The pursuit of Frank Colacurcio Sr.

1917: Born June 18 in Seattle, the first of nine children of immigrant parents.

1943: Convicted at age 25 of carnal knowledge with a teenage girl; served 16 months in prison.

Building a business — and a rap sheet

1950s: Entered the jukebox, cigarette and vending-machine business, prompting allegations from rivals that he used threats to control the trade.

1957: Labeled a racketeer before a U.S. Senate committee investigating organized crime.

1965: Introduced go-go dancing to Seattle, at the Firelite Room downtown.

1969: Convicted of assaulting a former bartender working as a police informant.

1971: Found guilty of federal racketeering and conspiracy charges stemming from illegal bingo activities; served 25 months in prison. Prosecutors exposed his role in a payoff and extortion system in which police were paid to tolerate illegal gambling.

1974: Convicted of income-tax evasion; overturned on appeal.

The law-enforcement crackdown

1981: Convicted of tax fraud stemming from his strip-club operations in King County; served 2 ½ years in prison.

1984: Subject of a two-day law-enforcement conference in Las Vegas organized by the FBI and attended by investigators from 12 Western states.

1987: Targeted by Arizona authorities, which led to indictments of his relatives for alleged profit-skimming at topless taverns, bribery and money laundering.

1991: Pleaded guilty to tax fraud at his Alaska strip clubs; sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison. His son, Frank Colacurcio Jr., also pleaded guilty.

1995: Sent to federal prison for two years after violating probation by fondling a woman applying for a job at one of his clubs.

Pending cases

2005: Charged, along with Frank Jr. and two others, with illegally funneling campaign contributions to Seattle City Council candidates; case dismissed on a technicality but reinstated by the state Supreme Court.

2007: Sentenced to six months of probation for groping a waitress at Rick's strip club.

2008: Pleads guilty along with Colacurcio Jr. in the campaign-contribution case, agreeing to pay $75,000 in criminal and civil penalties.

June 2, 2008: Targeted by federal agents and local police, who serve search warrants on four strip clubs in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties as part of a sweeping racketeering, prostitution and money-laundering investigation. His house and Colacurcio Jr.'s business office also are searched.

Tuesday: Unsealed indictment outlines charges against Colacurcio Sr., his son and four other associates for conspiracy to commit racketeering, conspiracy to use interstate facilities in aid of racketeering, conspiracy to engage in money laundering and mail fraud.

Sources: Seattle Times archives; The Oregonian; Seattle City Attorney; U.S. Senate transcript