- Kansas City crime family
The Kansas City crime family is a Mafia family based in
Kansas City, Missouri .History of the Kansas City Crime Family
Early history
The earliest history of Italian-American organized crime can be traced back to the DiGiovanni brothers,
Joseph DiGiovanni andPeter DiGiovanni , two Sicilian mafiosi who fledSicily and arrived in Kansas City in 1912. It wasn't long before they began making money from a variety of rackets.Their fortunes improved greatly with the introduction of Prohibition. His gang became the sole bootleggers in Kansas City. Their rackets at this time were controlled by
John Lazia . He would soon become the top man in the now much larger and more powerful organization. The gang was given virtually free hand to operate byTom Pendergast who controlled politics in the area.Post-Prohibition
When Prohibition ended in 1933 the family ,although already involved in various order rackets, began extorting the now legal bars. On
July 10 ,1934 Lazia was assassinated, probably on the orders of hisUnderboss ,Charles Carollo who ruled as Boss until his arrest in 1939 fortax evasion . His UnderbossCharles Binaggio now became the new boss and expanded the family's areas of labor racketeering. He also became involved in politics and planned to challenge the Pendergast machine by having his candidate elected for theMissouri Governorship. He succeeded andForrest Smith was elected. He also thought up a bold plan to control Kansas City's Police Department. The plan failed when Smith refused to go along with this. Now seeing Binaggio as a liability, the Mafia's nationwide Commission decided Binaggio must go. He too was gunned down onApril 6 ,1950 . His successor,Anthony Gizzo , would not last long. He died in 1953.Nicholas Civella
The new boss was now
Nicholas Civella . He expanded the family's rackets greatly and forged alliances with families from other cities making it a very powerful organization. He also used theTeamsters to fundcasinos in Las Vegas. In 1975 Civella was imprisoned on gambling charges for betting on that year'sSuper Bowl . Around this time there was a war in the family over control of theRiver Quay entertainment district in which three buildings were bombed and several gangsters were killed. In 1980 Civella was convicted of bribery. Released in 1983, he died shortly after. His brother became the new boss but was imprisoned a year later.Recent history
William Cammisano became the family's next boss and expanded the family's territory into other cities. He died in 1995.Anthony Civella became the new boss. He died in 2006.The current boss of the family is believed to be John Joseph Sciortino, also known as "Johnny Joe", godson ofAnthony Civella . The current underboss is believed to bePeter Simone . On July 21,2008Carl "Tuffy" DeLuna , former underboss to Nick Civella and brother-in-law to the Anthony Civella, died.Bosses of the Kansas City crime family
*
John Lazia (1931-1934)
*Charles "Charlie the Wop" Carrollo (1934-1939)
*Charles Binaggio (1939-1950)
*Anthony Gizzo (1950-1953)
*Nicholas Civella (1953-1983)
*Carl “Corky” Civella (1983-1984)
*William "Willie the Rat" Cammisano (1984-1995)
*Anthony "Tony Ripe" Civella (1995-2006)
*John "Johnny Joe" Sciortino (2006-present)ources
* [http://www.americanmafia.com/Cities/Kansas_City.html AmericanMafia.com - 26 Mafia cities - Kansas City]
* [http://crimemagazine.com/kcfamily.htm Crime Magazine - The History of the Kansas City Family]
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