River Quay Incident



In 1971, Marion Trozzolo, a local college professor and inventor, began the River Quay Corporation to redevelop 19th century buildings in an area around the Kansas City riverfront. The area was situated next door to the City Market section, in which Nick Civella kept a headquarters. In 1972, Fred Bonadonna opened a restaurant that catered to the area’s businessmen and local political leaders. Bonadonna was the son of David Bonadonna, Sr., a long time friend and member of William Cammisano, Sr.’s gang.

By November 1974, the River Quay area was a thriving thoroughfare of almost 70 retail establishments including specialty shops, art galleries, restaurants, theatres, antique shops, and small boutiques. Fred Bonadonna was named president of the River Quay Bar and Restaurant Association and vice president of the Market Area Businessmen’s Association, a group of civic and business leaders in the River Quay neighborhood.

Meanwhile, urban renewal projects had begun in the 12th Street section of Kansas City, an area of cheap hotels, strip joints and street prostitution that had once been home to the best jazz clubs in the United States, featuring Charlie Parker and Count Basie. One of the bars in this area, owned by Joseph "JoJo" Cammisano, the brother of William, was forced to relocate. Joseph Cammisano sub-leased a warehouse in the River Quay area and divided it into four separate bars. Fred Bonadonna urged the owner of the property not to allow strippers on the premises and began a drive to oppose adult entertainment in the district.

Joseph Cammisano started a petition of his own. When Fred Bonadonna refused to sign it, a bitter argument ensued. Soon Bonadonna received a phone call from his father David, who was at the auto garage headquarters of the Cammisanos, imploring him to support the petition. Fred Bonadonna, with the help of City Councilman Robert Hernandez, was able to fight the effort of the Cammisanos to create a "combat zone" atmosphere similar to Boston’s adult entertainment section.

After threats were made against Fred Bonadonna, he proposed a plan to help out the Cammisanos. Bonadonna brought Hernandez to talk with William Cammisano. When Hernandez tried to defend Bonadonna’s actions, Cammisano became incensed and threatened to kill both men if the plans didn’t go through.

In the meantime, during 1974 and 1975 the Cammisanos were also pressuring Fred Bonadonna about the leases he had with the city for free parking in the River Quay area. During a River Quay tavern owner’s meeting, Joseph Cammisano stood up and threatened Bonadonna. Soon vandalism was reported in the lots and in March 1976 thugs broke into Bonadonna’s home and beat his teenage son with baseball bats. Later, Bonadonna was warned that unless he put a stop to Hernandez’s meddling that David Bonadonna would be killed.

In May 1976, Joseph Cammisano applied for a license for a new bar and was turned down through the efforts of Bonadonna and Hernandez. On July 22, 1976 David Bonadonna’s body was found in the trunk of his car. He had been shot five times in the head.

David Bonadonna’s death was followed by several other murders of Fred Bonadonna associates. In March 1977, Bonadonna was persuaded to enter the Witness Protection Program and was relocated. This did not end the violence as associates of Bonadonna battled back. The River Quay district turned into a real combat zone with bombs being placed by the rival groups.

William and Joseph Cammisano were indicted on June 16, 1978. Fred Bonadonna testified and both brothers received five-year prison sentences in 1979. The real losers were the businessmen who helped create the River Quay section. By 1980, the once thriving entertainment district had turned into a virtual ghost town and was described as an area of vacant, bombed out and burned out buildings.

Fred Harvey Bonadonna defied the mob and made a name for himself. However, Bonadonna paid a price for his heroism until the day he died.

In addition to the mob's murder of his father, Bonadonna had to uproot his family from their Kansas City home to enter the Witness Protection Program, relocating to Naples, Fla., in the late 1970s. In Florida Bonadonna and his wife Virginia purchased a restaurant, sold real estate, and operated a pawnshop. Their business ventures were unsuccessful and the couple was forced to live off the money Virginia made as a receptionist for a local law firm.

In April 1980 Bonadonna was called for the last time to appear before a U.S. Senate committee investigating organized crime. During his testimony Bonadonna stated, "I know why people aren't too concerned with the Mafia. They think that it is a story and that it could never happen to them. I never thought it could happen to me. It happened to me. It could happen to you."

During the mid-1980s Bonadonna left the Witness Protection Program because he wanted more freedom to visit his mother, who lived in California. He kept his whereabouts secret, according to reporter Mark Morris of The Kansas City Star, although he occasionally made himself available to select reporters to discuss the River Quay days.

In February 2001 Bonadonna's mother passed away. Bonadonna's handling of her estate drew criticism from other family members who responded by filing a civil suit against him. On April 8, 2002 Judge Thomas William Cain, of Santa Clara County, "issued an order that sided with" family members. The judge accused Bonadonna of "pretending" to still be in the protection program in order to help keep his mother isolated.

Responding to the "pretending" accusation, Gary Hart, chief of the FBI's organized crime squad in Kansas City during the 1970s, stated, "Fred and his family remained in constant danger from the time he began cooperating to the day of his death. The judge did not do his homework. Just because you're out of the program doesn't mean you're out of danger."

A distraught Bonadonna read the ruling Thursday morning April 11. He called David Helfrey, a former federal prosecutor from Kansas City – now a lawyer in St. Louis. Helfrey was out of town. His secretary wrote down Bonadonna's short message.

"Please help, I am going to die," he stated.

A sobbing Bonadonna then told his wife, who had remained loyal to him through all the years, "I've put you through so much. I can't do it anymore." A short time later Bonadonna – a husband, father and grandfather – ended his life with a bullet.


Las Vegas Skimming and the Strawman Cases



During mid-1978, FBI agents in Kansas City were investigating a local murder when one of their listening devices picked up a conversation between Carl "Cork" Civella and Carl "Tuffy" DeLuna in which they were discussing mob activities in Las Vegas. After widening the investigation, the agents intercepted conversations about other families that were attempting to buy into the Argent Corporation of which Allen Glick was president and sole stockholder.

In November 1978, agents bugged the home of a Civella relative and recorded a six-hour-long meeting that took place. Attending the meeting were Nick Civella, DeLuna, Joseph Vincent Agosto, and Carl Wesley Thomas. Chief among the topics of discussion were the skimming methods being used by Agosto and Thomas at the Tropicana.

Agosto worked at the Tropicana where he coordinated the skimming activities. Under the direction of Thomas, the casino’s manager and assistant manager removed the money from the playing area and handed it to Agosto. The skim money was then given to Carl Caruso who transported it to Kansas City. The money, normally in amounts of $40,000, was handed over to DeLuna or Charles D. Moretina. DeLuna and the Civella brothers would then split the money between themselves and members of the Chicago Family.

On Feb. 14, 1979, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Kansas City International Airport and arrested a courier carrying $80,000 in skim money. The same day, agents searched the home of DeLuna and, due to his "meticulous" record keeping, hit the jackpot. William Roemer states in The Enforcer, that the records "turned out to be devastating evidence, implicating mobsters in several cities, connecting them to the skim. Their seizure played a key role in the two major trials that would result from the investigation."

The first Strawman case resulted in the indictments of the entire hierarchy of the Kansas City Family on Feb. 7, 1984. The RICO indictments included the family’s hidden interests in skimming from the Argent Corporation, the Tropicana casino, and the local bingo industry. Key testimony came from Joseph Agosto who became a government witness. On Sept. 4, 1984, Carl Civella was fined and sentenced to 10-to-30 years in prison and his son, Anthony Civella, received five years and was fined. Both DeLuna and Moretina received long sentences also.

The second Strawman case involved mostly the Chicago Family. Key information for that prosecution was also obtained in 1978 when Nick Civella called to set up a meeting at the home of his nephew, Anthony Chiavola, a Chicago police officer. The FBI intercepted the phone call and bugged the Chiavola home where the meeting was held. The four-hour-plus meeting revealed that Civella attempted to buy out the Chicago Family’s interests in the Stardust and the Fremont for $10 million dollars. The Chicago attendees rejected the bid feeling that the skim they would collect over the years would far exceed the offer.

During the second Strawman trial, former Cleveland Family acting boss, now government witness, Angelo Lonardo testified. On Jan. 21, 1986 in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Joseph Aiuppa, Jackie Cerone, Joseph Lombardo, and Angelo La Pietra, all of Chicago, were convicted along with Frank Balestrieri of Milwaukee.


Leadership after Nick Civella



In the wake of Nick Civella’s death, law enforcement officials believed Carl Civella took over the leadership of the family. Even before his brother died there was evidence to suggest that Carl Civella was running the day-to-day operations and serving as acting boss with the advice and support of Carl DeLuna. Carl Civella began accepting leadership duties when his younger brother was facing mounting legal and health problems in the mid-1970s.

Nicknamed "Cork," due to his violent temper, the newspapers claimed "he was easily the most visible and talkative of the mob figures who reigned during the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s." He was once called "impulsive" by a FBI agent; this undoubtedly came from an incident in 1960 when, after leaving a courthouse and being surrounded by newspaper reporters and photographers, he unzipped his pants and exposed himself.

Civella’s first brush with the law came in 1929 when he was fined $500 for stealing tires. In 1934, police searched for him after the murder of a bank messenger who was robbed of $200,000. Even with a $10,000 reward being offered Civella evaded arrest for three years. However, after being captured and questioned by police, he was released. In 1939, he was convicted for possession of morphine and served one year in prison.

Setting up his headquarters in the City Market area, Civella described himself to reporters as a "peddler." He was arrested over the years for various gambling charges and was called before several grand juries to testify. In 1982, he tried to impress his girlfriend by muscling in on a Kansas City, Kan., strip joint. When he was rebuffed, he allegedly ordered two of his men to blow up the owner’s Lincoln automobile. Civella was later acquitted for lack of evidence.

Shortly after his conviction and 30-year sentence in the Strawman case, he and his son Anthony and two others were charged with operating a continuing criminal enterprise. Civella pled guilty and was sentenced to an additional 10 years.

Suffering from a variety of illnesses, Civella was treated at prison medical facilities in Minnesota and Texas. He was eventually confined to the low-security Fort Worth facility that housed long-term care inmates with chronic medical problems related to old age. Carl Civella died there on Oct. 2, 1994 of complications from pneumonia at the age of 84.

There is some confusion as to who assumed leadership of the Kansas City Family after the conviction of Carl Civella in 1983. His son Anthony was also sent to prison at the same time. Some insight into the situation was provided in July 1992. When one time Lucchese Family boss Alfonso D’Arco testified via written statement that he had met Anthony Civella when they were both imprisoned at the federal facility in Springfield, Mo., during 1984 and 1985. There he claims Paulie Vario, Sr., the Lucchese capo of the movie Goodfellas fame, introduced D’Arco to Civella, calling him the "boss" of the Kansas City Mafia.

D’Arco’s statement said a William Cammisano visited Civella at Springfield. Civella introduced Cammisano to D’Arco as a made member of the Kansas City Family. However, D’Arco’s statement did not identify which William Cammisano was introduced – senior or junior.

The statement also claimed that D’Arco was asked by Civella to mediate a dispute between the Kansas City and Pittsburgh Families over the proceeds of a rock concert. Civella’s attorney at the time, famed mob lawyer Oscar Goodman, who would be elected mayor of Las Vegas in 1999, called D’Arco a "punk." Goodman said D’Arco’s statement was unfair because Goodman wasn’t present and there was no way to refute D’Arco’s testimony.

William Cammisano, Sr. was as a four-time felon. By 1966 he had been arrested more than 100 times. FBI agents believed he operated a "semi-independent" arm of the Civella crime family. Of Cammisano’s long criminal career, The Kansas City Star reported, "he stared down a U. S. Senate committee, threatened the life of a Kansas City councilman and helped kill off an entire business district (River Quay). Although authorities accused or suspected him of taking part in several killings, he was never formally charged with any of them."

As early as 1929, Cammisano had been labeled an incorrigible juvenile. His rap sheet included arrests for carrying a concealed weapon, bootlegging, pistol whipping a robbery victim, running a still, being AWOL from the Army, disturbing the peace, and gambling. It was said that he had stolen everything from the wheels off a truck to the rings off a woman’s fingers. Cammisano once served a felony sentence at a prison in El Reno, Okla. In the 1940s, he opened a tavern and called it the El Reno Bar, stating that had been the name of his favorite prison.

Like many of Kansas City’s organized crime figures, Cammisano and his brother, Joseph, worked as gunmen for Charles Binaggio. During that time the brothers muscled their way into a lucrative policy wheel operation. Later, in the 1960s, the Cammisano brothers operated a tavern that catered to gambling and prostitution in the downtown area of the city. In the 1970s, they moved the establishment into the aforementioned River Quay business district.

In 1978, Cammisano pled guilty to federal charges of extortion. He was sentenced to five years in prison. When he refused to testify before a U.S. Senate committee in 1980, he was sentenced for contempt and given an additional two years. In 1983, he was just being released from prison as Carl Civella and his son Anthony were going in. The FBI believed that Cammisano became the acting boss at this time and that his son, William "Little Willie" Cammisano, Jr., ran the day-to-day operations.

This arrangement didn’t last long as Cammisano, Jr. was arrested and convicted of beating his girlfriend, who at the time was a federal witness in a murder investigation. Before he went to prison in 1989, Anthony Civella had already been released and was taking back control of the crime family’s operations.

With Anthony Civella back in the picture, the senior Cammisano’s influence, as well as his health, deteriorated. On Jan. 26, 1995 the 8- year-old William Cammisano, Sr. died from lung disease.

By 1983, law enforcement officials believed that Anthony Civella was being groomed for the day-to-day leadership of the family in the belief that his father, Carl, as well as Carl DeLuna would soon be going to prison to serve long sentences for the Strawman convictions. Authorities claimed that as early as 1977 Anthony Civella was controlling a portion of the gambling enterprise for his uncle, Nick Civella.

Also being looked at for a leadership position was James Duardi, another Kansas City mob associate who had a reputation as an enforcer. In 1983, sources were quoted in The Kansas City Star as stating that Duardi had, "significant ambitions for leadership and support among the rank and file ‘soldiers’ of the family."

One source stated, "They’re grooming him to be not the boss but giving him more things to ensure his loyalty. If those guys (Carl Civella or DeLuna) would go in (prison) it could be that a guy like Duardi could be a caretaker for a while…" Duardi, who at the time was 61, was convicted in 1972 of attempting to set up prostitution and gambling operations in Grove, Okla.

Law enforcement people were concerned about a power struggle in the Kansas City underworld due to the likelihood that the entire leadership of the family was heading to prison. Their concerns were realized on Jan. 9, 1984 when Carl Spero, a Civella Family rival, was murdered after a bomb exploded in his used car lot. The following month, Anthony "Tiger" Cardarella, a Civella associate, was found in the trunk of his car. Cardarella, a record storeowner, had been sentenced to prison in 1961 for obstruction of justice after the murder of a prosecution witness during a drug case. In 1977 he was convicted and sentenced to five years for receiving stolen goods.

Anthony Civella’s first conviction was in 1964 when he was found guilty of driving an automobile without the owner’s consent. In 1974, he was found guilty of conspiring to run an interstate gambling operation. He pled guilty in 1983 to sports bookmaking and running a continuing criminal enterprise. At the same time he also signed a statement prepared by the government admitting that he was involved in a Las Vegas skimming operation, stealing money from local charity bingo games, and setting up companies to act as fronts to hide his hidden ownership.

Civella was released from prison in January 1988 and resumed his leadership of the Kansas City Family. He avoided legal troubles until the early 1990s. In December 1991, Civella was convicted by a federal jury on eight counts of fraud involving the resale of prescription drugs. Civella and two others purchased over $1 million dollars worth of pharmaceuticals at low prices after they claimed the drugs were to be used in nursing homes. The drugs were then resold to West Coast wholesalers at higher prices. Two co-conspirators, Louie Ferro, Jr. and Wilbur Swift, became government witnesses and testified against Civella and two others. In July 1999, Ferro, Swift and two others were charged with operating a similar scheme.

On July 14, 1992, Civella was sentenced to four-and-one-half years in prison for his part in the fraud and fined $7,500. At the time of his sentencing, the FBI believed that Civella had already appointed Johnny Joe Sciortino as acting boss. The Kansas City mob was still a tight knit family operation. Civella, who was married to Carl DeLuna’s sister, was the godfather of Sciortino, a felon and longtime mob associate.

In June 1996, Anthony Civella was released from a federal prison in Texas and it was believed that he resumed his leadership role in the family. He immediately began proceedings to appeal his recent entry into the Missouri Gaming Commission’s Black Book, which prevented his involvement and presence in the state’s recently allowed riverboat gambling casinos. At the same time, Civella was about to be included in Nevada’s more famous Black Book.

Just before Civella went to prison in 1992, authorities were concerned about the release of William Cammisano, Jr. in June of that year and what affect it would have on the leadership picture. Complicating the situation was the fact that one of Civella’s top lieutenants, Peter J. Simone, had been sentenced in April 1992 to more than four years in prison after he pled guilty to laundering money from a video poker operation.

In May 1997, Simone’s name drew media attention again after a Nevada State Gaming Control Board investigation tied the late Ted Binion in with Peter Joseph Ribaste. In 1989, Ribaste was sentenced to six months in prison for mail fraud. He then moved to Las Vegas where he allegedly looked out for the Kansas City Family’s interests. During the investigation it was reported that Ribaste was "influenced" by Peter Simone. A December 1999 Kansas City Star article stated that Ribaste was a "one-time Kansas City mob boss."

Simone was released from prison in 1996 and was placed on three years probation. At 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 2, 1999, just two months before his probation ended, Simone was found playing craps at Harrah’s North Kansas City Casino & Hotel. A judge ordered him to spend one day in jail and extended his probation an additional twelve months, four of which were to be spent in electronically monitored home detention. In this newspaper article The Kansas City Star referred to Simone as the "reputed Kansas City crime boss."

In an August 1999 article in The Kansas City Star, columnist Mike Hendricks stated, "A lot of folks once did what the mob wanted in Kansas City, but no more, or at least we’d like to think that part of our history is over. I’d almost forgotten about the mob in Kansas City. Consider that progress."

Editor's Note: This work could not have been completed without the valuable research assistance provided by Jude A. Knudson. For more information about the Mafia's involvement in River Quay, see J. J. Maloney's article on this same web site.

Allan May’s e-mail address is: AllanMay@worldnet.att.net

(Updated 10/10/02)