The Five Iron Men



With the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, gambling again became the lucrative activity of the underworld. With Kansas City being a wide-open town there were tremendous profits to be earned. After Lazia’s murder in 1934, political leadership in the North End was assumed by Charles Binaggio, but a group of gambling lords also wielded power in the Kansas City underworld. In Ed Reid’s Mafia, published in 1952, he refers to these bosses as the "iron men" and identifies them as James Balestrere, Peter and Joseph DiGiovanni, Joseph DeLuca, and Anthony Gizzo. Except for Gizzo, the others were known for being part of the Mafia.

During the days following the murder of Binaggio in April 1950, there were several St. Louis Post-Dispatch articles that mentioned the "big five." The articles refer to "the principal gang figures immediately below Binaggio in rank." They identify those figures as Charley "Mad Dog" Gargotta (murdered with Binaggio), Charles Carollo, James Balestrere, Gaetano Lococo, and Anthony Gizzo.

In Sen. Estes Kefauver’s, "Crime In America," his synopsis of his 14-city crime investigation tour, he states that Max H. Goldschein, a special assistant U.S. attorney, testified in 1950 that, "the Five Iron Men" were Binaggio, Balestrere, Gargotta, Gizzo, and Lococo.

While Balestrere has already been discussed and Binaggio will be talked about in depth later, Carollo, Lococo, Gargotta and Gizzo will be focused on here.

Charles Vincenzo "Charley the Wop" Carollo was born in Santa Ristino, Italy and never became a naturalized American citizen. He may have been considered first among equals in the gambling business after Lazia’s murder. Carollo had been the closest to Lazia, his loyalty extending back to the 1920s when he "took the rap" for Lazia after he was indicted in a liquor conspiracy.

Carollo kept a low profile until the fall of 1933 when a crusading judge, Allen C. Southern, began a grand jury investigation. The probe not only targeted the gambling rackets, but also the monopoly the gangs enjoyed in the beer and beverage distribution business. When the grand jury went to work looking for slot machines, the slots disappeared with "phantomlike" speed into storage for the duration of the investigation. In addition to Carollo and Lazia being called before the grand jury, a pending tax-evasion case against Lazia, which Pendergast had worked hard to suppress, was reopened.

In June 1934, two minor hoodlums from Los Angeles received permission to open a gambling den in Kansas City that they named the Fortune Club. Carollo met with the two men six months later to let them know he was now a half-owner in the club. He figured the protection he provided for the pair was at least worth that much. In March 1938, he notified his "partners" that he was buying them out for $5,000 each. By then the club was making, by conservative estimates, $60,000 a month. When the authorities launched a cleanup campaign in January 1939 they were surprised to find out that Carollo was the secret owner of the club.

While local investigators believed that Carollo became the leader of the Kansas City mob after Lazia’s murder, federal authorities considered him to be only a front for an "even bigger man, another Italian" who they did not name, although speculation was that it was Charles Binaggio.

Carollo was indicted on income-tax evasion charges after the revelation of his ownership of the Fortune Club. District Attorney Maurice M. Milligan –the same man who brought down Tom Pendergast – prosecuted the case. While Carollo’s actual position in the underworld was always in question, his trial revealed that his chief function was as a collector of the "lug." The "lug" was the tax charged to the gambling houses in Kansas City to remain in operation. The investigation revealed that from 19 gambling houses targeted the "lug" had gone from $53,000 annually in 1935, to almost double, $103,000 by 1938. Carollo admitted during testimony that he, "collected the lug for Pendergast, among others, making direct payments to the Boss and his secretary."

At Carollo’s sentencing, Milligan made the following statement:

"The investigation into the background of this defendant reveals the fact that after the death of Lazia this defendant took over the authority exercised by Lazia in his lifetime, relative to gambling and rackets carried on in Kansas City, Missouri; that he grew in power even greater than his predecessor; that he had a full entrée into the offices of the high officials in the city administration. According to the testimony, he was seen going into and out of the private office of the former city manager; that he had full entrée into the police headquarters, and almost daily was a visitor at the office of the director of police."

Carollo was sent to prison at Leavenworth. His sentence consisted of one year for mail fraud; three years for income-tax evasion; and four years for perjury. Prison life didn’t exactly put Carollo on the straight and narrow. Shortly after he arrived at Leavenworth he got involved in a smuggling operation bringing contraband articles into the prison. For these offenses he was transferred to Alcatraz. After his release from prison, Carollo was deported on January 7, 1954.

Author Ed Reid wrote that no matter who was running the Kansas City rackets –

Lazia, Carollo or Binaggio – the enforcement end of the gang fell to Gizzo, Gargotta, and Lococo, with "Lococo serving as the engineer or quarterback." While working for the bosses these men were said to be in constant communication with James Balestrere who, if not in name, functioned similar to a family consigliere.

Gaetano Lococo, also known as Thomas or Tano, claimed to have been born in America prior to the turn of the 20th century. Ed Reid described Lococo as follows:

"Known as a Mafia enforcer in Kansas City, he was one of the key group of young Italian storm troopers who fronted for John Lazia in the early days. With Tony Gizzo and the late Charley Gargotta he served on the mob enforcement squad."

Senator Kefauver had another description of Lococo:

"Lococo was a mousy, insignificant, bespectacled little man whose appearance belied his reputation as another of Binaggio’s ‘enforcers.’"

Reid claimed Lococo’s police record was removed from the files of the Kansas City Police Department because "he was virtually in control of the police department in the 1930s." Reid states that Lococo "wriggled out of the clutches of the law" in 1933 in connection with one gang killing. Which leaves one to wonder if Lococo was the fourth man involved in the ill-fated getaway after the murder of Ferris Anthon.

In 1946, Lococo was one of four gang members under Binaggio who muscled in and took over the race-wire service in Kansas City. In 1948, he traveled to Nogales, Ariz., where he posed as a retired businessman. Hiring the local mayor as his attorney, he purchased a hotel for $50,000. When he approached the county sheriff with a proposal to start a gambling operation there, he was rebuffed. He quickly sold the hotel and left town.

Reid claims that a meeting took place in Tia Juana, Mexico to plan the murder of Binaggio and that Lococo may have "helped arrange things." Lococo had a family tie to the boss. He was the uncle of Binaggio’s wife.

In addition to his involvement in gambling, Lococo owned several drug stores in the Kansas City area. He and his wife spent large blocks of time in Arizona and Mexico due to Lococo’s bouts with arthritis.

When Lococo was called to testify before the Kefauver Committee, Sen. Charles W. Tobey asked him about his "ugly reputation," which, according to Reid, was that he was "probably the most skillful and experienced killer in the city."

Lococo replied, "You can’t give me a single man in Kansas City who could ever say that I threatened him or said anything wrong to him or anywhere else."

During the time the Kefauver hearings were in session, Lococo was also on trial for income-tax evasion. He was convicted and sentenced to two years in Leavenworth.

And now to Gargotta. According to Sen. Estes Kefauver, "If ever a human being deserved the title of ‘Mad Dog’ it was Gargotta."

Born in Kansas City, Gargotta was arrested more than 40 times over a 30-year period. Those charges included murder, gambling, liquor law violations, carrying a concealed weapon, robbery, auto theft, extortion, attempted burglary and vagrancy. Incredibly, all of the charges were dismissed with the exception of an assault to kill charge for his attempted murder of Sheriff Bash.

While attempting to flee after the killing of Ferris Anthon and the attempted murder of Bash in 1934, Gargotta was charged with murder, attempted murder, and the theft of two revolvers from the Army, which were used during the crimes. When he was tried on the stolen revolvers charge, Leonard L. Claiborne, a Kansas City detective, switched tags on a gun found on Gargotta and another recovered near the murder scene. He then lied on the witness stand having been promised a promotion. Instead Claiborne was sentenced to four years in prison.

The prosecutor selected to handle the murder trial, W. W. Graves, asked for and received 27 continuances over a five-year period before he dismissed the charges against Gargotta all together. Graves was later removed from office by the Missouri Supreme Court for "neglect of duty" for his handling of the case.

Gargotta was eventually re-indicted for the attempted murder of Sheriff Bash as part of Gov. Lloyd Stark’s cleanup drive. Gargotta pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison. However, the Missouri Pardon Board recommended his parole after just 19 months and he was released in January 1941.

Gargotta became Binaggio’s bodyguard and would be murdered with him in April 1950 at the North End’s Democratic headquarters.

Anthony Robert "Fat Tony" Gizzo seemed to be associated with everyone in the Kansas City underworld. In the early 1920s, when he was arrested on a narcotics charge, he offered a federal officer $10,000 to let it go. He was convicted and in 1924 served two years in prison.

Gizzo was involved in gambling operations with Lazia, Carollo, and Binaggio. He was also rumored to be Balestrere’s "personal representation" in Wichita, Kan., where he was considered the Mafia boss.

"Fat Tony" could be called a character. During his testimony before the Kefauver Committee it was revealed that Gizzo was an acquaintance of numerous top mobsters throughout the country. Kefauver described Gizzo as, "a boastful, noisy, beer barrel of a man" and, in apparently an opinion Kefauver developed from interrogating an abundance of underworld figures, "was the only one whose performance was a reasonable facsimile of how a gangster is supposed to act."

When Sen. Alexander Wiley asked him about his rumored habit of carrying large sums of money, Gizzo replied, "Do you want to see it?" From his pocket the overweight gangster pulled out a roll of bills and counted off 25 $100 bills.

Gizzo had one of the more interesting exchanges with the committee when he was asked,

"Do you belong to the Mafia?"

"What is the Mafia?" he responded. "I don’t even know what the Mafia is."

Apparently Gizzo forgot this exchange and was later asked if he knew James Balestrere.

"Yes, sir," Gizzo replied.

"He is rather widely known as a prominent man in the Mafia, isn’t he?" asked the committee.

"That’s what you hear," said Gizzo.

"What did you hear?" questioned the committee.

"The same thing that you just said there," answered Gizzo.

Reminded of this conversation during public hearings held later, Gizzo cried out, "I wish to hell I knew what the Mafia is!"

After the murders of Binaggio and Gargotta, and the imprisonment of Lococo, Gizzo would assume the leadership of the Kansas City underworld. His rule would be short lived, but it wouldn’t be a violent ending. On April 1, 1953, Gizzo died of a massive heart attack in a hotel room in Dallas. The 52-year-old and his wife had gone to Texas to visit their son who was serving time for a narcotics offense.


Charles Binaggio



Charles Binaggio was born in Beaumont, Tex., and moved to Kansas City with his family while he was still a youth. Not much is known about his early years. Living on Kansas City’s North Side, Binaggio became acquainted with Johnny Lazia who found work for him in one of his downtown gambling operations.

Binaggio was determined to follow in Lazia’s footsteps. He worked at the business of politics seven days a week building a following by performing favors for his constituents – finding jobs for them, and most importantly, helping them when they got in trouble with the law. He became an important political organizer and rose quickly through the ranks. Except for Gov. Forrest Smith, Binaggio became the most recognized leader of the Democratic Party. His detractors claimed that his rise came from his connections to the Kansas City Mafia, who backed him for leadership because of his organizing ability and his minor criminal record.

On his way to the top, Binaggio merged seven Democratic clubs and seized control of the North Side from Jim Pendergast, the nephew of Boss Tom Pendergast. Some believe Binaggio’s most brilliant political move was supporting Forrest Smith for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1948. Binaggio and Jim Pendergast had actually worked together until the mid-1940s before splitting on who the Democrats would support for governor.

As mentioned earlier, Missouri native son, Harry S Truman was a close friend of Jim Pendergast and served with him during World War I. Truman’s early success in politics was accomplished under the auspices of Tom Pendergast, a fact that his political opponents would continually use against him. Later, when Truman became president, Jim Pendergast was a frequent guest in Washington D.C. Despite Binaggio’s prominence in the Democratic Party, he was not welcome at the White House. Binaggio’s enemies claimed it was his arrest record, not his split with Pendergast, which kept him from an invitation to the Oval Office.

In 1946, while Binaggio and Jim Pendergast were still political allies, their political organization was involved in a well-publicized voting fraud scandal. It involved the Democratic primary held in August 1946 in which Enos Axtell ousted incumbent Roger C. Slaughter. President Truman had endorsed Axtell and in doing so publicly demanded that the defiant Slaughter be "purged."

While a grand jury was investigating the allegations of voter fraud, thieves broke into the Jackson County Courthouse and used nitroglycerin to blast open a safe. The intruders removed ballots and election records that supported the eighty-one vote fraud indictments.

In Jefferson City, the Republican state chairman commented that the theft indicated that the Pendergast machine "is just as rampant under the protection of Harry S Truman as it was under Mr. Truman’s mentor Tom Pendergast." As a result of the ballot theft, many of Binaggio’s aides escaped prosecution when the vote fraud cases collapsed. The one exception was Morris "Snag" Klein, an important associate of Binaggio’s who was known as one of the top gamblers in the city.

By the late 1940s, Binaggio oversaw a bloc of 30,000 votes and no other political boss in the state controlled more. Although some politicians were concerned about Binaggio’s underworld connections, they still came to him for the votes he could muster. At least two senators and six representatives were reputed to be under his control in the Missouri State Legislature.

Binaggio’s base of operations on the North Side was the First District Democratic Club. Newspapers gave the following description of the location and the activity that took place there:

"The political headquarters of Binaggio was in a large meeting hall on Truman Road in a neighborhood of cheap hotels and restaurants, second-hand furniture stores and used car lots. On election days squadrons of ghost voters were assembled in that room and dispatched to various polling places to vote in the names of absent or long dead citizens."

As far as Binaggio’s arrest record, it began in 1930. Some of his early arrests seemed to indicate that the Kansas City mob could have had a strong influence in Colorado during the 1930s. On Jan. 18, 1930, Binaggio was arrested in Denver along with Anthony Gizzo for carrying a concealed weapon. Their sentences were suspended after they agreed to leave town. One year later, Binaggio was arrested in Denver again, this time for vagrancy. In Kansas City he was arrested twice for bootlegging, in both cases the charges were dropped. In August 1939, he was arrested in Denver for again carrying a concealed weapon.

Another well-publicized arrest occurred in 1945 when Binaggio was involved in operating the Green Hills Country Club, a gambling resort in Platt County, Mo. Also involved with the club were Gus Gargotta, the brother of Charley, Nick Penna, Anthony "Slick" Bondon, Binaggio's father-in-law, and Fred Wedow, who was described as a "veteran gambler."

During the 1940s, Binaggio was reputed to be the man in charge of the Harmony News Service, the Capone syndicate’s race-wire operation in Kansas City. The newspapers called Binaggio the "king-pin of state-wide gambling." Binaggio was also involved in the distribution of the Capone syndicate’s Canadian Ace Beer. He once admitted to a reporter that he received a 25-percent "cut" from the profits of the Duke Sales Company, the wholesaling firm that distributed the beer. He then refused to divulge his other business interests stating, "you will only crucify them in your newspaper."

When Binaggio swung the vote and won the Democratic nomination for Forest Smith in the governor’s race in 1948, he convinced the gambling interests throughout the state that with their financial support Smith could win in the November election and they could "open up" the state. The amount of money the gamblers put up was estimated to be between $50,000 to $200,000, most of it from the St. Louis/East St. Louis area. Smith won the election, but after he took office on Jan. 10, 1949, "the word" came from Jefferson City, the Missouri State capitol, that the gambling interests would have to wait six months for the new administration to settle in.

Some gamblers didn’t wait and this indiscretion resulted in their operations being raided by the police. Other gamblers set a date of July 1, to see what would happen with Smith. When that day came and went, gamblers were told there was an additional 30-day moratorium due to unforeseen circumstances. When the 30-day period ran out, angry gamblers were looking for someone to blame. It was Binaggio who had handled the campaign financing and made the promises. Whether he made those promises on his own, or on someone else’s assurances, would never be known.

On the evening of April 5, 1950, Binaggio was picked up by his chauffeur Nick Penna. The two men drove to the Last Chance Tavern in which Binaggio had an interest with Charley Gargotta, who he planned to meet there. The tavern, a gambling house, was located on the borderline between Kansas and Missouri. Whenever raiders from one state came to close the operation, the players would just move to the opposite side of the room. Law enforcement officers from both states could never seem to synchronize their raids in order to arrive at the same time.

Shortly after Binaggio arrived at the club, around 8 p.m., he received a telephone call. He then asked one of the employees at the club if he and Gargotta could borrow his automobile. As the two men started to leave, Nick Penna began to follow.

"You needn’t come, Nick," Binaggio told him. "We’ll be back in 15 or 20 minutes."

Penna later told police that when the pair had failed to return, he waited until 4 a.m. and then went home.

Binaggio and Gargotta then drove to the First District Democratic Club. Who they met there is not known, but around 8:30 three residents of the Como Hotel, located above the club, heard what sounded to them like gunfire.

The bodies of Binaggio and Gargotta were found around 4 a.m. the following morning. Police believed the killers were known to both men as neither one was armed. Binaggio’s body was sprawled in a swivel chair at his desk. His assassin pressed a .32 caliber automatic to his head and pulled the trigger four times. All four wounds bore powder burns.

Police theorized that Gargotta then ran for the front door to escape. The first of four bullets hit Gargotta in the back of the head from several feet away. After he fell to the floor, his killer stood over him and fired three more bullets into his head at close range.

The sensational double murder made headlines across the country, reverberating all the way to the Capital Building in Washington D.C. The day after the killings, Missouri Republican Dewey Short addressed the House of Representatives and inferred that Binaggio had been "bumped off" because he opposed the nomination of President Truman’s hand-picked candidate for senator.

The funerals were held on April 10. Foremost among the mourners that day was Frank Costello from New York. Costello was rumored to have been negotiating with Binaggio to place slot machines in Kansas City. Costello was in the company of "several Chicago representatives of the Capone syndicate." Anthony Gizzo, the heir apparent to Binaggio, hosted the group.


Nick Civella



Guiseppe Nicoli Civella was born on March 19, 1912 in the North End section of Kansas City known as "Little Italy." In 1922, at the age of 10, he was taken before local juvenile authorities for "incorrigibility." Shortly after this incident he dropped out of school, however, in later life he would be described as a well-read man who enjoyed classical music. Before he reached the age of 20, Civella had been arrested for auto theft, gambling, robbery, and vagrancy. In 1932, he was arrested for bootlegging and served two months in prison.

During the early 1940s, Civella became a Democratic precinct worker for Charles Binaggio in the North End. After World War II Civella moved up the crime family ladder. He served as a bodyguard and chauffeur for Anthony Gizzo, who at the time was working as an enforcer for Binaggio’s gambling operations.

After Gizzo’s death there was a vacuum left in the leadership that didn’t last long. During the Kefauver Hearings held in Kansas City during 1950, Civella was identified as a "figure to watch" in organized crime in the city. He attended the infamous conclave in Apalachin, N.Y., held on Nov. 14, 1957, where Civella was more fortunate than most of his criminal colleagues at the meeting. He and fellow Kansas City mobster Joseph Filardo were able to avoid the roadblocks and make their way to a Binghamton, N.Y., railroad station where they took the first train home.

Several months after the Apalachin incident, Civella was served with a subpoena to appear before a U.S. Senate committee to discuss his attendance at the now famous summit. Civella testified, but like most of the men investigated for being there, nothing came of it.

Roy Lee Williams, future president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, met Civella in 1952 when the two were both chairmen of Democratic political clubs in Kansas City. Williams would later testify that he and Civella talked about the Apalachin meeting. According to Williams, Civella told him that "among other things, territory and cooperation were discussed." Roy Williams would also talk about Civella’s influence on him in the Teamster’s union. He testified that in the late 1950s, a few years after the pension fund was established, he left a meeting one night and was shoved into an automobile, blindfolded, and driven to a location where a bright light was shone on him. He was warned that he had better start cooperating with Civella on his requests for pension fund loans or his wife and children would be killed. "You will be the last to go," he was told.

Civella was next called in front of a Chicago grand jury that was investigating organized crime activities in the Midwest in 1959. He would also be charged in two Missouri State tax evasion cases. In one case he was convicted and fined $150. The second case was dismissed.

Civella’s brother Carl, nicknamed "Cork," was his closest confidante over the years. On June 13, 1960, Civella and his brother had the dubious distinction of being named charter members in the famous "Black Book" of Nevada along with nine other gambling figures. An article in The Kansas City Times said that Civella was, "one of three men who crossed the country regularly as couriers for the ‘grand council of the Cosa Nostra.’" The Civellas and the others were banned from all Nevada casinos.

In The Black Book and the Mob, authors Ronald A. Farrell and Carole Case reveal:

"The first 11 men were placed in the Black Book without any formal notification or hearing. All were reputed to be notorious associates of organized crime … Without apparent sanction of the commission, the board and its chairman, former FBI agent R. J. Abbaticchio, Jr., decided that these individuals presented a threat to the industry, and instructed the enforcement agents to distribute the List of Excluded Persons to all state-licensed gaming establishments."

In 1966, Civella was called to appear before a Clay County grand jury. Afterwards, the news media asked him why it took him 15 minutes to address the group. Civella replied that he, "stopped in the men’s room," where he, "was drawing dirty pictures on the wall." Law enforcement agencies did not appreciate Civella’s humor or his ability to elude conviction. This would result in their constant surveillance of him for the rest of his life.

In 1969, Civella was identified by a Senate committee as being a principal member of the Kansas City Crime Family. During a 10-day period in mid-January 1970, the FBI picked up information through listening devices to indict Civella and several others on gambling conspiracy charges involving the recent Super Bowl between Kansas City and Minnesota. One of the men indicted, Sol Landie, a prominent Kansas City gambling figure, was called before a grand jury and given immunity from prosecution for his testimony. In November 1970, four black men invaded Landie’s home on the pretense of robbing him. Landie was murdered and his wife viciously raped by the intruders. The men were soon arrested and it was revealed that they were hired to kill Landie because of his testimony.

While Civella was not tried for Landie’s murder, he was convicted of the gambling charges in 1975. After a long appeals process, Civella was finally sent to prison in 1977. It was the first time since the 1920s that he found himself behind bars. Civella served just 20 months before he was given an early release due to poor health. Civella had been treated for cancer during the long trial and appeals process and had pelvic organs removed during surgery. He would be operated on again in 1978.

In 1974, after an elaborate arrangement involving the Kansas City, Cleveland and Milwaukee Crime Families, and their ties to the Teamsters and the Teamster’s pension fund, Allen Glick, through the Argent Corporation, assumed control of the Stardust and Fremont hotel/casinos in Las Vegas. Civella’s control of Teamster’s pension fund trustee Roy Williams was essential to Glick obtaining the loan to make the purchase. After the loan was approved for Glick in 1974, Roy Williams stated he then became Civella’s "boy" and received payments of $1,500 each month for his cooperation in getting the loan put through.

When Frank Fitzsimmons, Jimmy Hoffa’s hand picked replacement as president of the Teamsters, was dying of cancer in early 1981, Civella let the underworld know that Williams, now a high ranking official in the Teamster’s organization, was under his control. Permission was quickly obtained from the Chicago and New York mob bosses and when Fitzsimmons died in May 1981, Williams replaced him.

Apparently Glick didn’t realize that by being tied to the mob he would have little say in running the operations. The mob put Frank Rosenthal in charge of overseeing its interests. When Glick and Rosenthal clashed, Glick tried to fire him. Rosenthal threatened Glick, who then went to Frank Balistrieri of Milwaukee to complain.

Glick was ordered to meet with Civella in Kansas City in March 1975. The two met in a hotel room where Civella told him that he owed the Kansas City Family $1.2 million dollars for getting the loan approved. The naïve Glick was not aware of mob operating procedures in regards to procuring loans from the Teamster’s pension fund, which the mob considered its own private bank. According to Glick, he was told by Civella, "Cling to every word I say … if it would be my choice, you wouldn’t leave this room alive. You owe us $1.2 million. I want that paid. In addition, we own part of your corporation, and you are to do nothing to interfere with it … We will let Mr. Rosenthal continue with the casinos, and you are not to interfere."

Shortly after his release from prison for health reasons, Civella was indicted on bribery charges. Civella, who seldom had anything to say to grand juries or other investigative committees, had been recorded in November 1978 discussing the bribing of a prison official to get his nephew, Anthony "Tony Ripe" Civella, transferred to a federal prison in Fort Worth. Civella was taken back into custody and was convicted of bribery charges on July 18, 1980. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

With the information from the listening devices the FBI was able to revoke Civella’s parole and he was sent to Leavenworth Penitentiary. There agents tapped the telephone in the visiting room, which provided further proof that Civella was calling the shots for the Kansas City mob.

Civella’s last years had been spent battling in the federal courts. With dozens of court motions filed by his lawyers, Civella fought to stay out of prison; to transfer within the prison system; and to get out of prison early. Citing poor health reasons, family and friends collected 800 signatures on a petition, including those of politicians and clergymen, in hopes of getting Civella another early release.

The request for his release in 1982 was turned down. In February 1983, Civella, who had been at the federal medical facility in Springfield, was transferred back to Leavenworth so he could be closer to his attorneys. Four days after the transfer he was returned to Springfield for treatment. Federal authorities released him to his family on March 1 and Civella was quickly admitted to the Menorah Medical Center in Kansas City where he died on March 12, 1983.