Nicholas Civella

Nicholas Civella (March 19, 1912 - March 12, 1983) was a Kansas City, Missouri mobster who became a prominent leader of the Kansas City crime family.

Giuseppe Nicoli Civella was the son of Italian immigrants in Kansas City. He was the younger brother of mobster Carl "Cork" Civella and the uncle of mobster Anthony Civella. Nicholas Civella began his criminal career as a teenager in the Italian "Northeast" neighborhood of Kansas City. Civella's first arrest was at age 10, after which he dropped out of school. Before he reached age 20, Civella had been arrested for auto theft, illegal gambling, robbery, and vagrancy.

In 1932, Civella spent two months in prison for bootlegging. In 1934 Civella married Katherine, his wife for almost fifty years. He had no children of his own. In the early 1940s, Civella became a Democratic Party precinct worker on the North Side of Kansas City and became friends with Kansas City crime boss, Charles Binaggio.

By the 1950s, Civella dominated criminal activity in Kansas City. In 1950, he was identified as a figure in the organized crime society during the U.S. Senate Kefauver hearings. Although Kansas City remained a satellite of the larger Chicago Outfit criminal organization, Civella attended the ill-fated 1957 Apalachin Meeting of mob bosses in Apalachin, New York. Civella's involvement with organized crime led to the Nevada Gaming Commission listing Civella as one of the first entries in the Black Book, prohibiting him from entering casinos in Nevada. Later, due to his acquaintance with Teamsters president Roy Lee Williams, Civella played an important role in controlling the Central States Pension Fund of the Teamsters Union and in the skimming of casino gambling profits in Las Vegas, Nevada.

...
Wikipedia