Jim Patsios’ killing by Pete Leventis led to the gun battle described by the Aug. 17, 1938, edition of the Daily Sentinel.

Early in the morning of Aug. 14, 1937, Jeanette Morris’ partially nude body was found in one of these “cabins” in the 100 block of Colorado Avenue, then known as the “Barbary Coast.”

Allegations of “protection money” surface in the investigation of the Aug. 17, 1938, shooting — not surprising considering the gambling rackets and vice crimes that were the hallmark of the ‘Barbary Coast’ area of Grand Junction at the time.

Headlines in the Aug. 19, 1938, Daily Sentinel continued their focus on the “Greek” murder and shootout of a few days earlier.

John “Tommy” Homutoff. Note the finger surgically added to his face, in place of a missing nose.

Main street Grand Junction is shown. The Biltmore Club, where Walter Eames was gunned down, is on the left and directly across the street was the Greek coffee shop.

The Aug. 21, 1938, Daily Sentinel starts to connect the dots of recent crimes to a more widespread problem.

The man accused of shooting another dies, and the Aug. 30, 1938, Sentinel publishes an interesting mug shot of the man, Pete Leventis.

The district attorney and chief of police are compelled to address issues of “graft” as the investigation of rampant crime expanded.

Judge Straud M. Logan (pictured) calls for the special grand jury into the rampant vice and corruption associated with the ‘Barbary Coast’ area of Grand Junction.

The Biltmore was located where the three windows are to the left of the “Golden Pheasant Restaurant” sign in the middle of picture, on the second floor of the Reed Building.

Just days after the grand jury was called to investigate rampant crime, vice and corruption, “Big Kid” Eames was brazenly gunned down in a gambling hall.

A wider view of the Dec. 19, 1938, Sentinel reveals a death photo of Jim Patsios, who was gunned down some months earlier.

The day after the Eames murder, the investigation focuses on one of the “masked men” involved in the murder.

Top photo is where Felix Romero jumped out of the second floor window on to the sidewalk on Main Street. The bottom picture is of the porch at the back of 339 ½ Main St., where George Nezeris jumped from after Leventis fired two shots at him.

A suspect is connected to the Eames murder of just a few days prior.

These ads from a Daily Sentinel circa 1938 show all the dancehalls popular at the time. The Copeco dancehall was operated by murder suspect F. L. Sadler, who was allegedly hired to do the job by the operator of the Mile A-Way Ballroom, also the focus of a union ad on the page.

The implication of public officials becomes the big story on the front page of the Daily Sentinel on Jan. 6, 1939.

Police Chief Hardy Decker, accused of corruption during the ‘Barbary Coast’ grand jury investigation.

The main suspect in the Eames murder is squeezed, according to the Dec. 22, 1938, edition of the Daily Sentinel.