I recently did a short written blog piece on Joey Doves. Aaron and I did a two-part episode on Joey Doves on Gangland Wire Crime Stories. In this first segment, we examine Aiuppa's early criminal career. One unusual aspect is something I found in his FBI file.  The FBI believe he had a relationship with the famous bank robber, John Dillinger and other Midwest bank bandits.

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In the second segment, Bill Ouseley tells about Chicago mobster,  Charles "Cherry Nose" Gioe and his connection to Nick Civella and the 1950s KC Mob Boss, Anthony "Tony" Gizzo. Gizzo was made famous during the Estes Kefauver hearings when asked how much money he usually carried and he pulled a stack of hundred dollar bills from his pocket and counted out twenty-five of them. Gioe and other Chicago Outfit members were doing a "bit" in Leavenworth for extorting money from Hollywood film studios. During that time, Chicago Outfit members would travel to KC and Tony Gizzo would meet and transport them to Leavenworth for visits. During Nick Civella's last Chicago visit, he made friends with Gioe. When Civella was allowed to return, Gioe and probably Chicago Mob Boss Tony Accardo, paved the way and Nick was given the job as Tony Gizzo's driver. Apparently, all was forgiven and Nick would soon rise from driver to Under-Boss to Boss of the KC Family.

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In this third and final segment, we learn about Nick Civella, Carl "Tuffy" DeLuna and their relationship with Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa and the Chicago Outfit.
Nick Civella teamed up with the Chicago, Milwaukee and Cleveland Mobs to influence a 62 million dollar Teamster's Pension Fund loan and finance a man named Allen Glick to buy the Stardust, Hacienda, Frontier and Marina hotel/casinos. This is the situation that Martin Scorsese used to create his fictional film, Casino. Tuffy and Nick go to Chicago to work out details and set the details of how they would skim money as a payback for getting Glick the loan. Once Lefty Rosenthal gets the skim started, it goes to Chicago and Chicago sends a percentage back to Milwaukee, Cleveland and Kansas City.
In FBI wiretaps, we hear Tuffy and Nick discussing if Nick should call Lefty Rosenthal directly or should he get permission from Chicago Outfit bosses first.

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In the first of three episodes, Aaron and I invite retired F.B.I. Agent Bill Ouseley to discuss the connection between the Chicago Outfit and the Kansas City crime family. We will discuss the early days of Nick Civella's criminal career and how his trouble with the Kansas City La Cosa Nostra forced him to flee to Chicago on two separate occasions. The second time Nick returns from Chicago, Kansas City mobsters ambush him and a Civella associate is killed. Another Civella associate, Joseph "Buggy" Anch, was killed a few days before this attempt. He returns to Chicago. I studied Bill Ouseley's books, Mobsters In Our Midst and Open City to prepare for this show.
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Shoplifting seems like a crime done by kleptomaniacs, dysfunctional movie stars or teenagers. Well, there is a huge contingent of professional shoplifters working stores somewhere in the world,as you read this blog. In criminal lingo, a shoplifter is known as a "Booster." Mostly, they are drug addicts trying to feed their habit. Most work in pairs or larger teams. I remember seeing a report from Metro North Mall back in the 1990s. The clerk stated 4-6 individuals entered the Macy's store and as they spread out, store security became alerted. The clerk and security officer reported they all were speaking a foreign language and appeared to be Europeans from their dress. One was spotted concealing a armful of cashmere sweaters inside a large purse. As the security person followed the "booster" out into the mall, another one of this group bumped into the officer and pushed him and distracted him while the woman with the sweaters ran out the mall. The security guard ran into the parking lot and obtained a license number off a car leaving at a high rate of speed. A check of this license number revealed an Hispanic name and a Los Angeles name address. We checked with LAPD and learned this name and address was associated with a large group of professional boosters who were all from Argentina, South America.
In Kansas City during the 1970s, 80s and 90s, we had several retail outlets owned by Mob associates. They were supplied by the area's professional boosters. In at least one case, James Harvey Bradley, known as "Junior," paid his boosters stolen narcotic pills for the boosted items. He had a retail outlet at the City Market and sold some items out of his restaurant known as the Pumpernik Deli, 11th and Walnut. This podcast is a broad overview of the Mob and the fencing of stolen goods. I have sent out several Freedom of Information Act requests for individuals arrested for being involved with Junior Bradley as well as record album boosters who sold to Tiger Cardarella.  In 2016, Aaron and I will go into the cases in great detail.
Aaron Gnirk and I would like to thank our listeners for this freshman season of Gangland Wire Crime Stories. This is the last podcast of our first season. I have several others in the hopper. I think you will like to hear the inside scoop on how the mob made money from fencing and narcotics. I am also working on the Bob Berdella serial killer case, the unsolved $400,000.00 theft of art objects from the Truman Library and the plot to kidnap Muriel Kaufman.
 

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In the second episode the listener will hear about how Nick Civella first met Teamster official Roy Lee Williams at a Democratic Committee meeting. This committee was to select who would run for City and County offices. You also will hear about how Nick Civella used his political contacts to get prime seats for the 1980 World Series, only to be exposed and undone by another politician. Also, I play a wiretap in which Nick Civella discusses making political donations through Carl Thomas, his Las Vegas Mole inside the Tropicana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first of a two part series on the Kansas City La Cosa Nostra Mob and their relationship with politicians. In this first episode, guest Terence O’Malley takes the listener back into the 1920s and 1930s up to the famous killing of the Two Charlies in 1950. You will learn about how Italian gangsters grew tired of Tom Pendergast’s domination and kidnapped Pendergast election workers to show their power. Soon, the Italian North End established their own Democratic Club and became equal partners with Pendergast’s organization. This cabal of gangsters and politicians dominated Kansas City and Jackson County governments for the next several years.

This domination was shaken in 1939 when Tom Pendergast was sent to jail for income tax evasion. However, the roots of corruption ran deep into City and County governments.

In 1950, Mobsters Charlie Gargotta and Charlie Binaggio had a strategy to take control over both the Kansas City and St. Louis police departments. Once that control was achieved, mob gambling operations would be safe in both cities. In the late 1930s, both departments had been taken over by the State due to mass corruption within the ranks. Both departments were ruled by separate Boards of Police Commissioners that were appointed by the Governor. By controlling the Governor, Binaggio hoped to get candidates of his choosing appointed to the Police Boards. With the election of their candidate Forest Smith, every part of the plan seemed in place.

Smith made initial appointments to each Police Board, but refused to give a consensus to Charlie Binaggio’s candidates. The Mob was denied a majority on both boards. Unable to control the police forces in Kansas City or St. Louis, the syndicate was forced to fold up their new gambling establishments. Crime bosses in Kansas City and Chicago had given the Two Charlies a lot of money to ensure an “open city” for vice activities. Gargotta and Binaggio were warned fix it, or else. Binaggio desperately tried to bribe one of the Kansas City police commissioners and threatened others, but with no effect. In what became known as the Killing of the Two Charlies, these mobsters were executed inside the First Ward Democratic Club. This killing brought national attention and the famous Kefauver hearings on Organized Crime resulted.

Note the photo of Harry Truman looking over the murder scene inside the Democratic Club. This and other locations mentioned in this podcast can be found on the Kansas City Mob Tour app. Episode 2 will deal with corruption in the 60s to the 1985 World Series.

In this Episode the hits of the 1970s and 1980s are discussed. Learn how David Bonadonna was lured to his last meeting with Willie the Rat Camissano. How Tiger Cardarella and Felix Ferina messed up on hit and later became "on the spot" themselves. We discuss various bombings of mobsters and why one method of execution may be chosen over another.
 

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In the next two episodes Aaron and I discuss Mob hits. We talk about tactics and discuss early hits called "Signboarding" a guy. I use 2 different early hits on Kansas City Missouri police officers. Another famous "hit" discussed is a planned execution interrupted by the accidental appearance of the Jackson County sheriff. Was Sheriff Tom Bash there by happenstance or plan?
Photo is Charles Gargotta being escorted to jail for the murder of Anthon Ferris. Courtesy of the Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri
 
 
Ballad of Tom Bash
We’ve a shire reeve in our shire
We’ve a chieftain in this town.
We’ve a good man, bad for bad men,
We’ve a law that’s not down
Home from the garden party,
Home from the grisly jail
Home to the home that was home indeed,
Drove the sheriff of our tale.
He had chatted with his fellows;
He had seen the bars were locked.
On the foolish ones in durance
For the statues they had mocked.
His car drew south on Forest
With Armour just ahead
When gun shots split he welkin
And a fugitive lay dead.
Out of the dark sprang the Sheriff
With a lawful gun for bane;
Full in the sweep of their lights and lead
He killed the killer’s twain
We’ve a shire reeve in our shire
We’ve a chieftain in our town.
We’ve a good man bad for bad men
We’ve a law that’s not yet down.
Anonymous

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In this podcast, learn how a mob hit gone wrong can be ignored by a Federal judge because of a disagreement with the Strike Force. The U.S. Strike Force was formed to cut though jurisdictional boundaries and eliminate inter agency rivalries. In major American cities with La Cosa Nostra families, the Department of Justice created a separate division titled the Strike Force. Each city had an Assistant U.S. Attorney to lead the Strike Force. Several other attorneys were hired to prosecute Strike Force cases. Each Federal agency like the F.B.I., A.T.F. , D.E.A., Agriculture Dept, I.R.S. and Immigration assigned agents to the strike force. They were to select high value targets like Nick Civella, Cork Civella, Tuffy DeLuna or Jimmy Duardi and later drug kingpins were added to the targets.
Bill Ouseley explains the result of the Oklahoma case and how the Strike Force works.

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