The Mafia and the Machine: The Story of the Kansas City Mob

This book is an excellent read from beginning to end. You don't have to be from Kansas City or even a mob enthusiast to enjoy it. The story of the Kansas City Mob is a very important part of American history. Among it's cast of characters are Harry Truman and Pretty Boy Floyd. It's very refreshing to see American law enforcement mature and become more adept at bringing the gangsters down. The Mafia and the Machine: The Story of the Kansas City Mob is probably the best study of political corruption and mob influence on the market. Highly recommended.

This is a story that has long been left untold. I am a "gangster geek" from Kansas City and I have been waiting for a book like this for a long time. With the exception of the Kansas City Massacre very little is known about the Irish and Italian stronghold that controlled the state of Missouri by way of Kansas City. I hope this book leads the way in putting Kansas City where it belongs in gangster history. Great job Mr. Hayde!

This book is truly like no other book. It tells a story you will see only in pieces in other books. The story is a very dynamic, exciting and deadly story of life in Kansas City. This story also has had a huge impact on the country as a whole. The author, Frank R Hayde says things that I don't think have ever been put in print before. They had been rumored around town but not printed. Also, any Kansas City resident will love the book. It tells a story of the town that no one else has mentioned. The book shows the growth of the mob over the past 100 years or so. The author shows how the mob was very tied to Kansas City Democratic Politics. He proves that Tom Pendergast and the Mob were interlinked almost like a hand and a glove. The growth in one allowed the growth in the other. The Pendergast machine allowed the mob to run wild to the point where the city government looked just like the mob. The author goes on to show how that force continued long after Tom left the scene. The KC Mob had a role in the National Mob fight in the 50s. He reviews the River Quay battles in the 70s in very clear wording that rivals the KC Star in the days of the war. If you loved the movie "Casino" you will love his chapter on the role of the KC mob and Vegas. It was pretty much running the show for the whole nation's mob for a long time. The KC mob was the crew that put the muscle on the teamsters which bankrolled the mob expansion in Vegas. That is a fact the movie points out. In a way their Vegas efforts had a very large national impact. The book also has several interesting allegations that any KC resident will love. He talks about allegations that the loved Len Dawson was involved in a point shaving scheme. He talks about links to politics up to this day. It is interesting to read about how this event or that event occurred here or there. In a strange way certain parts of the city's character back then has an impact on that section of the city today. Overall everyone will love this tale of the mob. Tom

Law enforcement officer Frank R. Hayde presents The Mafia and the Machine: The Story of the Kansas City Mob, the mesmerizing true story of the Mafia's influence in Kansas City politics during the course of the twentieth century. Mob infiltration in the police department, the Democratic Party, the Teamsters Union, and more manifested as terror spread on election days, "licensed" and "protected" criminal rackets, and eruptions of violence. Mob activity was a daily part of Kansas City life for decades. Efficiently researched and told with a sense of excitement sure to intrigue readers of all backgrounds, The Mafia and the Machine is a highly recommended contribution to American history and criminal history shelves.

Author Frank Hayde left no stone unturned as he assembled a comprehensive and readable history of the Kansas City underworld. He neatly tied together generations of political shenanigans by the influential Pendergast political machine and numerous murders and illicit business ventures by the local Sicilian-Italian Mafia organization. In telling just over a century's worth of history, Hayde did considerably more than merely hit the high points - the Union Station Massacre, point-shaving allegations against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Strawman case, and the shocking assassination of a political boss within a Democratic headquarters. Hayde also provided rich detail on little known events, such as the Election Day riots of the 1920s and 1930s and the River Quay war, without ever allowing his narrative to become bogged down. The result is the most complete picture yet of the Kansas City underworld and of the mutualistic relationship between organized politics and organized crime. Drawing from court testimony, interviews and law enforcement surveillance, Hayde was able to tell plenty of the history through the actual words of the people who made that history. The big names on the seedier side of Kansas City's last century are all to be found within the covers of The Mafia and the Machine: several generations of Pendergasts; loyal machine politician Guy Park; Mafia front men Johnny Lazia and Charlie Binaggio; mobsters Joseph "Scarface" DiGiovanni, James Balestrere, Tano Lococo, Tony Gizzo and the Civellas - "Uncle Nick," "Carl the Cork" and "Tony Ripe." Crimefighters were not neglected. Hayde discussed the efforts of crusading journalists and grassroots organizations and those of investigative agencies from the Kansas City Police Department all the way to the federal bureaus commanded by Harry Anslinger and J. Edgar Hoover. U.S. President Harry Truman, an admitted product of the Pendergast Machine, was handled frankly and fairly by the author. At the back of his book, Hayde kindly provided short biographies of the dozens of individuals who played a prominent role in Kansas City's underworld history. He also included a partial bibliography. As thorough and well crafted as the book is, there are some missing elements. There is no index, and the Table of Contents' brief titles often provide little or no clue as to the subject or time period dealt with in individual chapters. Researchers on the topic of Kansas City organized crime could also be frustrated by the lack of notes and the incompleteness of the bibliography. As it stands, The Mafia and the Machine is solid history and interesting reading.