-Caveat Lector-
an excerpt from:
Loud and Clear
Lake Headly and William Hoffman�1990
Henry Holt and Company
115 W. 18th St.
New York, NY 10011
ISBN 0-8050-1138-2
272 pps � out-of-print/one edition
--[10]--
10
Don Bolles's Emprise
Despite Bradley Funk's concern about being "ruined" and "destroyed" by the
conspiracy involving the Arizona Republic, Don Bolles, Sam Steiger, and
others, Funk, his family, and Emprise still held virtually an unthreatened
monopoly of pari-mutuel racing in Arizona.
Bolles himself viewed his victories-getting the information into print�as
Pyrrhic. Although, at great effort, he had exposed much about the influential
Funk family and the gigantic Emprise, his adversaries remained as firmly in
control as ever.
What good was expose if nothing significant changed? I likened his 1972
situation to my own in 1979: a large amount of evidence had already reached
the public, yet Dunlap and Robison remained on death row, apparently no
better off than when I started the case.
Anyway, Bolles had hoped the Pepper Committee's inquiry into organized crime
influence over professional sports would result in significant reform, and
the reporter came well prepared for his appearance before the committee.
Bradley Funk may have been paranoid when he railed about a conspiracy, but
there was nothing delusional about Bolles's position. His remarkable
testimony before the Congressional committee revealed nearencyclopedic
knowledge of his subject, an excellent memory, and the rare ability to
translate in-depth, complex information into laymen's language.
MR. PHILLIPS: Will you tell us what you did about inves-tigating Emprise?
MR. BOLLES: About in the early winter of 1970, I went on an extended tour of
many cities around the country at the request of my managing editor and
looked at newspaper clippings and interviewed persons in connection with
Emprise's role in racing.
MR. PHILLIPS: Would you tell us very briefly what you found as a result of
this investigative trip?
MR. BOLLES: Well, there were several general conclusions I drew from the
information I gathered. Before I give you this information, I want to say
that it is basically what other people told me. Much of it has not come
firsthand. We have tried as best we can to ascertain that this information is
correct and accurate. If there is anything in there that is not accurate, we
would be happy to have the Emprise people tell us so. I guarantee them that
we will not repeat this again if it can be demonstrated it is not accurate.
We have attempted very extensively to trace this information and ascertain
that it is accurate. The first thing we found was a continual association
with organized crime figures over a thirty-five-year period.
MR. PHILLIPS: You say there was a continual association on behalf of the
Emprise principals?
MR. BOLLES: By Emprise and its officials.
MR. PHILLIPS: And would that have been Lou Jacobs, the predominant executive
official of that organization?
MR. BOLLES: I would say that was so. The information we received was that Mr.
Jacobs was the principal in most of the arrangements.
MR. PHILLIPS: Would you please elaborate on that find-ing?
MR. BOLLES: Well, here again, we started with secondhand information, but the
first indication we had that Emprise might not be the finest people to have
around was a book by a well-known crime writer, Hank Messick, who wrote a
book called The Silent Syndicate. He reported that�this was in 1937�Lou
loaned money to a Sam Tucker, reportedly of the Cleveland syndicate, and that
in 1958 there was a temporary crisis in the Sportservice system and Lou
borrowed money back again for a short period of time from Moe Dalitz and Sam
Hass of the Cleveland syndicate.
MR. PHILLIPS: Did you make any other conclusions in your investigation of
Emprise?
MR. BOLLES: Yes. We found there had been a seduction of public officials and
use of well-respected front men to accomplish its objectives.
MR. PHILLIPS: Were there any other racketeering individuals who you
determined were associating with Emprise or its officials?
MR. BOLLES: I don't allege that this next gentleman is a racketeer, but I
will just give you the information I have. In 1952, John Masoni, who later
tried to start a track in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, with Jerry Jacobs, the
current president of Emprise, was involved in an Ohio track called Randall
Park. Masoni was in Randall at the time when Joseph C. Lombardo was in
Cleveland and they kept having things happening to their various projects
like bombs going off. The Thoroughbred Racing Protection Bureau notes one of
the more serious allegations concerning these three partners is the manner in
which they operated North Randall Park and employed persons with criminal
records and hoodlum reputations to do the policing at the track. That same
year of 1952, Masoni, along with an ex-convict named Paul Clellan and a New
York nightclub operator named John Boggiano ... started a dog track in North
Carolina. Boggiano, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, which wrote
about the situation in some detail, had held stock with the family of Steven
Franze; but Franze, Boggiano's ex-partner, was slain gangland style in 1953
in New York. That same year, the wife of Vito Genovese, now dead, reported
that her husband held financial interests in North Carolina and Virginia dog
tracks.
MR. PHILLIPS: Vito Genovese has been identified as one of the family heads
operating out of New York; is that correct?
MR. BOLLES: Yes. Vito Genovese is listed in the 1969 McClellan investigating
committee report as having been on the commission of the Cosa Nostra in 1960,
and also head of his own family, which reportedly is now headed by Geraldo
Catena.
MR. PHILLIPS: You recounted to the committee the observation that Mrs.
Genovese, in a divorce action, had testified Vito Genovese had owned dog
interests in North Carolina and Virginia. Did you come across, in your
inquiry, anything about Raymond Patriarca?
MR. BOLLES: In 1962, a track called Berkshire Downs was formed in
Massachusetts. The information I have is that Sportservice, or Emprise, put a
hundred thousand dollars in this track, loaned the owners of record three
hundred and fifty-seven thousand dollars and got the concessions. FBI
wiretaps revealed in federal court in 1967, 1 believe in Boston, that the
real power behind Berkshire Downs was Raymond Patriarca, who is listed in the
McClellan committee report as the leader of the New England Cosa Nostra.
MR. PHILLIPS: The next point you made, I think, was that Emprise used a
pattern of seduction of public officials. Tell us about that.
MR. BOLLES: Well, what I know best is the situation in the Arizona Racing
Commission. We had a racing commissioner by the name of Frank Waitman, of
Prescott. Let me back up. There came a time a group of businessmen in the
Phoenix area decided that they would try and start a competing track against
the Funk-Emprise monopoly. They filed an application with the Arizona Racing
Commission to create this track at Black Canyon, which is just north of the
Phoenix area, across the county line, because there was a requirement you
could not build two in the same county. As memory serves me, there were some
"rinky dink" procedures in the racing commission which made it very, very
difficult for this competing applicant to even get his petition heard. But
then at one point, Mr. Waitman made an application that the Funks be allowed
to build on that location, and Mr. Waitman was rewarded with a contract to
install the plumbing at the Black Canyon Dog Track, which if memory serves me
correctly, was in the approximate amount of twenty-three thousand dollars.
State auditor general Ira Osman can give you the specifics on that. It was
also a situation with Racing Commissioner Donald Butler, who was in a land
syndicate in Yuma, and again Mr. Osman can give you the more detailed
specifics of it because his mind understands all of those financial
transactions better than mine. But the Funk-Emprise interest put twenty
thousand dollars, as I recall, into that land syndicate.
MR. PHILLIPS: Just going back to the Waltman situation: Waltman was a racing
commissioner and he was also doing business with these people he was
regulating?
MR. BOLLES: That is correct.
MR. PHILLIPS: Apparently, that was brought out in the press by your
particular paper; is that true?
MR. BOLLES: Yes. Also, later on, Mr. Osman recommended that the matter be
presented to the proper authorities. I believe he branded it an apparent
conflict of interest, which may be prohibited by Arizona racing law. To my
knowledge, nothing was ever done about it.
MR. PHILLIPS: We were talking about a second racing commissioner who became
involved with these racing interests?
MR. BOLLES: Yes. Donald Butler, formerly of Yuma, and now Tucson.
MR. PHILLIPS: Would you tell us about him, please.
MR. BOLLES: I think I gave you the information about their putting twenty
thousand dollars Into a land syndicate of which he was some kind of managing
director or principal.
MR. PHILLIPS: Did this information ultimately reach the press?
MR. BOLLES: Yes, it did.
MR. PHILLIPS: Would you tell us what happened to Mr. Butler after this was
published?
MR. BOLLES: It took a long while, but Mr. Butler finally resigned.
MR. PHILLIPS: Will you please go on. Were there any other racing
commissioners who became involved?
MR. BOLLES: Yes. I received information that a racing commissioner by the
name of Buell Tade�who was no longer on the commission, I believe has been
off for some years-had been the buddy of the Funks on the commission and that
they had bought thousands of glasses from him. Drinking glasses.
MR. PHILLIPS: Was there also another commissioner by the name of Marth?
MR. BOLLES: His name is Al Marth, of Phoenix. He has been a commissioner for
some time. Mr. Marth went to a meeting of the American Greyhound Track
Operators Association in Ireland, at state expense, and it was alleged to me
that one of his principal duties there was to seek the admission of the Funks
into the track operators association; that they had been consistently barred
from membership or not admitted to membership, and that he was going to try
and get them in. He did not succeed.
Next the committee heard a tape-recorded conversation between Racing
Commissioner Al Marth and Albert Funk, Bradley's cousin. Their talk revealed
a cozy relationship between the regulator and the regulated. The Pepper
Committee listened, then Counsel Joseph Phillips summed up what they heard.
MR. PHILLIPS: The thrust of the conversation with Mr. Marth, the racing
commissioner, is that he is advising Mr. Funk, in advance of the hearing,
what questions the commission is going to put to him; is that correct?
MR. BOLLES: That is correct.
MR. PHILLIPS: In other words, Mr. Marth is telling the racing applicant what
the questions are going to be; that these questions are not in any way going
to embarrass them; they are going to give him the questions in advance so he
can appropriately answer them and the commission can put on a good show so
they grant the license and still not be criticized; is that correct?
MR. BOLLES: That was basically what was said.
The committee was interested in George Johnson and quickly shifted its focus
to his wiretapping.
MR. PHILLIPS: Can you tell us about the discussion with
George Johnson?
MR. BOLLES: Johnson, basically, told us the things he told you and this
committee yesterday; that he caused a wiretap to be placed on my personal
telephone at home; that he used a banker to get into my private bank account;
that he had used a telephone company employee to get out my records of
telephone calls I had made over quite a period of time. One thing that I want
to insert here: it was stated yesterday that these were long-distance
telephone records. The records which Mr. Johnson delivered to us were
interzone telephone calls, where you might, in Phoenix, call from north
Phoenix to south Phoenix. That would be an interzone call. To my knowledge,
these are only recorded on the logs of the telephone company, because there
is no operator interference. These interzone telephone calls were recorded
and I looked at the log they had made, and also with little notations out to
the side as to who I had called. I recognized those numbers and those persons
as being identical, not only with things I knew were associated number and
name, but calls I had, in fact, made. He also told me he had checked into my
credit rating, into my personal life, and
MR. PHILLIPS: Is your credit rating and your personal life as impeccable as
Congressman Steiger's seems to be?
MR. BOLLES: I hope so. I am an AA credit rating.
MR. PHILLIPS: Please continue.
MR. BOLLES: That was the gist of it. He played for us certain tapes on that
occasion, very briefly, and then simply handed a whole pile of this
information he had gleaned, his own personal notes and memorandums to
himself, and telephone records of a large number of individuals.
MR. PHILLIPS: Did he say who had employed him to do this?
MR. BOLLES: On that occasion, I do not think he did.
MR. PHILLIPS: Did he ultimately tell you who had em-ployed him to do it?
MR. BOLLES: Yes, he did.
MR. PHILLIPS: Would you tell us who that is?
MR. BOLLES: He said it was the Funks and the Emprise.
Congressman Claude Pepper had a few salient questions:
CHAIRMAN PEPPER: There have been a good many insinuations about
motivation in this case. It has been intimated by the Emprise group, the Funk
group, that your paper was prejudiced against them, had never printed
anything favorable to racing in that area, and that you were out to get them,
as you would say in the language of the trade. Will you just state, as you
are testifying under oath, was this inquiry initiated, and has it been
carried on by the people who were interested in the newsworthiness and in the
merits of the manner in which this operation was conducted, or has it been
directed by the owners or the proprietors or the managers of your paper with
an ulterior motive against these people?
MR. BOLLES: Under oath, there was never an attempt to get the Funks, or
Emprise, or anybody else. We were trying to bring the conditions at the
racetrack-and in my opinion, outlandish relationships with the racing
commissioners�to public light, and we have done so. I think this has resulted
in the final awareness by the racing commission that they have a
responsibility to act in the public interest, and by the legislature that
even though they passed a watered-down bill, that at least they had to do
something.
CHAIRMAN PEPPER: And there have been no orders issued in the past by the
proprietors of your paper that you fellows who do the work have got to get
these people?
MR. BOLLES: Absolutely not.
Counsel Phillips praised the reporter, saying to the Committee and staff
dealing with Mr. Bolles that "he has been exceptionally cooperative and I
found him to be a man with a high degree of honor, integrity, and caution."
The Pepper Committee's final report concluded that Emprise and the Funks used
"innuendo and false accusations" against Bolles and Congressman Steiger, and
found no evidence of conspiracy against the Emprise-Funk racing monopoly.
Early in 1977 there occurred an odd and sad footnote to the whole affair.
Congressman Steiger, who had fought long and hard against Emprise, asked
outgoing President Gerald Ford to pardon the corporation for its 1972 felony
conviction. Steiger was about to leave public office, having given up his
House seat to wage a losing battle for the U.S. Senate against Dennis
DeConcini.
Steiger later explained his seemingly baffling change of mind: "There was no
mystery about it; they [Emprise] had me by the balls." Ongoing lawsuits by
Emprise against the congressman left him owing sixty thousand dollars in
legal fees, and he envisioned no relief. "They [Emprise] contacted me, and I
told them I'd write the pardon letter if they'd lay off the lawsuits.
Besides, nobody really cared in Arizona who ran the racing industry. I know
it wasn't very savory, but that's the fact."
Steiger didn't sell out entirely. "I called Jerry [Ford]," he said, "who I
knew from Congress, right after I wrote the damned letter, and told him to
ignore it. I may have been in bed with Jeremy Jacobs for a second, but I
wasn't getting under the sheets."
pps. 101-111
--[cont]--
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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