I am not from the midwest, let along KC per se. I come out of NYC. So I can only speak from the extensive research I've done on the KC mob, not personal experience of living there and knowing people. But what you say, and the way you say it, has the "ring" of truth to me.

I've seen a lot of bullshitters, and I gotta say that you do not sound like one of them.

From what I've learned about KC (and some of the other crews located in other various states), I DO believe there is a "presence" of Cosa Nostra still around in KC.

I also strongly believe (contrary to some of my previous statements), that there is also a small crew in St. Louis, and a few other towns and cities throughout the U.S.

As I've written previously, some would be considered a loosely based "crew," some have enough structure that they have a capo or maybe two, who govern 5 to 10 soldiers or so. Who in turn oversee another 10-15 associate-members. Certainly, when taken collectively, a grouping such as this could be considered a formal "regime" of a larger Family technically "outside" their geographical territory, yet who "oversee" this semi-independent regime.

Likewise, let's say they still had enough formal "members" who decided to vote in a "boss" per se, to govern the crew, and he in turn named either an underboss, or a "top capo" as his assistant over the remaining 8-9 members, THATS a "Formal" borgata. As "formal" as any other Family in the entire United States of America (or Sicily too for that matter).

It's not even debatable! Those ARE the rules of Cosa Nostra. History has taught us that they always were the rules.

I personally believe (as stated earlier), that however you prefer to refer to KC as, there is some sort of a "structure" there.

And Joey Dice sounds legit to me. (Thanks for the input JD)