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Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. In this episode of Gangland Wire, I discuss the unusual setup between the St. Louis Italian Mafia’s Tony Giordano and a Lebanese-Syrian mob family boss named James “Horseshoe Jimmy” Michaels, the former leader of the notorious Cuckoo Gang in St. Louis during Prohibition. Michaels had an agreement with the Italian Mafia, and they had a peaceful coexistence. However, after the death of St. Louis mafia Don Anthony “Tony G” Giordano, the Leisure family, half Syrian and half Lebanese, saw an opportunity to challenge Michaels and his organization. They blamed Michaels for not retaliating for the murder of one of their brothers years prior. The Leisures were involved in labor union racketeering, which was also a focus of Michaels’ organization. I explore the background of John Spica, an underling of Giordano with a criminal history, including murder. Giordano was grooming Spica for more significant things within the mafia. He was a rising star in the St. Louis mafia, and Giordano saw him as a surrogate son. Giordano’s trust in Spica was evident when he made him a part owner of a cigarette and amusement machine company. This episode sets the stage for the conflict between Horseshoe Jimmy Michaels and the Leisures and the internal power struggles within the St. Louis mafia. During his early days in prison, John Spica attempted to muscle in on the narcotics traffic, but other convicts quickly put him back in line. In 1979, he made a serious error in judgment by putting his loyalty to his prison buddy, Carl Spero, above his subservience to the Mafia. The Sparrow brothers were engaged in a deadly war with the Kansas City Mafia, and Spica’s actions were seen as a betrayal. Nick Civella, a member of the Mafia, demanded that Spica be murdered. However, Tony Giordano, a boss in the St. Louis family, believed Spica could still be valid and convinced Civella to spare his life. A sit-down was arranged between Spica and Civella to try and reconcile their differences, but the meeting did not go well, leading to tensions between St. Louis and Kansas City. A power struggle among the Syrians in the Laborers’ Union will cause problems. Giordano has appointed his nephew, Mike Trupiano, as president despite not having the interests of the working class at heart. Trupiano, known more for being a gambler, is seen as a bumbling mobster. A federal informant records Trupiano saying derogatory things about the rank and file, adding to his lack of respect. Tony G, suffering from cancer, is grooming Trupiano to take over as boss, but many doubt his ability to lead. To increase Italian influence and decrease Syrian influence in the union, a plan is launched to take money and power from Ray Flynn, a closer ally of the Syrians. Spica, already on edge from his troubles in Kansas City, openly discusses his plan to take out Flynn. Despite being assured of his safety by Giordano, Spica is killed in a car bombing. The murder sparks a war between the different crime families in St. Louis, particularly the Italian Mafia, the Syrian and Lebanese factions, and the Local ruled by Art Berne in Illinois. These families all have a stake in the lucrative construction contracts and control over influential labor unions. The power dynamics and conflicts within the St. Louis underworld will dominate headlines for years. In the final episode of our podcast, we delve into the cold case of the Spica bombing. This mafia murder has remained unsolved, with nobody coming forward to provide any leads. The hope is that someone involved in another case will confess to the murder, but that is unlikely. Over the years, it becomes apparent that Nick Civella is the prime suspect, and Paul Leisure is relying on this to avoid retaliation from the Italians. We also explore the story of Matthew Trupiano, a do-nothing boss, while the Syrian factions battle it out for control of the Laborers’ Union racketeering in St. Louis. The Italians slowly retreated from the conflict, leaving the Syrians to fight amongst themselves. As we conclude our St. Louis Mafia story, it becomes evident that the presence of a Syrian mafia is often overlooked. It is interesting to discover the connection between St. Louis and the Detroit family, as Tony Giordano had ties to Detroit, and his nephew, who is being groomed as the next mob boss, comes from there. Thank you for listening. Please like, subscribe, and leave a review for us. Please spread the word to your friends and help us gain more listeners.
I used information from articles in Crime Magazine by Ronald J. Lawrence and The St. Louis Post Dispatch for this podcast.
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Transcript
[0:00] Hey guys, welcome back to Gangland Wire. This is Gary Jenkins, retired Kent City Police Intelligence Unit detective, bringing you another story about the St.
Louis Mafia and the St. Louis family.
Now, another chapter in that crime family is they had an unusual setup between the Italian Mafia and a Lebanese Syrian mob families.
Now, like a lot of other immigrants from around the Mediterranean Sea, the Greeks, Israelis, Spanish, French, young men from Lebanon and Syria formed their own criminal gangs and kind of took on the motif or the structure of a mafia family.
Now in St. Louis, during Prohibition, a Syrian immigrant named James Horseshoe Jimmy Michaels built a formidable reputation as a leader of the notorious Cuckoo Gang. You know, we talked about the cuckoo gang before.
He will remain the Syrian godfather for more than 30 years.
He reached an agreement with the city’s Italian mafia, and they never really had any problems as long as they got along and they didn’t seem to really have any problems at all.
Conflict arises between Horseshoe Jimmy Michaels and the Leisures
[1:09] The Syrian mafia knew their place, I would say.
Now, when the St. Louis mafia Don Anthony Tony G Giordano died after a bout with cancer in the late summer of 1980.
[1:22] Our friend horseshoe Jimmy’s Michael’s enemies, particularly the Leisure family, which were half Syrian, half Lebanese, I believe.
And they had a boss who was who was gung-ho, he was ambitious.
[1:36] Name was Paul, Pauly Leisure.
He had brother Anthony and first cousin David, and they all got ambitious.
They had other extended family members of this leisure family and they really blamed Horseshoe Jimmy Michaels for not retaliating for one of the murders of one of their brothers years earlier.
It kind of sounds like the Spiro-Cevella operation here in Kansas City, that Cevella-Spiro war that we had.
They used this old grievance as a green light for the leisures to challenge Horseshoe Jimmy Michaels and his organization was already focused on gambling and labor union racketeering and the leisures were all involved in the labor unions, specifically the laborers unit, L-I-U-N-A, I believe.
So let’s go back and take a look just before Giordano died and kind of see how this started.
Tony G Giordano grooms John Spica for bigger responsibilities
[2:30] Tony G is grooming his nephew, if you remember Mike Truppiano, to eventually take over the family.
And any inter-mob war like this has to deal with the Italian mafia.
The Italian mafia, you know, they’re supposed to keep peace among the other criminals.
Now, in this case, they had a hard time doing it, and Tony Giordano, really, he was in the closing years of a long tenure at the head of the mafia, and the next people to take over are not so good.
So, the Leisures took advantage of that and another mob conflict across the state in Kansas City to really kick off their war against the Michaels and move against the Italians also.
Tony Giordano had installed an underling named John Spica as a union officer in the laborers’ union Local 42, the LIUNA.
Now the LIUNA has three locals in St. Louis and the Italians control one and the different factions of the Assyrians controlled the other two, but they all got along.
John Spica was a long-time professional criminal and he was no stranger to murder.
At age 25, he was charged back in 1962 for arranging the contract killing of a husband whose wife wanted him dead.
[3:45] Now, this murder was pretty sensational in St. Louis mob history because the man’s wife was arrested.
She implicated this young mob associate, John Spica, as the killer.
She claimed she had tried unsuccessfully to cancel this contract, didn’t get it done, a jury would acquit her, but they convicted Spica for the murder of this woman’s husband and gave him life in prison.
He did some time, this was Missouri back in the 60s, and he did some time and he got out.
We had a lot of guys that got out pretty early through some political contacts we had at the state level back in those days.
During his time in Missouri State Prison, he, of all things, befriended James Earl Ray, the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King.
[4:30] Now, later on, during the big investigation that surrounded the aftermath of the murder of Dr.
Martin Luther King, the FBI developed some information that the contract to kill King was let out by John Speaker.
He had something to do with it, but he denied any connection to this horrible event, and I think they really couldn’t prove it, and I doubt if I don’t know why he would even care that much about that.
Now, during his time in the Missouri State Penitentiary System, he developed a really close friendship with a young Missouri Italian Mafia associate, Carl Spiro, who was a young upstart Kansas City gangster, a lifetime gangster.
He really never did anything other than be a gangster after he got out of high school.
And this was a relationship that will have certain tragic consequences.
Now, if you ever watch my movie, Brothers Against Brothers, The Sabella-Spiro, War, you’ll learn about some of those tragic consequences. John Spica was paroled in 1973, and he appeared to live a quiet, repentant, shall we say, life.
He opened a produce stand, of course, a produce stand in South St.
Louis, and he worked every day during the summer. He was a soft-smoking gentleman, and he was known as a shrewd businessman.
[5:43] Just a little more description about John Spica. He liked stylish clothes and expensive, flashy cars. He worked out regularly.
He always wanted to look good, but he led a double life. and that low profile he maintained concealed a different man.
He was really a rising star in the mafia in St. Louis.
Tony G Giordano had taken a liking to him and started grooming him for bigger and better things.
He was also grooming his nephew, Mike Truppiano, to be the next boss, but Spica was being brought in probably to take care of the business, while Truppiano was like the figurehead boss. But Spica hadn’t been made yet.
He was not formally inducted in the mafia, but it was only considered a matter of time.
In the meantime, he’d try to make his bones by being a really aggressive moneymaker.
And there’s some intelligent sources that believe that Giordano looked at Spica as kind of a surrogate son. They were always seen together.
Now, Tony G. would make John Spica a part owner of a cigarette and amusement machine company he owned just across the Mississippi River River in Fremont City, Illinois.
It was evidence of Giordano’s trust in him and of Spica’s increasing stature among the Fulcrum family.
No other young hood had been given such an opportunity. Nobody else had been taken in by Giordano.
[7:06] He kind of remained aloof from a lot of the guys. Now, John Spica had a streak of recklessness in him, and at times he could be arrogant and rebellious, is what I’ve learned about him.
During his early days when he’s in penitentiary he attempted to muscle in on some of the narcotics traffic in there.
Other convicts quickly put him straight back in line.
And I guess Carl Sparrow wasn’t up down for that. There’s probably a whole other story there if a person could ever find it.
[7:32] 1979, John Spica made a pretty serious error of judgment. That was a sin of commission and not of omission.
He put his loyalty to a friend above his subservience to the Mafia, his prison buddy, Carl Sparrow.
As I said before, Carl Sparrow and his brothers were locked in a deadly war with the Kansas City Mafia. There was a lot of killing and bombing going on, and eight men all together were killed in two years.
For example, in May 1978, some of Savella’s men, led by Tuffy DeLuna, our underboss, ambushed the three Spiro brothers, Carl, Mike, and Joe.
They’d already killed the oldest brother, Nick. And this was at a tavern, and they ran in and just started shooting up the Spiro boys.
They kill Mike, who was a union representative, actually a Teamsters union rep, and they wounded Joseph Sparrow, and Carl Sparrow ran out the front door and was running across a busy street.
And one guy who they say was Tuffy the Luna stepped out the front door and popped him with a shotgun with a double-aught buck and paralyzed him from the waist down.
He never really, Carl never let that stop him. But again, go back and check my movie out on Brothers Against Brothers, the Sabella-Sparrow War.
This was a challenge that could not go unanswered in Kansas City and Spiro brothers, the remaining two Spiro brothers, Carl and Joe, escalated this warfare.
[8:52] Carl got hold of Spica and St. Louis said he needed some dynamite for this particular situation. Spica knew what it was.
Spica happily obliged and he transported a case of explosives to Kansas City.
Now one of the first intended victims of Spiro’s bombs was Carl Tuffety Luna.
The agents of the ATF and the Kansas City Police Department ended up foiling this plot.
Joe Sparrow will actually end up getting killed with another bomb.
We think it’s with some of this dynamite, maybe, that went off accidentally. We don’t know for sure.
I left Carl out there by himself running a used car lot.
Still, he still he probably would like to move on the Civellas, but he’s he’s kind of a lone ranger.
He’s got a few guys around him now.
Betrayal and Rage: The Informant Inside Sparrow’s Gang
[9:35] See what speaker Sparrow never knew that Civella had an informant inside Sparrow’s gang.
And it wasn’t long before Civella learned about John Spica and his providing this dynamite, and he raged. They say he raged.
He considered it a personal affront, a betrayal of the worst kind.
In this brotherhood of the mob, friendships and loyalties are paramount, especially between families.
Spica had violated this basic tenet of mob law.
Civella vented his anger at his old friend, Tony Giordano, Tony G, and he’d had a working relationship and known him.
They’d both come up as bosses about the same time and only about four hours apart.
Giordano was much closer to Detroit as far as doing business, but they sure knew each other and they had, you know, exchanged some business operations.
Giordano was the boss of the St. Louis family, was responsible for John Spica, as we know, you know.
Nick Civella demanded that Spica be murdered. He’d be sacrificed on the altar of mob discipline, as I read one place. That can’t be any other justice.
[10:41] He’s got to go. Giordano, an associate named Jesse Stone King, will eventually become an informant and he’ll later tell the story.
He claims to be present in 1979 and Nick Sabella called Giordano.
And you’re not turn around and told this guy said you know you got a man we want you take care of him or send him does your don’t refused and told me i like this guy i can use him he’s really aggressive he’s a money maker for me this is all give me my word this guy won’t do ever do anything again they had this long argument got pretty hot at times and next about it could get hot i put him on the wire tap really get hot They finally made it an agreement.
Sabella agreed he would leave Spica alone. But Sabella said, if he ever comes in my territory, he’s dead.
Failed Sit-Down: Spica’s Trip to Kansas City Ends in Betrayal
[11:26] So Giordano decides he ought to have a sit-down between Spica and Sabella and.
[11:32] You know, bury this hatchet.
Spica made a trip to Kansas City. Spica took three of Giordano’s lieutenants to make sure, you know, he could keep the peace here and he wouldn’t get to Kansas City and they just set him up and kill him.
He brought a guy named William Jack Harris Spinelli, a Pasquale Pat Lopicolo, and a Vincenzo Jimmy Giammanco.
That was, Giammanco was Giordano’s nephew on the other side.
Giordano told Spica, you better apologize for your transgressions and make this right.
And the other three were, you know, Giordano’s emissaries and to kind of protect Spica too.
Well, I understand the meeting didn’t go well, best I could learn about this meeting, did not go well.
Negotiations were broken off prematurely, and the guys from St.
Louis came back home. Giammanco went into hiding after this for some reason.
Supposedly, there was a source at the time that said Giordano was telling people he’s not around anymore, he’s lying low for a while.
There’s a lot of problems out there in Kansas City. Speak is still out there.
[12:32] He’s got the ire of Nick Civella in Kansas City.
He wants to kill him, and he will get killed. And just before Spick is killed, the Syrians, on the other hand, we got this other drama going on.
The Syrians are losing control of one of the labor’s locals.
Giordano had appointed his nephew, Mike Truppiano, he’s grooming to be the next boss, who was kind of a bungler himself.
Appointed him as president and another nephew, Vincent Giordano, was an organizer in this laborers’ union, in this laborers’ local.
Truppiano did not have the working man’s interest at heart and was not really a laborer.
He was a gambler, but he was a poor gambler, too.
He’s the guy that ran a sports booking operation, and when they caught a case for it in trial, it came out that he was losing a lot of money, lost like a million dollars out of his operation. So he was just kind of a bumbling mobster.
A federal informant will record Truppiano saying, as far as I’m concerned, fuck the rank and file.
So, you know, that got around. You know that got around. This time, Tony G is suffering from incurable cancer and he’s grooming Truppiano to take over as a boss.
[13:44] He was an improbable mafia boss, Truppiano.
He would add little to the dignity of the high office of the boss of St.
Louis Mafia family. He commanded very little respect.
He was not personally or professionally a strict disciplinarian on his work habits, his life habits, and among the people that worked under him.
They just weren’t, you know, part of his style.
And he was not a decisive, tough guy. He was prone to whimpering around when things didn’t go his way.
He kind of had become this joke of the underworld when I told you before about this, losing a million dollars in a bookmaking ring. Nobody loses money in.
[14:24] Gambling operations, John Spiegel will launch a plan to increase the Italian influence in this labor union.
Giordano was still alive and it seemed like this was part of Giordano’s plan to increase the Italian’s influence and decrease the Syrian’s influence.
There was a guy named Ray Flynn who was really closer to the Syrians and he was a business agent this local at the time. Giordano, Spica, and a few other members of the inner circle were once meeting at Giordano’s vending machine on the Illinois side.
An informant later described what happened. Spica comes in, he says, you know, that Flynn, he ain’t no mover.
I’m a mover. We’re going to take some money out of that union.
I’ll wait about six months and then hit him and we’ll take over.
The informant would say that, you know, Tony G did not say anything.
He just kind of shrugged his shoulders so he gave his tacit approval.
One of the men at that meeting returned to the local business office and told Ray Flynn, and he hit the ceiling, the shit hit the fan at that labor’s union office.
Ray Flynn said, well, we’re just going to crack Spica first.
I never heard that before, cracking.
[15:27] Spica did not believe in a conspiracy of silence and went around telling everybody about his plan to take out Ray Flynn.
Spica was already a little gun shy from his Kansas City problem.
And he said, he was going around telling people, I’m worried I’m going to get cracked.
He didn’t know where it was coming from, but he should it on.
He said, you know, he said, if they tell you you’re in good hands, don’t worry. That’s when they’re going to hit you in the head.
On November the 7th, 1979, Spica met with Giordano, and intelligence sources would later say that they believe Giordano assured him of his safety that day.
As he said, if they tell you you’re okay, that’s when you better start worrying.
John, they called him Sonny Spica, the rash protege of the St.
Louis outfit boss, Tony G, was a marked man.
[16:14] Nick Civella wanted him dead, Ray Flynn and the Syrians wanted him dead.
The next day after that meeting with Tony G and being reassured.
[16:23] November 8th, 1979, John Spica is killed in a car bombing in his driveway.
And he, you know, at that time he was in this local 42 of the LIUNA, which right now, you know, Everybody on the server thinks, oh, this is Nick Sabella’s doing.
They didn’t know that it could be this Ray Flynn’s doing. This will kick off the St. Louis.
Really famous. If you’re from St. Louis, you’ve heard of the Leisure Wars.
They made headlines for the next several years after 1979.
I remember this. St. Louis Underworld was pretty unique. It had three distinct but cohesive organized crime families. I’d mentioned this before.
Most influential was the Italian Mafia, controlled by Tony G.
Giordano. The Syrian and Lebanese faction in South St.
Louis was headed by Jimmy Michaels, and across the Mississippi River on the East St.
Louis or the Illinois side, there was a man named Art Byrne that ruled a third outfit, and he was connected to the Syrians.
And you know, Art Berne was kind of interesting. He and Giordano both maintained a connection to the Chicago outfit and had, you know, their approval.
The Syrians did not. they were all on their own.
They all shared in all the different construction contracts, and most important were the laborers union locals 42, 52, and 110 in St. Louis.
[17:46] This was, you know, this is really a source of big money for the mob.
You know, you can shake down the people that hire laborers, you can shake down the laborers themselves, you can start a pension fund and draw money out of that, or like the teams just loan money out and then get connected, get, you know, kickbacks from that.
And it’s just a lot of influence and power. And these three locals were really influential and powerful in St. Louis.
Plus, you get a lot of political power out of Union Base.
Now, Paul āPaulieā Leisure, was a Syrian who was also a suspected contract killer.
And he had this small, dissident, but deadly group of gangsters.
And mainly, they were relatives, which is better if you got relatives, as we all know.
Even mob guys know that. He’d once been close to Giordano’s and Michaels, Horseshoe Jimmy Michaels, but he had, you know, he was ambitious.
Ambition and Rivalry in the St. Louis Underworld
[18:37] And he grew to despise them. He coveted control of the St. Louis underworld.
He saw himself taking over the whole of St. Louis, and the laborers’ locals was like the way to do it. That was just a stepping stone.
He wanted a bigger piece of the action. He wanted it all in the end.
Giordano Michael stood in his way.
He’s the guy that planted the bomb on his old union rival, John Spica, knowing that the suspicion would fall on the Kansas City Mafia for a while.
But as people People knew that John Spica had bragged about his intent to kill Ray Flynn, and he bragged about it to Pauly Leisure.
Pauly Leisure knew that the Italians were moving to take over more of the power out of the three different laborers’ locals, and they wanted more and more.
[19:23] Pauly had really gone to Flynn to plan this thing to get rid of John Spica.
Two informants told the FBI agents how this all went down. Paulie told Ray Flynn that he and his crew would help Flynn push back on the Italians.
They agreed to hit Spica. Paul Leasure was a treacherous, treacherous dude.
He had a personal relationship with John Spica, and he developed it even more during this time when he knew he wanted to take him out.
He and his wife spent a lot of time socially with Spica and his girlfriend.
This guy’s cold, man. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer, huh?
Not only did he want to become familiar with Spica’s habits and his thoughts, he needed to gain his trust.
[20:03] In numerous occasions, he would call him to a meeting just to get him prepared to be lured to some place where he wouldn’t be suspicious at all.
Leisure said it himself, you got to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
This guy was quite a planner. Pauly Leisure, as we’ll find out more about this, is Pauly Leisure was quite a planner.
He borrowed a 1977 Cadillac, identical to Speakers. You got it from a friendly car salesman who would keep no written records of this transaction.
[20:32] Ray Flynn and Paul’s brother, Anthony Leisure, practiced wiring a bomb to the brake lights and the tail lights.
That way, if you had… Sometimes these guys would put remote starters on them, so don’t wire it to the starter or the ignition switch.
Wait till they put the brake lights on and that completes the circuit.
If you know anything about cars and electrical circuits and cars, you know when you put the brakes on, that completes a circuit and sends a low charge to that wire and that will set off a blasting cap.
So the night of November 6th, Anthony Leisure and Ray Flynn went to Speaker’s apartment building in suburban, I think Ladoo, maybe somewhere in suburban St. Louis.
Too much activity that night, came back the next night, they were successful.
Now they knew Speaker was a light sleeper. Now the description I read of it, that while Flynn attached the bomb and he used 12 sticks of dynamite, way more than you need to. Another one, an overkill.
We had several of those overkills in Kansas City.
Pauley Leisure stood guard with a shotgun in case Spica woke up and came outside.
The Deadly Bombing and its Aftermath
[21:33] 8 a.m. the next morning, John Spica.
[21:35] Went out, got in his car. You know how you get in your car, you put your foot on the brake to start it up many times, or at least when you first put it in gear, you’re gonna put your foot on the brake pretty quick.
He didn’t get away from his parking spot very far. He didn’t actually get out of his parking spot.
And those 17 sticks of dynamite went off. Huge blast, huge blast.
Part of his body was inside, part was outside.
[21:58] His legs were severed. He was alive when the first neighbors arrived.
One of his shoes was thrown a long ways away.
We had one like this. We found the guy’s half of his leg up on top of a neighboring building.
Passenger door was blown off 30 yards and pieces of debris were hurled up to 100 yards away.
Blew out a bunch of windows and the buildings all around.
Passerbys on foot would have been hurt or killed, probably if they’re in the parking lot when this went off.
This was the day after Tony G assured him that, you know, you’re going to be OK. I’ve got this worked out.
Tony G knew about Nexavella. He could handle that. He didn’t know about the ambition of Paul Leasure.
Tony G called Leasure and told him about the murder. An informant will report later that Pauly says to Tony G, oh my God, I wonder who could have done that.
When he hung up, he turned to this informant and said, the guy’s got it done, the kid’s dead. Kind of just distancing himself from it. He was actually there.
First few hours after he heard about the bombing, Tony G believed that Nick Savella had had this done, but it didn’t take him too long to figure out that Ray Flynn was probably the most likely suspect.
Giordano will tell an FBI foreman in the next couple of three days, I got to tell you, Art, Flynn’s going to get hit. He’s got to go.
[23:08] I just hope he’s on his own, because if anybody else was with him on this, they’re going to get hit too.
Paul Leisure, better get ready. It’s all going to come out. Ray Flynn hired him some bodyguards, and he didn’t go anywhere without those bodyguards.
His alliance with the Leisure faction was sealed, and he did manage to stay alive all the way through this Leisure war, but it was bloody paranoia ran deep in the underworld in St. Louis after Spica’s murder.
Mob leaders didn’t know who else that this they thought this Ray Flynn was unpredictable and they didn’t know who else he might want to hit or what he was capable of.
And plus, there was still a little bit of a threat from Kansas City, although I think Tony G had handled that.
Giordano and all the upper level mob guys put remote starters in their cars.
But, you know, Hey dude, if you put it on the brake, or if you do like they did up in Kansas City with a mercury switch, a little ampule of mercury that whenever the car is jiggled, the mercury will run down the end of the ampule and make the connection.
So, you know, a remote starter is, I guess it’s okay, but you better have somebody get out and get in it and drive around the block and then come back and say, yeah, it’s cool.
And then it doesn’t protect you from the remote control bombing as they’re gonna find out.
[24:25] Spica bombing really becomes a cold case. It’s one of the typical, the usual mafia murder, and nobody’s talking, and there’s no tipsters are going to call tips hotline.
There’s not enough reward to bring anybody in.
You just have to hope you get somebody in on another case, and you got so much on that they’re willing to give up the murder, and rarely, rarely will that ever happen.
It will take several years before law enforcement will know the truth about who killed Most people were pretty confident that Nick Civella probably did it, and Paul Leisure was banking on that.
He was hoping that that would keep any retaliation against him or his gang from the Italians.
[25:06] On this next and final episode, we’re going to take a look at Matthew Trupiano and how he’s shown up as a do-nothing boss while the Syrian factions go after each other.
And they are going to fight between the Leisures and the Michaels.
They’re going to fight like heck to take over the Laborers’ Union racketeering in St. Louis and Trupiano.
And the Italians will just slowly but surely back off and fall back away from it.
So thanks a lot, guys. We’ll go on to the third and final episode of our story of the St.
Louis Mafia. It’s partly Italian mafia story, but it’s partly a Syrian mafia story, which a lot of you guys may not know about. I didn’t really know about it before.
I’d heard that in St. Louis, that there was a Syrian faction, and they were kind of equal to the Italian mob.
But at one time, and I remember the headlines during the 70s about this war between the Leisure’s and the Michaels, but they didn’t really talk about the Italians back then.
If the Italians were really that strong, they would have stopped that war.
They would have gotten some way to.
To figure out how to stop that war between the Sheridan factions because everybody knows that kind of bomb’s going off and it’s in and around your business, the labor union racketeering business, then it ain’t good.
It ain’t good. It just draws all the heat from the feds.
So we’ll learn the final chapter of this war.
[26:32] And another good thing about doing this story, I never knew it.
I just knew that St. Louis always was more close to Detroit family than Kansas City’s family.
Now I know why. There’s blood relation.
Tony Giordano’s Detroit Connections
[26:44] Tony Giordano really was from Detroit and he did a lot of stuff with Detroit guys when he was young.
His nephew, who he grooms to be the next mob boss, came down from Detroit.
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