Gangland Wire Mafia Stories
Podcast host Gary Jenkins made a name for himself as a detective in the organized crime division, prosecuting members of the Mafia and other criminal organizations.
Gangland Wire is an award-winning true crime podcast hosted by retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective Gary Jenkins. Drawing on more than 25 years in law enforcement, Gary takes listeners inside the hidden world of the American Mafia, organized crime, gangsters, mob bosses, and the detectives who investigated them. Each episode features compelling interviews with former FBI agents, police detectives, prosecutors, journalists, historians, authors, and, occasionally, former organized crime figures who share firsthand accounts of some of America’s most notorious criminal cases.
From the New York Five Families and the Chicago Outfit to the Kansas City Mafia and Las Vegas casino skimming operations, Gangland Wire explores the history, investigations, and personalities that shaped organized crime in America. Whether you’re fascinated by classic Mafia history, federal investigations, infamous mobsters, or true crime stories told by someone who lived them, Gangland Wire delivers authentic, insightful, and engaging episodes every week.
After retiring from the police department in 1996, Jenkins went to the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law. He passed the bar and commenced a solo law practice in 2000. He has also worked as a consultant and lecturer on organized crime. Jenkins authored several books about the Civil War in Missouri and his experiences investigating the Mafia. These titles include John Brown and the Last Train, The Immortal Ten: Stories From the Western Underground Railroad Windy City Mafia: The Chicago Outfit, Bif Apple Mafia: Stories From the Five Families, and Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How the FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos,
Gary Jenkins produced five documentary films. The only titles available are listed with links below.
Gangland Wire: Las Vegas and the Mob
Brothers against Brothers: The Civella Spero War
Ballot Theft: Burglary, Muder, Coverup
Jenkins’ work as a Mafia detective has had a lasting impact on law enforcement in the United States. His dedication to rooting out organized crime has helped to make communities safer and has sent a message to criminals that they will be held accountable for their actions. Jenkins’ legacy serves as a reminder that the fight against organized crime is ongoing. Currently Jenkins produces and hosts a true-crime podcast, titled Gangland Wire Crime Stories. In this popular true-crime podcast Gary Jenkins tells many stories about the Kansas City mafia, interviews experts on mafia families in many other cities, and has found many former mafia members to tell their stories. Click the below player to hear a short podcast about the Chicago Outfit.
Kansas City Mafia Documentary Films
In Gary’s first mob documentary, Gangland Wire, former F.B.I. agents, cops, reporters, and casino employees tell insider stories about a Kansas City mob war that escalated into several murders and bombings. The police and FBI investigation into the local crimes led to the installation of hidden microphones and wiretaps in Kansas City mob offices, bars, and homes. In Gary’s most recent documentary film released in 2019, he tells the inside story of the war between the Nick Civella Family and the Spero brothers. In Brothers against Brothers: The Civella Spero War, Gary takes the viewers inside the lives of surveillance cops who have to avoid being caught in a crossfire, being mistaken for a hitman, or being too close to a hidden unexploded bomb.
Kansas City Mafia books by Gary Jenkins
Gary wrote the book Leaving Vegas: How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos. If the reader can handle Kindle books and remember, Amazon makes a downloadable file available free for any laptop or tablet to read Kindle books. Gary suggests the reader purchase the Kindle format because he linked wiretap audio clips to the Kindle book.
In both the documentary film Gangland Wire and the companion book, Leaving Vegas, Gary Jenkins tells the story of the Kansas City F.B.I. and the Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit, investigating how the midwest la Cosa Nostra families used Teamster’s pension fund money to finance the straw owner of Las Vegas casinos. The price for casino owners to obtain loan approvals was high. Chicago, Cleveland, Chicago, and Kansas City mob bosses ordered “strawman” casino owner Allan Glick to give casino jobs to mob pawns. These mob underlings skimmed cash from the counting rooms and sent it back to the midwest mob bosses. Jenkins was able to obtain hours of the recordings used as evidence to convict the la Cosa Nostra bosses in Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Kansas City of conspiracy to skim money from casinos. He extensively used the audio clips in Gangland Wire and Leaving Vegas. In the film, the viewer will hear out of the mouths of the mobsters how they conducted their business. For example, the viewer will hear Kansas City Mob bosses discussing problems with Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal. In his great film, Casino, Martin Scorsese based Robert DeNiro’s Ace Rothstein character on “Lefty” Rosenthal.
For the documentary and book, Gary obtained copies of ledger notes kept by Tuffy DeLuna. DeLuna kept detailed notes about the Mob’s Las Vegas activities in that ledger. In the book Leaving Vegas: How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos, Gary created video clips with the actual wiretap audio with captions. The book contains many links to these audio clips.
Gangland Wire and Leaving Vegas document the investigation and fall of the four Midwest Mob families. Those families have never fully recovered from that fall. They lost control of the billion-dollar Central States Teamster Pension Fund and a steady flow of millions in cash from Las Vegas casinos.
Other works by Gary Jenkins
Gary Jenkins independently produced, Negroes To Hire: Slave Life and Culture on Antebellum Missouri Farms which won the Jackson County Historical Society award for the best historical documentary film of the year in 2011. In 2012, he produced Freedom Seekers: Stories From the Western Underground Railroad. Both films are used in many educational history and African American Study programs.
Gary authored two companion books for these films. The first is titled John Brown and The Last Train.
The second book is titled The Immortal 10: A Story from the Western Underground Railroad.
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