In his 30 Illegal Years to the Strip Bill Friedman explains how the early Mob bosses created illegal gambling empires after prohibition. Some of these men went on to help create modern Las Vegas. Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Charles Luciano, John Torrio, Moe Dalitz, Meyer Lansky and Joe Adonis and Frank Costello created the modern criminal Syndicate that ruled organized crime in the United States. He wrote "The seven leaders of the three dominating Prohibition gangs imported the world’s finest liquors on a massive scale. Although they conducted their business in an illegal and dangerous world, these seven espoused traditional business values and rejected the key tools of organized crime – monopoly, violence, and vendetta. This made them the most unlikely gangsters to rise to underworld leadership. But they earned every criminal’s respect, and fate made them the most powerful gangland leaders in American history."
In this 2 part series, Bill focuses on Frank Costello and how he rose to be the Boss of Bosses and retired peacefully to die a natural death. Bill has an interesting theory. He believes that what we know as the modern Las Vegas entertainment and convention mecca would never have been, except for these mobsters. Bill would say the early casino operators were incapable of managing and successfully operating a gambling casino. They soon turned to the men who knew how to run a casino, the Mob.

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In our final episode, Aaron and I talk with Retired KCPD Major David Barton. He was the Captain in charge of the Jamaican Drug Posse Task force in the 1980s. Barton would go on to command the entire Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) . Barton tells how the extreme violence of the Jamaican drug possess and huge increase of crack addiction affected Kansas City neighborhoods. In response, Chief Larry Joiner assigned David Barton to the sleepy little narcotics unit. By the time this Jamaican investigation was done, the KCPD had more than tripled the size of this unit. Major Barton developed an efficient and effective team capable of working an international drug conspiracy.

The Kingpin, Errol “Dog Bite” Wilson was identified and prosecuted.  He relates the problems of working persons from a foreign country. One huge problem was government corruption problems in Jamaica. Barton was able to develop trustworthy sources within the Jamaican Constabulary.

In this episode retired Sergeant David Starbuck tells us how the Kansas City Jamaican Task Force became known as the Black Hole posse in Jamaica and south Florida. Because of the many Jamaican crack houses in KC, the Task Force developed a streamlined procedure to “fast track” arrests after a search warrant. The Intelligence section develops the target house, the undercover makes a purchase, the drug is field tested for content, the Administrative squad is already typing the probable cause for a search warrant, the Tactical Response Team (SWAT) does a drive-by to make an entry plan, the search warrant is served, the dealer(s) are questioned, the U.S. Attorney was working up the charging documents, the arrest is taken before the U.S. Magistrate, a high bond is set and the arrest is taken off to rural Missouri to a jail. Many times, because they were just cannon fodder to the dealers, they were never heard from again until they were in trial preparation with a public defender. To the other gang members, it appeared as if the arrested person went into a black hole and never came out again.

This tactic worked for the lower level dealers, but the Task Force officers had to identify the leaders. Starbuck tells how they had to become familiar with Jamaican politics because these guys were from Kingston neighborhoods and each neighborhood was affiliated with one of two political parties, either the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP). When questioning the gang members, the officers must know the culture to get any conversation going. They learn that much of the drug money was being used to purchase firearms in the U.S. to take back for use in political disputes.

One evening Starbuck was following a higher level dealer and they ended up at the KC airport. He called his boss, Captain David Barton to ask for guidance. Capt. Barton instructed him to buy a ticket on the same plane if possible and go to Florida. Capt. Barton calls his law enforcement contacts in Florida and Starbuck is met by a Florida Drug Task Force surveillance crew. He points out the individual and they follow him to a house. Starbuck, with only the clothes on his back and his handgun, stays in Florida for a couple of weeks.

Kansas City once was once the home of a powerful Mafia family before it became the stronghold of a Jamaican Drug Posse. The Strawman prosecutions for skimming from Las Vegas casinos sent all the bosses to jail and weakened the structure. Mobsters like Willie the Rat Cammisano and Cork Civella were known to be vicious brutal killers, but they were pikers when compared to the new Kansas City crime family. Like the Sicilians of old, these new gangsters spoke English with an accent, did not attempt to fit in with the existing gangsters, killed any competition and included the neighborhood people in their crimes. They, like the prohibition era crime syndicates, took advantage of a ban on an addictive substance. Instead of alcohol, they sold narcotics. Like the bootleggers, they found new creative methods of importing, packaging and marketing this substance. Like the bootleg alcohol business, the money they made helped launch a whole new underground economy in the poor neighborhoods of Kansas City.  They introduced crack cocaine to Kansas City. Although law enforcement officers invoke the memory of Al Capone to describe the viciousness and vaunting ambition of the new gangsters, by the 1980s Kansas City’s most fearsome crime family spoke with a Jamaican accent.

 

Special guest, retired KCPD Sergeant David Starbuck was once assigned to the Jamaican Drug Task Force. David tells this story from an insider’s view. The listener learns how the new drug dealers were discovered by local narcotics addicts. Undercover narcotics detective Starbuck found the Jamaicans were paying local folks to use their house as a sales point. They marketed the address of the new crack house by making small leaflets with the address and distributing them at party houses and bars. The drug house was staffed by Jamaicans fresh in from the island. If the house was taken down by the police, they had many more in operation and a constant supply of new illegal immigrant workers streaming in from one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, Jamaica. They were constantly opening new houses with new people. This is the first of 3 episodes telling the story of how Jamaican drug kingpins moved cocaine from Columbia though Jamaica into south Florida and north to Kansas City.

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In Part 3, Paul Scharff tells about his struggle to help clean up the McHenry County Sheriff's office and elect a new sheriff. Paul runs into reluctance on the part of the sitting sheriff and he embarks on his own investigation into why the McHenry county authorities do not want to verify Frank Culotta's claim that Larry "Lurch" Neumann killed his father, Ron Scharff. He learns the sitting sheriff was even called out to Nevada to testify in the Bertha's Gift's burglary trial. He was going to be used to discredit the main government witness, Frank Culotta who was testifying against Tony Spilotro, Larry Neumann and his other Hole in the Wall Gang members.

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In Part 2, our special guest, Paul Scharff tells about his first contact with the McHenry County Sheriff's Investigator. Paul learns they have never looked at Larry "Lurch" Neumann. When Paul first contacts the Sheriff's investigator, they try to discourage him by intimating he may learn information about his father that he does not want to hear. They had put this off as a killing by a jealous lover of the bar maid killed at the same time. He talks to Frank Culotta and finds out that Neumann is a real psychopath that killed for money as well as fun. Culotta tells him the story of how Neumann got a phone call from his ex-wife and was very angry when he hung up. Cuoltta asked him about the call and Nuemann said this bar owner in Chicago had thrown his wife out of the bar. Neumann said he had to go back and kill the guy because this was disrespectful to him.  Culotta and Neumann were part of a burglary gang headed up by Chicago Outfit member, Tony Spilotro. Culotta knew the boss, Spilotro, would not approve of a revenge killing. This is the kind of unnecessary murder that can bring heat on the Outfit. Culotta sends a guy back to Chicago with Neumann on his next trip home in an attempt to prevent this killing. For unknown reasons, Neumann was still able to kill Ron Scharff and get back to Las Vegas.
Frank Culotta, Larry Neumann and other members of Spilotro's Hole in the Wall Gang were set up by the Las Vegas F.B.I. and the Las Vegas Metro Intelligence Unit on July 4, 1981. Spilotro's gang was dubbed the Hole in the Wall Gang because they cut usually cut a hole in the wall or roof of jewelry store to steal diamond and gold jewelry. They used this entry method to escape the usual window and door burglary alarms. Only one month, almost to the day, after Neumann killed Ron Scharff, F.B.I., Agents Emment Michaels and Dennis Arnoldy along with Metro Police Intelligence Commander Kent Clifford and his squad waited for the Hole in the Wall gang. On July 4, 1981, the officers watched as the gang cut a hole in the roof of Bertha's Gifts at 896 East Sahara, Las Vegas. Once the gang was inside, they surrounded the building and arrested everyone. This was the end of this gang.
The gang members posted bail and Spilotro ordered him to kill Frank Culotta and another gang member. Culotta learned of this plot and entered the Witness Protection program. His testimony would help put Neumann in prison for life on another unrelated killing. Culotta would testify against Spilotro in both Las Vegas and Chicago. He was not convicted on either case, but the Chicago judge hearing that case would be convicted of bribery charges a few years later.
 
 
 

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In 1981, 10 year old Paul Scharff was awakened and told the news that his father, Ron Scharff, was killed by unknown persons at his McHenry County neighborhood tavern. Twenty-eight years later, Paul receives a call telling him who killed his father. In this story, we learn that sometimes the bad guys are the good guys and the good guys are the bad guys. This is the fascinating true story of a mob killer working with the son of a murder victim to uncover the truth behind his father's death.
Paul Scharff received a phone call from a family friend in 2008. The friend, Jim Hager, related that his daughter, Holly Hager — Paul’s one-time babysitter — had read a book that she believed included a segment on Ron Scharff’s killing. Although the names of the victims and the specific location of the crimes weren’t included, she felt everything else matched. Jim agreed and reached out to Paul.
Paul immediately buys a copy of Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster, and Government Witness by Mob killer turned government witness, Frank Culotta. At this time, Culotta was in the Witness Protection program, hiding from his former Chicago Outfit bosses. The Culotta story was actually written by well known true crime author, Dennis Griffin. Paul soon found Mr. Griffin and told him of his connection. By this time, Paul knew this book had been published in 2007 and he had heard nothing from the McHenry County Sheriff. To contact Culotta, Dennis Griffin connects Paul with Culotta's former handler, retired F.B.I. agent, Dennis Arnoldy. After being vetted by the former agent, he is put in direct touch with Culotta.  
In this episode, Paul tells us how he learned about his father's death and the friendship he developed with Frank Culotta, a former associate of his father's killer, Larry Newman.  He learns Newman's mob boss was Tony Spilotro ("The Ant"), a dangerous and feared Chicago Outfit member. Frank Culotta will say that even The Ant was afraid of Newman, also known as Lurch, because he looked like the Adam's Family TV show character. Culotta tells Paul that Lurch killed Ron Sharff because he learned that Ron had thrown Lurch's ex-wife out of his bar. Paul becomes suspicious of the McHenry County Sheriff's office because they are not following up on this information. Paul learns that if any law enforcement agency collaborates Culotta's information, this makes him a more creditable witness in other mob trials. This is the first of three exciting and interesting episodes.             

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Subscribe to Gangland Wire wherever you get your podcasts, and join us each week as we uncover the stories buried beneath the headlines—and the bodies.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your favorite podcast app.

Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer use @ganglandwire
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Remember the Warren Zevon song, Lawyers Guns and Money? That song may have well been written about this segment of Craig Glazer’s life. In this third and final episode, the hilarious, profane, thoughtful and always provocative Craig Glazer continues this exciting true story of the King of Sting. In this episode Craig tells the story of how he was induced to switch from ripping off cocaine dealers using the cop ruse to pretending to be a guy with Kansas City mob connections. Glazer got greedy and wanted to move up the chain from mid-level cocaine dealers to Colombian drug cartel members. To do this he followed the Godfather’s advice. He used a briefcase instead of a gun.

Listen as Craig recounts the story of how he was on his way up in the corporate ladder at the Roger Corman film studio. Then, he was presented an offer that seemed to good to be true. He commenced on his final and most ambitious sting. To accomplish a theft from the most dangerous people in the cocaine business, Colombians, the King of Sting took on the persona of a guy with La Cosa Nostra Mob connections. He was even able to facilitate an introduction to a real Kansas City Mob associate. With the KC Mob in all the newspaper for their skimming activities in Las Vegas, Glazer used a page from the movie business. He set a scene in the lobby of a Las Vegas casino. As his actors walked onto the set, they played the part of a Civella family member and two real casino employees greet the actor as Mr. Civella.

This sting came to a sudden and dramatic end, and, like the David Mamet movie, House of Games, nobody was who they seemed to be. As Warren Zevon wrote, “the shit has hit the fan!”

As an added bonus, retired F.B.I. agent Michael Tabman makes a short appearance and tells some stories about arresting the Kind of Sting and other F.B.I. stories. Former agent Tabman has written several excellent crime novels himself. Take a look at Bad Intent or Midnight Sin.

In this second episode, the hilarious, profane, thoughtful, and provocative Craig Glazer continues this exciting true story of using police identification and tactics to rip off marijuana and cocaine dealers. His career takes a turn and he becomes a real narcotics agent for the state of Kansas. Vern Miller, Kansas Attorney General, was using narcotics enforcement as a political tool to get headlines. Like J. Edgar Hoover, Miller was prone to dramatic gestures; he once hide in an auto trunk and jumped out to make an arrest personally. Miller recruited Glazer as his new undercover drug agent to make big cases. Glazer was not suddenly rehabilitated by his real police authority. He used Miller to get his old sting partner, Don Woodbeck released from prison and they continued to make drug stings and sting the A.G. Craig did teach area undercover narcs how to really look and act like drug buyers. This came to an end when they had a bust go wrong. They narrowly avoided arrest.

Craig tells how he takes his story to Hollywood and creates a life for himself in the film capitol of the world.

In the early 1970s, Craig Glazer was a first year college student at the University of Arizona. Craig was a naive graduate of a Kansas City suburban high school, Shawnee Mission East. Like most of his peers, girls, alcohol and marijuana were his major. Like most of his male peers, he was enthralled by childhood books and television shows about anti-heroes like Johnny Yuma, Jesse James, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde and others. This is our second live performance of Gangland Wire. We interviewed Craig Glazer, The King of Sting, at Stanford’s Comedy Club. This is part 1 of a 3 part series.

In his origination story, Craig relates a fascinating series of events and opportunistic meetings. He invests in a pot deal that goes horribly wrong. Craig’s dramatic colorful storytelling style describes the mean streets and mean people of the Arizona/Mexico drug trade. He goes from victim to the premier rip-off artist of the day. Craig’s source of inspiration was the film, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. He realizes the power a cop has to control people. In his first drug sting in Boston, Craig and his partners use police badges to pull off a $50,000.00 score. He creatively records police radio calls from a popular TV show, Adam 12 and plays them in the hallway as they leave the drug dealer’s apartment. As they exit the building, he hears the recording go to commercial. And that is just the beginning.