Afterword

A few years ago I was in the lobby of the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs, looking at photographs of notables who had stayed there, including President Theodore Roosevelt—and Al Capone. Yes, Al used to vacation in the Colorado Rockies, along with a lot of other gangsters. And most people who grew up in the Denver area, as I did, have heard of Colorado’s own crime family, the Smaldones. The three brothers—Eugene (“Checkers”), Clyde (“Flip Flop”) and Clarence (“Chauncey”)—dominated organized crime in the Mile High City for years, starting in the 1930s. There was also organized crime in southern Colorado, in the Front Range city of Pueblo, and farther south in Walsenburg and Trinidad. Italian immigrants who came to work in the coal fields brought with them the Mafia and the Black Hand.

Both the books in the California Zephyr series required research, not only into organized crime in Colorado, but trains as well. When writing about a historical period or a particular subject, I strive to be accurate in conveying information. I may have tweaked facts from time to time for the sake of plot, characters, and a good story. Any errors are my own.

Many thanks to two of the Zephyrettes who worked aboard the historical streamliner known as the California Zephyr. Cathy Moran Von Ibsch was a Zephyrette in the late 1960s and rode the Silver Lady on her last run. Rodna Walls Taylor, who died recently, rode the rails as a Zephyrette in the early 1950s, the time period of the book. I greatly appreciate their generosity in answering my many questions. I couldn’t have written this book without them.

We are fortunate to have railroad museums to preserve the remaining artifacts of this country’s rail era, particularly the streamliners like the California Zephyr. Both the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento and the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden have excellent research libraries as well as rail cars and locomotives. The Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, California, is a treasure house of rolling stock.

I recommend the California Zephyr Virtual Museum, at: http://calzephyr.railfan.net. Here I found old timetables, menus, and brochures, as well as information on the Zephyrettes.

The Amtrak version of the California Zephyr is not the same as the sleek Silver Lady of days gone by. But it’s great to ride a train through most of the same route, getting an up-close look at this marvelous part of the country. The journey may take longer, but the scenery is spectacular and the relaxation factor is 110 percent.

The California Zephyr story, and that of railroading in America, is told in books and films. Some of them are listed below, along with other sources I used in writing the California Zephyr series. Many of these books are full of photographs and first-hand accounts of working on and aboard the trains.

Publications about the California Zephyr, rails, and rail travel in the United States

Portrait of a Silver Lady: The Train They Called the California Zephyr, Bruce A. McGregor and Ted Benson, Pruett Publishing Company, Boulder, CO, 1977. Full of beautiful photographs, lots of history and technical information, and firsthand accounts of what it was like to work on this train.

CZ: The Story of the California Zephyr, Karl R. Zimmerman, Quadrant Press, Inc., 1972. Excellent overview of the train’s history, with lots of old photographs.

Zephyr: Tracking a Dream Across America, Henry Kisor, Adams Media Corporation, 1994. An account of Kisor’s journey westward on the Amtrak California Zephyr.

Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service, James McCommons, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2009. A thought-provoking account of the author’s travels on various Amtrak routes and his interviews with passengers, employees, rail advocates, and people in the railroad business, with discussions about the future of passenger rail in the United States.

A Guidebook to Amtrak’s California Zephyr, Eva J. Hoffman, Flashing Yellow Guidebooks, Evergreen, CO, 2003, 2008. There are three volumes: Chicago to Denver, Denver to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City to San Francisco. I discovered these courtesy of a railfan while riding the Amtrak CZ. A detailed milepost-by-milepost guide to what’s outside the train window, with history and anecdotes thrown in. A useful resource for finding out how far it is from one place to another and how long it takes to get there.

Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class, Larry Tye, Henry Holt & Company, 2004. There is also a PBS video. The book discusses the history of the Pullman Company, African Americans working on the railroad, and their legacy.

The Pullman Porters and West Oakland, Thomas and Wilma Tramble, Arcadia Publishing, 2007. A look at the lives of porters in Oakland, CA. Full of wonderful photographs.

Publications about organized crime in Colorado, Al ­Capone and Prohibition

Mountain Mafia: Organized Crime in the Rockies, Betty L. Alt and Sandra K. Wells, Dog Ear Publishing, 2008. A look at the Black Hand and the Mafia in Colorado, including the Smaldones and their predecessors and rivals, through the twentieth century, and the Colorado crime syndicates’ links to organized crime in other areas of the United States.

Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family, Dick Kreck, Fulcrum Publishing Company, 2009. A history of Denver’s own crime syndicate, active from the 1930s to the later twentieth century.

Get Capone: The Secret Plot that Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster, Jonathan Eig, Simon & Schuster, 2010. The rise and fall of Capone, America’s most notorious gangster, with a look at his vast illegal operations in Chicago.

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, Daniel Okrent, Scribner, 2010. A detailed overview of Prohibition, the reasons for its enactment, the crime that rose from it, and the aftermath.

Information on the 10th Mountain Division can be found at:

http://www.drum.army.mil/AboutFortDrum/Pages/hist_10thMountainHistory_lv3.aspx

Much of the information about World War II rationing and crime that arose from it comes from various sources on the Internet.

Films

The California Zephyr: The Story of America’s Most Talked About Train, Copper Media, 1999

The California Zephyr: Silver Thread Through The West, TravelVideoStore, 2007.

The California Zephyr: The Ultimate Fan Trip, Emery Gulash, Green Frog Productions, Ltd., 2007.

American Experience: Streamliners: America’s Lost Trains, PBS Video, 2006

Promotional films from the CZ and other trains are viewable on YouTube.

The original California Zephyr appeared on film in the 1954 movie Cinerama Holiday, as well as the 1952 noir Sudden Fear, starring Joan Crawford and Jack Palance. During the train portion of that movie, a Zephyrette comes to Joan Crawford’s bedroom to tell her it’s time for her dinner reservation. That Zephyrette is Rodna Walls, whom I interviewed for this book.

I hope you enjoy Death Deals a Hand. Now go ride a train!