Was Great Falls a Mafia Haven?
One of the popular local rumors around town was of how the Mafia passed through Great Falls and sometimes used it as a hiding place. It was said one of their favorite haunts was the Terrace bar in the Park Hotel. Great Falls was a railroad town which acted as a main hub between Chicago and the coast, so such a rumor seems plausible. Of course the Mafia wouldn’t want to be found and would leave little proof of their trail. After decades of many research request hunts, we may have finally found some shred of proof. The following is an event from the Great Falls Tribune:
On January 5, 1958 John Adomono, an entertainer at the Park Hotel, found that the motor in his car was not firing properly when he started it in the afternoon of January 6. He drove it down to Rice Motors at 721 Central Ave West where a mechanic looked under the hood to find the engine wired with five sticks of dynamite.
Adomono had purchased the car from Park Hotel owner, Mike Guon less than a month before. Only a few close friends, some employees, and the bank knew of the sale. Adomono had continued to park the car in the same garage behind the Park Hotel just as Guon had. Police thought the intended victim was to be Guon, not Adomono. “I do not have any more enemies than any other businessman and have no idea who could have done this,” Guon said. An investigation commenced.
Great Falls Tribune, January 7, 1958
Police Detective Capt. Len Jorgensen said the bomb was made by someone who knew what he was doing. It was believed the dynamite may have been stolen from the Montana Hardware Co. powder house south of Great Falls. They had had a burglary a couple weeks before.
On March 8, two explosions shattered the silence of the quiet Saturday morning. One explosion ripped through an areaway at the rear of the Park Hotel and the other tore apart an incinerator at the rear of Daniel’s Garage and Service Station at 703 Central Ave W. No one was seriously injured in either blast. The Park Hotel had about 20 of its windows blasted out. The incinerator at the service station was ripped to shreds. It was thought that whoever made the bomb that blew up in the rear of the Park Hotel tossed the remaining dynamite and charges into the incinerator at the service station to dispose of them.
Later that month, a man in a light colored small car pulled up in front of a woman’s home near 7th Ave North and 11th Street and left a small package beside the curb before driving away. The woman became curious and went to investigate. Upon opening it, she found five sticks of dynamite and an electric blasting cap. The police were alerted and the hunt was on. They brought in 37 year old Dave Edwin Scott (Alias: Burnham), who after 3 hours of questioning admitted to all the bombings except the one at Daniel’s Garage.
Great Falls Tribune, March 24, 1958
The police booked him for using explosives and being in possession of dynamite in the city limits. He had purchased the dynamite from Montana Hardware Co. He also admitted he had targeted Guon. He was described as super intelligent with an I.Q. of 130, but dangerous to himself and to other people with an emotionally unstable personality. His trial was quick, and in June he was committed to the State Mental Hospital in Warms Springs.
Mike Guon passed in 1973. He had run four different hotels in Great Falls. He had three brothers living in Chicago at the time of his death. It is paper thin evidence that maybe this was a mafia hit failure, but was it really?
Great Falls Tribune, March 9, 1958