8. The Red Dot Photos

I had only been to Arizona once before to Tucson actually years ago, when I did a semester of grad school, I flew into profile a militia leader who hunted down undocumented immigrants with thermal cameras and a pack of German shepherds. Now back in Tucson, I had a much different mission.

After a trip to Phoenix, I had only a few days left to track down sources as I investigated Jerry Paisley's claim that the missing Congressman Nick Beget and Hail Bogs were assassinated in nineteen seventy two their plane bombed. It was here in Tucson where Paisley wed Peggy Begets in nineteen seventy four. It was here in Tucson where he worked for two mafia families, the Bananas and the Lick of Olie's. And it was here in Tucson where I hope to figure out once and for all, did

Paisley tell the truth? From my heart Media, This is Missing in Alaska, the story of two congressmen who vanished in nineteen seventy two and my quest to figure out what happened to them. I'm your host, John Wallzac. This episode, We're going to focus on two photos. It sounds simple, right, just two photos. But these photos, the red dot photos, are at the center of a web we will explore extensively. These are the wedding photos that investigators secretly obtained and

marked up with stickers red dots with black numbers. Paisley is red dot number six, Peggy is red dot number seven. Standing next to them are mobsters and X cop, a judge and others. I got the photos, the originals from Tom Davis, who worked for the Arizona Department of Public Safety. While working undercover in Tucson in n Davis secretly observed Peggy and Paisley's wedding in Phoenix. Davis and I spoke for more than five hours. After I left. We stayed

in touch. Hey Tom, how are you? I'm doing good and sent Davis again. Is also one of the reinvestigators who conducted the pivotal Paisley interview at the Pima County Jail when Paisley first disclosed the alleged bombing of the congressman's plane. So I saw your text. You tell me what the text said and just how you found it out. Okay. I pulled up Google Match and I went to the corner of wilmotin Speedway. If you go there and you go in the main building, asked them where the old

Eldo Lodge used to be. The Eldrado Lodge is where the wedding took place. Turns out it no longer exists. Well, the buildings are still there, but today they're home to the Mountain Oyster Club, a private club. I drove there with Paul Decan, our supervising producer. The outside hasn't changed, still stone. The inside, however, has been renovated. It's western in ornate, a lot of would no more seventies to court.

We sat down with Pauline loftus, the manager. Could I show you two photos and see if any of it seems familiar. So these are photos from a wedding, a ceremony, and a reception that took place in nineteen four on this property when it was the El Dorado. Um m hmm not yet. Let me think about it for a little bit. I mean, most of the doorways in the clever, big archways, and this one's kind of just a small, regular doorway. It could almost be in the room that

we're sitting in. Um or either that or in the lobby there's or is that a picture behind them? Is that a picture? It looks like a picture, yeah, so or is it a mirror? It's hard to tell. Gums Tree detectives. Now, the three of us wandered through the club, impairing certain features, doorways, etcetera. To what exists today? Where were the red dot photos taken? Where was the bar where investigator Tom Davis sat undercover? Um, there's a bar? Can you sure you were saying you think you know

where the bar was? Could you take a We're going to go around this way. I think it wasn't here because if you look at that window. I don't think this wall was here. I think that staircase was open to upstairs because there were rooms up there, and so you would have come down the stairs. There was the bar in here and then the doorway there and that window. Yeah, we thought we found some of the spots in the photos, but it was hard to tell. So much had changed.

We don't have original plans of the building. We don't know half the time. We don't know what's in the walls. So it's like we have a lot of surprises nobody so far. No. No. In fact, we had a pretty major kitchen remodel last summer, and that kept occurring to me. I would think, my god, I hope we don't find any bodies when they dig that. In the Peggy Paisley wedding photos taken at the Eldorado, red dot number three is Pete look of Oli Jr. The son of mob

boss Pete horse face look of Oli Senior. Pete Jr. Was Paisley's friend. He and his wife Cathy, even accompanied Paisley and Peggy on their honeymoon in Mexico. For months, I tried to reach Pete Jr. Who still lived in Tucson to no avail now. As we left the Mountain Oyster Club, I pulled up another list of possible numbers and dialed away Hi the number. That ranger in recording the error can check the number and your call again.

So apparently the rule of from is if you are an old mobster, you do not have a working phone number. None of them have working phone numbers. They're all dead. They all sound like crazy modem sound. At the end. All I want to do is to call some mobsters. I kept striking out. I've reached a number that does not accept solicitations. If you are a solicitor, please add this number to your do not call list and hang up now. Otherwise, please press one or stay on the line.

I'm gonna press one, thank you, lease hold Okay, I'm sorry this mailbox has not yet been set up by the subscriber. Please try again later. Goodbye. Jee here trying to block me As a solicitor, I can't leave a voicemail somebody who doesn't want to be found. Yes, we're just gonna have to go to house then, So that's what we did. We went to Pete Lukavoli Jr's house. At first, We circled the block. Then we pulled up. I hopped out of the car and rang the bell. Nothing.

I knocked nothing. We drove to his brother, Mike's house nearby. Mike Lacavoli isn't in any of the wedding photos, the red dot photos. I think, I say I think because there are a few unidentified men. Maybe he is one of the red dots. I don't know. Like Pete Jr. Mike had been friends with Paisley. When I walked up to Mike's door, I heard a muffled TV. I rang the bell, A dog barked. Someone told it to shut up. I waited. No one came to the door. The TV

cut off. I knocked nothing. I wondered if the Look of OLiS had been tipped off that we were in town. I know that sound paranoid, but hear me out. The day before, I had spoken by phone with Louis Marconi, an X cop who back in the day was friends with both Paisley and the Look of Olie kids in the wedding photos. Marconi is red dot number five. When we spoke, I played dumb, testing Marconi because I already knew the answer. I asked whether or not he attended

Peggy and Paisley's wedding. He said no. I told him I had a photo of him at the wedding. He said basically, okay, prove it. Send me the photo. So I cropped out everyone but him and emailed it to him. He was like, yeah, that might be me. I'm not sure. I asked if he didn't recognize himself, maybe it was him. He said maybe it wasn't. That was a long time ago. Yeah, okay, but you don't recognize yourself. I asked him if he

still spoke with the Look of Olie kids. He said no. Remember, this was the day before Paul and I went to the Look of Always Holmes. This is why I wondered if someone had tipped them off. I wondered if Marconi had tipped them off. After we left Mike lick of Ali's house, the house where someone was clearly home, but nobody came to the door. I called Marconi again. I asked again whether or not he was still in touch with the Lick of Olie kids. The day before, he

said no. Today he said yes. I asked if he had alerted them that we were in town digging. He got flustered and hung up on me. Frustrated, I turned my attention to Salth Spinelli Red dot number four. Spinelli, a mobster, was Paisley's close friend, his business partner, and the best man at his wedding to Peggy Baggage. He was so close to Paisley, in fact, that even his father attended the wedding. Spinelli Sr. Is red dot number eight. At the time, I wasn't sure whether or not Spinelli Jr.

Was even alive. I'm good at finding people, but he was a ghost for months. I called and called, an emailed, and emailed and mailed letters to addresses all over the place. Now, in a last ditch effort, Paul and I drove around knocking on doors. The first was a bust an empty house. The second was an apartment on the edge of town. So I just went looking for this apartment that we thought Salth Spinelli might be in, and I knocked on

the door. Had to walk through this apartment complex, and it's this kind of dingy, dark little corridor, so I was hoping I didn't get jumped. Um. But I knocked on the door and I could hear a woman, and then another woman, and then I could hear them talking about me, just like who is this guy? Like, don't answer it? Should I answer it? Like he might ask about Graham or Grant, and so I don't. I'm like the hiding some old lady or I don't know. It

was weird. And then I started walking away and I circled around the bill name because I said I was I was looking for Sal. And then they were completely quiet, and I stood there for like a minute, and I walked around the building started to leave, and this guy pulled up in a car and asked me, like, Hey, are you banging on the door looking for a Sal? And I said yes, and he said, oh, I don't know, no fucking Sal. So don't don't do that again. Don't bang on the door again. So this is seal possible

address number two. The first one was for sale and nobody was living there. So on with Seal spelunking hunting. Please don't use this audio. We checked more addresses, but none worked. Turns out Spinelli's dead, so too is Toby levettter Red Dot number twelve, the judge who presided over Peggy and Paisley's wedding. Interestingly enough, Lovetta also presided over sal Spinelli's nine extortion trial. Go figure as afternoon Mel did.

In the evening, Paul and I decided to make one final stop at the home of Alganum, Red Dot number one, except that failed to Ganum lived in a gated community and we couldn't get in by the way. Poor Paul. That day was his birthday and he was stuck driving me around Tucson looking for old mobsters. So we went back to our hotel and and then we kept working into the night. But work is a stretch. Paul is something of a foodie, so I told him to just pick a place wherever he wanted and we'd go there

for dinner. Turns out he was cool with a desert tiki bar, specifically the Contiki, so dinner doubled as work. The Contiki. What a place. It's a tiki bar in Tucson, one of the oldest surviving tiki bars in the nation. This is the place where a core THNK to Jerry Paisley. Peggy Beggett allegedly dined with Joe Banano in the summer of nineteen seventy two before Nick Beggett, her husband disappeared. The inside can best be described as dark and tropical.

Paul and I sat down, We ordered a few drinks. For hours, the only music that played was the Red Hot Chili Peppers. At first, we didn't tell our server, Kaylee Anne, who we were or why we were there. When we did tell her, she was, to say the least surprised. So we are standing outside the CONTI key, uh, could you tell me your name? Kyle? And how long have you works here? I've warned here I think about five months so far? And what do you know about

this place? How old is it? Well, it was either sixty two or sixty three that it first got established. It started as a fine dining steak restaurant. From what I've heard, people say that the interior has barely changed besides the point that they got rid of the red carpet finally this last year. And we've had like birds and lizards outside on what is our patio now? So have you ever seen any mobsters in here? I have not seen any mobsters. Do you know who Joe Bano was?

I have no idea who that is. Okay, so Banana was the guy. Have you ever seen the Godfather? Yes? Okay Banana was the guy. Who inspired Don Corleone and The Godfather, and he was he was in New York and he retired, quote retired to Tucson and he actually lived here for a very long time and died. And there's an allegation from someone who was associated with him that in the summer of nineteen seventy two that Joe Banano met with the wife of a congressman at the Contiki.

But hearing this and just standing outside the Conti Ki and we've all tell us your neighbor a good Kaylee, John Paul. The three of us have all been in there for what three hours? You're probably be in the locker than us. What is what do you think here that? I mean, I just couldn't imagine that happening in the place that it is now, and considering that it's like

a tiki bar. People come here like from all over the United States just to kind of collect our mugs and do other things like that in our scorpion bowl is what we're known for, which just has a lot of boozes. So it's kind of crazy to think at one point something like that could have happened because it just seems like a free loving place. But if I mean I could believe it if it really was the luxurious steakhouse that everyone made it out to be beforehand,

because of course, why when mobsters go there? Right from what we know from movies, that's just that I cannot fully wrap my mind around it. From how the Conti key is now, the County keys and FBI documents, I couldn't see that. I mean, we just have a lot of fun people that come in. It's such a diverse crowd. But tell me, could you describe the Contiki to me? Oh my goodness, Well, you can definitely tell that it

has some history to it. I mean just with the decorations and everything we've had, like a lot of them are original pieces that are in there. I mean, it's just a fun place. It's so when you drive up to the Contiki, you're thinking, what is this because the buildings on the side, some of them aren't feels like some of the storefronts and all that. And you just walk inside and it's like you're in your own little oasis, and you're like, there's no way that in the middle

of Tucson on Arizona could be this place. And I mean people just come here to have fun, have a good time escape. It's an island escape. And to hear the allegation that allegedly an assassination plot was hatched partially at the Contiki and that it's in FBI documents. I mean, the Tiki is supposed to be a happy place either. My manager, he's like, it's it's a Tiki day, It's a day in Tiki paradise. So I couldn't imagine that

an assassination was planned in the teach. I know, I know it sounds absurd, but guess what, The conti Ki was controlled by the mob, at least in part. A few months after our Arizona trip, I traveled with another one of our producers, Chris Brown, No, not that Chris Brown, to Columbia, Missouri, where we spent a day digging through archived records at the State Historical Society of Missouri. Why Missouri, Well, we had been granted special access to a trove of

valuable records. These records were compiled in the seventies by journalists working on the Arizona Project. The project launched in the aftermath of the assassination of reporter Don Bowles, who was killed in Phoenix by a car Bomb amazingly indies records which document widespread crime and corruption. Chris and I kept finding names. We recognized the Bananas, the Lick of Olie's, Jerry Paisley, Peggy Beggitte, Danny Zivinach sal Spinelli, Louis Marconi,

Joeya Tarola, and the Contiki. Yes, even our beloved Contiki. I found the Conti he described three times as a mob owned business, specifically that Pete Likavoli Senior owned it at the time, at least in part. Again, the Conti key was the place where, according to Paisley, Peggy Beggett allegedly met with Joe Banano. In the records, I also found a memo dated December sixteenth, nineteen seventy six, written by Alex Dressler, the reporter who secretly observed Peggy and

Paisley's wedding. The subject Bill Bonano, Joe Banano's son, Quote D. S. Forty is a confidential law enforcement source in Anchorage, Alaska. He told me that one of his confidential informants, a woman, was on a huge Air West flight to December four, ninety six from Phoenix to San Jose. On board the plane, sitting next to her was a man who identified himself as Bill Bonano. When she told him she was from Anchorage,

he stated that he had a bar in Anchorage. Because of salth Spinelli and Jerry Paisley's involvement with a bar in Anchorage and the fact that they have been close to Bill Bonano in the past, it is conceivable that Banano meant that this was his bar end quote. If this source was accurate, and if Bill Bonano was referring to Paisley's bar, then he was in fact referring to the Alaska Mining Company the bar co owned by Paisley, Peggy Baggett, and Danny Zevanich as his bar, a Banano bar.

Another Dressler memo, citing a different law enforcement source, said quote, the word is that Peter Locavoli Jr. Year old son of Detroit mafia boss Peter Locavoli Sr. With Jerome, Max Paisley and Salvator Spinelli, are in the process of setting up their own group. This alliance would consist of younger members of the Likavoli and Banana families and would attempt to control gambling, narcotics, trade, and prostitution organized in Western

United States and Alaska. Information has it that Licavoli would head up this new organization with Paisley and Spinelli, who both hold allegiances to Joseph Bonano, who would control the lucrative Alaska market. It appears that younger members of different organized crime families, namely the Likavolian Banano families, are forming to control the operations in the Western States, including Alaska.

This new venture apparently has the sanction of the old downs Joseph Bonano Senior and Peter Likavoli Senior end quote,

and there was much much more. In December nineteen seventy two, according to one document, mob boss Joe Banano met at a Tucson hotel with two men, including Joeya Tarola or Joey the i Ayah Tarola again was the man Paisley claimed dined with him, Peggy Baggett and Joe Banano at the Conti Ki in the summer of nineteen seventy two, the man who allegedly gave Paisley the lock suit case with a bomb that he flew to Alaska, the bomb

that allegedly killed the missing congressmen. Another memo states that in nineteen seventy five, Jerry Paisley sal Spinelli and Nick Begett Jr. Attended a Banano wedding in Tucson, though it doesn't specify which wedding. Quote. We are interested in these people because of information that they are involved in running prostitutes, narcotics, and stolen goods from Arizona to Alaska, with Peter Licavoli Junior in charge of the criminal group end quote. Back

in the seventies, Pete Lacavoli Junior denied these allegations. I tried several times to reach him for comment, but he didn't respond. Nick Begetts Junior declined an interview request in March nineteen seventy five, and this was deering Paisley's marriage to Peggy Baggage. An informants saw Paisley with Bill Bonano

and Sal Spinelli. Quote Paisley and Spinelli are involved in the following activities and Anchorage cocaine, speed, prostitution, gambling, and stolen turquoise jewelry end quote quote Stolen turquoise jewelry is being run from Arizona through the Nick Vegats jewelry store and Anchorage end quote. Also in the archives. And yes, I know you're probably sick of me. Using that phrase. I found a copy of Jerry Paisley and Peggy Beggat's

divorce settlement. Paisley and Peggy filed for divorce on March eighth, nineteen seventy six, reconciled, filed again for divorce on September thirtieth, nineteen seventy six, and finally were granted to divorce on November sixteenth, nineteen seventy six. As part of the divorce settlement, Peggy kept several pieces of land in both Arizona and Alaska. Paisley renounced his interest in the Nick Begets Junior jewelry store.

Peggy kept a nineteen seventy six Buick Wagon, a seventy six Oldsmobile, a seventy four Jaguar, and as seventy three Dotson quote. Jerry gets the seventy five Caddy end quote. The settlement also details how Peggy, Paisley, and Danny Zevanich split up ownership of Max Inc. Their business, the one behind the Alaska Mining Company. I could go on and on and on, but I have to get to explosives.

In the red Dot photos, the Paisley Peggy wedding photos, there are three unnamed men Now, via these records, I was finally able to identify one of them as Robert Thomas Smith or Bobby Smith. Paisley and Smith were business partners. They started a company called the Paisley Smith Construction Company, and guess what. In nineteen Smith was indicted on extortion charges after allegedly bombing a Tucson nightclub. Another man, Victor

Vincent Livingston, was indicted alongside Smith. According to a memo I found, Livingston was quote an explosives expert who once worked for the Apache Powder Company. Smith reportedly is a driver for Livingston when they're on a job end. Quote. So here we have a man in Peggy and Paisley's wedding photo, one of the red dots, who was a driver for and indicted alongside an explosives expert who allegedly bombed a Tucson nightclub in nineteen sixty eight. But wait,

there's more. A memo dated January nineteen seventy seven states that salth Spinelli, Paisley's close friend and the best man at his wedding to Peggy Baggage, had quote ties to a Robert Lloyd Lusk, who was present when Charles O Louderback was arrested in Alaska for possession of one pound of heroin, a half pound of coke, twenty one firearms, live moorder rounds, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. End quote.

So Spinelli was one degree of separation from a guy arrested in Alaska for possession of drugs, guns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and live moorder rounds. There's still more though, there's still Suitcase Charlie. Yes, Suitcase Charlie. Journalists working on the Arizona project received multiple reports that Suitcase Charlie, whose real name was Charles Cochrane, was the man who allegedly

rigged the bomb that killed investigative reporter Don Bowles. A source said, quote, Charles Suitcase Cochrane should be question and about his electronics knowledge in relation to the bowls case. So, in nineteen seventy six, only four years after Jerry Paisley allegedly transported a mafia bomb from Arizona to Alaska, a bomb he claimed was put on the missing Congressman's plane, we have a guy named Suitcase Charlie, who also allegedly worked for the mob, had electronic knowledge and was good

at rigging bombs. Pinpointed it as the person who allegedly built the remote controlled bomb that blew up reporter Don Bowls. None of this proves anything, it's just odd. It shows that there was at least one mob connected explosives expert in Arizona in the seventies able to build a high tech bomb. And another twist. Remember, and it's okay if you don't, I get it. This is a lot of information. A man named Victor Livingston. Livingstone was the explosives expert

tied to Bobby Smith. Smith attended Paisley and Peggy's wedding. Livingston was indicted in nineteen sixty eight for allegedly bombing at Tucson nightclub, and Livingston once worked for the Apache Powder Company. Well, here's the twist. In nineteen eighty four, the Arizona Republic ran a series of articles detailing how terrorists responsible for more than thirty bombings in the Philippines around nineteen eighty were trained in the desert near Tucson.

And wait for it, the terrorists used explosives purchased from the Apache Powder Company. Yes, these terrorists in the Philippines were trained in the desert near Tucson by a man who bought explosives in nineteen seventy nine and nineteen eighty from the Apache Powder Company, the same Apache Powder Company for which Victor Livingston, the explosives expert with ties to

Bobby Smith, worked. The same Bobby Smith who attended Paisley and Peggy's wedding and started a construction business with Paisley. According to the Republic, a smuggler involved in a terrorist ring was arrested at the Manila Airport after quote one of his suitcases was found to contain bomb components, including fifteen sticks of dynamite wrapped in brown wax paper marked amagel number one Apache Powder comp Penny Benson, Arizona, October nineteenth,

nineteen seventy three. So around nineteen eighty terrorists in the Philippines used dynamite with a stamped on date only one year after Nick Baggage disappeared, dynamite procured from a company, the Apache Powder Company, for which Victor Livingston worked as an explosives expert, the same Victor Livingston whose driver was Bobby Smith, the same Bobby Smith who attended the wedding of Peggy Baggage and Jerry Paisley and started a construction

company with Paisley. This is a lot of information I know, so to recab. The Arizona Project records document close ties between Jerry Paisley and the Banana and Likavoli families. They showed that joe Bonano and Joey A. Tarola or Joey the I were spotted together two months after the congressman disappeared, only a few months after Banano and Iya Tarrola allegedly

met with Peggy Baggage. They showed that Paisley was one degree of separation away from an explosives expert who procured dynamite from a company whose dynamite was later used has been more than thirty terrorist attacks in the Philippines. They showed that Sal Spinelli, Paisley's close friend and best man, was one degree of separation from a man arrested in

Alaska with live mortar rounds. They showed the possibility that the Bananas had some steak in the Alaska mining company the Bar run by Peggy Beggett, Jerry Paisley, and Danny Zevenage. These records show so many things. Now do they prove

that the missing Congressman's plane was bombed. Absolutely not. But in my opinion, it becomes harder and harder to write off Jerry Paisley's allegations when you're looking at an avalanche of documents prepared not by me, but by a team of forty investigative reporters back in the seventies, documents that back up parts of Paisley's story. The Golden Interview, the interview I wanted more than any other, was one with

Jerry Paisley himself. Unfortunately, Paisley died in prison of liver cancer in September, a year before I started researching this, so I never had a chance to speak with him. However, I found something interesting an old blog written by an anonymous Arizona prisoner who used a pseudonym and mailed out dispatches that someone else posted online. The name of the

blog John's Jail Journal. On it, the author wrote frequently about his friend to Tony's, a fellow prisoner he described as a mafia mass murderer who left the corpses of rival gangsters from Tucson to Alaska. Two. Tony's was quote a Detroit Irish Italian whose wit could upstage Rodney danger Fields. I was highly suspicious by this point that two Tony's

was in fact. Jerry Paisley, the blogger, quoted two Tony's as saying, quote, I sent a few motherfucker's to the other side, but if they were alive today, they'd probably be trailer park trash eating out a chef Boyard Cans, so I did him a favor. He described Two Tony's as a fan of the author Tom Wolfe and as someone critical of mass market fiction. Stephen King, for one, according to two Tony's, was quote running a fucking McDonald's franchise.

He's pumping out books like he's making quarter pounders. Two Tony's was also critical of pop music. His words not mine quote, Don't give me no country in Western with some hillbilly winding about how some granny got drunk and

rain over him in a pickup truck. Don't give me no rap with egotistical ghetto stars singing about their bitches, big booties, how much jewelry and money and dope they've got, and how they're driving around in benzes with bottles of crystal in one hand and a crack pipe and the other gimme handles. Messiah gimme Strauss's thunder and lightning. Anyone who doesn't like that as a fucking anim sacrilegious Nietzsch was right. Life needs music. To Tony said that when

he committed murder, he felt a satiating rush. Quote. It's not easy going into a heavily armed hotel room at two in the morning and blowing a guy's face off, but it gives you a feeling of living on the edge. So two Tony's seemed to be Jerry Paisley, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure. Thankfully, the anonymous blogger eventually revealed his real name, Sean Atwood, a young British man

imprisoned in Arizona for trafficking ecstasy. Atwood, who was deported to the UK after he got out of prison in two thousand seven, is now a prolific author and public speaker. We spoke by Skype, and how long after you arrived in prison did you meet Jerry Paisley. I met him and late two thousand and four, I think. So when you write about Jerry, you use the pseudonym to Tony's. Did he ask you to use a pseudonym and not

to use his real name. Yes, Um, is it uncomfortable for you that I know who to Tony's is What is slightly uncomfortable is that he asked me not to bring any heat on his ex and the family. So he asked that everything regarding the descriptions be substantially changed. When you say his ex, you mean one of his wives. Yes, his first wife or second Paisley's second wife was Peggy Baggage. What did he tell you about Peggy? I mean did what? Did he his marriage to her? How did he describe that?

He said it was one of the happiest periods of his life, but he sucked it up. Did he say why he funked it up or what what led to it? Yeah? Because of that addiction to the lifestyle and because he had got um cocaine which exacerbated his dark side. But did you did you sense any animosity on his part towards Peggy? No? I felt felt more the other way around.

That he felt that that he had been in a good situation and that he had brought There are a lot of problem, problems and trouble and risk Atward stood out in prison. His nickname was England. He was an intellectual who read more than a thousand books in less than six years. Peasley took a liking to him. Can you describe Jerry to me? What was he like as a person, What was his personality like? What did he look like like when you first met him? Can you

describe that? Very confident, very charismatic. He had already served a considered amount of time in prison, so he was an older guy. But like Uncle Junior character of the Sopranos. And if you ever watched a movie like Good Fellows our casino, it was like he just walked off that movie set. The way he spoke, his mannerisms just like a character of Good Fellows a casino. Eventually, Paisley asked Atwood to write his biography on the condition that he

continued to mask Paisley's identity even after Paisley died. Paisley told Atwood that he wanted to protect his family. And I think this is very important because if Paisley was a full blown sociopath who just craved media and attention and notoriety and fame, why would he care whether or not he was named in his own biography. After he died in eighteen, Atwood published Paisley's biography, The Life Story of Two Tony's, in a book called The Mafia Philosopher.

In parts of the book, Atwood used composite characters and situations, so I'm not going to quote from it directly. Interestingly enough, there is no mention of Paisley's claim that the Missing Congress were assassinated. Were you aware that he made these claims in ninety, that he told investigators that he transported explosives to Alaska and that he played a part in at least in terms of transporting a bomb in the plane going down. No, I was not. He never discussed

that with you. Now. Now, Paisley could have discussed these claims with Atwood and asked him to keep them quiet. But Paisley is dead, so we only have Atwood's word here, and I believe him. Atwood and I discussed the issue of truth again. Who do we as a society choose to believe? Who do we instantly right off? This might

sound purely philosophical, but it's not. It's very practical because if the FBI wrote off Jerry Paisley's claims in solely because of his past, because he was a criminal, that matters it means that he could have told almost anything and the Bureau would have said, this guy's a criminal, can't believe any of his claims onward, Maybe the FBI sincerely thought Paisley was lying, Maybe they just didn't want to get involved. Maybe someone told them to drop the case.

I don't know, but in my opinion, if someone like Jerry Paisley makes serious, substantial claims, those claims deserved to be investigated, and other claims Paisley made were in fact investigated just by members of local and state law enforcement, not the FBI. Remember, Paisley was convicted of a second murder because he told Arizona investigator Tom Davis that he shot someone at death in a motel, and Davis actually

followed up and did his job, unlike the FBI. And if you still say, well bullshit, John, let me ask you this. If your spouse or mine disappeared, and shortly thereafter you married a violent, mob connected person who later claimed they played a part in the disappearance of your first spouse, do you think invest the gators would take those claims seriously? Because I do. None of this is to say that I fully believe Jerry Paisley is to say again that his claims should have been investigated properly

by the FBI. How else do you answer the question of whether or not he was telling the truth. I think that people on the outside looked at Jerry and what he said, and even today people look at him and say, well, that was a violent guy. I don't

believe anything he said. Um, you know, at the same time, like I sit there looking at politicians every day who lie, and it really seems in part to be a kind of just a judgment call, like partially a class issue, you know, I mean, everybody lies, and I guess the question is should should we believe anything that Jerry said?

Should we believe anything that anyone says. I'm believe in critical thinking, and I'm just a reporter, So I was just the means by which Jerry could tell his story, and it's up to the reader to make that decision what they believe in, what they don't believe. I can't judge him. I mean, he saved my life in prison over a situation. He definitely had a heart, and I saw the human side of him when we said goodbye, you know, he was there was tears in his eyes

when we said goodbye at the fence. He told me that I was like the sun that he'd never had. So people commit extremely violent acts, but they're still human beings. You can't write him off just because and say everything that he said his lives because he was a violent person. Everybody's got that in them. That's one thing he taught me. I asked Atwood what else Paisley shared with him about Peggy Baggage? Were you aware that her former husband was

a congressman? Yeah, he told you that. Yeah, what did he say about that? He was very excitable about it, but he never like revealed a bigger picture that you're telling me. When you say excitable, what do you mean by excitable? There was a look in his eyes if there was more and it was a big deal, but he never expanded on it. If let's say that Jerry was telling the truth that there was some kind of foul play involved, why do you think he would have not told you? Okay, I can't um. I don't know

whether he was involved or not. But my best guess on why he wouldn't have told me it was because he was trying to steer away anything that could hurt Peggy. Did he express regret about how he treated Peggy and treated the kids. Yes, what did he say. He said that cocaine had scrambled his decision making processes and he

at this. You know, he was living in this huge house, he was loving being a dad to the kids, and his own kid would come out from Arizona and it was all hunky dory, and then he just started slipping into his owld ways. But even worse because he started murdering people and he just let the family down and brought a lot of risk and danger into the lives. Did he ever discuss taking part in any bombings for the bananas, like my understand he did. Yeah, he bombed

the wigs Salon, he bombed um. It's in the book. I can't I can't specifically remember off the top of my head right now. But he dynamited a few places for the bananas. Was one of a judge's house, a judge named Ebode. Yes, that's it. Yeah, believe he did that. Why, he just was really proud of it. And that didn't seem to be any ambiguity when he was telling me that. So when I didn't want things any details changed, it just told it me straight. So do you understand why

all of this is so fascinating to me? You have a guy, you know, I'm not I'm not judging you know, Jerry, I never met him, But you have a guy who was a multiple murderer, a bomber, ties to the bananas and the look of Olies. Marries the widow of a missing congressman sixteen and a half months after her husband disappears.

Later tells investigators that he transported explosives to Alaska. Uh and that somebody else, another man who they later went into business with, UM told him that he put a bomb on the plane and that he was given equity in the business because of his role in the alleged assassination. You understand why this is so absolutely like fascinating to me? Yeah? I do, I really do. You know. I write books with conspiracies, um. I wrote book about Barry Sealed. They said,

cocaine flying pilot and all this stuff. It's fascinating to me as well. And it's just a shame that, you know, he didn't reveal any of that to me. It's it's interesting because I would have thought that if he would tell anybody, he would tell you. And as far as I can tell other than discussing it, he never shared the story with anybody ever again, So he didn't even tell me that he discussed it with the investigations, which indicates to me that there was a lot more to

that story that he didn't tell me. If he wouldn't tell me even that, and what else did he know. Back in Tucson, Paul and I worked hard as the hours ticked down toward our flight out of town. In terms of interviews, Arizona was mostly a wash. We got Tom Davis and Steve Fowler and that's about it. Most of the red Dots were dead. The rest we either couldn't reach or they wouldn't talk to us. So we decided to use our remaining time to visit places tied

to the story. We visited the Sahara Motel where Paisley murdered a man. Now it's an apartment complex. We visited a plane graveyard, but that was just for fun, and at the very end, we visited the Spanish Trail Motel. It's been a long trip in Arizona. Paul and I have been here a few days and we have had people back out of interviews. We've been calling numbers left and right. Old mobsters apparently don't like phones or email.

They don't really like to be contacted. So, yeah, Paul and I are standing at the Spanish Trail Motel and Tucson. The sun is almost completely behind the mountains. It's getting dark, it's breezy. The sky is pink and purple and blue, and you can see palm trees and wound the periphery of this beautiful old motel that's now completely decayed. There's rust and broken glass and needles and an old shopping card and it's very much the epitome of what you

want to photograph and explorer and exploration. Uh. And one of these buildings here with the smashed out windows could have been the place that Jerry Paisley lived, or the room that he said he brought Margaret, who he later said was Peggy Baggetts, who after she met allegedly with Joe Banano. And there's only a slight glimmer of light left here at the Spanish Trail Motel. Paul, you want to hop the fence? Sure, Okay, so we're gonna I'm gonna let Paul hop the fence first, because he's six

to I'll just use Paul as a ladder. I'm not gonna hop defense. We didn't hop the fence. So at the end of this trip in Arizona, we're standing on the side of a rusted out motel And honestly, there have been some surprises, but mostly it's been a frustrating trip. We haven't been able to interview many of the people

that we wanted to. Nobody's answering the damn phone. We've showed up at uh Peter Likavoli's house twice today alone, so all we're doing is circling Tucson trying to find octogenarian mobsters and no answers and no answers, so the soun's almost gone and hopefully somebody doesn't jump out of bush on this creepy alley and and you know she have a shivn my rib. Thankfully, though our Arizona trip

wasn't a total bust. We got two good interviews. And remember Bob Martinson, the man who broke the news to me via text that Cokey Roberts Hail Boggs's daughter died. The Bob Martinson I told you was important and asked you to remember well on September in that very same text, the one in which Bob told me Cokey died. He also sent me something I had been waiting on for weeks, the exact coordinates of where he found part of Assessma,

part of what could be the missing plane. So armed with this a latitude and longitude, we were off to Alaska next time on missing in Alaska. If you were a Republican in the head of the Young Republicans Club, why were you arranging a flight for two Democratic congressman That's my own business. I don't care who are before as long as they paid the bill was like, that's where they did, but the flight was unpaid. It was a free flight. Before we go an epilogue In December nineteen,

I got a voicemail from someone surprising Rosalie Banano. Rosalie, now three, is the daughter in law of Joe Banano, who she calls Mr b. In nineteen fifty six, she married his son Bill at a lavish mafia wedding. Joe, her father in law, and Bill, her husband, have both died. I called Rosalie back and left her a voicemail on her jitterbug phone, and then for a while nothing. When I called again in April. However, she picked up. She was friendly. She even asked how I was holding up

in New Orleans during the pandemic. She kindly answered my questions, but didn't want to do a recorded interview. Rosalie said that she and the other Banana wives were mostly kept out of the loop. They spent their time in the kitchen. I asked if I could run some names by her to see if she recognized them, and she agreed. Unfortunately, she didn't recognize most of them, including Jerry Paisley, though she said she was going to check with someone who

might know more and get back to me. Rosalie did, however, remember joe Aya Tarola, the Banano lieutenant Paisley Claine gave him a lock suitcase that contained a bomb, the bomb allegedly put on the missing Congressman's plane. Aya tar Rolla is also the man who allegedly dined with Paisley, Peggy Baggett, and Joe Banano at the Contigui in the summer of nineteen seventy two. Rosalie told me that Joeya Tarola and

Joe Banano were close. She remembers seeing Ayah to rolla around Banano's house She said the two men respected each other a lot. Before the call ended, I had two final questions. First, did she know of any Bonano business ceilings in Alaska? She said no, but again reiterated that she was kept out of the loop. And I asked whether or not any documentation from the seventies still exist, received checks, diaries, stuff like that. She said that after Joe Banano died, she sold a trove of his old

checks on eBay and made a small fortune. However, she told me that since Bill Bonano, her husband died in two thousand eight, she still hasn't gone through his filing cabinet. She said doing so might be a good project, and she said she would contact me if she found anything interesting. This week, I have two tasks for you, one specific and one vague. First, we're going to post the red dot photos online. If you recognize any of the unidentified

wedding guests, let us know. Second, this episode is packed with information, so maybe listen again, take notes, and see if you can find anything we missed. If you do, let us know. You can reach us by phone at one eight three three m I A tips. That's one eight three three six four two eight four seven seven again one eight three three six four two eight four seven Evan, or you can reach us via email at tips at i heeart media dot com. That's tips t

I P s at i heeart media dot com. An important note, none of the people Jerry Paisley claimed took part in or had knowledge of the alleged bombing, Joe Bonano, Joey A. Tarola, Danny Zavanich, Gene Fowler, Larry Fowler, or Peggy Baggage were ever charged with or convicted of crimes tied to any of Paisley's allegations. Peggy Beggatt and Danny Zavanache declined multiple requests for an on the record interview. Gene Fowler was unavailable for an interview. Joe Bonano, Joeya Tarola,

and Larry Fowler are dead. Louis Marconi, the X cop who was friends with Paisley, also was never charged with or convicted of any crimes tied to any of Paisley's allegations. Marconi declined multiple requests to do a recorded interview. Finally, in his seventies, Pete Lookavoli Jr. And Mike Lackavoli vehemently denied reports that they were involved in organized crime rings. The Lick of OLiS didn't respond to multiple interview requests.

Ben Boland is our executive producer. Paul Decan is our supervising producer, Chris Brown is our assistant producer, Seth Nicholas Johnson is our producer. Sam T. Garden is our research assistant, and I'm your host and executive producer, John Wallzac. You can find me on Twitter at at John Waalzac j O n w A l c z a K special Thanks to investigative reporters and editors or ire and specifically

executive director Doug Haddocks. Thanks also to everyone at the State Historical Society of Missouri, including John Console, Kevin George, and Beth Pike. And a big thank you to Pauline Loftus for showing us around the Mountain Oyster Club. Missing in Alaska is a co production of I Heart Media and Greenfork Media.