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Look Back: East side mobsters, 1962
Date: 2/24/2012 Album ID: 1421406
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
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East Side mob boss Frank "Buster" Wortman and sidekick Elmer "Dutch" Dowling awaited the verdict with stiff-jawed scowls, just like tough guys should. If they were surprised to hear the word "guilty," they didn’t show it. Wortman, Dowling and a third man were found guilty Feb. 26, 1962, of conspiracy to avoid income taxes.
Frank Buster Wortman in a St. Louis police mug shot in 1933, when he was 28 years old and member of the Shelton gang on the East Side. A short time later, he went to federal prison for slugging a liquor agent during a raid on a still near Collinsville. Back home, he muscled out the Shelton brothers and took over the East Side rackets. He wasn't convicted again until Feb. 26, 1962, when a federal jury in East St. Louis found him guilty of conspiracy to avoid income taxes on his gambling operations. He drew five years, but the conviction was reversed. Wortman was acquitted in retrial in 1966. (Post-Dispatch)
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Elmer Dutch Dowling in 1938, when he was 32 years old and a suspect in the attempted murder of a prospective trial witness. Dowling was convicted of assault in the case, but he won a reversal from the Missouri Supreme Court. Dowling got his start as a robber and bootlegger in St. Louis. After Army service in Europe during World War II, Dowling became and ally of Wortman, then on the rise in East St. Louis. He was Wortman's right-hand man when they were convicted together in the income-tax case in 1962. On March 3, 1962, Dowling and a bodyguard were found murdered on a rural road north of Belleville. (Post-Dispatch)
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Buster Wortman being driven away from the St. Clair County Courthouse in Belleville after a brief appearance before the county grand jury on July 2, 1955. Driving the car, and trying to hide his face with a handkerchief, is Dutch Dowling. Wortman was vacationing in Michigan when he was subpoenaed to appear in an investigation of the murder of J. Fred Koenig, a bookmaker who allegedly was angry that Wortman had taken over his operation. No charges were filed against Wortman. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
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Buster Wortman's home at on Grandview Drive on the western outskirts of Collinsville in February 1954. The home had been built two years before. The Post-Dispatch ran the photograph because Wortman had refused to tell a federal grand jury where he lived. A judge cited him for contempt of court. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch)
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In 1956, workers began digging an oval lake and fashioning an island near South Mulberry Road southeast of Collinsville. Buster Wortman kept a close eye on the project, but never said anything about it. Sam Magin, former manager and bartender at Wortman's Paddock Lounge in East St. Louis, told investigators and reporters that he was in charge of the project and that it was being built for a boys' club. Wortman later moved into a home built upon the island, reached by a wooden bridge -- and always guarded by gunmen. Magin was a defendant in the 1962 tax case, but was acquitted. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
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Another view of excavation for the mysterious moat and island in April 1956. Investigators developed a keener interest in the project after Buster Wortman allegedly slugged an IRS agent in the Paddock Lounge, a 429 St. Louis Avenue in East St. Louis on July 1, 1956. Thus inspired, the IRS began digging harder into Wortman's unusual financial world. Eventually, the government charged him with income-tax evasion. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
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Workers build a bridge to the mysterious island. A private drive connected the bridge to South Mulberry Road. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
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The house that was built on the island. The photo was taken in April 1958. By then, newspapers called it Wortman's Island. A subdivision now adjoins the lake, known today as Magin's Lake, named after Wortman's old bartender. The house remains a private residence. (Jack January/Post-Dispatch)
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Frank Buster Wortman in the federal courthouse in East St. Louis in February 1962 during his trial on income-tax charges. Wortman did not like having his picture taken, but couldn't avoid it during the seven-week trial. (Robert LaRouche/Post-Dispatch)
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Elmer Dutch Dowling arriving at the federal courthouse in East St. Louis in a light rain during the trial. Dowling was known as an elegant dresser who preferred expensive businessmen's clothing to the more garish threads of many mobsters. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch)
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Morris Shenker, lead defense lawyer for Buster Wortman, addresses the judge during the trial in February 1962. Post-Dispatch artist Albert Schweitzer made this drawing of the courtroom because no cameras were allowed inside. (Post-Dispatch)
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The defense team poses for photographers on Feb. 22, 1962, the day the jury began deliberations. They are, from left, Morris Shenker, Murry L. Randall, Saul Cohn, Ray Foreman, James F. Nangle Jr. and Norman London. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
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On March 3, 1962, six days after the jury verdict, the bodies of Elmer Dutch Dowling (left) and Melvin Beckman were found sprawled on the pavement of Wolf Branch School Board (now Huntwood Road), north of Belleville. Beckman's shot-up car was found in the parking lot of a bowling alley in Swansea. Dowling had been Wortman's right-hand man and was convicted along with Wortman on Feb. 26. Beckman was a bodyguard in Wortman's organization. Among those standing near the bodies are Dr. C.C. Kane, the St. Clair County coroner (fourth from left). The woman at left is Kane's secretary. (John LaBusier/Post-Dispatch)
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Douglas Keith, a fingerprint specialist for the Illinois State Police, takes picture of Melvin Beckman's car, in which he and Dutch Dowling presumably were shot before being dumped onto Wolf Branch School Road on the night of March 3, 1962. The car, shot up on the inside, was found in the parking lot of the Bel Air bowling alley in Swansea. (Buel White/Post-Dispatch)
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A close-up of a bullet hole in the front windshield of Melvin Beckman's car. Beckman was a bodyguard for Wortman and Dowling. (Buel White/Post-Dispatch)
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Eunice Dowling, widow of Dutch Dowling, testifies during a St. Clair County coroner's inquest on March 6, 1962, investigating her husband's murder. At left is Dr. C.C. Kane, county coroner. Seated at right, facing Mrs. Dowling, are county sheriff's deputies Edward Kowalski (left) and Vincent Neuner. (Post-Dispatch)
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Claire Stowers, a waitress at the Bel Air bowling alley, looks over mug shots of suspects in the murders of Dutch Dowling and Melvin Beckman. St. Clair County sheriff's detective William Butler (center) and Illinois State Police detective Jerry Fitzgerald dropped by the bowling alley March 11, 1962, because Beckman's shot-up car had been found in the establishment's parking lot. At the time, almost any local mobster was considered a suspect. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch)
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Pall bearers carry the casket of Frank Buster Wortman into St. Stephen's Catholic Church in Caseyville for his funeral Mass on Aug. 8, 1968. Wortman had died in Alexian Brothers Hospital in St. Louis five days before after undergoing throat surgery. Wortman was 63. The photo caption doesn't identify individual pall bearers, but the accompanying article says they included mob big shots John Vitale, Art Berne, Tony Giordano and Louis Shoulders Jr. (Post-Dispatch)
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The island home of Frank Buster Wortman in April 1969, eight months after his death. The home, lake and surrounding land was on sale for $175,000. (Edward Burkhardt/Post-Dispatch)
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