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

For more than half a century, 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. He notched his first major felony in his 20s, and now, at 92, faces his sixth. To the media and other impressionists, the modern portrait of Seattle is mostly swatches of Starbucks, Microsoft, and Amazon, with a godly Bill Gates lounging in the rain clouds. But “nice” Seattle’s historic underbelly of corruption is one of its more enduring if lesser known images, particularly the endless commerce of vice. And in that picture, Frank Colacurcio Sr. is the guy in the middle, smiling.