At this weekend’s KC Mafia Film Festival, local experts detail city’s sordid past

Why do some people have an enduring fascination with a group that was essentially a bunch of cold-blooded murdering thugs?

Gary Jenkins says he has part of the answer when it comes to the Mafia and its long, colorful history in Kansas City.

“Kansas City is a small town,” said the retired police detective and undercover mob investigator. “Everybody knew somebody, or knew a guy who knew somebody.”

And this weekend, whether you know somebody or not, you can relive the city’s heyday of organized crime at the Kansas City Mafia Film Festival, hosted by Jenkins and some fellow mob experts.

The film festival, billed as the first of its kind locally, will be held Saturday and Sunday at the MTH Theater on the third level of the Crown Center shopping center in downtown Kansas City.

It will feature the films Gangland Wire by Jenkins and Black Hand Strawman by Terence O’Malley.

Between showings on Saturday, a panel discussion will feature retired FBI agent William Ouseley, author of the books Mobsters in our Midst and Open City, along with Jenkins and O’Malley.

Sunday’s session will feature question-and-answer sessions with O’Malley and Jenkins after the showings of their respective films.

Black Hand Strawman tells the history of organized crime in Kansas City, while Gangland Wire focuses on the 1970s mob war that rocked the River Quay area.

People who lived in Kansas City at the time remember buildings being blown up and bodies being found in the trunks of cars.

Jenkins not only wrote about the history, he lived it. As a Kansas City police intelligence detective, he engaged in the cat and mouse game between mobsters and cops that most people never knew about.

People interested in tickets to the festival can call 816-221-6987 or go online to musicaltheaterheritage.com.