Charles Carrollo
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Charles "Charlie the Wop" Carrollo was a Kansas City, Missouri enforcer who became a major crime boss in that city in the 1930s.
During the 1930s Carrollo served as an enforcer for Kansas City mob boss John Lazia. On the night of July 10, 1934, Carolla drove Lazia to his hotel. When Lazia got out of the car, he was gunned down in a hail of submachine gun fire by an unidentified "hit team". Corrollo, who stayed in the car during the attack, was unharmed. It is unclear if Carollo was involved in Lazia's death; the murdered was never solved. With the aid of the Kansas City Pendergast political organization, Carollo became the new mob boss. Carollo and newly appointed Kansas City police chief Otto Higgins became closely involved in numerous criminal activities.
In 1939, Treasury Agents under Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. started pursing Carollo. Carollo responded aggressively, refusing the service of warrants and even taking potshots at agents. However, on October 20, 1939, Carollo, Higgins, and Tom Pendergast were convicted of income tax evasion and sent to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Released in 1954, Carollo was eventually deported to Italy. He died of natural causes in Palermo, Sicily. [1].
[edit] Further reading
- Bernstein, Lee. The Greatest Menace: Organized Crime in Cold War America. Boston: UMass Press, 2002. ISBN 1-55849-345-X
- Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
- United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Organized Crime and Use of Violence: hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. 1980. [2]
- United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi: Hearings Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. 1988. [3]
[edit] References
- Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
- Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001. ISBN 0-8160-4040-0
