Frank L. "Buster" Wortman (December 4, 1904 – August 3, 1968) was an American St. Louis-area bootlegger, gambler, criminal gang leader, and a former member of the Shelton Brothers Gang during Prohibition. Wortman would eventually succeed the Sheltons, and take over St. Louis's gambling operations in southwest Illinois until his death. Early life The son of an East St. Louis fire captain, Wortman spent his early years living in north St. Louis. John Worthmann, his grandfather, worked as a proofreader for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and was killed when struck by a streetcar in 1894. Frank Wortman turned to crime in his late teens and was arrested for burglary. By 1926, he had begun running errands for the bootlegging Shelton Brothers. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Wortman was a prominent member of the gang, acting as an enforcer in southern Illinois. Time in Leavenworth In 1933, a federal agent was beaten during a raid on one of the Sheltons' distilleries, which Wortman had been guarding. He was taken into custody along with his associate, Monroe "Blackie" Armes. The two were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Wortman served his sentence from 1934 to 1941, gaining an early release. Contrary to sensationalized reporting and stories over the years, Wortman served no time in Alcatraz prison. During Wortman's incarceration, the federal prohibition amendment of 1919 was repealed, which again legalized liquor sales in the U.S. in 1933. War with the Sheltons Following his release in 1941, Wortman briefly worked as a steamfitter before organizing an army of gunmen whose ranks included "Black" Charlie Harris, Elmer Sylvester "Dutch" Dowling, and brothers Monroe and Tony Armes. He then launched a campaign to drive the Sheltons from southern Illinois. Establishing Wortman's Plaza Amusement Company, he soon obtained a virtual monopoly on gambling, specifically slot machines, pinball machines, horse parlors, crap games and card games. He also established legitimate businesses, including trucking firms and taverns, run by his younger brother Ted. Ted lived on a horse farm on Illinois Route 157 on the north end of Caseyville, about from the elder Wortman. By the late 1940s, Wortman had assumed control over illegal gambling in southern Illinois and St. Louis. Kingpin of St. Louis Involved in local politics as a young adult, by the 1950s Wortman reportedly had extensive political connections on both sides of the Missouri-Illinois border, including Illinois politician and