PODCAST ABOUT THE KANSAS CITY MASSACRE



May 16, 2016   Monday

This evening, I just finished a podcast interview with comic Aaron Gnirk on his Big Dumb Fun Show, which discusses pop and cultural affairs in Kansas City. While every one has heard of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre of seven gangsters in Chicago, the  public of that era was far more outraged by the Kansas City Massacre, because seven lawmen were machinegunned by attackers hiding behind nearby cars. Four of the law enforcers were killed and two seriously wounded.  The anger of the nation caused the U.S. Congress to create a secret national police force by transforming an obscure  government money-accounting agency into what has become today's FBI.

Aaron and I also discussed the history of the first five leaders of Kansas City's Mafia gang. Whenever a resident in the Italian district needed some cash, food, coal, or a job, these leaders supplied it. These Mafia bosses contributed a great deal to their local community in order to obtain political power to steal many more millions from the city and county governments. The residents voted to keep these Mafia leaders’ candidates in office in order to keep open this Mafiosi safety net for those in need in the neighborhood.

To ensure election victory, these five successive Kansas City Mafia leaders joined forces with the city's most powerful political kingmaker. Three men of the Pendergast family in succession led the city's dominating political dynasty for more than a half century. Each of these Mafia leaders supported the political agenda and candidates of the Pendergast, who was in power, in return for just one quid quo pro. The Mafia leader was given the authority to select the police chief and all the KC Police Department detectives. What a nightmarish situation this was. There was no other political/criminal arrangement like this in the country. To learn more about these shocking but exciting events, they are documented in detail in “All Against The Law”.

NEW YORK CITY RADIO INTERVIEW



May 9, 2016   Monday

Last evening on Mother's Day, I was interviewed on top New York City radio station WOR by longtime popular host Rob Taub. We talked about New York City's most successful Prohibition gangsters, who later went on to build most of the early Las Vegas Strip gambling resorts. I explained what it was like to work and live in the Las Vegas culture created by these gang leaders and their closest associates. Rob likes memorabilia and offered some anecdotes about incidents he knew about in both New York City and Las Vegas, and I tried to fill in the historical and human-interest details.