‘Loyalty, honor and friendship': Reputed Kansas City mafia underboss dies at 79
Reputed Kansas City mafia underboss Peter Simone died last week just short of his 80th birthday, according to his obituary, which said he battled lung cancer in recent months.
In 1992, The Star reported federal prosecutors believed Simone ran much of the mob's day-to-day operations in Kansas City. The FBI told Congress in 1988 that Simone was an underboss, or capo, of the Kansas City Outfit, The Star reported.
Loved ones cast Simone, who died Thursday, as a family man, a proud 1963 graduate of Rockhurst High School and a dedicated Royals season ticket holder of more than 50 years.
'Pete spent his 80 years in a way that reflected his core values of loyalty, honor, and friendship,' his obituary said.
'His storytelling was an artform, where his sense of humor and attention to detail were fully on display. His analytical perspective and willingness to dispense advice often resulted in him explaining the 'right way' to do things. His generosity and wisdom were readily accessible to anyone in need. Pete Simone left a lasting impression on people and his absence will be felt by all who knew him.'
Simone pleaded guilty in 1992 to federal gambling and money laundering charges in a case that attracted national attention, The Star reported at the time. Simone and a group of associates were indicted in connection with video gambling machines that were placed in bars in the metro.
Simone pleaded guilty to laundering profits from the machines and to an unrelated charge of running a private casino, The Star reported. As Judge Elmo Hunter sentenced Simone to 52 months in prison in April 1992, he passed down some stern words from the bench.
'If I were you, sometime before I took off the gloves for the last time, I would take a look at my life,' Hunter said, according to Star archives. 'You haven't been on the side of law and order. You haven't been on the side of respect and honor.'
At the time, Simone protested: 'It looks like another case of the U.S. attorney in this district persecuting Italian Americans.'
Gary Jenkins, a retired Kansas City police detective who once investigated organized crime and local mafia activity, recalled working one night with the FBI to secure an area around Simone's office so investigators could install listening devices there. Those at the scene worked to bypass two alarms to get inside, he said.
Jenkins, who retired in 1996 and now runs the podcast Gangland Wire, associated Simone primarily with gambling activity, which he said was a big money maker for the mafia before big corporations stepped in and took over.
'He just was around wherever there was some kind of gambling going on,' he said. 'Wherever he was … other people from the organization would show up. He was just that guy that was always around, was always involved.'
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