Charles Gargotta
Recorded with Charles Binaggio on a Kansas City police list as 'found shot to death in political club at 718 Truman Road' on April 5, 1950, and described there as a 'well-known gunman and muscle-man engaged in gambling operations'; a former sheriff testified that jury intimidation prevented a murder conviction.
- Died
- 1950
- Rights
- Biography on this page is limited to what the cited federal records state.
On the record
- 5 April 1950 — Exhibit 20 lists him as "found shot to death in political club at 718 Truman Road," and describes him as "well-known gunman and muscle-man engaged in gambling operations in this locality" (Kefauver Part 4, appendix p. 417). A police department's description.
- 29 September 1950 — Former Jackson County sheriff Thomas B. Bash described Gargotta as one of the leaders of a group he faced in office and testified, "We could have convicted Charlie Gargotta of murder if it hadn't been for the intimidation of our jurors"; Senator Kefauver placed an FBI report on Gargotta from 1919 to 1947 (39 charges in Missouri) into the record as Exhibit 12 (Kefauver Part 4, pp. 151-152). A witness's statement.
No court record for Gargotta was opened. The police department’s description and the former sheriff’s statement are testimony-record characterizations, not findings of a court. The FBI report on him that Senator Kefauver placed in the record as Exhibit 12 prints as an unreadable image of a table, so none of its entries is recorded. The killing is unsolved in the sources filed. The day is not settled by the filed records: the police list prints April 5, 1950, while committee counsel and witnesses in the same hearing volume put the killing of Binaggio and Gargotta on the night of April 6, 1950 (Kefauver Part 4, September 1950 sessions). The died field gives the year only.