How an informant sent the St. Louis Mafia to jail
ST. LOUIS - Bombs, labor racketeering and extortion: It's just part of the list one tipster made to help authorities put dozens of St. Louis area mob members behind bars in the early 1980s.
Former FOX 2 reporter John Auble sat down with Ron Lawrence, the journalist who spoke to the infamous man behind the operations and transformed over 6,000 pages of transcripts into a book.
At the time, 42-year-old Jesse Stoneking was a mob member-turned FBI working informant of the highest ranking. Beginning in 1983, Stoneking helped the FBI put 30 members in jail over the course of two grueling years.
His work focused on certain St. Louis gangs, including the Outfits and La Cosa Nostra. After Stoneking's work, the mafia had a $100,000 murder contract out to kill him.
The Outfits in southern Illinois were run by Arthur Joseph Berne, and Stoneking became Berne's lieutenant.
Berne's allegiance was to the imprisoned Chicago Outfits leader, Joey Aiuppa.
Berne became the first person targeted by the FBI when Stoneking began his mission. He was released after doing time in federal prison for conspiring to extort money from strip joints, according to Auble.
Auble managed to catch up to Berne and his wife in 1989, but they declined to speak.
That wasn't enough excitement for Stoneking, though. After Berne was locked away, he remained a member of the Outfits, but he divided his loyalty between them and the Italian union mob, La Cosa Nostra.
According to U.S. Department of Labor Office of Labor Racketeering Agent Cullen McCoy, unions served as a mob powerbases, and much of the mafia hierarchy is intertwined within them.
There were concerns and speculation regarding who was going to take over after the death of the head of the St. Louis mafia, Anthony Giordano. Officials traced a call from a south St. Louis County home which confirmed who they were looking for--Matthew "Mike" Trupiano, who was the nephew of Giordano.
Despite being convicted of gambling charges, Trupiano remained a representative for the International Laborers Union 110 in Brentwood, with his wife also working in the office.
When Auble had a chance to speak with Trupiano, he refused to comment on Stoneking but did say he was proud of how he helped to elevate his union in both manpower and financial growth, hoping FOX 2 would report it. Trupiano once discussed with Stoneking the hardship that came with the title.
Stoneking: "Do you feel any different being a boss?"
Trupiano: "Well, it's a lot more responsibility."
Stoneking: "A lot more respect?"
Trupiano: "I'll be honest with you, I don't think there's too many people who can handle it."
Stoneking was found dead inside his car in January 2003 along a deserted road in Arizona, where he lived in hiding following his work for the FBI. The coroner ruled that Stoneking had shot and killed himself.
Lawrence's novel about Stoneking, titled "The Stone Killer" was published in 2011.
