On Aug. 7, 1963, the body of a talkative Denver police informant aptly named named Robin "Walkie Talkie" Roberts, 33, was found in a ditch in Applewood in Jefferson County.
He had been beaten and shot - gangland style.
Roberts, a familiar face in gambling circles, was last seen at the Navarre Cafe at 1727 Tremont Place in Denver with reputed mobster Joe "The Ram" Salardino.
A suspect named Robert Shanks, 27, was acquitted. The case went cold.
Among those taking the stand at the Shanks trial was reputed gangster Eugene Smaldone Jr., 27, of the Smaldone gang, who returned to Colorado from a federal prison in Texas, where he was serving an 18-month sentence for a interstate gambling.
Roberts was a co-defendant in that case and Smaldone declined to answer questions, citing the Fifth Amendment of the US. Constitution, which protects a person from self-incrimination.
His father and uncle - reputed Denver mob leaders Eugene "Checkers" Smaldone Sr. and Clyde "Flip Flop" Smaldone - refused to testify at the Shanks trial, too.
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