Frank Colacurcio

Strippergate Settlement

Strippergate Lives

Organized Nude Dancing

Comments of the Week: Sex for Money? Bust Some REAL Criminals

Poll Dancing

Sex-industry-connected contributions to City Council members are on the rise.

An Imagined Conversation Between Frank Colacurcio Sr. and Bob Davis

After news broke that Bob Davis, former owner of Giggles Comedy Club, plans to turn Cyndy's House of Pancakes into a strip joint (possibly one that serves pancakes), Davis received a call from local strip joint king/perpetual subject of organized crime investigations Frank Colacurcio Sr..   ... More >>

The Colacurcio Probe

The talk is that Frank Colacurcio Sr., the aging stripper king, and his family and business associates are working some kind of deal to step away from the nude-dance business in return for not being indicted by the feds. Nobody will comment but that could resolve the ongoing probe into the Colacurci ... More >>

Union Boss's Murder Now Active Cold Case

The mob-like murder of Seattle labor leader Mario Vaccarino, 61 - his body found seasoned with parmesan cheese and floating face down in his bathtub - is now among a half-dozen perhaps related cold cases from the 1970s and 1980s that have heated up again. They include dead bar owners and associates ... More >>

Fresh Grated Murder

Several notorious cold cases are getting another look.

Colacurcio Probe Marches On

Federal attorneys are asking for another extension of an order to prevent stripper king Frank Colacurcio Sr. and associates from selling or "destroying" their interests in Seattle-area strip club operations so a grand jury can wind up its investigation into allegations of racketeering and prostituti ... More >>

WoodFellas: Frank Colacurcio and His Million-Dollar Empire of Flesh

Getting accused by the feds of running a high-stakes prostitution racket is just business as usual.

The Rainmaker

Thirty-eight years after Albert D. Rosellini left the governor's mansion, he's still working all the angles. And his latest moves, at Seattle City Hall, have landed him back in the news.

The Bodfather

Call Colacurcio the city's oldest nude dance purveyor— but never a mobster.

Our Not-So-Finest

Disciplined cops: drunk, rude, sometimes just plain dumb.

Strippergate Figures Walk

A judge has tossed out all charges against Seattle stripper king Frank Colacurcio Sr., his son, and two employees.

Media, City Hall

A judge has tossed out all charges against Seattle stripper king Frank Colacurcio Sr., his son, and two employees.

Strippergate: The Hangover

A nude-dance-club owner gives money to City Hall campaigns, and his name is not Colacurcio.

Best Nightlife Figure

People, Politics, and Media

Colacurcio Cools It

Frank Sr. might be the father of the Strippergate scandal, but he says he didn't break the law.

Strippergate, City Politics, Law Enforcement, National Politics, Social Services

Frank Sr. might be the father of the Strippergate scandal, but he says he didn't break the law.

Strip-Joint Jurisprudence

A former waitress, 23, takes on Frank Colacurcio Sr., Seattle's 87-year-old nudie-club magnate.

Politics, Strippergate, The City, and Boeing

A former waitress, 23, takes on Frank Colacurcio Sr., Seattle's 87-year-old nudie-club magnate.

Strippergate Peters Out

It rejected a settlement, yet the city has no case against Frank Colacurcio Jr.

A Lapdog Lap Dance

The rezone from hell is finally approved as the Strippergate ethics investigation looks outside City Hall, focusing on donors.

Is Strippergate Over?

Hardly. The rezone is nixed, but theres fallout ahead.

The Rezone Zone

A neighborhood leader wonders what it takes to win friends and influence people at City Hall.

City Council

A neighborhood leader wonders what it takes to win friends and influence people at City Hall.

Civic Amnesia

Seattle's got a serious memory problem.

Letters to the Editor

It seems that the story on brainstorming moneymaking ideas for the monorail missed the all-time best idea. . . . Dont build it!

Barely Naked Truth

How a strip joint's quest for eight parking spaces turned into a political tangle.

The Stripper King

The story of Frank Colacurcio, the Bellevue boy who built a notorious nightlife empire.

Nicastro's $25,000 Day

She and a block of donors connected to strip clubs say there was no quid pro quo.

Another Reason Annexation and Incorporation Are So Important: Strip Club Busts

One of the first votes I cast as a young, uneducated voter was to dissolve the Shoreline government and basically replace it with one that would be more favorable to Sugar's, a Frank Colacurcio-owned strip club on Aurora Avenue. Not that I was a big Sugar's fan--I've never actually been there--but ... More >>

An Indictment for Frank

Plea negotiations apparently having failed, another, perhaps final, chapter has begun in the Frank Colacurcio saga, which dates back to the 1950s and weaves through a maze of courtrooms and prisons. A probe announced last year has today turned into the indictment of the 92-year-old stripper king and ... More >>

The Rise, and Fall, and Rise, of Frank C.

It's one thing to live to 92, which, as of his birthday last month, Frank Colacurcio Sr. has done. It's quite another thing, especially when charged with lowdown federal crimes, to remain upstanding in the community, and it seems he has done that, too. "Colacurcio Sr. regularly engages in sex acts w ... More >>

Stripper King, Others Set for Perp Walk

 The federal arraignment and perp walk of indicted stripper king Frank Colacurcio Sr., his son and four business partners is, at this point, still on for tomorrow afternoon at the U.S. Courthouse in Seattle, despite a last-minute effort by Colacurcio to put it off. His Seattle attorney Irwin Sc ... More >>

Big Al, 99, Enters the Hip-Hop Era

​To old-timers he might be remembered as "Taxellini," the nickname he earned for hiking the state sales tax in the 1960s; to newcomers, he's the guy who doled out illegal political funds to City Council members in 2003, playing the role of Rainmaker for stripper king Frank Colacurcio. And to t ... More >>

Wiretaps Exposed in Colacurcio Case

​Federal prosecutors are seeking sanctions against one of the defendants in the civil and criminal racketeering and prostitution cases against Seattle stripper king Frank Colacurcio for temporarily releasing secret wiretap information the court had sealed from public view, according to recentl ... More >>

Plea Deal for Figure in Frank Colacurcio Case

​One of stripper king Frank Colacurcio Sr.'s oldest and closest friends and employees, ex-nightclub singer John "Gil" Conte, 76, (right) has pleaded guilty in the federal racketeering case that aims to send his boss back to prison. According to court documents released today, Conte agreed to a ... More >>

Probation, No Fine for Gil Conte in Frank Colacurcio Racketeering Case - But No More Strip Clubs, Either

​Ex-lounge singer and strip club operator Gil Conte has been so close to his mentor, convicted (1971) racketeer Frank Colacurcio Sr. that he even once appeared in a picture in the paper as Frank - after fooling a photographer. But he and Colacurcio now have a new bond: both senior citizens hav ... More >>

Colacurcio's Recession Woes

The former skin peddler claims poverty; his ex-wife isn't buying it.

Soft Time

Prison’s got no allure for the Colacurcios. A deal may be in the offing.

Stripper King Frank Colacurcio Sr., 93 Today, Seeking Federal Court Birthday Gift: Freedom

​Celebrating his 93rd birthday today, nude-dancing impressario and seven-time ex-con Frank Colacurcio has just asked the federal court for a neatly wrapped gift - dismissal of the criminal conspiracy and racketeering charges that threaten to send the stripper king to prison for his eighth felo ... More >>

Frank Colacurcio Sr., Stripper King, Dies at 93, Marking End of Remarkable Seattle Crime Era

​Ailing and facing his eighth felony trial, stripper king Frank Colacurcio took the easy way out today, dying at age 93. The Seattle Times reports his death was confirmed by his attorney, Irwin Schwartz. Colacurcio takes with him the title of Seattle's most memorable and enduring crime figure ... More >>

Bob Davis, Would-be Strip King, Tries Again

​When we last left Bob Davis, he was making large amounts of money by trying, and failing, to become a nude-dance club owner. Now, reports the P-I, he has applied for a cabaret license to take over the late Frank Colacurcio's shuttered strip club Rick's in Lake City. With any kind of luck, Dav ... More >>

Bob Davis Heads to the Poles, Again

​When we last left Bob Davis, he was making large amounts of money by trying, and failing, to become a nude-dance club owner. Now, reports the P-I, he has applied for a cabaret license to take over the late Frank Colacurcio's shuttered strip club Rick's in Lake City. With any kind of luck, Dav ... More >>

Colacurcio Partners Sued; Ex-Strip Club Pal Says They Asked Him to Help Pay Crime Fine

​The blowback from the Frank Colacurcio Sr. racketeering case continues to spread with yet another lawsuit, this one filed by a former part-owner of Honey's, the Everett-area strip property turned over to the government as part of a plea-bargained settlement. Phil McKibben says he was screwed ... More >>

Shakedown Streets: Excerpts from Seattle Vice

Longtime Weekly writer Rick Anderson's new book recounts the era of corruption that predated "Seattle Nice."

Gov. Al Rosellini, 101, Dies; Democrat Kingpin Lobbied for Social Change and Political Dollars

Rosellini, 2008​Big Al Rosellini, the two-term governor remembered for his support of medical and educational causes in the state and who later became a money middleman caught up in Seattle's 2003 Strippergate scandal, died this morning at age 101 in his retirement condo on Capitol Hill, his f ... More >>