Frank Hackethal, Charles "Red" Lanham, Gus Dietmeyer, and Frank "Cotton" Epplesheimer, were convicted of a Staunton, Illinois, mail robbery and sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment. With the convictions of Colbeck and his associates, Egan's Rats fell apart. The gang members who hadn't gone to prison scattered across the country, wreaking havoc wherever they went. One crew of ex-Rats, led by Fred "Killer" Burke, committed numerous robberies, kidnappings, and contract murders throughout the American Midwest. This crew allegedly took part in the infamous 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of seven gangsters in Chicago. Burke was involved in the killings of policemen in 1928 and 1929 and died in prison in 1940. Another ex-Rat, Leo Vincent Brothers, was convicted of killing Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle in 1930. Two other former members, Pete and Thomas "Yonnie" Licavoli, started the “River Gang”, a large Detroit bootlegging gang that would dominate rackets in both Detroit and Toledo, Ohio. A former Rat named Elmer Macklin would murder Detroit mob boss Chester LaMare in February 1931. Another, Raymond "Craneneck" Nugent, was involved in the killing of an Ohio policeman in 1928 and "vanished" in April 1931. By the early 1940s, Colbeck and most of the imprisoned gang members had been set free. They returned to a St. Louis that had changed over the past 20 years. Colbeck and some other gang members tried to muscle their way back into power. Most of them went to work for local mob boss Frank “Buster” Wortman and eventually retired peacefully. However, Colbeck was machine-gunned to death while driving down a St. Louis street on February 17, 1943. See also List of fugitives from justice who disappeared Morris Rudensky Further reading Fried, Albert. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. McCormick, Mike. Terre Haute: Queen City of the Wabash. Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2005. Montesi, Albert and Richard Deposki Historic North St. Louis. Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2003. Reppetto, Thomas A. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004. English, T.J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001. Waugh, Daniel. Egan's Rats: The Untold Story Of The Gang That Ruled Prohibition-era St.