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Nicolo Impastato (January 6, 1906- September 1979), also known as "Nick Tousa", was a Kansas City gangster.
Kansas City is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city had an estimated population of 491,918 in 2018, making it the 38th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central city of the Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Kansas–Missouri state line. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a Missouri River port at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west. On June 1, 1850 the town of Kansas was incorporated; shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory. Confusion between the two ensued and the name Kansas City was assigned to distinguish them soon after.
Nicolo Impastato was an admitted member of the Mafia who was born near Palermo, Sicily and became a Mafioso while still in Sicily. He fled to the U.S. in 1927 during Benito Mussolini's campaign to eradicate the Mafia in Sicily. He eventually settled in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was taken in by the local Mafia family which was then headed by Frank "Chee Chee" DeMayo. Impastato reportedly quickly developed mob contacts in several U.S. cities. His brother, Vito Impastato, was also a known Mafia member who resided in Springfield, Illinois.
The American Mafia or Italian-American Mafia is a highly organized Italian-American criminal society. The organization is often referred to by members as Cosa Nostra and by the government as La Cosa Nostra (LCN). The organization's name is derived from the original Mafia or Cosa nostra, the Sicilian Mafia, and it originally emerged as an offshoot of the Sicilian Mafia; however, the organization eventually encompassed or absorbed other Italian-American gangsters and Italian-American crime groups living in the United States and Canada that are not of Sicilian origin. It is often colloquially referred to as the Italian Mafia or Italian Mob, though these terms may also apply to the separate yet related Sicilian Mafia or other organized crime groups in Italy.
Palermo is a city of Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is located in the northwest of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 20 regions of Italy. It is one of the five Italian autonomous regions, in Southern Italy along with surrounding minor islands, officially referred to as Regione Siciliana.
As a member of the Kansas City Cosa Nostra organization, Impastato became known primarily for his role as a go-between with the KC and Tampa, Florida crime families. He was sent to Tampa in 1939, probably at the behest of KC mob boss Charles Binaggio to coordinate the transfer of heroin between the two cities.
Charles Binaggio was a Missouri gangster who became the boss of the Kansas City crime family and concocted a bold plan to control the police forces in Kansas City, Missouri and St. Louis, Missouri.
The heroin was smuggled into the country via Cuba after having been shipped there by cargo ship from Italy or France. The heroin originated in the Middle East and Asia. Impastato interacted with the Antinori's, prominent members of the Tampa family, which was led at the time by James Lumia. It was believed that Impastato and his cohort James DeSimone also performed various enforcement tasks for the Tampa family.
In 1941 the KC family reportedly received a shipment of bad heroin from the Antinori's. Kansas City, and the other crime families around the country that had received portions of the bad heroin (KC distributed it to other cities), demanded a refund on their money for the shipment, estimated to have been about $25,000.00 worth. The Antinori's refused and on October 23, 1940 Ignacio Antinori, the patriarch of the family, was killed by a shotgun blast to the head while seated at a table in the Palm Garden Inn in Tampa. His sons, Joe and Paul, continued leading the smuggling ring after his murder.
Ignacio Antinori was an Italy-born Florida mobster who built one of the earlier narcotics trafficking networks in that state. Antinori was regarded as the first boss of the Tampa crime family, later known as the Trafficante crime family.
The downfall of the narcotics ring came in April 1942 when the Bureau of Narcotics received a tip on the Kansas City part of the operation. They conducted raids on a bar at Armour and Troost, and at the residence of Felipo Pernice at 425 S. Montgall in Kansas City, where they seized heroin secreted in coffee bags that had been hidden in a compartment in the basement of the house. Several of the ring's members were rounded up, including Joseph DeLuca, a Binaggio lieutenant that was in charge of the KC part of the ring. The Feds scored a break when they managed to "turn" one of the lower level "mules", Carl Caramusa. They also turned Thomas Buffa, a St. Louis mobster involved in the ring. Both Caramusa and Buffa testified in the 1943 trials related to the drug ring. Most of the mobsters charged were convicted, including Impastato, who received a two-year term in Federal prison. The mob didn't forget about Caramusa and Buffa. On June 21, 1945, Caramusa was killed by a shotgun blast while changing a tire on his car in front of his daughter who was seated on the front porch of their new home.
An initial attempt to kill Buffa failed, and he fled the Midwest. In March 1946, he was tracked down and shot to death in Lodi, California. As for Impastato, he was deported back to Sicily following his release from prison. He died in September 1979.
