Former KC mob member convicted of murder-for-hire ordered free on compassionate release
A man convicted of arranging “a mob murder” and sentenced to life in federal prison was ordered free Friday after being granted compassionate release.
John A. Mandacina, 76, has terminal lung cancer and doctors have told him he has less than six months to live, according to a motion filed in December.
U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs, who oversaw the 1993 trial, ordered the release this week. Court records say Mandacina will be transported to an area hospital for evaluation and will then live with his wife in Gladstone.
Bureau of Prisons records show Mandacina was last imprisoned at a federal correctional facility in Pekin, Illinois.
In May 1990, Larry Strada was taking the trash out at his home when he was shot eight times. The Kansas City bar owner was an informant in a federal gambling investigation, a Star story from September 1993 says.
Mandacina was accused of hiring Patrick. H. McGuire to kill Strada for $25,000. Organized crime underboss Peter Simone allegedly OKed the shooting, but he took the Fifth to avoid self-incrimination.
During the trial, Mandacina’s attorney John P. O’Connor said his client was innocent and that witnesses who testified for the prosecution were unreliable.
Mandacina and McGuire were convicted and sentenced to life without parole.
At the December 1993 sentencing hearing, Sachs addressed Mandacina’s life sentence.
“If, as the court is inclined to believe, this is an organized crime offense for which defendant was essentially the non-member messenger and arranger, it does appear debatable that a sentence of this severity is appropriate,” Sachs said.
Gary Jenkins, a former detective in the Kansas City Police Department’s intelligence unit, said the mob in Kansas City was on the decline by the 1990s. Mandacina, according to Jenkins, was engaged in sports betting, but the major mob players were in prison or dead and income from the Teamsters and casinos had dwindled.
This story was originally published January 6, 2023 at 4:34 PM.
