Friends of Ours

Feds Auction Off Strip Club Sites

The Department of Justice is auctioning off two properties which once were part of the strip club empire run by Frank Colacurcio Sr. and his son, Frank Jr. as reported by Mike Carter for The Seattle Times:  "The properties were seized as a result of the FBI's investigation into prostitution, racketeering and money-laundering that eventually dismantled the Colacurcio organization."

Frank Colacurcio Jr. Is Sentenced

In Seattle, WA  Frank Colacurcio Jr. has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison and fined $1.3 million after pleading guilty last June to a racketeering conspiracy charge for his role in the strip club empire founded by his infamous father Frank Sr. as reported by Mike Carter for the Seattle Times: "Six men, including Colacurcio Jr. and his then-ailing father, were indicted last year following a four-year Seattle police and FBI investigation into prostitution-related racketeering at the Colacurcios' four Western Washington strip clubs. His father died in July, and Colacurcio Jr. is the last to be sentenced and the only one to go to prison."

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Seattle, WA "Godfather" Frank Colacurcio Sr. Dies

Smut king Frank Colacurcio Sr., indicted last summer with son Frank Jr. and several associates on federal racketeering, money laundering, mail fraud and prostitution conspiracy charges involving his Seattle, WA strip clubs, has died of congestive heart failure at the age of 93 as reported by Steve Miletich for The Seattle Times:

Mr. Colacurcio died only a week after the final dismantlement of his strip-club operations by federal prosecutors, 67 years after he was first sent to prison for what was then called carnal knowledge with a teenage girl. * * * Beginning in the 1950s, he used thugs and threats to control Seattle's jukebox, pinball and cigarette vending machine business, competitors alleged. * * * In the 1960s, Mr. Colacurcio held an interest in several bars, restaurants and nightclubs in Seattle. * * * Although he served prison stints for the 1971 [racketeering] conviction and a 1981 tax-fraud conviction, Mr. Colacurcio opened topless taverns and strip clubs — another cash business that allowed profit-skimming — throughout the Seattle area and beyond, eventually operating in at least 10 Western states. * * * After a 1991 guilty plea to tax fraud and the end of his 36-year-year marriage to Jackie Colacurcio about the same time, he and his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr., concentrated on running a smaller number of nude-dancing clubs. * * * Mr. Colacurcio and his son landed on the front page of newspapers in 2003 when the "Strippergate" scandal jolted Seattle City Hall. For years, the Colacurcios had tried to expand parking at Rick's, a Lake City Way strip club, but were repeatedly rejected. When the parking plan came before the council again in 2003, Colacurcio associates contributed thousands of dollars to three City Council members, who helped form a majority that approved the plan. * * * Prosecutors charged Mr. Colacurcio, his son and two others with skirting donation limits by secretly reimbursing contributors. In 2008, Mr. Colacurcio, his son and an associate pleaded guilty to criminal charges and paid fines.

Last week Frank Jr. pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy charge following last summer's indictment, and will serve one year and one day in prison.  Frank Sr. was suspected in the slayings of five people in the 1970s and 1980s but never charged.  For more sordid details on Frank Sr.'s criminal history check out a piece by Casey McNerthney for the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

Further coverage: 

Seattle strip-club magnate Frank Colacurcio Sr. dies at 93 by Scott Gutierrez and Casey McNerthney for the Seattle Post Intelligencer

1979 KING 5 News Report:

Frank Colacurcio Jr. Pleads Guilty

In Seattle, WA  Frank Colacurcio Jr. has "pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy charge and will serve one year and one day in prison" for his role in a strip club empire founded by his father Frank Sr. as reported by Christine Clarridge for The Seattle Times:

The FBI said dancers were routinely performing sex acts on customers in the club's dimly lit "VIP" sections. The indictments alleged the club took a cut from these "private dances" and that the Colacurcios and their colleagues got rich. The four clubs were pulling in nearly $1 million a month, according to court documents.

Four others previously pleaded guilty to prostitution- and racketeering-related charges for their roles in the operation, and the only remaining defendant in the case is 93-year-old Frank Sr. "who put together an empire that began with pinball and cigarette machines and became what U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan described as a '50-year scourge on the community'":

The whole time, Colacurcio Sr. has played cat-and-mouse with federal and local law-enforcement, making him one of Seattle's most notorious racketeering figures. As far back as the 1950s, he was identified as a racketeer in testimony before a U.S. Senate committee and accused of using strong-arm tactics to control Seattle's pinball trade. * * * Additionally, investigators have looked at Colacurcio Sr. or his associates in the slayings of five people in the 1970s and 1980s.

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Plea Deal Closes Down Three Seattle Strip Clubs

In Seattle, WA three men -- Steve Fueston, David Ebert and Leroy Christiansen -- who were indicted last summer with strip club mogul Frank Colacurcio Sr. and his son Frank Jr. have pleaded guilty to federal charges which will close their establishments and keep them out of jail as reported by Mike Carter for The Seattle Times:

Christiansen pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Ebert pleaded guilty to conspiracy to use interstate facilities in aid of racketeering. Fueston pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit prostitution near a military establishment, a misdemeanor. The pleas also involve criminal charges filed against two holding companies for the property the strip clubs sit on, enabling the government to seize the property and shut the clubs down — a move the government has said has been one of its main goals in the investigation all along. * * * The Colacurcios and their associates were indicted last July on charges of racketeering and conspiracy to launder money and promote prostitution, which federal agents and police say has been a mainstay of the clubs' business for years.

Frank Sr. -- labeled as a racketeer by the U.S. Senate during organized-crime hearings in the 1950s who once owned strip clubs across ten Western states -- and his son Frank Jr. were not part of the plea deal.