supervising producer, Chris Brown is our assistant producer, Seth Nicholas
Speaker 1: Johnson is our producer. Sam T. Garden is our research assistant,
Speaker 1: and I'm your host and executive producer, John Wallzac. You
Speaker 1: can find me on Twitter at at John Waalzac j
Speaker 1: O n w A l c z a K special
Speaker 1: Thanks to investigative reporters and editors or ire and specifically
Speaker 1: executive director Doug Haddocks. Thanks also to everyone at the
Speaker 1: State Historical Society of Missouri, including John Console, Kevin George,
Speaker 1: and Beth Pike. And a big thank you to Pauline
Speaker 1: Loftus for showing us around the Mountain Oyster Club. Missing
Speaker 1: in Alaska is a co production of I Heart Media
Speaker 1: and Greenfork Media.