Comments on: a reminder, on the 24th anniversary of the fbi raid

By: Aaron Bowden

Aaron Bowden — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 11:10:10 +0000

I was 9 years old, sitting in the Sunshine inn eating pancakes when the FBI raided it. I remember my mother told the waitress to make sure they had a warrant to search the bar area.

By: Heather Branstetter

Heather Branstetter — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 03:34:23 +0000

In reply to michael paul garrison.

Hi Michael, I don’t know anything about kids being buried in boxes, but that sounds horrible and I’m sorry you went through that. I have heard the Shady Lady was a brothel, but I haven’t found any kind of paper trail related to that, athough it was one of the establishments raided during the FBI bust–they did confiscate gambling machines from there. I don’t know if Deputy Brandon Crnkovich is kin to Frank, either, but maybe another one of my readers will know and eventually respond. The FBI didn’t really find anything to confirm a drug-related conspiracy, but they were definitely looking for that.

By: michael paul garrison

michael paul garrison — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 22:16:54 +0000

My dad always told me Frank Crhkovich was dirty and was protecting a “liquid cocaine” ring that imported the drug from the back side of silver horn. In 1987 I was 5 and had lived next to the Shady Lady for a few years at that point and remember spending lots of time there as a kid while my mom was upstairs..? My dad worked for CF and was always being moved around the country by the Teamsters, so my brothers and I were home alone with Mom or the babysitter often. Before my dad passed last year, he also told me that the Church of Satan or something of that nature was operating around the area at the same time, and that my babysitter admitted to him at AA in Kellogg that she was in the church and that they used to bury children alive around those parts… i have memories of being buried in a box by my babysitter when i was very young and would like to hold those accountable who were involved, sadly, I’m not sure where to start. My babysitter also got me a scholarship with Head Start where I was educated by the government for years before kindergarten. Im trying to figure out how I got so messed up .. any help would be great regarding info on any of the above topics. Also, did Frank Crnkovich have kids or grand kids? There is a Deputy Brandon Cinkovich at the Spokane Sherriff’s department, and I’m wondering if there is any relation. Im grateful for your post… thanks again.

Regards,
Michael

By: findheatherlee

findheatherlee — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 18:37:09 +0000

Yes, definitely! I’ll email you. 🙂

By: findheatherlee

findheatherlee — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 18:36:31 +0000

In reply to Kay. Okay, thanks, Kay. I'll follow up soon.

By: Kay

Kay — Sat, 04 Jul 2015 05:51:53 +0000

For more information, you can call my husband Milt. Our phone number is 208 245 5016. He knows everyone and everything in the valley. We both grew up there.

By: Kay

Kay — Sat, 04 Jul 2015 05:42:37 +0000

The liquor license for that bar cam within a month of the raid. The beer distributors and every bar in Shoshone County knew that. Joe sold them out. We never went back to the Snake pit after that.
My aunt Marie ran that place in the 40’s and early 50’s. So it isn’t a foreign place to me.
Love your little blog. Am passing it along to people who lost people in Wallace. Long story.

By: findheatherlee

findheatherlee — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 18:40:46 +0000

In reply to Kaytu.

Thanks for sharing, Kay! I hadn’t heard that about Joe Peak, and I will also say that his name was not among those I submitted to the FBI (I omitted those names from the version of my FOIPA request I included in this post). I haven’t looked this up to confirm it, so I don’t know the timeline nor the circumstances, but I was told that the Snakepit’s liquor license came from a revision of the law that allowed businesses to obtain licenses if they sold liquor historically.

I don’t know how long it will take the FBI to respond to my request for information, but they did already email back to let me know they received my letter, so I look forward to finding out more from the written records they have.

That’s a sad story about the St. Joe Lodge. Despite the many funny stories I was told about the day of the raid (subject for a future post, perhaps), the reality is that this event impacted the community in a significant and irreparable way…

By: Kaytu

Kaytu — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 00:38:04 +0000

The only bar that didn’t get hit was the Snakepit in Enaville, yet Joe Peak had been in every bar in the valley gathering information prior.

Right or Wrong, Joe Peak is blamed for the valley getting hit. That was in June 1991. I still have the t shirt. He also got, in August, a liquor license for the Enaville Resort (snakepit) which was given to him under suspicious circumstances.

I do know that the St. Joe Lodge was raided and the Feds took almost $8000 dollars from the safe which was bar, motel, and restaurant money. I also know there were two little pull machines in the Lodge and they had less than 5 dollars in quarters in them when they raided them. Kids mostly played them. My kids did, so did Milts. There was never a payout. I also know that the Feds came back several weeks later and told Tony Piccinnini who ran the Lodge that if he would admit to paying off Frank Crnkovich, they would give him his money back. Tony told them he never gave Frank so much as a cup of coffee, and they kept his money and he and Sanda gave up the bar. And Frank had to sell the house his family had in Wallace for years. I’m still pissed off.

Sanda still lives in Avery.

Kay