The Dead Can't Testify : Nightclub Owner Goes Free

In the St. Louis Municipal Courts Building, a scuffle broke out in the crowded hallway.  Tony Sansone, Jr. and two others were arrested under general peace disturbance charges.

Mr. Sansone, a Deputy Constable and owner of the La Vida nightclub, located at 521 Washington Avenue, carried a pistol into the court building....I guess there were no metal detectors at the courthouse doors in January of 1935.  Sansone was at the court building to answer to illegal liquor sales charges.   Sansone had failed to obtain the proper licenses for selling liquor. He stated that as he stood at the Police Court entrance, two men known as James Capasso and Tony Busalacki, approached him and began to beat him.  They had unfinished business from a quarrel that they had the evening before.

In an effort to defend himself, Sansone withdrew his pistol from under his coat and hit Busalacki over the head with it.  The crowded corridor was soon emptied as the persons there began to swarm to the doors in order to get out of the way of swinging fists. Sansone was treated for bruises at the nearby hospital, while Busalacki suffered a laceration on his scalp.

The case of Tony Sansone had two continuances, before both parties were fined $200, and appealed.  The court case was carried on the docket eight times before sustaining the fine. On June 27, 1935, a new trial was granted.

Fast forward to August 1935, on the fifteenth court setting for this case, the general peace disturbance charges against Sansone are dropped.  Tony Busalacki, the witness expected to testify again Sansone was no longer alive.  How fortunate for Sansone.  In July, Busalacki was killed in the neighboring county of St. Charles. He had been shot by a member of his own extortion gang....by accident.  OOPS!

 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 13 Jul 1935, Sat, Main Edition, www.newspapers.com

Busalacki and his extortion chumps were trying to collect a large amount of money from a fellow who had a farm in St. Charles County, just across the river from St. Louis.  While running away from the sheriff, one of the gang mistook Busalacki for a county deputy, and he was shot dead.

http://www.sos.mo.gov/images/archives/deathcerts

Judge Schmitt realized that the chief witness against Tony Sansone, Jr. was Tony Busalacki.  The prosecutors could not make a case against Sansone without the testimony of the dead man. Sansone was released from the court as a free man, thankful for the death of his adversary.

The Bootlegger's Truck

It was 2:30 a.m. on August 14th in 1924 when the fire fighters and police officers of Decatur, Illinois were called to the scene.  A truck, parked on the side of the road at the intersection of  Williams and Seventh Streets, had burst into flames.  Onlookers crowded around the blaze at a safe distance.

Some nearby pedestrians had noticed that two men had driven the truck, and pulled to the side of the road at the 2500 block of East Williams Street.  They exited the truck and walked away.  Several hours had passed when smoke began to billow from the vehicle and flames came from the engine.  The citizens ran to put out the blaze.  It was discovered that the truck was hauling over 230 gallons of alcohol, in 46 five gallon containers.  They were camouflaged by crates of tomatoes,

Police hid in the bushes and overgrown lots around the area, armed with sawed off shotguns, waiting to see if the two men would return to the truck. After several hours, the truck was hauled to the Decatur police station.

It was determined by the fire fighters that oil had spilled on the alternator in the engine, which probably caused smoke and the smell of an electrical fire.  The men in the truck were probably alarmed, and decided to abandon the truck at this location in Decatur.

recent map of the Decatur, Illinois area.
Seventh Street no longer exists in Decatur, Illinois

Police had traced the license plates to the owner of the truck.  Mr. Tony Sansone, of St. Louis, Missouri, was contacted by reporters of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  After interviewing Tony, it was revealed that he had rented his truck to a man for $35, who wanted to haul tomatoes to Springfield, Illinois from St. Louis.  He said that he could not recall the name of the person, and futhermore, he had no idea that this man had intended to haul booze along with his tomatoes.

Sansone traveled to Decatur to claim his truck, or what was left of it.  The Decatur police refused to release the truck to Sansone, stating that they had several problems with the story that he told them.  The truck was being held on the prohibition statute. It had been determined that no long distance phone call had been made to Sansone from the Decatur area from any persons within the previous 24 hours.  Sansone was cleared of prohibition charges. But, he could not have his truck.

There was an investigation with the Springfield police department to determine the identity of the party that rented the truck, and stuffed it with the tomatoes and all of that alcohol.  Meanwhile, upset that he was unable to regain possession of his truck, Sansone said that he would take the train to Springfield and find that man himself. He said he would "grab ahold of his hair and drag him back to Decatur".

Tony Sansone was the owner of a produce company located at 1007 Wash Street in St. Louis.

This story was published in The Decatur Herald, 14 August 1924, page 3