Seattle Vice: Strippers, Prostitution, Dirty Money, and Crooked Cops in the Emerald City

by Rick Anderson

For more than half a century, Frank Colacurcio and his crime family have been a force in the bars and backrooms of Seattle power and politics, an American crime boss reign to match those of the often-glamorized Mafia dons of New York and Chicago. Seattle Vice tells the story of the Pacific Northwest's most successful strip club owner, Frank Colacurcio, whose excessive appreciation for girls has made him both a millionaire and a convict. He notched his first major felony in his 20s, and now, at the age of 92, faces his sixth. This book is a historic snapshot of Seattle as a place of corruption and vice. And in that snapshot, Frank Colacurcio is the guy in the middle, smiling into the camera.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2010

Reviews

[Bronwyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

An easy read, if pretty disorganized and not particularly deep thinking. He seems a bit too excited about double entendres, and there are some truly egregious metaphors in here. The vaginal valley of Seattle vice? Pike St is the zipper from the crotch of Puget Sound? Sir, please calm down.

But what is interesting here is the long, sordid history of Seattle police, prosecutors, and politicians being in on the grift. Given the upsetting particulars of how the SPD has behaved in the last twenty years that I’ve lived here, I have occasionally felt like I was verging into conspiracy theory territory when it comes to how I feel about the institution. But what this book shows is that I shouldn’t at all be surprised that it appears to be a rotten system from the core and throughout Seattle’s history. Truly upsetting stuff, and honestly not enough of a focus of this book, which instead is blinkered to a rather small-time, rather pathetic wannabe gangster.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's another one I wanted to like, because Rick Anderson interviewed me when I was a Seattle Vice detective many years ago, but Rick's story came up short. Rick writes a great newspaper column, and that's exactly what this reads like, a collection of well-written news articles, and not a unified story with a strong theme or hypothesis that he proves at the end. The premise is that the reader will read about Frank Colacurcio's life of vice and hopefully his come-uppance by the criminal justice system that makes him pay for his sins, but sadly, the criminal justice system is a misnomer. It neither guarantees justice, nor is it a system, and if Anderson's hypothesis that Colacurcio was the godfather of strip-club crime and responsible for countless murders, it wasn't clearly proven at the end--at least not by the courts, and that's what counts. Granted, Colacurcio was a guest of the penal system on a few occasions, but all of his prison time added together didn't amount to very much--at least not compared to the crimes he is believed to have committed. In his later years, Colacurcio repoprtedly hires strippers from his club to service his sexual needs, paying a $1,000 a night, and then he dies of natural causes while he was a free man. There's not enough pay off here for the average reader because the crimes, characters, and region it was based on is strictly local with fairly limited appeal.

[Gary Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was sorry to hear of Rick Andetson's recent passing, but it motivated me to read this book that i have had on my shelf for several years. I enjoyed Rick's columns in the Seattle Times and The Weekly, but this book is not very deep.

[Jim Thomsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Seattle Vice" was an enjoyable read, but pretty thin gruel. Don't expect to find the cohesive, colorful narrative of top-tier true-crime books here; Rick Anderson is a journalist and writes with a journalist's limitations.

He's more interested in stringing together disparate bits of fact gathered from his own decades of Seattle reporting (and from just about every non-airbrushed published history of the Emerald City) than in developing characters, explaining origins, exploring themes or bringing stories to complete and satisfying conclusions. Instead, it reads like a collection of anecdotes spilled like bar-top beer by a well-connected drunk planted on a stool at a Second Avenue strip club. Everything that didn't happen in a courtroom or come out in a court document has a frustrating, unfinished secondhand-rumor feel to it.

The upshot is that, as colorful a character as Seattle strip-club godfather Frank Colacurcio Sr. was, the reader doesn't get much of a sense of what made Frank into what he became, why he chose to operate the way he did, how smart or shrewd he was, how vicious or generous he was and what kept him going with the same wheezy old rackets into his nineties.

In the end, "Seattle Vice" was more of a skimming experience than a read; lacking the insight, completeness and cohesion of the best narrative nonfiction, it was like an overlong newspaper or magazine article. Anderson is probably the best person to tell this story. I just wish it had been a better story. I can't help but think that the right somebody would have found the right way to get Frank Colacurcio Sr. to sit and spill his guts into a tape recorder for posterity. That is the story that "Seattle Vice" should have been ... assuming that it could have been.

I'm glad I read it. I just don't know that I can recommend it.

[Steve Lundh · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a life long Seattleite, this was a very interesting read. The authors main focus is Frank Colacurcio and his crime family and the dealings in the backrooms of Seattle's power and politics. I had heard a little about the criminal underworld and corrupt cops and politicians, and like most big cities, we knew about the ever present union crimes which continue today, but I never knew how deep and wide it had become. Sad and fascinating all at the same time.

[Bud Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Other reviewers have it wrong: It's not meant to be a narrative, although Frank Colacurcio's incredible story unfolds - in detail, for the first time - throughout the book. 'Vice' covers a lot of territory, historically and geographically, in an entertaining, informative and often funny way.

[Gary Love · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched, but it felt unstructured...making it difficult to find the thru-tracks between different characters at different times.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually it's one of the core books for studying the Mafia

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The Seattle Crime Family

a. Bare: The Naked Truth About Stripping - Elisabeth Eaves
b. Seattle Vice: Strippers, Prostitution, Dirty Money, and Crooked Cops in the Emerald City - Rick Anderson
c. Dark Rose: Organized Crime and Corruption in Portland - Robert C. Donnelly
d. Portland Confidential: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Rose City - Phil Stanford

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old Seattle and some of it's dark history

Most of this history of Seattle and the northwest was before my life, but it does fill in some gaps. Good rush from Alaska bringing back young men with plenty of cash you need something to spend it on. In order to really make a lot of cash is bribe police and politicians to make an empire in the great Northwest. Fascinating read.

[Becca Guillote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun fact: I currently live in what used to be Frank Colacurcio’s house, as described on the first page of the book. So while the book is a bit tedious, it was fun to learn the “colorful” history of the guy that lived here!

[Mary Whisner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Veteran newspaper man traces the history of vice in Seattle, with a focus on strip-club owner Frank Colacurcio, Sr.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting overview of corruption in police in 50s through 80s.

[Devan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting a well-researched biography of Frank Colacurcio and his associates.

What I got was retellings of court transcripts with very little extra material, and no insight into the people who made up Colacurcio's empire.

Entertaining, but you'll get nothing new about Colacurcio if you've been following the story in the Seattle Times. There are some additional amusing bits about the history of vice in Seattle, but they also read like rehashes of someone else's research.

I'm dinging this book a star for two particularly tasteless jokes about transgendered people and a general "nudge nudge wink wink" attitude towards some of its truly despicable characters.

[Hopem · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his book Seattle Vice, legendary streetwise columnist Rick Anderson describes the scene at First Ave. and Pike St. back in the day: "For decades, street crazies and druggies occupied the four corners, along with prostitutes, players and partyers." Anderson introduces readers to a guy named Andy Brodie, who perfectly captures the corner that was for decades Skid Road's ground zero: "[H]e saw a buddy in a crowd cross the intersection and he shouted 'Hey asshole,'" says Brody, "everyone in the street turned around."

http://crosscut.com/2014/03/19/Kidsat...

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written and a cobbled together mess of anecdotes that Anderson - a Seattle newspaper reporter - assembled from newspaper articles, some of which he wrote, court filing papers, paraphrased descriptions from books on the history of Seattle, and unattributed accounts and other assorted rumors. The type of book you'd find on those small racks in tourist attractions. If it had been better researched - with references - and cohesively organized it could have been an interesting history of Seattle vice. Instead it's mostly a bunch of rehashed stories that anyone who lived in Seattle would have read in the newspaper.

[Mike Mitchell · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quick read that might be of interest to anyone that grew up in the NW before 1st AV gentrified. Anderson does a good job of chronicling the delightfully cuddly Colacurcio clan and gets you inside those skanky looking dens of inequity that used to make up most of the business on 1st. It's not much longer than an in depth feature article but it held my interest and made me think about the tradeoffs we've made on our way to a vice free and tidy city. Which is better (or worse): Starbucks or the Lusty Lady? That's a rhetorical question, btw...

[Kristall Driggers · Rating 1 out of 5]

May have been mildly interesting (if you are into small-time pimps and strip club owners) but I couldn't get past the writing. I only made it about 2 chapters and was already bored w/ Frank C and the author.

[Josephine Ensign · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reads more like a collection of related newspaper articles that are poorly written. Short, jerky, cutesy sentences throughout drove me nuts. It is on an important aspect of Seattle politics and culture but unfortunately is poorly executed.

[Shelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting stories that dated back to the beginning of Seattle but the book was more modern than that...kind of disappointing.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book added some colorful tidbits to my knowledge of local history, but overall it was a letdown. It was a mildly interesting library read, but I would have been disappointed if I had bought it.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very interesting part of Seattle history.

[Saint Lart]

I got about 80 pages into it. I'm not the target audience, so I won't say anything.