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I never thought of Kansas City as having a lot of Italians. I figured it was more biker, or cowboys/ranch hands sort of town. I now really want to visit Kansas City, and the whole Great Plains area.
You are pretty far off base with that generalization of KC, and also thinking mob activity was the sole franchise of Italian-Americans.
KC has a lot of interesting history and downtown is a good place to start - full of great architecture. It is on the great plains, but KC is not flat! KC is famous for numerous parks with elaborate fountains. It has a lot of African-American history too, home of the Negro Leagues baseball museum (excellent). Also go to the WW1 national memorial museum and the nearby Union Station. Check out the Plaza shopping district and the Power & Light entertainment area. Go to Harry Truman's library and museum in nearby Independence. Before your visit, read up on the history of Truman, because that will tell the big story about the mob's political clout in KC in the early 20th century and how they had so much control over things going on in the city and beyond.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bobspez
Some people may have, but it was ridiculous to think so because not that many people were actually in the mafia. It may have reached tens of thousands at the peak but there were millions of Italian Americans.
I think the Italian American Mafia have received so much Hollywood attention that the whole thing is over played and most Italians want nothing to do with organised crime.
Other countries have their violent gangsters and famous heists, you just don't hear about them, and there is a long history of organised crime in lots of countries outside of the US.
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Today organised crime in London, the UK, Europe and the world is far more multinational.
The estimated number of OCGs operating in the U.K. is large about 34,000 members, the vast majority, or over eighty percent, are British/Irish nationals.
Cocaine trafficking is dominated by the Albania Mafia who work wit the, British, Dutch, Middle Eastern and Turkish OCGs – brings in billions.
In terms of fraud British (often of South Asian origin), Chinese, Italian, Lithuanian, Romanian/East European and Nigerian OCGs being the biggest players.
Counterfeit products sales, primarily of clothing (counterfeit medicine such as anti-cancer drugs stolen from Italy is also a growing problem), with British/Irish, Chinese, and Russian OCGs the biggest rollers.
The sex trade was once dominated by Maltese gangs but these have been displaced by the Albanians and East European OCG's along with the Russians, whilst people trafficking also involves Chinese, Asian and African OCGs.
Other illicit markets in the U.K. include tobacco smuggling, organized metal theft, burglary rings, fuel laundering (mostly in Northern Ireland, to avoid paying fuel taxes) and trafficking in minerals and even endangered species of wildlife.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Guardian (2018)
That evening, addressing senior officers in a half-empty lecture hall in Chelmsford, Owens said much organised crime in the UK operated all but unchecked.
Partly that was because there was so much of it. In her car, Owens had told me that the NCA’s latest figures showed there were 4,629 criminal gangs and syndicates in Britain, employing 33,598 professional gangsters – numbers that become astonishing when viewed in context.
The figure of 4,629 means there are more gangs in Britain than staff members of the NCA; 33,598 career criminals translates to more gangsters in Britain than belong to all three big Italian mafias.
You are pretty far off base with that generalization of KC, and also thinking mob activity was the sole franchise of Italian-Americans.
KC has a lot of interesting history and downtown is a good place to start - full of great architecture. It is on the great plains, but KC is not flat! KC is famous for numerous parks with elaborate fountains. It has a lot of African-American history too, home of the Negro Leagues baseball museum (excellent). Also go to the WW1 national memorial museum and the nearby Union Station. Check out the Plaza shopping district and the Power & Light entertainment area. Go to Harry Truman's library and museum in nearby Independence. Before your visit, read up on the history of Truman, because that will tell the big story about the mob's political clout in KC in the early 20th century and how they had so much control over things going on in the city and beyond.
If you read my OP, I make it clear this is not about one ethnicity in a sole location. I give an example of Benny Binion to illustrate that.
And that brings me to my original question. Organized crime did not affect just one community in a sole location. It was widespread enough. And they became powerful enough to build casinos. So they either must have leached off the local communities a lot or they did not.
Yes, this is a history question/topic. There really is no more organized crime now. Well maybe a little bit like in Canada of all places.
I know I'm late to this THREAD party but not at all to the subject matter.
If you seriously think there is no organized crime now, you need to look a little closer and in other unhollywoodland areas or any 1950-1970 endevours like organized gambling, waste collection (I can tell you a great deal about) and those industries.
I live fairly close to Detroit and it's funny the things little kids remember 20 or 30 years later. I also know something that cracks me up to this day because of it's overly obvious nature. I won't mention names but I do remember one guy leaving our house, going home, turning the key and the house blew to toothpicks.
My mom taught us a great deal of things as she was in constant fear we'd be kidnapped. She had good reason to.
By my 20's I was in a legit sense stealing money right out of someone's pocket and boy was he pissed. "Mr....would like you to consider coming to work for us in this area." says the brother. I'm a woman 5'2. "Yeah, sure, meet you under the Brooklyn Bridge say 7 ish,.'
It's still here, even more organized and right under your nose, but no one wears fedora hats anymore. And no ethnic names appear.
If you read my OP, I make it clear this is not about one ethnicity in a sole location. I give an example of Benny Binion to illustrate that.
And that brings me to my original question. Organized crime did not affect just one community in a sole location. It was widespread enough. And they became powerful enough to build casinos. So they either must have leached off the local communities a lot or they did not.
Local politicals were in bed with them.
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