Image: FBI
The Smaldone crew dominated the Denver rackets in the middle 20th Century, with headquarters at Gaetano's restaurant on Tejon Street - however, Colorado's capo called shots from from Pueblo.
Vincenzo "Black Jim" Colletti ruled from 1950 to 1969 and maintained ties with the national crime syndicate. He was among 62 mobsters detained by police at the infamous Apalachin, New York, meeting of U.S. bosses in 1957.
La Cosa Nostra focused on gambling and loan sharking in Colorado after Prohibition ended in 1933 and bootlegging ceased.
In Denver, it was estimated there were perhaps 10 or so "made men" and 30 associates post World War Two. Beyond Denver and Pueblo, the mob had a presence in one form or another in Trinidad, Central City, Louisville and Canon City, home of the state penitentiary.
Small potatoes but troublesome - and violent - nonetheless.
Colletti actually had a Big Apple mob pedigree. The Colorado boss got his start in New York City and befriended famed crook Joseph Bonanno, who also moved west, settling in Arizona.
Colletti resided at 1415 Clermont Street in Pueblo, according to newspaper accounts, and held interests in legitimate businesses, one said to be a car wash - an appropriate enterprise for money laundering.
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