In the second episode, Aaron and I discuss the mystery of what happened to the Marlborough Diamond. The listener will learn about the subsequent investigation and arrest of The Monk and The Brain in another audacious scheme long after the Marlborough Diamond caper. In what may be their last crime outside of prison, the 72 year old dynamic duo plan an armored car robbery. The investigating agents learn about another plan. Scalise and Rachel along with a third man are soon caught in the act of a h...
Apr 12, 2016
In this new two part series, I tell about Chicago Mob associates Jerome “Jerry” “The Monk” Scalise and Arthur “The Brain” Rachel. These two guys were master criminals of the Chicago Underworld. Some claim that in the Michael Mann film Thief, the James Caan character, known only as Frank, was modeled on Scalise and the Jim Belushi character, known only as Barry, on Rachel. Thief marked the first film appearance of actor and former Chicago cop Dennis Farina. Another interesting tidbit about the Th...
Apr 06, 2016
For this third segment on Joey Doves, I have gone back to my Freedom of Information Act documents on his criminal history. Aaron and I discuss raids on two clubs he owned. The Frolics and the Magic Lounge were in the 4800 block of Cermak Road, Cicero, Illinois. From the F.B.I. documents, I learned they were notorious strip clubs. The local police had refused to take any action after repeated complaints by the Cicero Minister’s Council. Finally, a State’s Attorney investigator named Spencer T. Ro...
Feb 04, 2016
In this episode, Aaron and I examine exactly how Aiuppa got the nickname, Joey Doves. Most mob fans know he got caught with several hundred dead doves while on a hunting trip in Kansas. We will tell you where in Kansas, who he was hunting with and exactly how this Federal Gaming Law violation went down.
Jan 29, 2016
I recently did a short written blog piece on Joey Doves. Aaron and I did a two-part episode on Joey Doves on Gangland Wire Crime Stories. In this first segment, we examine Aiuppa’s early criminal career. One unusual aspect is something I found in his FBI file. The FBI believe he had a relationship with the famous bank robber, John Dillinger and other Midwest bank bandits.
Jan 29, 2016
In the second segment, Bill Ouseley tells about Chicago mobster, Charles “Cherry Nose” Gioe and his connection to Nick Civella and the 1950s KC Mob Boss, Anthony “Tony” Gizzo. Gizzo was made famous during the Estes Kefauver hearings when asked how much money he usually carried and he pulled a stack of hundred dollar bills from his pocket and counted out twenty-five of them. Gioe and other Chicago Outfit members were doing a “bit” in Leavenworth for extorting money from Hollywood film studios. Du...
Jan 21, 2016
In this third and final segment, we learn about Nick Civella, Carl “Tuffy” DeLuna and their relationship with Joseph “Joey Doves” Aiuppa and the Chicago Outfit. Nick Civella teamed up with the Chicago, Milwaukee and Cleveland Mobs to influence a 62 million dollar Teamster’s Pension Fund loan and finance a man named Allen Glick to buy the Stardust, Hacienda, Frontier and Marina hotel/casinos. This is the situation that Martin Scorsese used to create his fictional film, Casino. Tuffy and Nick go t...
Jan 21, 2016
In the first of three episodes, Aaron and I invite retired F.B.I. Agent Bill Ouseley to discuss the connection between the Chicago Outfit and the Kansas City crime family. We will discuss the early days of Nick Civella’s criminal career and how his trouble with the Kansas City La Cosa Nostra forced him to flee to Chicago on two separate occasions. The second time Nick returns from Chicago, Kansas City mobsters ambush him and a Civella associate is killed. Another Civella associate, Joseph “Buggy...
Jan 21, 2016
Shoplifting seems like a crime done by kleptomaniacs, dysfunctional movie stars or teenagers. Well, there is a huge contingent of professional shoplifters working stores somewhere in the world,as you read this blog. In criminal lingo, a shoplifter is known as a “Booster.” Mostly, they are drug addicts trying to feed their habit. Most work in pairs or larger teams. I remember seeing a report from Metro North Mall back in the 1990s. The clerk stated 4-6 individuals entered the Macy’s store and as ...
Jan 15, 2016
In this podcast, learn how a mob hit gone wrong can be ignored by a Federal judge because of a disagreement with the Strike Force. The U.S. Strike Force was formed to cut though jurisdictional boundaries and eliminate inter agency rivalries. In major American cities with La Cosa Nostra families, the Department of Justice created a separate division titled the Strike Force. Each city had an Assistant U.S. Attorney to lead the Strike Force. Several other attorneys were hired to prosecute Strike Fo...
Sep 30, 2015
This podcast is the first of a two-part series about Kansas City Mob associate James S. “Jimmy” Duardi. Jimmy Duardi was a mobster from the old school. His personality had a range from being a most pleasant fellow to a cold deadly killer. He was the nephew of Gaetanno LaCoco who was a old time mafia leader during prohibition. Retired F.B.I. Agent Bill Ouseley is a guest for this series. Jimmy Duardi and several others, notably Nate Brancato, conspired to take over a large night club in the Grand...
Sep 30, 2015
In the third and final episode I tell about the Mob influence over the Teamster’s local in Cleveland, Ohio and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, In Cleveland a man named Jackie Presser would double deal his way to the top job as president of the Teamsters. His father, Bill Presser, was a guy with connections to both Jimmy Hoffa and Cleveland Mob. Like Allen Dorfman and Roy Lee Williams, he served in WWII. During the 1950s, Jackie Presser rises to International Vice president of the Teamster union. In the ea...
Aug 20, 2015
In the second episode, you will learn about a WW II veteran named Allen Dorfman who returned from combat. Like Roy Williams, Dorfman was a hero and had been awarded the Silver Star. Dorfman’s step-father Paul “Red” Dorfman was a long time Teamster’s official with ties to the Chicago Outfit. In 1949, Red Dorfman was one of only 2 trustees of the Teamster Pension fund, called the Welfare Fund at that time. He set up his wife, Rose Dorfman, and son, Allen Dorfman, as owners of a Chicago branch offi...
Aug 20, 2015
This is the first episode of a three part episode discussing how the Midwest Mob families obtained influence over the Central States Teamsters Pension Fund. I am a member of the Board for the Kansas City Police Pension Fund. We have 800 Million dollars invested. If 5 Board members were to agree to make a multi-million dollar loan to an individual to buy a casino, we could do that. That is exactly what happened to the Central States Teamster’s Pension Fund. By the time Prohibition ended, every ma...
Aug 20, 2015
These three episodes became very topical just as I recorded them. In a free society, we have to protect the worst of us under the law. Democracy is not neat and clean and sometimes not pretty. Do you want the rule of the mob or the rule of law?
Jul 01, 2015
The conundrum in a free society, where does free speech pass from protected to censored? In the recent killings by white power advocate, Dylann Roof, folks are stirred to anger by the image of Roof with a Confederate battle flag. I believe that the majority of popular opinion right now is for banning of this flag. Supporters of the flag as an artifact commemorating soldiers who died in the Civil War are vigorously resisting any restriction of flying this flag. The conflict has become an extensio...
Jul 01, 2015
Starting with Episode 8, I am inserting a photo we took of the Klan members we targeted and arrested in this Intelligence Unit investigation. Episode 8 was Dennis Mahon, the Imperial Dragon of all the White Knights of the KKK. This Episode is Daniel Mahon, the Keagle of the Oklahoma White Knights. In Episode #9, I tell how our investigation began with a conflict between the Missouri White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan and American Cablevision as well as the City Council of Kansas City. Do not try...
Jun 25, 2015
We have new opening and closing segments with local music from Odd-O-Matic, a new independent group with an electro-punk beat with hip-hop undertones. Search for them on Facebook and like their page. To purchase their music go to Itunes. Episode 7 – The Bowery finds me investigating a River Quay area bar. Can you believe, I witnessed a live sex act? This one is definitely X rated for language. Subscribe to my podcast and tell your friends. Remember, we need to get some donations to pay for studi...
Jun 19, 2015
I am researching the next exciting story right now. In 1990, the Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit conducted an investigation into Kansas City Klu Klux Klan activities. Now, listen below to a short wrap up of the Civella/Spero mob war. If you have enjoyed my true crime stories, please support this work and go to the shop page and make a donation.
Apr 08, 2015
This is the exciting conclusion where the informant, Lyle Neal, finally is shown the actual bomb and gets to watch Joe Spero test the bomb remote control detonator.
Apr 03, 2015
In this episode, I tell about the Civellas working on their Las Vegas skim while Joe Spero makes his first attempt to kill Tuffy DeLuna. This may have been better titled as the gang that could not detonate a bomb. Listeners will get an inside look at the difficulty in knowing a murder was about to happen and waiting to make an arrest that will result in a conviction.
Apr 03, 2015
In this episode I tell about the development of some informants. For example, one guy had worked for a mob owned used car lot and auto repair garage. He had been able to listen through a thin wall and hear some snippets of mob plans. When we approached him and asked about his work at this mob owned business, we were making a “cold call.” In other words, we asked him for information without any pressure. We did not know about a situation where Carl Spero involved him in a the theft of a piece of ...
Apr 03, 2015
As KCPD Intelligence and the FBI monitor Civella family soldiers and the Spero brothers, the war heats up. I will tell how law enforcement almost stumbled into the middle of a mob hit going down at a public place.
Apr 03, 2015
In this exciting podcast, I will describe how the origins of the Civella/Spero war began. The murder of Nick Spero followed by revenge from his brothers.
Apr 03, 2015
This post marks the first of my podcast series, Gangland Wire -Crime Stories. After this first short explanation episode, the next 5 episodes will chronicle the 1970s gang war between the Nick Civella crime family and the upstart Spero brother’s faction. I hope this to be the beginning of a long lasting series of Kansas City true crime stories. Some will be cases I was personally involved with and others I research. Sometimes, I will be able to obtain interviews with actual participants. If, you...
Apr 03, 2015
I was interviewed on the Crime Beat Radio show last night. Co-hosts R0n Chepesiuk and Willie Hyb have the world's biggest audience in the true crime genre with over 200,000 listeners. Both are true crime authors in the area of organized crime. They both are very excited about the new perspective Gangland Wire brings to the subject with the extensive use of the actual wiretap audio from government archives. Click here to listen to the interview. Check out Crime Beat shows and more about Ron and W...
Nov 01, 2013•58 min
