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”.
