Nick Civella

Civella Nighborhood jpegBill Norton, KC Star reporter, and the Star paper became a thorn in the side of the La Cosa Nostra in Kansas City. As you can see from Gangland Wire, Nick Civella paid a lot of attention to press coverage. He knew the press would create community pressure on law enforcement to take action. More importantly, Nick knew press attention caused their corrupt politicians to “run for the hills” and to distance themselves.  After the Johnny Green Amaro hit, the Civellas came to the Star office and complained about Star coverage.
What they did not like was these maps of their neighborhood. The Star hired a plane and took this photo and matched it up to the drawing to Civella Neighborhood drawingshow where everybody lived. The “Johnny Green” killing happened about a block from the Civella compound.

3 thoughts on “Nick Civella”

  1. Gary:
    Some time ago I read in the Star that they acquired through a FOIA request everything the FBI had on Nick Civella. Are you familiar through your contacts with that body of information? Will it ever get published for all to see, like all the other FOIA info on the FBI’s online Vault.

    1. I did a FOIA request recently on the Spero brothers. They have a huge body of information where those names are mentioned (over 4000 pages). I spoke with them and boiled it down to several hundred pages. It is not too expensive and the charge would have been $140.00 for the entire 4000 pages. As it is, I have to pay nothing but a $25.00 search fee. They send it on a CD.
      I know one person who did the FOIA on Nick and got some really interesting stuff. For example wiretap transcripts from the old illegal taps done before the Crime Control Act in 1968. Before 1968, the Feds did not use the wiretap information as evidence in court, but it was not illegal directly to do this. They used it like it was an informant, I think. I once found a bunch of FBI docs online on Lefty Rosenthal, but never on the mob guys here. I doubt that any private person or company will ever publish these online, because there is no money in it.

  2. Kenneth suvanto

    I went to Oak Park H.S. back in the day…I went to school with Nick, my sister even dated him. I have lots of stories and memories of those days…if they liked you, no problem but, if they didn’t, you had big problems lol. Just be a good person and your good to go. Remember, the Italians helped keep communism out of the country.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top