A Shot in the Dark

Questions linger in the death of mafia

associate and former federal informant
Jesse Stoneking, who allegedly
committed suicide in Surprise, Ariz. in
January 2003.

By C.D. Stelzer
During his long criminal career,
The end came in the desert with a single Stoneking put together a resume that ran
gunshot. Not a solidarity death, as the gamut from extortion to murder. By
implied by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the late 1970s, he had become the top
but one well attended. A death witnessed lieutenant of Eastside rackets boss Art
and documented, leaving little room for Berne, who took his orders directly from
speculation. A simple suicide or so it the Chicago Outfit.
would seem.
But after being nabbed as the leader of
On Sunday Jan. 19, 2003, at 9:45 p.m. an interstate car theft ring in 1981,
Mountain Standard Time, a man Stoneking rolled over and became a FBI
identified as Jesse Lee McBride shot informant. His undercover work for the
himself with a .38-caliber revolver, bureau ultimately led to federal
while seated behind the wheel of a blue indictments and a string of convictions
1995 Ford Crown Victoria on the of St. Louis area organized crime
outskirts of Surprise, Ariz., according to figures, including his boss. The mafia
local police reports. The victim died reportedly put a $100,000 bounty on his
approximately an hour later at a nearby head. Stoneking spent most of the next
hospital. Law enforcement authorities two decades running from his past.
closed the case, after a routine
investigation. Though the Arizona press Despite Stoneking’s reputation and the
ignored the incident, the news media in FBI’s expressed interest in his death,
St. Louis later reported the true identity municipal and county officials in
of the man as Jesse Eugene Stoneking, a Arizona, who had jurisdiction over the
56-year old mobster, who gained fame case, chose not to expand the inquiry.
here as a federal informant in the 1980s.
Their suicide ruling is based primarily
on two eyewitness accounts, including
one by a Maricopa County deputy. For
this reason among others, the Surprise
police deemed Stoneking’s death an
open-and-shut case. But however certain
the cause of death may be, questions
persist. In death, as in life, the truth
about Jesse Stoneking remains elusive.
Accounts vary. Discrepancies abound.
Conclusions contradict. In this case,
even the name of the victim is listed
wrong on the medical examiner’s report.
As a result, public understanding of the
under-reported case has been limited by
a combination of standard police
procedures and the media’s failure to
provide accurate, independent, follow-up
coverage of breaking news.

Loop 303 and Bell Road, Surprise, Ariz.

The men who were not there

The Post-Dispatch story on Stoneking’s More importantly, the police and

death ran on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2003, six medical examiner’s reports on the
days after his suicide. Relying on a suicide show that Stoneking’s last act
Surprise police spokesman’s account of wasn’t carried out alone, but in the
the incident, staff writer Paul Hampel company of a longtime associate and a
reported that Stoneking had shot himself law enforcement official. Moreover, the
in his car “in a desolate area on the edge car that Stoneking drove that night was
of town.” Among the sparse details registered in the name of his friend, as
included in the story was that the former was the weapon that he allegedly used to
mobster operated an automobile kill himself.
repossession business and “lived alone”
in Wickenburg, Ariz. The official police version of
Stoneking’s death raises questions about
Hampel’s story sketched a solitary the immediate actions taken by law
suicide on a lonely stretch of road at a enforcement officers, the methods used
remote location in the desert. But maps in the initial investigation and
of the area show a different picture. The conclusions drawn afterwards.
crime took place in sprawling Maricopa
County, near the intersection of two The following account is based on the
well-traveled roads, which bordered reports of the first officers who arrived
residential developments and golf on the scene and a police interrogation
courses on three sides. of Stoneking’s friend.

At 9:05 p.m., the Maricopa County

Sheriff’s Office dispatched Deputy J.
Sprong to Loop 303 and Bell Road
because of a report that there were large
rocks in the roadway.
 Sprong says he then shined a flashlight
Sprong reported that on his arrival he through the back window and saw blood
saw a Ford Crown Victoria driven by coming from the right side of the
Stoneking on the side of the highway driver’s head. As he ordered Laurella to
with its emergency flashers on. The continue walking towards him, Surprise
deputy also reported that two other police officer R. Peck arrived on the
vehicles, a late model Toyota SUV and a scene. Sprong also reported that a third
tow truck, were parked 300 yards further law enforcement officer from the
down the road. The tow truck driver Arizona Department of Public Safety
advised the deputy that the SUV and the also arrived at the scene about that time.
vehicle driven by Stoneking had flat tires The state officer, according to Sprong,
from hitting rocks on the highway. The watched Laurella as he and Peck
SUV driver gave the same story, approached the Ford from opposite
according to the report, prompting sides.
Sprong to double back and remove the
road hazards. “I approached the vehicle on the
passenger side as the other Officer
(Peck) was on the Driver’s side,”
reported Sprong. “We noticed a black
revolver pistol next to Jesse’s right leg
on the seat. His right hand was on top of
the gun. I noticed that Jesse was still
breathing but did not respond to my
commands. I then reached inside the
vehicle and took the gun and secured it
in my vehicle.”

Peck’s report of the incident is mostly

the same as Sprong’s with exception of a
rather subtle but possibly significant
omission. He doesn’t mention the arrival
of the Public Safety officer at the scene.
In Peck’s account, he searches Laurella,
Sprong then directs the passenger to
stand behind the police vehicle, as Peck
On his return, the SUV and the tow truck presumably returns to his squad car to
(identified as a flat-bed type in other request another officer.
police reports) had departed. Sprong
then pulled behind the Ford to ask According to Peck:
whether the driver needed assistance. At
that point, the passenger, identified as “I checked Michael Laurella for
Michael Laurella, got out of the car and weapons and Deputy Sprong then had
walked back to the police vehicle. him step to the rear of his patrol car. I
then requested another officer from
“I then heard a single gunshot from dispatch. Deputy Sprong and I then
inside of the vehicle,” Sprong wrote. checked on the driver with deputy
Sprong advancing on the passenger side Vance reported that he received a call at
and myself on the driver side.” 10:15 p.m. from Sgt. D. Cuker, who was
at the scene, asking him to respond to a
The fact that Peck didn’t mention the “possible homicide or suicide.”
arrival of the third officer in his report
could be explained as a simple oversight. When Vance arrived, at 10:45, Welch’s
It is clear from Sprong’s version of patrol car was parked directly behind the
events that he had requested additional Ford Crown Victoria and the weapon
back up. that Stoneking allegedly used to kill
himself was on the trunk of the Ford.
His account indicates that three law Laurella was seated in the back of
enforcement officers from different Welch’s patrol car.
jurisdictions were on the scene only
moments after the suicide occurred. But Botched
oddly, in his report, Sprong doesn’t
identify either of the other officers by From these official accounts, the
name. He does, however, repeatedly investigation appears to have been
refer to the victim as “Jesse; ” and the compromised from the outset. In the
witness, Laurella, as “Michael,” which hour that it took the detective to arrive,
in retrospect seems somewhat informal the chain of custody on the weapon had
for a police report. changed two or three times. Two of the
three witnesses, both law enforcement
Sgt. P.H. Riherd of the Surprise Police officers, had left the scene. And the body
Department arrived next and advised had been removed.
Sprong that the shooting took place
within the town’s jurisdiction. Sprong There are other discrepancies.
reported that he then turned the pistol
over to her. Riherd also ordered Peck to When Vance interrogated Laurella at the
close the road to traffic and set up scene, Stoneking’s friend told the
warning flares. (Later, Peck was directed detective that two other vehicles had
by another officer to drive Laurella pulled over to side of the road with flat
home.) In the interim, emergency tires, not one as Sprong reported.
medical technicians arrived at the scene According to Laurella’s account, the
and Stoneking was taken by helicopter to other cars were parked in front and
a hospital in Phoenix, where he died. behind his car. Laurella indicated that
the tow truck driver fixed both of those
By the time J.C. Vance, the investigating vehicles' flat tires. Instead of also asking
detective, arrived on the scene, an hour for assistance, however, Laurella says
after the shooting, the body and the that Stoneking said that he preferred they
weapon had both been removed from the fix their flat themselves.
vehicle. Moreover, the first responding
officers had been relieved of their duties By the time deputy Sprong returned to
by others, including Sgt. Riherd and the scene after clearing the rocks from
officer G. L. Welch. the road, both of the other vehicles and
the tow truck had departed, Laurella
said. During the meantime, nothing in
the police reports show that Laurella or have not have recalled the arrival of the
Stoneking made any effort to fix their third police officer.
own flat tire in the intervening 30 or 40
minutes. They also declined to request Less explainable, though, is how
assistance from the tow truck driver, Laurella ended up in possession of
according to Laurella’s account. Stoneking’s wallet. According to the
detective’s report: “Laurella also
Instead, they remained seated inside the indicated that he had McBride’s
car. When Sprong pulled up behind them (Stoneking’s) wallet in his pocket as it
and activated his overhead emergency was given to him by an officer.”
lights, Laurella said that Stoneking asked
him to hold his glasses and then If Laurella is to be believed, a police
requested that he get out and tell the officer at a possible homicide scene
deputy that help was on the way. removed personal effects from a victim,
Laurella said he was ten or 12 feet or, at least, from the inside of the vehicle
behind the car and had just begun to where the shooting took place, and then
speak to the deputy when he heard the handed them over to a potential suspect.
single gunshot come from inside the
Crown Victoria. An evidence technician, who arrived
later, took photographs, but by then the
Laurella says he was then ordered to put crime scene had been disturbed more
his hands on the hood of the patrol car than once by police and the emergency
by the deputy. As stated in the other medical crew. Swab tests of Laurella’s
accounts, officer Peck arrived at the hands showed no signs of gunpowder.
scene immediately after the gunshot was But contrary to the Post-Dispatch, story,
fired. But according to detective Vance’s the medical examiner’s report doesn’t
report, Laurella didn’t mention the indicate that similar tests were
unidentified state cop, who deputy performed on Stoneking’s hands even
Sprong says guarded Laurella while he though they had been bagged at the
and officer Peck checked on Stoneking. crime scene expressly for that purpose.
Soot was found in the head wound,
According to detective Vance’s report: according to the medical examiner, but
“Laurella further indicated that at this no powder tattooing was identified,
time a Surprise police officer arrived on which is often present when a gunshot is
scene and he was secured in the back of fired at close range.
the deputy’s patrol car, while the police
approached his vehicle.” Laurella added In addition, no autopsy was performed,
that “he remained seated in the deputy’s according to the medical examiner's
patrol car while other police and medical report.
personnel arrived on scene and treated
his friend, Jesse.” The story that wasn't there

Again, the differences in the accounts of Aside from the Post-Dispatch story that
the three witnesses could be an innocent appeared nearly a week after his death,
oversight in the police reporting. It's also there has only been one reference to
possible that Laurella, under duress, may Stoneking that appeared in the
newspaper since then, a nostalgic spoke with detective Vance by phone,
column by staffer Pat Gauen that ran in advising him that he believed McBride
the Illinois zoned edition. A search of was actually Stoneking. Brostrom
Lexis-Nexis database doesn’t show the requested that the Surprise police send
Jan. 25, 2003 news story was even him the crime scene photographs and a
published. copy of the police report.

During his interrogation at the scene, Vance’s police report is dated Jan. 27,
Laurella said he and Stoneking lived 2003. It bears no indication of the results
together in a mobile home in of the state crime lab results on the
Wickenburg. The Post-Dispatch evidence. A later supplemental report
reported that Stoneking lived alone. filed by detective Sgt. Y. Ybarra
Laurella owned the Crown Vic that indicates that he had received the
Stoneking was driving, according to the medical examiner’s final report on April
police reports. The Post-Dispatch 17, 2003, nearly three month’s after
reported that it was Stoneking’s car. Stoneking’s death. The report concludes
Laurella and deputy Sprong were present that Jesse McBride died of a self-
at the time of Laurella’s death. The Post- inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Dispatch implied that Stoneking died
alone. The .38-caliber revolver that Officially, Stoneking has never been
ended Stoneking’s life belonged to declared dead. For the record, only
Laurella. The Post-Dispatch didn’t even McBride pulled the trigger. In death,
mention Laurella’s name. Jesse Stoneking had finally managed to
escape his enemies on both sides of the
At least one working journalist in St. law, including himself.
Louis knew better. On Jan. 22, veteran
TV newsman John Auble of KTVI-
Channel 2 in St. Louis called detective “They’re going to hit me someday.”
Vance and said he believed that suicide
victim Jesse McBride was actually Jesse More than a decade before his death in
Stoneking, a federal informant. Vance the Arizona desert, Jesse Stoneking
contacted the U.S. Marshal’s office for prophesized that he would die not by his
confirmation. The next day the detective own hand but as a result of a vengeful
reported that he picked up the bullet execution carried out by the Mafia.
from the medical examiner’s office
along with photographs of the autopsy -- "I know they’re going to hit me
the autopsy the medical examiner’s someday," Stoneking told former St.
report indicates was never conducted. He Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Ronald
also wrote that he retrieved a set of latent Lawrence in 1987. Lawrence had
prints from the corpse and sent all the reported on Stoneking’s career as a
evidence to the state crime lab for federal informant and over the years a
analysis. bond developed between the two men.

On Jan. 27, two days after the Post- The trust that the newspaperman
Dispatch story ran, FBI agent Frank engendered prompted Stoneking to
Brostrom of the St. Louis field office divulge aspects of his life that he had
never revealed to anyone else. In 1987, Post-Dispatch, "We’d see him driving
Lawrence interviewed Stoneking over a around town and say, `There goes the
two-day period at a motel in Central Mafia guy.’"
Illinois, which the now-retired reporter
published as a magazine article two The Road to Perdition
years later.
Jesse Stoneking wasn’t born a hardened
After his usefulness as a federal criminal, but by adolescence he already
informant in St. Louis had been had begun developing anti-social
expended, Stoneking briefly entered the tendencies. At 14, the former choirboy
federal witness protection program, but was expelled from Catholic elementary
he chaffed under its constraints. He left school in St. Louis for bringing a pellet
the program and began his life on the gun to class. Soon a juvenile judge
run, often hiding out in small towns in placed him on probation for a string of
rural Southern Illinois and Kentucky, burglaries, which netted $20 in coins.
using the pseudonym Jesse McBride. After his parents’ bitter divorce,
Stoneking also spent stretches of time in Stoneking lashed out by stealing a car
Arizona, where he operated an and going on a joyride, earning him a
automobile repossession business. three-year hitch in reform school, a
virtual criminal training ground.
During the intervening years, Lawrence
met sporadically with Stoneking and In 1964, his prior juvenile record
began writing a biography of him. They resulted in a stiff sentence, this time for
sometimes had lunch at the Our Lady of the minor offense of under-age drinking.
the Snows Shrine near Belleville, Ill. A St. Louis County judge ordered him to
Later, they met clandestinely at a house serve two months in jail and meted out a
in Chester, Ill. At that particular two-year probation. By this early stage
meeting, about a year-and-a-half before in his life, the dye had been cast.
his death, Stoneking expressed
apprehension about plans to return to The rebellious youth, who had taken a
Arizona. Lawrence last saw Stoneking in few wrong turns, was now on the
2001, when he visited him in Arizona. irreversible path of a career criminal.
Stoneking’s fears had not subsided. Stoneking adopted his grandfather, a
one-time bank robber, as his role model.
"He was paranoid," says Lawrence. His commanding size and domineering
"Really paranoid at times. ... His cover attitude served his purposes well,
was blown." eventually attracting the attention of Art
Berne, the Eastside rackets boss, who
There is little doubt that the police knew recruited him into the Outfit. Within a
who he was. few years, he had become Berne’s
number one enforcer.
In the small town of Wickenburg, where
he resided, Stoneking’s past was no Berne had inherited his criminal empire
secret. After his death, Surprise Police from the late Frank "Buster" Wortman.
Department spokesman Scott Bailey, a From the 1940s until his death in 1968,
Wickenburg native, told the St. Louis Wortman had reigned over prostitution,
gambling and labor racketeering, Then-prosecuting attorney John
including control over Pipefitters Local Baracevic prosecution said he agreed to
562 in St. Louis. Wortman’s the deal because the prosecution lacked
organization, which Berne took over, witnesses.
answered, in turn, to the Chicago Outfit,
which by the late-1970s was controlled Killing two men in St. Clair County in
by Jackie Cerone and Joey Aiuppa. 1979 had netted Stoneking a lighter
sentence than he received in St. Louis
County for under-age drinking 15 years
earlier.

It appeared that Stoneking’s mob

connections were taking care of him.
During these years, the mob provided
him a series of well-paying, no-show
jobs with the operating engineers,
pipefitters and laborers unions. But when
Chicago crime boss Joey Aiuppa the feds busted him in 1981, his fortunes
quickly changed.
Stoneking earned and kept Berne’s
loyalty by doing his bidding. On Oct. 22, A federal grand jury in Benton, Ill.
1978, for instance, mob associate indicted Stoneking for operating a multi-
Donald Ellington was found dead in a state car theft ring. Stoneking pleaded
remote area of Jefferson County, Mo. guilty and received a three-year federal
with two .38-caliber bullets in his head. sentence.
Police arrested Stoneking as a suspect in
the killing, but he was never charged.
Rumors were that the dead man had
incurred the mob boss’ wrath, in part,
due to the mistreatment of Berne’s
mistress, a prostitute. Stoneking
allegedly carried out the vendetta on
Berne’s orders.

Stoneking’s prowess in the Outfit grew

Eastside boss Art Berne
the next year, when he killed two men in
a shootout at the Kracker Box tavern
outside Collinsville, Ill. In September
Stoneking’s federal bust occurred in the
1980, a jury convicted Stoneking of the
wake of Anthony Giordano’s death. For
murders, but St. Clair County Judge
decades, St. Louis’ Mafia boss, with the
Stephen Kernan set aside the
backing of the Chicago Outfit, had
convictions, after the defense claimed
managed to cobble together an alliance
new witnesses had come forward. In a
of competing organized crime factions.
plea bargain, Stoneking later pleaded
After his death, a power struggle
guilty to one count of involuntary
immediately developed, beginning with
manslaughter and received probation.
the September 1980 car bombing of not cooperating with a federal grand jury
Southside Syrian gangster Jimmy inquiry into the interstate promotion of
Michaels. prostitution by Eastside massage parlors
that solicited business in the St. Louis
The loose alliance had come unraveled, Riverfront Times between 1994 and
allowing the FBI to make inroads into 2000.
the previously impregnable inner
sanctum of the mob’s hierarchy. Aging Berne pleaded guilty to the extortion
Mafia underboss John Vitale, who had scheme and received a six years
ascended to the Mafia’s top post sentence. Trupiano, on the other hand,
following Giordano death, became an went to trial and was acquitted of the
FBI informant and falsely implicated same charges.
Stoneking in the Michaels bombing.

Roll Over Test

His fingering left Stoneking feeling

doubly betrayed. Berne had let him take
the fall in the car theft bust and also not
retaliated against Vitale’s accusations.
Stoneking decided to roll over. In return
for his early prison release, he, too,
agreed to become an FBI informant.

Between October 1982 and August

1984, Stoneking secretly taped more
than 130 conversations with Berne and
dozens of other mobsters, including
Matthew Trupiano, who had been
installed as the St. Louis Mafia boss
following Vitale’s death. St. Louis Mafia leader Matt Trupiano
As a result of Stoneking’s undercover
work, Berne and Trupiano were indicted Evidence and testimony introduced at
on federal charges in connection with a the 1986 trial provided details of mob
scheme to coerce protection payments plans that otherwise may have never
from Eastside massage parlor kingpin been publicly revealed.
Dennis W. Sonnenschein. At the time,
Sonnenschein was a business partner of For starters, FBI agent Terry L.
Nando Bartolotta, who had been Bohnemeier testified that Stoneking
inducted into the St. Louis Mafia with continued to receive $1,600 a month for
Trupiano. (Stoneking’s testimony would his work as a federal informant. In
also help send Bartolotta to prison on return, Stoneking supplied the bureau
unrelated charges.) As recently as last with tapes of talks in which Berne and
year, Sonnenschein, the brothel operator, Trupiano discussed extorting money
received a one-year prison sentence for from Eastside topless club owners.
According to the tapes, Trupiano caliber revolver to his temple and pulled
intended to have Bartolotta, his soldier, the trigger.
pressure Sonnenschein into paying
protection money out of profits that the At least that’s the official version.
two partners made from the Golden Girls
topless club. Berne, on the other hand, Reporter Lawrence, Stoneking’s
wanted to bomb PT’s, a competing confidant, tends to believe it. "I was
topless club in Centreville, as a means of pretty close to him," says Lawrence,
convincing the owners to pay up. adding that Stoneking had turned
reflective in his later years, often reading
During a car trip to Chicago, Berne and quoting from the Bible. "He had
expressed concerns about the risks of changed. He didn’t like what he had
extorting money from "pimps" such as did."
Sonnenschein: "You watch, these pimps
will spread it around who the Mafia is," The Last Joyride
Berne warned Stoneking. "The G
(government) will be there." While he If Jesse Stoneking had ended his life
continued to voice his suspensions about alone, pulling the trigger in the lonely
the reliability of pimps, his top desert night, as the St. Louis Post-
lieutenant sat next to him in the front Dispatch implied, perhaps the
seat wearing a wire. subsequent investigation by Arizona
police would have been more thorough.
In August 1984, Stoneking left St. Louis
in the dead of night. He entered the
witness protection program in Boston,
but bolted after only a couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, the Mafia had placed a
$100,000 price tag on his head.

For the next two decades, while his

estranged wife and children disappeared
into the witness protection program, he
remained at large hop-scotching across Chicago mobster Jackie Cerone
the country, living in small towns in
three different states. Stoneking As a federal informer in the 1980s,
remarried and made efforts to settle Stoneking, after all, had been
down, but glances in his rearview mirror responsible for sending more than a
always kept him moving. score of St. Louis organized crime
figures to prison. Legend has it that the
His last glance came in January 2003 on Mafia placed a $100,000 bounty on his
the outskirts of Surprise, Ariz., when a head. In the intervening years, he
squad car rolled up behind him as he sat managed to escape at least one
on the shoulder of a highway behind the assassination attempt and suspected that
wheel of a friend’s disabled Ford Crown others had plotted against him since
Victoria. With the emergency lights then.
flashing in the desert night, he put a .38-
With the passage of time, his name faded tendencies, fits of fantasy and wild mood
from the headlines, but Stoneking swings, they say. He claimed to have
remained haunted by his past, moving colon cancer. He struggled through two
from state to state, living under his broken marriages, while grappling to
assumed name. come to terms with the heinous deeds of
his earlier life. Those close to his story
Nothing contained in the police reports also say, however, that it is a life he may
indicates why Stoneking and Laurella not have altogether given up.
had traveled from the mobile home they
shared in Wickenburg, Ariz. to Surprise, In the mid-1980s, Stoneking, of his own
a distance of more than 40 miles. volition, withdrew from the federal
witness protection program, after only a
The police reports show that the Crown couple weeks. But he, nonetheless, came
Victoria was registered to Laurella, and back to the Midwest with a different
the suicide weapon also belonged to name – Jesse Lee McBride and the
him. credentials to prove it. In later years,
Stoneking, using his new identity, ran a
At the crime scene, Laurella told the Wickenburg automobile repossession
investigating detective that Stoneking firm, a marginally legitimate business
had not exhibited any outward signs of that suited his past experience as a car
depression in the last several days. He thief.
added that Stoneking had taken the gun
from his dresser drawer without his In retrospect, it seems apropos that
knowledge. Authorities impounded the Stoneking’s last images of life came
car, but Laurella was not held for further from behind the wheel of a big sedan,
questioning and was driven home by a watching a flatbed tow truck come and
Surprise police officer. go, and, finally, seeing the glare of the
squad car’s flashing lights in the
As with many suicides, the cause, as rearview mirror.
well as the circumstances of the death,
remain puzzling, and, in this case, pieces The possibility exists that, at the time of
of the puzzle seem to be missing. his death, Stoneking was still working
both sides of the law. As veteran St.
According to the official record, two Louis reporter John Auble says, “it
men in their 50s, both with checkered would have been hard to get out of that
pasts, decide to go on a joyride in the kind of work.”
desert on a winter’s night for no
apparent reason. After having a flat tire, Blow Out
one of them blows his brains out, as if on
cue, exactly at the moment when a law Laurella and Stoneking left their trailer
enforcement officer arrives on the scene. in Wickenburg at about 7:30 p.m.
ostensibly to visit a friend who lived
St. Louis sources, with knowledge of nearby. From there, Stoneking drove
Stoneking’s criminal career, don’t Laurella’s car southeast for the better
necessarily question the suicide ruling. part on an hour through Maricopa
For years, Stoneking displayed paranoid County on U.S. 60, reaching the
outskirts of Surprise sometime after 9:00 decades, including murders in five states
p.m. At that point, he hit a rock on Loop from Massachusetts to California.
303 just north of Bell Road and had a
blow out.

It is unclear when Laurella, the last

person to see Stoneking alive, first came
to know him. Both men were divorced,
and their ex-wives and families lived in
Wickenburg. Until a year or two earlier,
Laurella’s family owned and operated a
motel, cafe and gas station in the small
town.

But the two men’s interests extended

beyond Wickenburg’s confines. Laurella
and Stoneking not only shared the
trailer, they had also resided at the same
address in Chester, Ill. the previous year.

Blurred Lines FBI Agent H. Paul Rico

Since fleeing St. Louis in 1985, Regardless of whether Stoneking had

Stoneking had lived under the assumed even an indirect knowledge of these
identity of Jesse McBride. McBride’s nefarious activities, the twisted
Social Security number was issued relationship of federal law enforcement
between 1984 and 1985 in Hawaii. But and organized crime in Boston, which
there is no proof that Stoneking, in the continued through the 1990s, is a clear
guise of McBride, had ever lived in such indication that lines had been blurred.
an exotic locale. Instead, it appears that Stoneking had cast himself into a world
Stoneking, aka, McBride, lived briefly in fraught with ambiguities and shaded
South Portland, Maine, which is perhaps with deceit.
where he did his brief stint in the federal
witness protection program and acquired After returning to the Midwest,
his new name. Stoneking lived his secret life in
Paducah, Ky., Collinsville, Brookport
A source with knowledge of Stoneking’s and Chester, Ill. In the mid-1990s, he
whereabouts during this period places lived briefly in Black Canyon, Ariz. and
him at another New England location -- more recently Phoenix and Wickenburg,
Boston. At the time, the Boston field where his second wife and children
office of the FBI was notoriously resided.
corrupt. Congressional hearings in 2002
revealed that Boston FBI agents, Somehow he managed to provide for
including the late H. Paul Rico, had himself and his family. Whether he
engaged in criminal activities with continued to bolster his income through
Boston organized crime informants for crime or working as a federal informant
remains uncertain. There are signs that Club, a topless bar is located. Platinum
he had changed. He operated an apparent Inc., in turn, owns and operates Boxers
legitimate business. He took solace in ‘n’ Briefs, a gay dance club in
reading and quoting the Bible. He stayed Centreville, Ill., according to the city
out of jail. Still, on the night that he died, liquor license. Entertainment Illinois
Stoneking had decided to carry a gun. Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz. owns the
property where Boxers is located.
At the time of his suicide, he had already
outlived the two most prominent
mobsters whom he had betrayed. Both
St. Louis Mafia chief Matthew Trupiano
and Eastside rackets boss Art Berne
were dead. A third Mafioso, Nando
Bartolotta, had been sent back to prison
for bank robbery.

Despite the changing of the guard, the

Eastside sex trade, which Trupiano and PT’s strip joint in Brooklyn, Ill.
Berne had sought to extort, still thrives.
More recently, massage parlor kingpin
Dennis W. Sonnenschein, one of their Though Stoneking’s federal informant
extortion targets and Bartolotta’s former status seemingly ended with the federal
partner, pleaded guilty in East St. Louis sentencing of Berne, his former boss, in
to an obstruction of justice charge for 1986, there are hints that it continued.
withholding knowledge of the Eastside
prostitution rackets from a federal grand FBI reports on interviews conducted in
jury. Sonnenschein is now serving a one- June 1991, obtained through Freedom of
year sentence and was ordered to pay Information Act, provide details on the
$1.25 million in fines and restitution. St. Louis mob, including Berne and
Trupiano’s activities. Though the name
The grand jury investigation centered on of the FBI informant who gave the
the solicitations of prostitution across information has been redacted, it is clear
state lines through ads placed in the St. that the person had close ties to Berne in
Louis Riverfront Times from 1994 to particular. Stoneking, of course, was
2000. In 1998, New Times Inc. (now Berne’s top lieutenant.
Village Voice Media) purchased the
RFT.

Sonnenschein’s bust related to the Free

Spirit massage parlor in Brooklyn, Ill.,
which closed in 2000. But the brothel
operator also held other business
interests. His now-ex-wife Linda
Sonnenschein, for example, was listed in
FBI Agent Frank Bostrom
2002 as the registered agent of Platinum
Inc. of Brooklyn, where the Platinum
 Five years after skipping town,
Stoneking was still making waves.

In 2000, career criminal Richard Beck,

who was seeking to cut a deal on a
parole violation, asked to be interviewed
by the FBI. Agent Frank Brostrom of the
St. Louis field office conducted the
interview at the Franklin County jail in
Union, Mo., where Beck was being held.
U.S. Sen. Thomas Eagleton
Like Stoneking, the FBI initially
The reports outline the hierarchy of St. suspected Beck may have been involved
Louis organized crime and spell out its in St. Louis’ gang war in the early
control of certain labor unions, including 1980s. In many ways, Beck fit the
Pipefitters Local 562 of which Berne profile better than Stoneking. He was a
was a member. Stoneking was also notorious bank extortionist and bomber.
associated with the pipefitters and other During his rambling recollections of his
unions during his criminal career. sordid career, Beck dropped the names
According to the FBI informant, control of many criminal associates, including
of Local 562 rested in the hands of the St. Louis mobsters John Vitale,
Chicago Outfit. The informant also Trupiano, Berne and Bartolotta. He told
stated that Berne had told him that Rallo Brostrom that Trupiano and Bartolotta
Construction Co. handled financial and had been inducted into the Mafia during
property transactions for the Chicago the same ceremony, which occurred at a
Outfit in St. Louis. St. Charles, Mo. pizzeria.
In 1991, Stoneking’s name surfaced Beck’s efforts to belatedly cooperate
again, during an investigation of then-St. with the FBI failed, and he will likely
Louis Teamster boss Bobby Sansone. A spend the rest of his life in federal
federal monitor overseeing the corrupt prison. Last year, in a letter to an
union had charged Sansone with not historical researcher, Beck wrote that
ousting Mafia member Nino Parrino “Stoneking was a pathological liar, who
from his position with Local 682. St. framed several guys to drum up some
Louis political leaders, including then- business for the FBI.” Beck referred to
Mayor Vincent C. Shoemehl Jr. the late Stoneking as a “real slimeball,” and
St. Louis County Executive George claimed that he had witnessed him beat
“Buzz Westfall and former U.S. Sen. his wife. “This guy is dead and where he
Thomas Eagleton weighed in on belongs,” Beck added.
Sansone’s behalf, but he was,
nevertheless, removed from office. The Among those who disagree is retired St.
source of Parrino’s ties to Mafia had Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Ronald
been a secretly recorded conversation Lawrence, who maintains he, too, knew
taped by Stoneking. Stoneking well. Lawrence says he tested
Stoneking’s veracity many times by
asking him questions to which he
already knew the answer. In each case,
he says, Stoneking told the truth.

The real truth about Stoneking is still an

open question, one that probably will
never be answered. But there is little
doubt that Jesse Lee McBride and Jesse
Eugene Stoneking were one and the
same person. Eight days after his
suicide, FBI agent Brostrom, the same
agent who interviewed Beck nearly three
years earlier, called up a detective for the
Surprise Police Department and told him
as much. He then requested the latent
prints, crime scene photos and police
reports.