The Bonanno Family and drug smuggling In 1972, the Bonanno War is over, Joe and Bill Bonanno are out in Arizona. The Commission appoints Phil “Rusty”Rastelli the new boss of the Bonano crime family. Carmine Galante, the old Bonanno Consigliore completes a long prison sentence and returns to New York. Carmine Galante was at the …
This is a possible title for my upcoming documentary about the Kansas City mob war of the 1970s. This is the story of the ruling Civella brothers, Nick and Cork Civella and the upstart young Turks, Nick Spero and his brothers, Mike, Joe and Carl Spero. A quick overview if you don’t remember the multi-episode …
In this second of a two part interview with former Las Vegas newsman and current Mob Museum blogger Larry Henry we talk Vegas and the mob and about the famous muckraking reporter Ned Day. Larry was the political editor at the Las Vegas Sun during those days. Back when “the mob ran the town.” Currently, Larry is …
Bill Norton covered the Kansas City mob boss Nick Civella and the crime beat for the Kansas City Star newspaper from his first day as a reporter. In the 1970s, the KC Police Department furnished a bare bones office with one desk and a telephone for the crime reporter. Bill did not report to the …
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” …
In this third and final interview, we learn that the mob did not give nicknames to anyone except the people they believed were helping them in their skimming efforts so it is a bit suspicious when the mobsters called Harry Reid, Clean Face. A good example was a State Gaming Agent named Bybee, when they …
In this second part of the Bill Ouseley interview, we learn more about the inner workings of Las Vegas casinos and Las Vegas politicians and why they were suspicious of Clean Face Harry Reid. Don’t forget to listen to Aaron on the Big Dumb Fun Show, live on Monday nights. To go to the store click …
In the first of a three part interview with retired F.B.I. agent William Ouseley, we discuss the lessons learned from the Las Vegas wiretaps that exposed the Kansas City, Chicago, Milwaukee and Cleveland mob’s skimming from the Stardust and the Tropicana. In those intercepts, agents learned that a man named Joe Agosto had been able …
How Frank Cullotta met Tony Spilotro In this first of a 2 part interview of Frank Cullotta, we talk to a guy who was a career criminal from his teenage years and rose through the ranks of the Chicago Outfit from being an associate who made money as a burglar to becoming a “Mustache” or …
Kansas Police Officer Joe Raimo was born September 23, 1879 in Naples Italy. He came to the United States, in 1892, when he was 13 years old. The Raimo family lived in Chicago until 1897. Joe and his mother moved to Kansas City, where he married, Genaverffa (Jennie) DiFeo on July 3, 1898. They were married by …
