Kansas City Crime Family

The Kansas City crime family — also called the Civella family or the Outfit — is the Italian-American organized-crime organization based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded around 1912 by Sicilian immigrants Joseph and Peter DiGiovanni, it grew rich on Prohibition-era bootlegging under the protection of the Pendergast political machine, was led in turn by Johnny Lazia, Charles Binaggio, and (for three decades) Nick Civella, and reached national notoriety in the 1970s–80s for skimming Las Vegas casino profits through its grip on the Teamsters pension fund — a scheme dismantled by the FBI’s “Operation Strawman” prosecutions that effectively broke the family’s power.¹²

Overview

For most of the 20th century the Kansas City family was one of the most influential Mafia organizations in the American Midwest, far out of proportion to the city’s size. Its leverage came from three interlocking sources: a monopoly on local gambling and vice rackets, deep entanglement with city politics (first the Pendergast machine, later the family’s own political clubs), and — most consequentially — control of the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund, which it used to direct loans into Las Vegas casinos and to skim their cash profits.¹³ Though sometimes operating as a satellite of the larger Chicago Outfit, the family held a seat at national Mafia gatherings, including the 1957 Apalachin meeting.³ By the 21st century, federal prosecutions and attrition had reduced it to a shadow of its mid-century strength.¹

History

Founding era — the DiGiovanni brothers (~1912–1920s)

The organization traces to two Sicilian brothers, Joseph “Joe Church” DiGiovanni and Peter “Sugarhouse Pete” DiGiovanni, who emigrated to Kansas City around 1912.¹ Joseph became involved in Black Hand extortion preying on the local Italian community; in 1915 he and more than a dozen others were arrested in connection with a Black Hand operation.¹ When national Prohibition took effect in 1920, the brothers pivoted from small-scale extortion to bootlegging, becoming effectively the only group producing and trafficking illegal liquor in Kansas City — a far more lucrative and professionalized enterprise.¹

Prohibition + the Pendergast alliance — Johnny Lazia

The family’s rise was inseparable from the Pendergast machine that controlled Kansas City government. Boss Tom Pendergast and city manager Henry McElroy gave the organization a virtually free hand to run its rackets in exchange for delivery of votes — above all on the heavily Italian North Side.¹⁴ John “Johnny” Lazia (1896–1934) emerged as the underworld’s leading figure and the machine’s North Side enforcer, controlling that ward’s vote.⁴ Lazia is widely suspected of involvement in the Union Station Massacre of June 17, 1933, in which four lawmen and prisoner Frank “Jelly” Nash were killed; he is believed to have helped shield the perpetrators.⁵ The public outrage that followed made Lazia a liability, and on July 10, 1934 he was shot eight times outside his apartment, dying hours later — a killing many attribute to forces within or allied to his own organization.⁴

Mid-century — Binaggio, the Gargotta killings

After Lazia’s death, leadership passed to underboss Charles Carrollo, who was convicted of tax evasion in 1939.¹ Charles Binaggio (1909–1950) then rose to the top, founding the First Ward Democratic Club and expanding the family’s political reach — he is credited with helping elect Missouri Governor Forrest Smith in 1948 — while pursuing an ambitious plan to control the police forces of both Kansas City and St. Louis.⁶ On the night of April 5–6, 1950, Binaggio and his enforcer Charles “Mad Dog” Gargotta were lured to the First Ward Democratic Club and each shot four times in the head; the murders were never solved and are widely believed to have been ordered from within the Mafia hierarchy.⁶⁷ The killings shocked the nation and helped spur the U.S. Senate’s Kefauver Committee investigation into organized crime.⁶

The Civella era (1953–1983)

Nicholas “Nick” Civella (March 19, 1912 – March 12, 1983) became boss in 1953, following the death of Anthony Gizzo.¹³ Under Civella the family reached its peak of national influence. He attended the 1957 Apalachin meeting and built alliances with the Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee organizations.³ Nevada gaming regulators placed Civella in the “Black Book,” barring him from the state’s casinos.³ His most important asset was influence over Teamsters official Roy Lee Williams — eventually the union’s president — which gave the family sway over the Central States Pension Fund and its lending to Las Vegas casinos.¹³ His brother Carl “Cork” Civella and lieutenant Carl “Tuffy” DeLuna served as acting bosses during Nick’s later imprisonments.¹

The River Quay war (1977–1984)

In the mid-1970s an internal conflict erupted over the River Quay entertainment district (today’s River Market). Family figures including Joe and Willie “the Rat” Cammisano wanted to restore the area’s old red-light character, while tavern owner Fred Bonadonna — whose father David was a made member — resisted.⁸ David Bonadonna was murdered and found in a car trunk on July 22, 1976.⁸ On March 27, 1977, bombs destroyed two River Quay bars, Judge Roy Bean’s and Pat O’Brien’s, ruining the district’s reputation; Fred Bonadonna entered witness protection.⁸ The dispute touched off a string of mob killings through the late 1970s and contributed to the internal disorder federal investigators would soon exploit.⁸

The Las Vegas skim + the Strawman collapse (1980s)

The Kansas City family controlled a pipeline of untaxed cash skimmed from the Tropicana casino in Las Vegas, routed monthly to Civella and allied Midwest families.⁹ FBI surveillance — including a 1978 bug at the Villa Capri pizzeria and recordings of skim discussions — built the case the bureau called Operation Strawman.⁹² In November 1981 a federal grand jury in Kansas City indicted Civella, his brother Carl, Carl DeLuna, casino figures Joe Agosto and Carl Thomas, and others on charges tied to skimming and hidden ownership of the Tropicana.¹² The defendants were convicted in 1983.² A parallel “Strawman II” prosecution exposed skimming at the Stardust and other Argent-managed casinos and implicated bosses across several cities, alongside the conviction of Teamsters president Roy Williams.¹² Nick Civella, released from prison in February 1983 because of terminal lung cancer, died on March 12, 1983.³

Decline

Carl “Cork” Civella led briefly before his own conviction; leadership later passed to Willie “the Rat” Cammisano and then, in 1995, to Nick’s nephew Anthony “Tony Ripe” Civella (d. 2006).¹ Stripped of its political reach, its gambling monopoly, and its Teamsters leverage by the Strawman prosecutions, the family shrank dramatically; by the mid-2010s it was reported to number only around a dozen made members, with activity confined to gambling, loansharking, extortion, and adult-entertainment businesses.¹

Leadership lineage (summary list, cross-linked)

• DiGiovanni brothers (founding, ~1912) → Charles Carrollo’s predecessor era / Johnny Lazia (North Side power, d. 1934) → Charles Carrollo (to 1939) → Charles Binaggio (to 1950) → Anthony Gizzo (to 1953) → Nick Civella (1953–1983) → Carl “Cork” Civella → Willie “the Rat” Cammisano → Anthony “Tony Ripe” Civella (1995–2006)¹³

Significance to Kansas City

The crime family is a defining thread in Kansas City’s 20th-century history. Its symbiosis with the Pendergast machine shaped the city’s reputation as a “wide-open town” during Prohibition, and its later Las Vegas operations made Kansas City the unlikely hinge of one of the most consequential Mafia prosecutions in U.S. history — the Strawman cases that helped end mob control of the Las Vegas casinos and inspired the book and film Casino.¹² The family’s footprint survives in local memory through sites like the River Quay (now River Market) and in the institutional reforms that followed Binaggio’s murder.⁶⁸

Sources

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia — “Kansas City crime family.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_crime_family ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

2. The Mob Museum — “The Kansas City connection.” https://themobmuseum.org/blog/kansas-city-connection/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. Wikipedia — “Nicholas Civella.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Civella ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

4. The Pendergast Years (Kansas City Public Library) — “John F. Lazia.” https://pendergastkc.org/articles/john-f-lazia ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. The Pendergast Years (Kansas City Public Library) — “The Union Station Massacre.” https://pendergastkc.org/articles/union-station-massacre ↩

6. Wikipedia — “Charles Binaggio.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Binaggio ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. The Mob Museum — “Mobbed-up power broker Charles Binaggio gunned down in Kansas City 75 years ago.” https://themobmuseum.org/blog/mobbed-up-power-broker-charles-binaggio-gunned-down-in-kansas-city-75-years-ago/ ↩

8. KC Yesterday — “The Rise and Fall of Kansas City’s River Quay: A Tale of Ambition, Mafia Infiltration, and Legacy.” https://kcyesterday.com/articles/river-quay-kansas-city-mafia ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

9. Gangsters Inc. — “‘Sometimes the most obvious is the best way’ – The Kansas City Mob and the skimming of Las Vegas casinos” (Feb. 9, 2018). https://gangstersinc.org/2018/02/09/sometimes-the-most-obvious-is-the-best-way-the-kansas-city-mob-and-the-skimming-of-las-vegas-casinos/ ↩ ↩²