In this episode of Gangland Wire, retired Kansas City Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins takes listeners deep into a lesser-known corner of American mob history—Denver, Colorado. While most think of Denver as a gateway to the Rockies and a hub for skiing, few realize it also served as the long-standing stronghold of the Smaldone crime family.

Gary uncovers the roots of organized crime in southern Colorado, beginning in Pueblo, where early mobster James Coletti, a one-time associate of the Bonanno crime family, helped lay the foundation. He and the infamous Carlino brothers, including Pete Carlino—dubbed the “Al Capone of Southern Colorado”—dominated bootlegging during Prohibition and attempted to expand northward. But peace efforts failed, and bloody gang wars soon erupted, culminating in drive-by shootings, betrayal, and ultimately murder.

From there, the story shifts to Joe Roma, Denver’s would-be peacemaker and one-time crime boss, whose 1933 assassination created a power vacuum. Into that void stepped the Smaldone brothers—Clyde (“Flip Flop”), Eugene (“Checkers”), and Clarence (“Chauncey”)—who would dominate Denver’s underworld from the 1940s through the 1980s. Their North Denver restaurant, Gaetano’s, became both a community staple and a notorious mob hangout.

Gary details the family’s criminal enterprises, from gambling, loan sharking, and bootlegging to jury tampering and racketeering, including the high-profile 1953 gambling raid that brought federal heat. But the Smaldones weren’t just feared—they were admired by many locals for their generosity, community involvement, and quiet acts of charity. They donated to orphanages, covered college tuition, and ensured no one in the neighborhood went hungry, blurring the line between gangster and good neighbor.

The episode also explores the Smaldones’ national connections, including partnerships with mob bosses in St. Louis, Detroit, and Chicago. Gary breaks down their Las Vegas Riviera Casino skim, in collaboration with Anthony Giordano, and how FBI wiretaps and surveillance exposed their involvement in one of the Mafia’s most lucrative rackets. Figures like “Fat Willie” Villano, a nephew of Checkers, handled casino marker collections, sometimes doubling as muscle for overdue debts.

As always, Gary brings a thoughtful and grounded perspective, asking: Were the Smaldones cold-blooded criminals or Robin Hood-style community protectors? The truth lies somewhere in between.

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Transcript
In this episode, I delve deep into the intriguing world of organized crime in Denver, Colorado, a city not typically associated with mob activities. The focus of my research centers around the Small Dome family, who dominated the organized crime scene for several decades. Many listeners are surprised to learn that organized crime had roots in Denver, often overshadowed by its reputation as a skiing and outdoor paradise. But as we explore the historical timeline, we uncover how mob influence permeated this seemingly tranquil landscape.

To kick off the narrative, I introduce the criminal origins in southern Colorado with figures like James Coletti, who made his reputation in Pueblo during the late 1950s. We examine Coletti’s ties to the Bonanno family and his subsequent move to Pueblo, where he became embroiled in local organized crime. The podcast elaborates on key players like Pete Carlino, dubbed the “Al Capone of Southern Colorado,” who aggressively expanded his bootlegging operations during Prohibition. I detail the thwarted attempts at peace meetings and the explosive gang wars that followed, highlighting the volatile atmosphere of the time.

We transition to important figures like Joe Roma, who attempted to mediate tensions among rival gangs in Denver but ultimately became a victim himself. His murder in 1933 left a power vacuum that would soon be filled by the Small Dome family. This episode traces the evolution of their operations, including how the trio of brothers—Clyde, Eugene (Checkers), and Clarence (Chauncey) Small Dome—tackled gambling and bootlegging in the area. Their restaurant, Gaetano’s, became not only a local hangout but a notorious hub for organized crime.

I offer a glimpse into the personal lives of these mobsters, highlighting their connections and relationships with notable figures, including governors and other crime bosses across the country. The exploration includes their legal troubles, particularly the significant raid in 1953 that landed them behind bars for jury tampering and other charges. Yet, the Small Domes’ charisma and community presence allowed them to maintain a degree of respectability, as they were known for their generosity and support of local causes, giving rise to conflicting narratives about their morality.

Through this episode, I aim to paint a complex portrait of the Small Dome family: part criminals, part community benefactors. Their duality resonates through anecdotes of their charitable acts juxtaposed against their extensive criminal undertakings. I discuss the intricate dynamics of organized crime and how even those entrenched in illicit activities can exhibit traits of loyalty and compassion.

Lastly, I highlight the broader implications and connections of the Small Dome family with other crime syndicates across the nation, including their links to Las Vegas and other mob families in St. Louis, Detroit, and Chicago. The episode concludes with reflections on the perpetual fascination with organized crime and its impact on American culture, as well as my ongoing commitment to unearthing hidden narratives beyond the well-trodden paths of New York and Chicago. This journey through Denver’s underworld illustrates the complexities of human nature, where good and evil often intertwine in unexpected ways.

[0:00] Well, hey, all you wiretappers out there, good to be back here in the studio, Gangland Wire. This is Gary Jenkins, retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective. I have a story today I’ve been researching for a while, and I’ve had several people ask me about organized crime in Denver, Colorado. The Small Dome family ruled it for a long time, so we’re going to go take a look at Denver, Colorado. You don’t think of Denver, Colorado, having the mob. You just think of going skiing, the Rockies. And I can’t think of their football team all of a sudden. Anyhow, it kind of started more. The earliest is down in Pueblo, Colorado, which is a few miles. I don’t know, a hundred or so miles, a couple of hundred, maybe south of Denver. A guy named James Coletti was caught at the Appalachian Conference in 1957. And he had been in Pueblo for a long time. He was born in Italy.

[0:56] When he first got to the United States, he was arrested several times in New York City in the New Jersey area. Then he moved west and settled in Pueblo. At one time, he was listed as a member in the early days. He was listed as a member of the Bonanno family. And that’s probably because he was involved with the ownership of the Colorado Cheese Company with Joe Bonanno. So I would say he was a Bonanno-affiliated mobster, more than likely, and a maid guy, too, if he was at Appalachian. After him in Pueblo, I mean, he was there during this time. There’s a brother named Pete and Sam Carlino.

[1:32] And Pete Carlino got the nickname the Al Capone of Southern Colorado during Prohibition because there was a lot of bootlegging going on at the time as there was all over the United States. And they really wanted to expand their bootlegging empire from Pueblo on up to the bigger city in the capital city of Denver. Now, there was a guy named Joe Roma who was supposedly, quote, unquote, the boss of Denver. And he had a sit down with these brothers,

[2:00] Carlino brothers. and trying to head off into kind of a gang war. In 1931, this Joe Roma, he was kind of like, he was more like Al Capone or maybe more like Lucky Luciano. He had a meeting of 30 of Colorado’s top bootleggers in order to try to divide districts up and areas up or who had what area keep troubles down. And the cops at the time, of course, they were probably corrupt as hell, but they found out about it. And since these were all Italians, I’m sure they were all Peckerwood cops. They raided the meeting and the meeting was interrupted. There’s really no compromise was ever agreed on. And what happened now, that was a gang war.

[2:40] A few months later, Pete Carlino was standing on a Denver sidewalk and some gunmen and a automobile, a drive-by shooting, blasted him. I mean, they blasted the shit out of him, but he survived. Three months later, he and James Coletti, who I mentioned before, were killed at Carlino’s home. So, you know, that’s why it’s kind of interesting. Another member of the Carlino gang went to the police and cooperated with the police. And he identified a guy named Bruno Morrow of Pueblo as the gunman. But in a kind of another bizarre twist of the war, there’s Joe Roma. He really wanted, he did not want gang warfare. He just wanted to make money again, like Frank Costello or Lucky Luciano.

[3:23] Roma hosted a $5,000 bail. So… For his rival Pete Carlino, Sam’s brother, at that point in time. And after he had, Carlino had been arrested on some kind of an arson charge, a conspiracy to commit arson. So, you know, go figure. But that’s kind of something really early history that we can find of Denver and Colorado organized crime families in connection with the mafia. Now, Pete Carlino had been bonded out by Joe Roma, who was the Denver guy who was trying to keep peace among the bootleggers.

[4:00] He was up in Denver and he drove out to Cannon City, which is just outside of Denver, around September the 9th, 10th or 11th. Found his body stuffed underneath a bridge. And they said two days later, the killers returned to move his body to move it to a place where it could be more easily discovered. They wanted to discover it. You know, a lot of these mob guys, they like to send a message. So they want to send a message. This has become what’s interesting about this. That was the same around the same time as Joe Mazzaria or was it Maranzano? One of those was Maranzano was killed and they called that the night of Sicilian Vespers in New York City. Well, that, you know, that didn’t really happen. They didn’t kill mob guys all over the United States in that night. That’s a pretty good rumor and a pretty good story. But this guy was killed about the same time. Best I can tell and best I’ve researched this thing before I did an old show on the Night of the Sicilian Vespers and the myth behind that and how that didn’t really happen. But that would be one mob murder that they would link to that and to try to make that story true. This leaves Joe Roma as the organized crime leader in Colorado. He was called Little Caesar because he was five foot one and kind of a bigger than life personality. And he was a crime boss until his murder in 1933.

[5:29] We don’t know exactly who did it, but I got a feeling it might had something

[5:32] to do with the Smaldone family. There’s another prominent family involved in Denver area organized crime and bootlegging and gambling and all that. And that’s a Smaldone family. There were three brothers. I think the oldest was Clyde. They called him Flip Flop.

[5:47] Smaldone there was Eugene and he was known as Checkers Smaldone and then there was Clarence who was Chauncey small dome they were all involved in the bootlegging in the 20s and gambling all the way up into the 1980s and and they will dominate the underworld in Denver in Colorado eastern colorado and uh and the headlines too until the 1990s now these brothers all own all together they owned and operated a restaurant in North Denver, probably the little Italy area in North Denver called Gaetano’s. Gaetano’s Italian restaurant. Now, supposedly Gaetano was Italian for Clyde’s. I’m not sure about that. I read that. They were questioned about the murder of Roma, but nothing ever came of it. Almost the earliest days, during the 40s, by the end of the war, This place, Gaetano’s in the Little Italy neighborhood in North Denver, was known as a mob hangout. Everybody knew it as a mob hangout. You know, we all, especially in smaller cities like this, we have a place that’s known as a mob hangout. Besides his intellect, Clyde or Flip Flop was known for making a lot of friends. And he made friends throughout the United States.

[7:09] He got to know Al Capone back in the day. He got to know Carlos Marcello. Later on, he was friends with one of the Colorado governors, Ralph Carr. And everybody that knew him described him as a real gentleman. He was a real smooth personality, if you will. Born in 1906, and he started out as all of them with a burglary charge, and not all of them, but with some kind of a smaller criminal charge. And he served 18 months in Leavenworth for bootlegging in the 30s, 1933.

[7:39] After he got out, he served some time for the attempted bombing murder of a local guy named Leon Barnes. Now, his younger brother, Eugene, who went by Checkers, they were always at Gaetano’s. They were these restaurateurs who would walk around, and you’ve been there locally owned, especially Italian places. They’d come around and say, is everything okay? Is food okay? That kind of a thing. And get to know people real personable. Clyde always, always dressed immaculately in really expensive suits, and he always had a cigar in his mouth. Everybody knew them. Everybody knew the small dones. And the general manager during those later years, he will say that he said 10 out of 11 people that knew them will have nothing but great things to say about the family. They say that nobody in the neighborhood ever went hungry, no matter how bad times were, the small dones would always help out. 1953, Clyde and Eugene or Checkers made headlines after a publicized raid of one of their gambling dens in Brighton, Colorado. And they were later found guilty of jury tampering.

[8:49] And they really socked it to them. They gave them 60 years in prison and a huge big fine, 1953, $24,000 fine. Now, after 13 months in jail, a little over a year in jail, they got a new trial, and they pled out then and got a little less time.

[9:06] Clyde ended up getting 12 years, and he got a parole in 1962. By 1967, he’s back at it, and he and several others, including Checker’s son,

[9:16] were arrested on gambling charges and for running a $100,000 a week bookmaking operation. Now, Clyde will start pulling back during these years, the 60s, and Checkers, or Eugene, will become known as Northern Colorado’s leading crime figure, like all of Colorado’s leading crime figure, and the patriarch of the Denver crime family. He was the man by then, suspected of taking part in or being behind several murders.

[9:43] He was never indicted for murder. Over his years, he was arrested for auto theft, bootlegging, income tax evasion. People would describe him as a schoolteacher type. He wore glasses, he was very polite, very civil, you know, good mob guy. You know, he doesn’t act like a criminal. He’ll catch a case for operating the loan shark business out of Gaetano’s. He also, Eugene, with Clarence, the younger brother, who was known as Chauncey, and their nephew, Paul Clyde Polly Milano, pled guilty to several charges, including illegal gun possession. Now, Checkers will die in 1992 of a heart attack at age 81. Now, in the later years, Clyde and Checkers, or Eugene, were much less involved in the family’s rackets, and the youngest brother, Clarence, known as Chauncey, took over for the most part. Chauncey was known as the handsomest brother, the best-looking brother, And he had a particular table at Gaetano’s that he’d always sat at in the far back. And that restaurant’s still there today, guys, if you go to Denver. It’s table number 404.