In the 1920s, a flourishing and exciting nightlife scene grew out of the Black community at 18th and Vine St. where Kansas City jazz emerged. But the city also had a dark side full of rampant crime, ruthless mobsters, speakeasies and bootleg liquor under the reign of unelected political boss Thomas Pendergast, who ruled the city’s government and criminal underworld from 1925 to 1939.
18th and Vine was the center for the Black community in the early 1900s.
Pendergast gave the city free rein to push illegal booze to make criminals rich, and he ensured there were no alcohol-related arrests in Kansas City during the entirety of Prohibition. That helped the Italian and Black Mafia and organized crime establish a strong foothold in the city.
“Prohibition was a gift to Kansas City criminals as much as it was to Chicago or any other big city you want to choose,” Terence O’Malley, author of “Black Hand Strawman: The History of Organized Crime in Kansas City” and director of the documentary of the same name, told Thrillist.
While some academic research say Black criminals played a minor role in bootlegging activities, working alongside more powerful Italian Mafia groups, history has shown that there were complex Black organizations that existed independently and made an impact in their own right.
KC’S BLACK MAFIA
In a place where Prohibition didn’t exist, Kansas City also became a place with much drug trafficking.
The Black Mafia, also known as the Purple Capsule Gang, emerged in the 1950s and controlled much of the East Side of Kansas City by the end of the 1960s. They were the most infamous Black gangsters in Kansas City history.
They were called the Purple Capsule Gang for the purple capsules in which they pedaled heroin. The group was blamed for bank robberies, murders, heroin and cocaine pushing, prostitution, gambling and loan sharking.
According to Gangland Wire, the Black Mafia emerged and gained a strong foothold in the drug community after the Italian Mafia ordered their members to stop heroin trafficking. At the height of their operations, FBI records estimate that the Black Mafia was taking in more than $100,000 each day.
The group is also linked to two-dozen mob-style hits.
“They had the ghetto area of Kansas City under their complete control through fear, intimidation, violence and corrupt public officials,” a U.S. Department of Justice report on the Black Mafia read.
Its strategy was recruiting Black youth and drug users to commit bank robberies and forming alliances with Kansas City’s Italian Mafia groups.
The Black Mafia in Kansas City was led by James Phillip “Doc” Dearborn, James Eugene Richardson, and Eddie David Cox, the only White man in a leadership position in the Black Mafia.
According to Gangster Report, Cox was the only Caucasian to have led a Black crime family. He was known as Dearborn’s adviser, and Richardson was the group’s muscle.
Cox and Dearborn met when they served time together in prison at Lansing, KS, and Cox proposed Dearborn take over crime on Kansas City’s east side.
“Eddie Cox was one of the smartest and most dangerous organized crime figures of his era in Kansas City,” retired Kansas City police detective and blogger Gary Jenkins said. “He was one of Doc Dearborn’s most trusted advisers and they controlled a lot of this area’s heroin market for a long time.”
Cox, who is still alive and in his early 80s, was recently released from prison on an order of compassionate release for his age. He had served 32 years of a life sentence for drugs and other offenses.
Dearborn was killed in 1985, gunned down in the parking lot of a motel near the airport during a drug deal.
Richardson died of natural causes in 2008 at age 81.
The Black Mafia organization was broken up around 1970 when federal agents and police conducted post-midnight raids and arrested its members.
KC’S BLACK MAFIA CONNECTION IN ‘FARGO’ SEASON 4
Actor Chris Rock starring in “Fargo” season 4.
The newest season of the FX anthology show “Fargo” is inspired by Kansas City’s Black Mafia group. The show premiered in 2020 and takes place in Kansas City in the 1950s.
Actor Chris Rock plays the leader of the group, Loy Cannon, who is partially based on Dearborn. The show follows Cannon as he leads the Black Mafia and goes to war with the Italian mob for power in the city’s criminal activities.
While the show depicts the two groups at war, the groups actually worked closely in reality.
THE DEATH OF LEON JORDAN
The 1970 murder of Black community political leader Leon Jordan has always been considered gang related.
Leon Jordan began his career as a police officer at the Kansas City Police Department in 1938. He was the first African American to achieve lieutenant rank at KCPD.
After working at the department for more than 10 years and moving to Liberia to help organize a police force, Jordan returned to Kansas City to start a successful career in politics.
He was elected to the Missouri Legislature in 1964 and became one of the most powerful politicians in Kansas City. Jordan also created the powerful Black political organization Freedom Inc. with Bruce R. Watkins in 1961.
During Jordan’s time with KCPD and as a politician, local crime organizations saw him as a threat, because he was a strong opponent of the drug trade and had taken steps to have the mob investigated.
In 1970, Jordan was gunned down outside his bar, the Green Duck Tavern at 2548 Prospect. Since then, there has been many theories surrounding who was responsible for Jordan’s murder and what the motive could have been.
Jordan’s Green Duck Tavern.
KCPD detectives interviewed Walton I. Froniabarger who had been a part of the Black Mafia and was looking to get some time off of his drug sentence if he gave information about the murder. He said the reason Jordan was killed was political and “contracted by the North End and carried out by Blacks.” The Italian Mafia controlled the North End of Kansas City, which was also known as “Little Italy.”
One of the organizers, he said, was an Italian American liquor store owner known as “Crazy Joe.”
With Froniabarger’s help, county prosecutors assembled a case against three Black men who were eventually indicted in Jordan’s murder. Froniabarger was a key witness.
Authorities charged Dearborn with Jordan’s murder. Two other men, James A. Willis and Maynard Cooper, were indicted later.
Prosecutors could not make the charges stick. Willis was acquitted and charges against Dearborn and Cooper were dropped.
In 2010, a KCPD investigation found that Dearborn was, in fact, the mastermind and gunman who killed Jordan, but why remains a mystery.
Investigators suspect that Joe Centimano, also known as “Shotgun Joe” or “Crazy Joe,” who ran Joe’s Liquors in the Jazz District and served as the go-between gangsters for the Black and Italian Mafia, had provided the murder weapon.
Italian mob boss Nicholas Civella allegedly ordered Jordan be killed, and assigned Shotgun Joe and Dearborn to do it.
Cox, who later discussed the murder with the Kansas City Star, said Jordan angered the mob by refusing to back legislation to loosen regulations on taverns and adult entertainment. That refusal, Cox said, was considered “complete disrespect” to some powerful people.
“Jordan did a number of things that displeased the North End,” Cox told The Star. No one has ever been convicted of the murder.
MEET ONE OF KC’S EARLIEST MOBSTERS: ‘SELDOM SEEN’
Born in 1883 in Oklahoma, Ivory “Seldom Seen” Johnson spent most of his life in Kansas City as a notorious gambler and comedian who owned a brothel and gambling house. He earned his nickname when he started running from police at just 14 years old.
Johnson had been arrested more than 50 times on charges ranging from gambling, fraud, assault and murder and was known for carrying money and drugs in a cigar box.
He was one of the leading gambling operators during the 1930s.
A tall, lanky man who was known to always be armed; he was usually recognized on the streets.
Legend has it that he tossed more than one hundred of his victims in the Missouri River, but that number is probably closer to four or five.
Johnson served four terms in prison, with his last prison term for the 1951 slaying of a witness in a jury-tampering case. He was sentenced to life in prison and paroled in 1966 at 83 years old.
The notorious Kansas City mobster died in Oklahoma in 1985 at age 102.
Actor Harry Belafonte played Johnson in the movie “Kansas City,” which premiered in 1996.
Harry Belafonte starring as Seldom Seen in the 1996 movie “Kansas City.”
Source list:
Black Archives of Mid-America
Gangland Wire Blog – ganglandwire.com/
“Racism in Kansas City: A Short History” by G.S. Griffin
“The Mafia and the Machine: The Story of the Kansas City Mob” by Frank R. Hayde
“Open City: True Story of the KC Crime Family” by William Ouseley
“Storied & Scandalous Kansas City: A History of Corruption, Mischief and a Whole Lot of Booze” By Karla Deel
Unbelievable Eddie David Cox, appeared like a ordinary White Guy while in prison. a sheep in wolves clothing. Very disgraceful to work with black criminals to infiltrate the community with drugs and violence.
do not set in judgment
Eddie Cox is a great guy. I know the political side of him. As a matter of fact, if you met him you would think he was a FBI Agent, always in starched white shirts and Countess Mara tie and expensive, conservative single breasted suit. I met him when I was 21 in my Father-in-law’s bar where I worked while finishing up college.
He and the Kevin’s Keltons’ Jerry and Terry, and Eddie would contribute money to Freedom, Inc. for food baskets and made sure the I had no problems on the polls. They were not violent around me, as a matter of fact, I would call them gentleman. I met them after they had served their time and they just were men who had served their time and wanted to be left alone. Eddie Cox never tried to act like what I know today a ” Wigger”. He is an educated man that came from a nice Jewish family. Ricky Burks , I guess you never met Eddie or you would not be making that ridiculous remark. Eddie now works for a law firm that helps prisoners’ with out financial means and does a great job. You should look further at their lives before making a remark like that. They all consider him a loyal friend. This was in the late 70’s and early 80’s to date. Jerry Kelton has passed, but Terry is still around, put back in Leavenworth over traffic tickets. They never got a fair chance to live a normal life after being released in the 70’s. Jerry was sitting on my front porch on Benton Blvd. and said he wished he had chosen a different career. He was tired of Law Enforcement harassing them. I could not believe they all grew up and changed but they did. That remark was out of line. No one ever mentioned their ages when they started their life of crime. All of them look back and shake their heads. I liked them and still like Eddie D. Cox and Terry Kelton and remember their donation for food baskets and pantries. They are my friends.
Lisa C. Hughes, I started with Bruce R. Watkins , my political career, behind the scenes but had a successful career and still involved to date. You cannot believe everything you read. If we did not have criminals, why would we need so many lawyers and Judges. Maybe you should focus on these young criminals now doing drive bys and killing innocent people and each other. We have lost a generation of Young men from about 2000 – to date. What go advice could you give them. I bet you probably voted for Trump. Sounds like you are working with a 40 watt light bulb for a brain. You would be surprised who infiltrates this community with drugs. I can assure these young criminals have not heard of any of these guys. But, I also know they gave to the community after they got out. They supported Freedom, Inc. I met them through my Father-in-law, who was a judge during the day and ran a restaurant bar, where they all mingled that was the family neighborhood bar. Maybe you should have come by the bar. You would not even know they were in there eating a K.C. Strip or a quarter lb. hamburger next to lawyers and Judges. They did their time, you do not believe in second chances. What do you have to say about the Elected Officials during their rein of terror. I liked most of them too . They all believed in their community. Criminals and bad Elected Officials are in office presently, and you talk about them. Shame on you for being so short sighted. Turn off that light bulb before the power runs out. You take care. By, the way someone copied my this text and posted it as theirs. Now, that is who is worthless and a poor excuse for a human being, stealing my text to you. My name is Alyissa not Alyssa hacker. I saw this new text. I will keep texting they are not the same people. They grew up and took a great path. How could this be a duplicate, because I never saw Eddie’s or Ricky B.’s comment. It is shorter than my last text. You post Ricky’s while I am still texting and my name spelled incorrectly. I will still donate. But, I do not believe you should decide who”a quote is seen. That is why I said you cannot believe what you read .
The James Eugene Richardson of our story did not die in 2008 at age 81. Our James Eugene Richardson was 33 in 1971 when the big drug bust happened, so he was born in 1937 or 1938. You saw the obituary for the other guy and assumed it was our guy. I have been searching for information on what happened to Richardson without success. He was given a 20 year sentence in 1971 for the drugs and another 15 year sentence for shooting a cop during the bust. He was still serving time in Illinois in 1985 when Doc Dearborn was paroled and soon after shot to death (presumably over drugs) by 22 year old James D. Allen. No one seems to know what became of James Eugene Richardson, KC “Black Mafia” kingpin.
My Father, Hilton Jerry Kelton died in a Federal Penitentiary. My Uncle Milton Terry Kelton is still serving a life sentence in a Federal Penitentiary, where he has been since the 80s.