Hobo Joe's Third Act

Driving along the main street in Buckeye, Arizona, you will see a modern post office and city hall nestled among numerous pre-war era commercial buildings. Behind a small restaurant called Cafe 25:35 stands a most unusual sight: a 22 foot tall fiberglass statue of a vagabond named Hobo Joe. The story of who he is and why he is here is far more interesting than I ever could have imagined. This is the story of Hobo Joe, told in three acts.

ACT ONE: The Rise and Fall of Herbert L. Applegate

The story of Hobo Joe begins with Herbert Louis Applegate, born on March 26, 1926 in Louisville, Kentucky. After graduating from Shaw High School in Cleveland, Herb took restaurant - management courses from several universities and during World War II served in the Navy.

Mr. Applegate helped found several pancake houses in Detroit and once owned a restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan. In 1963 at the age of 37, he and his wife May moved to Phoenix, intending to retire from the restaurant business.

The Start of Hobo Joe's

Though he had relocated to Phoenix, it wasn't long before Applegate found himself back in the restaurant business. In 1965, he founded Hobo Joe's Coffee Shops with two business partners, Joseph F. Martori and Robert W. Goldwater, brother of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. Applegate owned 50% of the restaurant with Martori and Goldwater each having 25% ownership.

Herb wanted Hobo Joe's to be a family-friendly coffee shop that served hot meals at affordable prices. The concept was similar to Bob's Big Boy, a Southern California-based chain of coffee shops which expanded to the Phoenix area in the mid-1950s. To that end, Applegate designed a fictional character to be the namesake for the new restaurant. Applegate told the Arizona Republic: "I could see Hobo Joe clearly in my mind, yet I couldn't get him down on paper."

A clipping from the Arizona Republic on Sunday, September 12, 1965 with Herb Applegate talking about the Hobo Joe's Coffee Shops. Source: AZcentral.com

 

Creating Hobo Joe

Applegate asked his friend, Venice, California artist and sculptor James "Jim" Casey to bring the character to life. Casey had once worked for the Walt Disney Company and was a talented artist. He owned a company called Image Makers with a small studio in Venice and a larger studio in Culver City.

The backstory is that "Hobo Joe is a very successful business man who tossed his worries to the wind, became a world traveler, philosopher, and a connoisseur of good food. He loves people, especially children, so he decided to inspire a restaurant that will be a treat for the entire family."

This description of Hobo Joe as a "World Traveler, Philosopher, and Connoisseur of Good Food" was used in the company's marketing, including on postcards, matchbooks, and other items.

Hobo Joe's Menu. Source: unknown.

Though he wears baggy pants with a rope belt and worn-out shoes, Hobo Joe is quite sophisticated. He has a copy of the Wall Street Journal and a glove in his pocket, and a Phi Beta Kappa keychain tied to his belt. His other pocket contains 3 crescent rolls, a banana, harmonica, handkerchief and empty candy wrappers.

Vintage postcards showing the fictional character of Hobo Joe.
Source: eBay

According to Kevin Casey, son of Jim Casey, his father created the original Hobo Joe statues at his studio in 1967 at the Culver City studio, because the Venice studio was too small. The original was sculpted out of clay, and then a set of molds were produced. The fiberglass statues were approximately 5 feet, 7 inches feet tall. One of these statues was placed at each of the Hobo Joe restaurants. 

In 2012, Casey uploaded a photo to RoadsideAmerica.com showing a photo of the artist and his creations outside of the studio in a 1971 photograph. The statues were painted by Kevin's girlfriend Elaine Polley.

Jim Casey and Elaine Polley stand with Hobo Joe statues at Casey's studio in Culver City in 1971.
Photo by: Kevin Casey, from RoadsideAmerica.com

In addition to the smaller statues, there was also a larger, 22-foot tall Hobo Joe statue. Three people close to Herb Applegate all agree that Jim Casey only built one of the giant Hobo Joes. They are: May Applegate (Herb's wife), David Stevens (interior and exterior designer for Hobo Joe's restaurants), and Jim Casey's niece Patricia Opincar (who is writing Casey's biography, and in her research she has found no proof that more than one big statue was built by Casey, who she said kept good records).

According to a 2014 article in the Arizona Republic, the original 22-foot tall Hobo Joe statue was completed by Casey in 1967. It only stood for about two months before it was damaged by a fire. The damaged statue was removed, and no one knows what happened to it from there.

Hobo Joe's Locations

Herb Applegate's concept for Hobo Joe's Coffee Shops proved to be a successful one. The chain had grown to "about eight" locations in Arizona by 1970, according to the website RoadArch.com. The website DeuceofClubs.com says that Hobo Joe's had a special promotion for children where "if you were a kid and you ate everything on your plate, you could pick a toy from a giant pirate treasure chest."

Hobo Joe's Coffe Shop in Phoenix, 1960s.
Source: Arizona Republic

Hobo Joe's had its headquarters and commissary at 1060 W. Alameda Drive, Tempe, AZ 85281 according to an old postcard. I could not find a complete list of locations for Hobo Joe's, but I do have evidence to suggest four of the locations were:

1. Scottsdale Rd and 1st Ave, Old Town Scottsdale

2. 1601 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix

3. Los Arcos Mall, Scottsdale Road and McDowell, Scottsdale

4. Hotel Adams*, 1st St and Adams St, Downtown Phoenix

Hobo Joe's Coffee Shops book of matches showing 2 locations (inside cover): Old Town Scottsdale and Camelback & 16th St. Source: eBay

 

 

Hobo Joe's Coffee Shop at 16th St and Camelback Rd in Phoenix, 1970s.
Photo by: Alice Cole Dryer on the Hobo Joe Facebook page.

*Footnote: The original Hotel Adams was a four-story, 200-room hotel built in 1896 and destroyed by fire in 1910. The New Hotel Adams was rebuilt as a five-story concrete hotel on the same site, opened in 1912 and stood until it was destroyed by implosion in 1973. The 17-story, 538-room Wyndham hotel opened on the site in 1975. Its name later changed to Crowne Plaza Phoenix-Downtown, then in 2003 it became the Wyndham Phoenix. The property was renamed again to Renaissance Phoenix Downtown in 2011, following its acquisition by Marriott.

 

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

By August 1970, Herb Applegate was the picture of success. He drew a salary of $50,000 per year (equivalent to $335,346 in 2020). One newspaper report described him as "Handsome and charming, he drove a new Cadillac and liked to flash a wad of $100 bills that bulged in the pockets of his $500 suits."

Despite the outward appearance, Applegate, now 44, was not the picture-perfect businessman he appeared to be. Though a married man, Applegate maintained affairs with multiple women and was embezzling massive amounts of money from the company to finance his lavish lifestyle.

The company's financial records were a mess, and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) named Tom Wilson later told reporters he had found evidence of criminal fraud in Hobo Joe's books. Herb's business partners Goldwater and Martori were also suspicious, and had gone so far as to hire a private detective to see if he was stealing. The detective, Steve Fortinos, said he had uncovered obvious signs of embezzlement.

Herb Applegate.
Photo by: Arizona Republic.

 

Death and Cover Up in Las Vegas

One of Herb's mistresses was former Playboy bunny Sandy Peterson, 30, who lived with her sister at a "party house" that Applegate owned in Mesa. He was spending as much as $4,000 per week on his mistresses including Miss Peterson and another woman, Diana C. Willis, of Las Vegas. 

Sandra Peterson was the main Applegate mistress, the one who actually lived in the Mesa house. "She had all sorts of friends, lady friends, who were always entertaining over there," said Ernest Byke, a contractor who has worked for Applegate on various construction projects.

Byke also knew Dianna Willis. "She was his Las Vegas mistress; Sandy was his Phoenix mistress," he said. "That guy sure liked his women."

Applegate had given Willis a company car, a 1968 Mercury Cougar, and a gasoline credit card and a telephone credit card. But he kept a set of car keys for himself.

Applegate dated Miss Willis for approximately two years before she ended their affair in October 1968. Following the breakup with Applegate, Dianna began dating Billy Ray Underwood, 28, who worked as a swimming pool attendant at Caesar's Palace.

After the breakup, Herb Applegate hired Bill Kimball, 27, a private eye and Frank Casciola, manager of the Hobo Joe's Coffee Shop at 16th St. and Camelback in Phoenix, to go to Las Vegas to retrieve the car and some of Willis' clothing. Willis was out of town at the time, staying at a hotel in Acapulco which was owned by Applegate's friend, Jack Morton.

Kimball and Casciola forced entry into Willis' boyfriend's Las Vegas apartment on January 12, 1969, at approximately 5:30 A.M, and acting in self-defense, Underwood fired one shot from a .32 caliber revolver, fatally striking Kimball in the face. Casciola fled the scene.

When questioned by detectives, Applegate claimed that he had hired the men on behalf of Jack Morton, the hotel owner in Acapulco, Mexico. Morton denied everything. Though he was questioned by police, Applegate was never charged in the incident. Bill Kimball's brother, Lt. Stan Kimball, an Arizona DPS officer, alleges that Applegate was able to conceal his involvement through a massive cover-up.

A former contractor for Applegate, David Stevens told the press that Applegate used to carry around newspaper clippings of Kimball's death in Las Vegas and that he used to brag about how his name was never publicly connected. "But I'll tell you, Applegate didn't have the juice to keep his name out of the newspapers. That power could only have come through Bob Goldwater or old man Martori."

Herb's Fabulous Mansion

Throughout 1968 and 1969, Hobo Joe's was constructing a commissary building in Tempe which would serve as a storage facility for the chain of coffee shops. It was supposed to cost $200,000 but ended up costing $800,000. The reason for this was that Applegate embezzled money from the project to build himself a mansion on Camelback Mountain. The house had a fabulous backyard with a lighted waterfall among other lavish amenities.

Hobo Joe's employees supplied some of the labor for the mansion during construction. During this time, Applegate wrote checks totaling $51,674.28, drawn on his personal Hobo Joe's account, to pay for materials.

A man named Ernest Byke built Applegate's plush Camelback Mountain home, which was worth about $350,000 (approximately $2.3 million in 2020, adjusted for inflation). Byke was later hired on with Applegate as Hobo Joe's main contractor. He also said he was the man who finished work on the Hobo Joe's commissary.

Former site of Hobo Joe's Commissary in Tempe.
Photo: Google Street View

The Party House

In 1971, Applegate purchased a duplex at 24 East Sixth Ave in Mesa from one of Sandra Peterson's relatives. The home was purchased with more than $25,000 that Applegate had diverted from Hobo Joe's.

Herb hired interior decorator David Stevens to fix up the place, which would become his "party house." Stevens later recounted: "My instructions in remodeling the Mesa place were to make it look like a million dollars for $10,000," he said. "And it was really something, like a vision from a fantasy nightmare, all in hot pink. There was even a secret passageway connecting the two units. It was in case somebody knocked on Sandy's apartment. That way Herb could slip out through the back apartment."

Ed Pileto, an electrical contractor in Mesa who had done some minor work for Applegate during the construction of the Hobo Joe's commissary, recalled being hired by Applegate to install an air conditioner and a small electric fireplace in the "Love Nest."

Hobo Joe's contractor, Ernest Byke of Scottsdale, later recounted to reporters what he knew about the women and the constant partying Applegate and his friends carried on at the Mesa house. "You wouldn't believe the stories I used to hear them all tell," he chuckled. "I guess I missed out. I was too straight." 

Byke told reporters "Well, I knew they had a place there," he said. "The guys talked about it in the office after the parties. It had mirrors on the ceilings of the bedrooms and secret passageways in the closets in case of a raid."

A former acquaintance of Sandra Peterson also told reporters about the Mesa party house. The woman's name was Georgia Yanke, and, for a couple of years in the late sixties, she had worked as a bunny at the Phoenix Playboy Club. That's where she had met Sandy. "I was only out there to the Mesa place once, with a couple of other bunnies. I don't even remember where it was, except it was hard to find. It was a gaudy place. I remember purple furniture and blue carpeting and walls. There was a huge mirror built into the living room wall. And there was a sort of hidden passageway. I remember one of the girls that lived there demonstrated it. She just disappeared into space, it seemed like. I mean the whole wall just opened up."

Herb Applegate's former "Love Nest" in Mesa.
Source: Google Street View, 2018

 

Applegate Exits Hobo Joe's

From 1965 to 1969, Herb had been living the high life of partying, entertaining mistresses, and building his fabulous house, most of which was financed with money he stole from Hobo Joe's Coffee Shops. That all changed in 1970, when he suffered a heart attack at age 44. Following his recovery, Mr. Applegate decided to lighten his business load by selling the Hobo Joe's chain.

In April 1971, Colony Food, Inc., a company unconnected with the former principals, bought the Hobo Joe's assets. Colony Kitchens merged their existing restaurant chain with Hobo Joe's. The 44 co-branded locations operated in seven western states, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

A book of matches advertising Colony Kitchen on the front and Hobo Joe's on the back.
Source: eBay

Herb's New Venture

Despite his questionable financial history, Applegate was able to persuade his former partners to go in with him on a new restaurant venture. Less than a year after they got out of Hobo Joe's, Applegate and Martori formed a new rival restaurant chain, Humpty Dumpty Coffee Shops in 1972. The Goldwater-Martori real estate and investment company, Goldmar Inc, guaranteed a bank loan of nearly $1 million for the new venture.

Hoping that lightning would strike twice, Applegate made sure to include a theme with Humpty Dumpty Coffee Shops. The Mother Goose themed restaurant had a statue outside of an egg wearing a chef's hat sitting on a brick wall.

An Abrupt End

Applegate never got to see his new venture take off like with Hobo Joe's. Herb Applegate died suddenly of heart failure on August 24, 1974. He was 48 years old. According to a 2019 article in the Arizona Republic: "Humpty Dumpty's would last until the late '80s. The Joyride Taco House on Central Avenue used to be a Humpty Dumpty's."

Newspaper Reporter Murdered While Investigating Mafia

Two years after Herb Applegate's death, a reporter named Don Bolles, age 47, was working for the Arizona Republic newspaper. He was investigating a story about corruption and land fraud in Arizona, including top state politicians and possibly the Chicago mafia.

Bolles had arranged to meet an informant at 11:15 a.m. at the Hotel Clarendon on June 2, 1976. At the hotel, Bolles received a call at the front desk that the meeting had been canceled. Bolles walked to the parking lot on Fourth Avenue and opened the door to his 1976 Datsun 710 sedan, started the engine, and drove a few feet when six sticks of dynamite that had been placed in the undercarriage of his car exploded via remote control. Bolles died as a result of his injuries eleven days later.

The murder of Don Bolles drew national attention and investigation. The man with whom Bolles was scheduled to meet, John Harvey Adamson was convicted of planting the bomb in 1977. Adamson spent 20 years and 2 months in Federal prison for the crime, and was released in 1996. He entered the Witness Protection Program and died at an undisclosed location in 2002, at age 58.

Investigators examine the car of Don Bolles, investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic, who died on June 13, 1976, of injuries received in a car bomb attack on June 2, 1976. Photo: Arizona Republic.

Investigating Corruption at Hobo Joe's

In response to Bolles' death, the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) board decided to continue Bolles' work in exposing corruption and organized crime in Arizona. Led by Newsday journalist Robert W. Greene, the Arizona Project team consisted of 38 journalists from 28 newspapers and television stations. They produced a 23-part series in 1977 exposing widespread corruption in the state.

As part of their investigation into corruption, the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) turned their attention to Herb Applegate and the shady financials of Hobo Joe's. The results of their 6-month investigation were published in a March 1977 article which was nationally circulated.

The story ran in the Wilmington Morning Star on March 19, 1977 with the headline "Arizona Probe: Where does the money end up?" It ran in The Hour on March 19, 1977 with the headline "Hobo Jo's' A Pipeline For Mafia Cash." The Boston Globe ran the story on March 18, 1977 as "The powers behind a troubled business."

A 1977 article by Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) exposed the massive financial fraud that took place at Hobo Joe's Coffee Shops between 1965 and 1971.

Hobo Joe's Mafia Ties

What the IRE discovered was that over a 21-month period, more than $1.5 million was diverted from Hobo Joe's by Applegate. Furthermore, they uncovered links between Herb Applegate as an associate of Peter (Horseface) Licavoli Sr., a Mafia underboss who had controlled criminal operations in Detroit and Toledo, Ohio during the Prohibition era. Licavoli had been arrested, tried, or suspected of murder seven times, and released seven times. He moved to Arizona in 1944 where he lived near Tucson on a 72 acre ranch with its own airstrip and art gallery.

Licavoli was a major Cosa Nostra figure who was convicted in a related case involving stolen paintings. He was paid at least $2,500 monthly by Hobo Joe's. To cover the payments, he supplied the firm with some paintings that one source described as "cheap reproductions." According to the New York Times, he was arrested in 1976 and accused of attempting to sell to a Federal undercover agent a 500-year-old painting that had been stolen in Cincinnati. Licavoli and Applegate also worked together on a number of transactions involving suspiciously large purchases of potatoes and shrimp for the restaurants from vendors, with checks flying between them. Licavoli passed away in 1984 at the age of 81.

Conclusion

The amount of trouble in Applegate's world of adultery, corruption, embezzlement, criminal cover-up, and Mafia ties is astonishing in its scope and size. And to think that all of this corruption was being funded by a chain of family-friendly coffee shops!

ACT TWO: Would the Real Hobo Joe Please Stand Up?

Back to the statues for a minute.

In Act One, I said that only one of the large 22 foot tall Hobo Joe statues was created. This is a subject of dispute. Kevin Casey mentioned in his 2012 post on RoadsideAmerica.com that "I believe only two or three of these 27-foot-tall versions were ever erected."

Who was Marvin Ransdell?

Marvin Ransdell (1928-1988) was the owner of a fiberglass pool manufacturing company called Polypools. Allegedly, Randsell was hired to produce fiberglass booths and tables for the Hobo Joe Coffee Shop chain, and was also contracted to build several of the five-foot statues as well as another of the giant Joe statues.

However, Applegate's wife May Applegate and David Stevens, the interior designer of Hobo Joe's restaurants, have both told the Arizona Republic that Ransdell was not the table and booth supplier for the restaurants.

Marvin Ransdell's daughter Brenda emailed the editor of the website DeuceofClubs.com on September 14, 2007. She says that her father built the big statue for Applegate and was never paid for his work, and thus he held onto it.

"Thought you might like to know, or not. My sister and I googled my father's name, Marvin Ransdell, and ran into pictures of Hobo Joe. My dad owned the fiberglass company that cast the boothes and statues for the restaurant. Casey was indeed the artist that worked in his manufacturing plant. He was not an employee. There was another statue the size of the one dedicated to my father but it burned down many years ago. Applegate and gang never paid my father for most of his work. That is why he retained possession of the giant Hobo Joe. It sat behind his manufacturing plant for years. When he died, his life long friend Ray Gillum asked if he could have the statue. Ray put it on his property. That raised quite a bit of trouble with the Buckeye City government but Ray won. Just wanted to set the record straight. Casey was a fine artist but my dad actually cast the statue so Casey and my dad worked together very closely."

Remember that Investigative Reporters article from 1977 that I mentioned earlier? The one that exposed Applegate's $1.5 million theft and mafia ties, and was published three years after Applegate's death? Well, it contains the following note which I found interesting:

"Thousands of dollars were spent for a planned Hobo Joe's in Las Vegas, which was never built. At least three 'opening' parties were held in Las Vegas for the nonexistent branch, and $155,900 was inexplicably transferred from the corporation's general account to the Las Vegas account."
-The Bryan Times, Saturday, March 19, 1977

This evidence supports one possible explanation that this second giant statue was built by Ransdell for a planned Las Vegas location, which never opened. Whether he had the original molds from Jim Casey or produced a replica statue of Hobo Joe on his own is unknown.

Hobo Joe's New Owner
However he came about it, Marvin Ransdell was in possession of a 23-foot tall Hobo Joe statue in his backyard as of 1984. Ransdell was friends with local businessman Ramon Gillum, who owned "Gillum's Meat & Locker Co." slaughterhouse in Buckeye (now West Valley Processing). Some sources say that Ransdell sold the statue to his friend Gillum, others say it was gifted to him in his will when he passed away in 1988.

In 1989, Gillum installed the statue outside of his business, located at the southwest corner of Monroe Ave and S. Apache Road in Buckeye, Arizona. A plaque at the base of the statue read "Hobo Joe: Built by and stands in memory of Marvin Ransdell (1928-1988) by his good friend Ramon Gillum, July 1989." This led many to incorrectly assume that Ransdell was the creator of Hobo Joe, which was not the case, as Hobo Joe was created by Herb Applegate and Jim Casey.

The statue remained there for the next 27 years, slowly deteriorating in the desert sun. Over time, the giant hobo statue had become an offbeat attraction for lovers of kitsch and Americana, though some Buckeye residents considered the statue an eyesore.

The Hobo Joe statue showing considerable wear after 27 years outside of Gillum's meat processing plant in Buckeye, AZ. Photo by: North Phoenix Blog, March 27, 2015.

This plaque at Hobo Joe's former location was a source of controversy about the statue and its creator. Photo by: North Phoenix Blog, March 27, 2015

ACT THREE: Hobo Joe Lives Again

After 27 years, the giant Hobo Joe statue was removed from its location outside of the meat processing plant in 2016. A group of local activists and historic preservation advocates called Buckeye Main Street Coalition began raising funds to restore the Hobo Joe statue.

A GoFundMe campaign raised $1,150 to help with the statue's restoration cost in September 2016. Additional funds were raised by selling Hobo Joe T-shirts and even Christmas tree ornaments!

The two-year restoration saw numerous repairs to the fiberglass structure, sandblasting, and a new coat of paint. Photos of the statue's restoration and installation are documented on the Hobo Joe Facebook page.

Finally in early 2020, the statue was mounted to a new concrete pedestal behind Cafe 25:35. The fully restored Hobo Joe is on display for all to see. The sophisticated vagabond has been a roadside icon in Buckeye for more than 30 years, and I hope that despite his troubled past, Hobo Joe's third act will be his best one yet.

The restored Hobo Joe statue at its new location on the southwest corner of 5th St and Monroe St in Buckeye, AZ. Photo by: North Phoenix Blog.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this article! North Phoenix Blog was founded in 2008 and has grown to more than 200 articles about unique history, interesting and offbeat places, and unexplored stories in the Phoenix area and around Arizona. For more, I invite you to take a look at this list of our Top 10 Most Popular Posts.