Why did the Rat Pack open Giancana’s Villa Venice?

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Gary tells about Giancana’s Villa Venice.  In the Chicago suburb of Northbrook, Sam Giancana opened a fancy supper club called the Villa Venice. This club opened to great reviews at Christmas time, 1962. The club sold out for a week because Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Frank Sinatra put on a floor show. The Villa Venice was a beautiful place with an illegal gambling casino nearby. Outfit mobsters took gamblers back and forth to the Villa Venice. During the show, Dean Martin made jokes about playing the joint for free. Later when Sammy Davis Jr. was interviewed by FBI agents, he stated, “Baby, let me say this,” explained Davis, who lost his left eye years earlier in a car accident. “I got one eye, and that one eye sees a lot of things that my brain tells me I shouldn’t talk about. Because my brain says that, if I do, my one eye might not be seeing anything after a while.”

The club was open until it burned to the ground in 1967.

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To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. 

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The Two Tonys

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If you ever saw the film, L.A. Confidential, then you know a little bit about this story. In James Ellroy’s fictional book and film, LA Confidential, two men, known as the “Two Tonys”, Tony Brancato and Anthony Trombino are shot to death in a 1951 Oldsmobile coupé parked off Sunset Boulevard. This mob hit was used as a depiction of the reporting style of the Hush Hush reporter played by Danny DeVito. James Ellroy’s also kills off Tony Brancato and Anthony Trombino in his fictional book, White Jazz. Author James Ellroy has a special connection and insight into the LAPD and murder investigations because of the unsolved rape and murder of his mother. That crime has never been solved but Ellroy gained a fascination with the LAPD and crime from that horrible experience.

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Anthony Brancato and Anthony Joseph Trombino were couple of shake-down artists that began their criminal careers in Kansas City.  In the late 1940s, a Mickey Cohn associate named Norfia Brancato asked  Cohen for permission to bring his younger brother Tony Brancato in from Kansas City. Shortly after, Tony Brancato arrived in L.A. and became part of Cohen’s crew. He soon enticed his old fall partner Tony Trombino to come out and join him. These two guys became known as the Two Tonys and they did not take long to wear out Cohn’s welcome. They began to muscle in on protected games and other rackets without the sanction of their boss, Mickey Cohn

In “Mickey Cohen: My Own Words,” Cohen describes Brancato’s situation:  “Then he started stepping out on his own. He was on the heavy and on the heist, but he was heisting people that were contrary to the rules of the people that he was supposed to have respected – not only me but others. They were wild-haired young bloods that thought they were just going to run roughshod over everybody. Well, I couldn’t pay them much attention then. But because of my troubles, they thought they didn’t have to show any respect for nobody.”

In 1951, Cohen was sent to prison for income tax evasion. The two Tonys were cutting a wide and violent swath in the criminal underworld with crimes that included aggravated assault, armed robbery, burglary, narcotics violations, rape, and they were suspected of several murders.

By 1951, the two Tonys had recruited their own robbery crew. In June they, along with three others robbed the Flamingo Hotel’s cash room of $3,500. Hy Goldbaum, who ran the commission book in Las Vegas,  recognized The Two Tonys.  He had been robbed by them previously when he ran a bookmaking operation in Beverly Hills. The local police were notified and the pair were arrested. After they arranged for bail, they skipped and went into hiding in Los Angeles.

In July of 1951, the two Tonys were given the job of collecting a $3,000.00 gambling debt from a bookie named Sam Lazes. They pocketed the cash knowing they were supposed to pass it along to a mobbed-up bookmaker. Not satisfied with that, the two Tonys went back to Lazes for more money. A complaint was made to the L.A. mob boss Jack Dragna. He is reported to have called in a made guy known as The Weasel who was Aladena “Jimmy the Weasel” Fratianno. Dragna told the Fratianno to take care of this problem. We know this to be true because in 1980, Fratianno would go into witness protection and as part of his agreement, he revealed the details of all the crimes he had committed.

Fratianno will tell F.B.I. agents that he instructed Sam Lazes to contact Brancato and Trombino and set up a meeting at the home of a neutral party, who happened to be an associate of Fratianno. When the Two Tonys arrived, Fratianno demanded they tell him why they were shaking Lazes down. They asserted that they needed the money for lawyers because of their arrest in the Flamingo hold up. Fratianno said to lay off Lazes and offered them a chance to rob an unprotected high-stakes poker game.  Fratianno whetted their appetite claiming the take might be as much as $40,000. The two men were quickly agreed. Their lack of intuition is overwhelming. If I had been robbing mob-protected people and a “made” man offered me a deal that sounds too good to be true, I would smell a setup.

The two Tonys were more greedy than smart. On August 6, 1951, Fratianno recruited Charley “Bats” Battaglia, Leo “Lips” Moceri, and Angelo Polizzi to be the driver. he laid out the plan, they were to meet up with the two Tonys at a designated place on the street. Prior to that meeting, they were to all meet at Nick Licata’s Five O’clock Club. They planned a party at the club to provide Frantianno and his assassination team with an alibi. They used two cars to go meet Brancato and Trombino near Hollywood Boulevard. Fratianno, Charley “Bats” Battaglia, and Angelo Polizzi, the driver was in the first car. Leo “Lips” Moceri (future underboss of the Cleveland Family), drove the second car. The second car was used as the “crash car.” If the police stumbled onto the crime and any chases were to happen, the crash or “protection” car would stop the police cars.

Fratianno claims that when they arrived at the designated meeting place, “Bats” Battaglia was nervous. It seems this was his first “hit.”  Fratianno alleges he noticed the nervousness and tried to calm him down. He asked about the gun, “Is the safety off? Just don’t shoot yourself in the balls.” Soon, the two Tonys pulled up and parked on the street in their car. Frantianno gave the word and they exited the hit car. The nervous Battaglia fumbled with the door handle and Fratianno reached over and opened it. Battaglia and Fratianno entered the rear seat of the Two Tony’s car. Trombino was behind the wheel and Brancato was in the passenger seat in front of Fratianno. Fratianno immediately pulled a handgun and shot Brancato in the back of his head. He turned toward Trombino and emptied his gun. Battaglia sat still and was unable to draw his weapon. Fratianno screamed at him and he finally pulled the gun and fired once. In seconds, the firing stopped and both men exited the “Two Tony’s” car, ran to their hit car, and left the scene with the crash car following.

The LAPD knew this reeked of a mob hit and they paid a visit to Fratianno. He and his brother, Warren, who was living with him, were booked on suspicion of murder. After Fratianno offered the owner of the 5 O’clock Club, Nick Licata, as his alibi, the cops arrested him. Shortly after this murder, the LAPD homicide team correctly identified all the participants. As with most mob murders, the investigation collapsed after one of Licata’s waitresses testified that Fratianno was at the club all night.

The murder of the two Tonys allowed Fratianno to establish his reputation as a ruthless enforcer and some claim he “earned his bones” and was “straightened out” because of this hit. The case would remain unsolved until 1978 when Fratianno was chased into the Federal Witness Protection program.

Thanks to Allen May and True Crime Magazine for help with this story.

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Gangland Wire

Martin J. McNally – Prison Escape

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Convicted skyjacker Martin J. McNally, told me the story of his attempted prison break. He said that a young woman named Robin Oswald attempted to hijack a plane and force the release of McNally and Gordon Trapnell. Mac had nothing to do with this attempt, except he was invited to go along by Trapnell.

In 1978, Robin Oswald, a 17-year-old high school dropout from suburban St. Louis, commandeered a flight en route to Kansas City from Louisville, KY. She sat in one of the back rows and communicated through notes handed to flight attendants. Oswald told the flight attendant that she had dynamite taped underneath her bulky sweater. Witnesses said wires ran from a row of sticks to a triggering device, which resembled a doorbell. Trapnell, who was serving a life sentence for skyjacking himself at the federal penitentiary in Marion, Ill. was in an Illinois courtroom facing charges of a previously attempted escape when Ms. Oswald was in the air threatening to blow up the plane.

Oswald delivered her hijack note when the plane was only eight miles from touching down in Kansas City. Oswald, ordered the seats near her cleared, stayed in the back. Without an explanation from the attendants, the passengers were crowded into the front rows and aisle. They learned they had been hijacked when Oswald insisted the pilots pipe their radio transmissions through the passenger cabin so she could hear the conversations. Unknown to her, the pilots still talked discreetly with TWA officials on a second radio.

“I figured she was going to suffocate everybody,” said Barnett Helzberg, who was returning to Kansas City from Cincinnati and sat not too far from Oswald. Mr. Helzberg, a Kansas City jewelry store owner, and the other passengers would soon escape leaving Ms. Oswald alone with the flight crew. Once she lost her hostages, an FBI agent talked her into giving up.

 

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Ken Eto and the Chicago Outfit

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Ken Eto or Tokyo Joe was an unusual dude in the world of the Sicilian Chicago Outfit. The only Japanese American to be in any position of trust with the Chicago Outfit or any other family. He was Japanese-American born in 1919. In 1942 the feds placed his entire family in a Japanese Internment Camp. At the end of the war Tokyo Joe worked at different jobs and in 1949, he appears in Chicago.

Chicago authorities first notice him during an investigation into the Numbers racket. At this time, nobody runs this kind of operation without the Outfit’s approval. Toyko Joe helped the Outfit take over African-American and Puerto Rican Numbers operations. It was thought he even helped set up hits on his competition.

By the 1980s, the Tokyo Joe is doing as much as $200,000.00 a week in total business. Of the most interest to the F.B.I. is the fact he is making payments to corrupt Chicago cops.

The Bureau soon learns that Tokyo Joe’s boss in the Outfit is Vincent Solano. Solano was a capo or captain over the Rush Street Crew and covered most of Northern Chicago and the adjoining suburbs. Solano was also the elected union president of Local 1 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America.
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F.B.I. agents focus on Tokyo Joe and his operation and soon he is indicted for running a gambling racket. Tokyo Joe was convicted of running the numbers gambling racket. His capo, Vincent Solano invited him to a meeting and asked for assurances that he would keep his mouth shut and do his time. Tokyo Joe claimed he asserted to his boss Solano that he would not talk and do his time.

Tokyo Joe was invited to a dinner on February 10, 1983, a few weeks before his sentencing. He was nervous and actually thought he might be killed because he dressed in his best suit before leaving. The same thing happened with the Spilotro brothers, Tony left his jewelry and billfold at home before he went to his last meeting.

Toyko Joe was sitting in his car when two men approached and entered the car. They fired several times, shooting into his torso and head and leaving him for dead. He crawled out of the car and into a nearby Pharmacy. He was able to call 911. The call-taker told him to drive himself to a hospital. Eventually, the call taker was convinced and an ambulance was dispatched. Toyko Joe would survive this hit because the hit team, trying to be too careful, had loaded their own bullets. When they loaded the shells with black powder, they failed to load enough and the lead bullets failed to do enough body damage to kill Joe.

The FBI would quickly visit Joe and offer him a deal. He agreed and agents moved him to another hospital under another name. They started the paperwork to place Eto into the witness protection program. He would name Jasper Campise and John Gattuso as the unsuccessful hitmen. The FBI immediately contacted both these Outfit mobsters and offered a deal in exchange for implicating Solano and other higher-ups.

As was well known with the Chicago Outfit, they were now at risk. A few months later, on July 14, 1983, they were both found dead in the trunk of a car in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois. Both had been strangled.

Ken Eto or Toyko Joe would testify against many other Chicago Outfit mobsters. Eto’s testimony convicted 15 of them and they were sent to prison for various activities related to the numbers operation. This number included several corrupt Chicago cops.

Vincent Solano would live out his life and die at the age of 72 in 1992.

After he went into Witness Protection the FBI took Toyko Joe around to different mob trials that involved the Chicago Outfit as an expert on that family. He would eventually die at age 84 in 2004, under the name Joe Tanaka. He had been relocated to a small town called Norcross close to Atlanta Georgia.

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Gangland Wire

Dean O’Banion and the Outfit

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Dean O’Banion was born on July 8th, 1892 in Maroa Illinois. His father, Charles O’Banion was an Irish Immigrant. Charles was a house painter and took his family to Chicago and lived in a neighborhood known as Kilbubbin. Like Hell’s Kitchen in New York, it was called Little Hell because of its poverty and crime. Dean attended the Holy Name Parochial School and served as an altar boy at the Catholic Holy Name Cathedral.

Dean O’Banion joined the Little Hell Gang. They sold newspapers and stole from stores and often mugged other residents. It was in this gang he met future fellow Chicago mob associates, Earl ‘Hymie’ Weiss, Vincent ‘the Schemer’ Drucci, and George “Bugsy” Moran.

Dean O’Banion was always known as a wild child taking chances like riding on the back bumper of the streetcars. Young Dean O’Banion was thrown to the ground by a sudden stop and the car ran over his leg. He survived but would walk with a limp because his left leg was an inch shorter than the other leg.

In his first encounter with the criminal justice system, a night watchman caught O’Banion stealing postage stamps from a drug store. The judge sentenced him to a 3-month term in a youth house of correction. This was the beginning of a life of crime, but he only served one more short term for assault and possession of deadly weapons. This was the last prison sentence he ever received.

When Prohibition began in 1920, O’Banion got in on the action and started his own bootlegging operation. He smuggled beer, whiskey, and gin from Canada for distribution in Chicago.

 

As a cover for bootlegging and other criminal activities, he bought Schofields Flower Shop at 738 North State Street. Dean found he liked flower arranging and actually worked in the shop. He had married a beautiful young girl, Viola Kaniff, and brought home many bouquets.

O’Banion acted out his street gang roots when he conducted the first known hijacking of another bootlegger’s shipment of whiskey in 1921. He spotted the truckload of booze and jumped on the running board and took the driver hostage at gunpoint. He pushed the driver out and drove the truck to Morton’s garage. From there, he called other speakeasies and sold all the whiskey in 20 minutes.

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Dean O’Banion’s reputation as an aggressive and feared gang leader grew, he became known as the leader of the O’Banion mob, also known as the North Side Gang. He attracted more gunmen as they realized he now ruled the North Side and the Gold Coast, the wealthy area of Chicago situated on the northern lakefront. Tough men like Louis ‘Three Gun’ Alterie, Samuel “Nails” Morton, and Dan “Handsome” McCarthy joined the North Side Gang.

He soon came into conflict with the Italian mob and their boss Johnny Torrio. The new Chicago Crime Syndicate wanted to control all other gangs in Chicago. Torrio and his lieutenant Al Capone met with O’Banion and Weiss to discuss recent hijackings of whiskey shipments. Torrio asked O’Banion to join the crime syndicate, which meant that O’Banion and the other syndicate members would have to respect each other’s territories and properties.

The usual method of operation for the Italian Syndicate was for all members to pay Torrio a portion of the profits for political protection and protection from other criminals. Johnny Torrio wanted to keep the Irish gangster inside their group and he even offered to make an exception in the case of the North Side gang and not require any tribute.  O’Banion agreed to join and to consolidate their new partnership, the two sides exchanged shares in each other’s businesses. Torrio got shares in some of O’Banion’s breweries and in return, O’Banion was bought into ownership of some of Torrio’s distilleries and gambling dens.

Meanwhile, the Genna Brothers, who controlled Little Italy west of Chicago’s downtown region, began marketing their whiskey in the O’Banion’s territory on the North Side. The Gennas were six Sicilian-born brothers, Mike, Angelo, Peter, Tony, Sam, and James and they controlled Little Italy west of Chicago’s downtown region, began marketing their whiskey in the North Side, this was O’Banion’s territory. O’Banion complained about the Gennas to Torrio, but Torrio did nothing until a short time later when he would exact his revenge.

It was not long before Torrio caught O’Banion cheating him out of a large sum of money, as much as ½ million dollars.  O’Banion learned that the police were planning to raid The Sieben Brewery, a place O’Banion and Torrio owned jointly. Before the raid, O’Banion approached Torrio and told him he wanted to sell his share in the brewery. He claimed he wanted to leave the bootlegging racket. Torrio agreed to buy O’Banion’s share and gave him half a million dollars.

Shortly after the night of O’Banion’s last shipment, the police raided the brewery. They arrested Torrio who had to bail out himself along with six other associates. They all faced jail time while O’Banion was in the clear. Torrio demanded O’banion return the money and he refused. Torrio eventually realized he had been double-crossed. He had lost the brewery, $500,000 in cash, been indicted, and been humiliated. The Gennas had wanted to kill O’banion for some time and Torrio had previously refused permission. After the brewery scam, Torrio finally agreed and granted permission to the Gennas’ earlier demand to kill O’Banion.

On November, 3rd 1924 O’Banion sat in with Al Capone and other bosses like Frank Nitti, Frank Rio, and others counting the week’s profits. Nitti claimed that Angelo Genna was short and owed a large amount of cash, plus a sizeable marker. Capone recommended that they cancel the marker as a professional courtesy. O’Banion refused to agree and called Genna demanding that he pay his debt within a week.

The Gennas sent a killer named Frankie Yale, and other gangsters visited Schofield’s, O’Banion’s flower shop, to discuss floral arrangements. However, the real purpose of these visits was to memorize the store layout for the hit on O’Banion. On November 9th of 1924, O’Bannion got a telephone order for a custom wreath to be picked up the following morning.

On the morning of November 10, 1924, O’Banion was arranging chrysanthemums in the back room. His bodyguard, Louis Alterie, had claimed he was sick with a hangover and did not come to the flower shop that morning.  Frankie Yale entered the shop with John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. “Hello, boys” greeted O’Banion, “You from Mike Merlo’s?” and stuck out his hand in greeting. Shots ran out and O’Banion fell to the ground, mortally wounded.
Don’t forget to listen to Aaron on the Big Dumb Fun Show, live on Monday nights.

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Gangland Wire

The Murder of John Lazia

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John “Brother John” Lazia (spelled Lazio on the tombstone) was born in New York in 1895. He dropped out of high school in the eighth grade. By 1915, Lazia had moved to Kansas City. Lazia’s first known arrest was in 1916, after robbing a man on the street. In an exchange of gunfire, Lazia was arrested. He was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Nine months later the Missouri lieutenant governor paroled Lazia on the condition that he join the Army. Lazia obviously had made political connections by the age of 20 because instead of joining the Army, KC political boss, Tom Pendergast gave him a job in his organization.

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In the next few years, Lazia had graduated from street crime to organizing voters for the Pendergast machine and supplying bars with bootleg whiskey. By the late 1920s, Lazia had become the supreme gang boss in Kansas City. In 1928, Lazia was appointed head of the Northside Democratic Club. Lazia owned a soft drink company, several upscale gambling resorts in the city, a profitable loanshark operation, and a bail bond company.

Lazia enjoyed considerable political power within both the Kansas City Police Department and the city administration. He was given an office in police headquarters and had the approval of all hires and fires. In 1929, Lazia was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to one year in prison. However, thanks in part to the influence of Tom Pendergast, the government released Lazia’s pending appeal. Many civic reformers decried Lazia’s influence and power but were unable to affect any changes.

Lazia Lake Lotawana Home

Lazia Lake Lotawana Home

Lazia’s criminal activities translated into a comfortable and pleasant life. He and his wife lived in a luxury apartment in Kansas City. Lazia vacationed at his resort on Lake Lotawana in suburban Kansas City. Lazia also owned several thoroughbred race horses and was a constant presence at sporting and civic events. He donated regularly to

Lazia Lake Lotawana Home

Lazia Lake Lotawana Home

charities. Despite all of his criminal activities, Lazia was able to maintain a generally positive public profile.

As the 1930s began, Lazia began experiencing more competition from other gangsters. In October 1932, Lazia’s men broke into the Army armory in Kansas City to obtain more guns to fight these competitors. In a historic event that probably led to his downfall, the notorious bank robber, Vernon Miller, requested Lazia’s assistance to free an old confederate, Frank “Jelly” Nash. Miller’s plan was to ambush Nash’s law enforcement escort at Union Station in Kansas City. Lazia reportedly provided Miller with Adam “Eddie” Richetti and Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd, a notorious bank robber. The Union Station massacre resulted in five deaths, four of them law enforcement officers.

The tremendous public outrage over the shootout convinced the Pendergast machine that Lazia had become a liability that needed to be eliminated. Without his political protection, Lazia was indicted for bootlegging, illegal gambling, and tax evasion. Lazia eventually pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to one year in prison.

On August 12, 1933, Lazia associate Charles Gargotta,  Gaetano LaCoco, and other gunmen ambushed a gambler named Ferris Anthon, a gunman allied with a rival faction, on a city street. However, Jackson County Sheriff Tom Bash and his deputy coincidentally arrived during the attack and after a shootout, Gargotta was captured. The guns used in the attack were eventually traced back to the armory, and Gargotta went to prison.

On July 10, 1934, at 3:00 a.m., Lazia arrived at his hotel residence

Kansas City Star

Kansas City Star

after a night out on the town with his wife and bodyguard, Charles Carrollo. As Lazia was exiting from the car, two gunmen armed with a submachine gun and a sawed-off shotgun emerged from the bushes. Lazia pushed his wife back into the car and told Carrollo to drive off. The gunmen sprayed Lazia with bullets and left him on the sidewalk.

Lazia later died at St. Joseph’s hospital in Kansas City. Speaking to his doctor before expiring, Lazia said:

“Doc, what I can’t understand is why anybody would do this to me? Why to me, to Johnny Lazia, who has been the friend of everybody?”

Law enforcement traced some of the bullets in Lazia’s body to bullets found in the Union Station massacre, creating suspicions that it was a Lazia ally who murdered him.

Thanks to Christopher Williams for the Lazia vacation home photos.

Thanks to Wikipedia and Terence O’Malley.

The news articles used were from www.newspapers.com.

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Gangland Wire

Anatomy of an Outfit Murder

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When researching organized crime murders, sometimes there are clues that tip us off to what may have really happened. We recently discussed the Wild Bunch, a crew of Chicago Outfit hitmen in the 1970s, and that touched back to an earlier series on Wild Bunch member and notorious killer Harry “The Hook” Aleman. Let’s look at one murder attributed to him.

Nick “Keggie” Galanos was a bookmaker who was shot nine times in the head in his basement on August 30, 1975 with a .45 caliber pistol. Outfit bosses likely ordered this hit because Galanos was taking bets in Forest Park, where the bosses lived—that was a big no-no. The Chicago Crime Commission puts this killing to Harry Aleman, but there’s a good chance he had help…

In 1975, there were really only two .45s on the market, the M1911 holding of 7+1 rounds, or the M1917 revolver, holding six rounds. Both were concealable, easily available, and fairly cheap, because of surplus from WW2. Lots of crimes throughout the 50s-70s committed with .45. After the 80s, there were 9mm.

Galanos was shot nine times in his basement, and the two .45s only hold eight and six rounds each, so there’s a good chance there was more than one gun…unless the shooter emptied the pistol into Galanos’ head, reloaded, then shot some more into his body on the ground. The killer could have used a MAC-10, they were available, but the problem is, they fire 1090 rounds per minute and are hard to control…there would be bullets everywhere.

So it probably wasn’t a MAC-10 sub-machine gun, and the killer probably didn’t take time to reload a random number of bullets just to keep shooting into a dead body. We know the Wild Bunch worked in twos or threes, so if we know all of that, it’s a good guess that if Harry killed Nick Galanos, he didn’t do it alone.

The mob has had a lot of practice keeping things hidden. Even when guys testify, they can’t always be trusted to tell the whole truth. We should try to use all of the details we can. This is just a theory though, perhaps Gangland Wiretappers have others?

This article was written by our new blogger Chicago based writer and Outfit researcher Camillus Robinson.

 

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Kansas City Mafia Film Festival

This program starts on Saturday November 24 with a 1:00 PM screening of Gangland Wire, the story of the River Quay Mob War followed by a 3:45 panel discussion with Kansas City Mob historians Bill Ouseley, Terence O’Malley and Gary Jenkins. This panel discussion will be followed by a screening of the Kansas City Mafia documentary, Black Hand – Strawman: The History of Organized Crime in Kansas City. One ticket price gets you both films plus the panel discussion by these mob experts. Come for all or whatever part you want to see.

On the second day, Sunday November 25, the program will start with the screening of Black Hand Strawman at 1:30 followed by a Q & A with filmmaker Terence O’Malley. At 3:45 Gangland Wire will screen and be followed by a Q & A with filmmaker Gary Jenkins. One ticket price gets you both films and discussions.

Kansas City Mafia Film Festival

Click here to get tickets.

Gary Jenkins Talks Mafia

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I was invited to do a Facebook Live interview with KC Star reporter, Ian Cummings. This is called the Beer Hour and we met at the craft beer joint called the Kansas City Bier Company. I talk about my career in the KCPD Intelligence Unit working with the FBI to investigate the “River Quay Mob War” and the mob war between the Nick Civella faction and the Spero brothers. I also tell Ian how in the investigation of these mob activities we discovered the existence of Mafia skimming from Las Vegas casinos as depicted in the well known DeNiro film, Casino.

I tell how I got started with filming documentaries on antebellum Civil War life in Missouri and the Western Underground Railroad along the Missouri/Kansas border.

Beer Hour with KC mob expert Gary Jenkins

Tune in to Beer Hour as guest host Ian Cummings chats with former Kansas City police detective and local mob expert Gary Jenkins, live from Kansas City Bier Company. Jenkins will talk about the Kansas City mob’s historic links with Las Vegas casinos in the 1970s, and other interesting bits of local lore.

Posted by The Kansas City Star on Thursday, September 28, 2017

Gary Jenkins’ Interview

Below is the schedule of my appearance on the Come to the Table Podcast hosted by Dr. Paul.

interview will be played on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (February 28, and March 1 and 2, 2018)), on “Dr. Paul’s Family Talk” at the following times (all times are EST Detroit times):

WEDNESDAY
11:00 a.m. (LIVE Show)
3:00 P.M.
8:00 p.m.

THURSDAY
2:00 a.m.
5:00 a.m.
11:00 a.m.
3:00 p.m.
8:00 p.m

FRIDAY
2:00 a.m.
5:00 a.m.

10:00 a.m.

 

Listen on the below stations.

http://www.impactradiousa.co

http://www.impactradiousa.com
(click on LISTEN LIVE)

Or go straight to the live stream at:

http://streaming.radio.co/sb17f7f4fa/listen