Born in Kansas City, Charles (Mad Dog) Gargotta originally started out as the trusted sidekick, driver, and bodyguard of boss Charlie Binaggio during his time in power.
He has a mile-long yellow sheet that listed over 40 arrests over 30 years for such charges as bootlegging, murder, gambling, robbery, carrying concealed weapons, auto theft, extortion, attempted burglary, and vagrancy.
He was once nabbed for murder after being caught red-handed at the scene of the killing with the warm body. His case was continued 27 times in court before finally being dismissed altogether. It was a blatant example of Kansas City corruption running rampant at the time.
Every single case was dismissed against him with the exception of “assault to kill” for his attempted murder of Sheriff Tom Bash, and he only served a mere 19 months in jail of a three-year sentence.
As his bodyguard, he was also with Binaggio when his boss was machine-gunned to death.
Another blatant and shocking example of government corruption was Gargotta’s arrest for possession of two stolen pistols, one of which was used in the murder of bootlegger Ferris Anthon.
During Gargotta’s trial, a local police detective perjured himself on the witness stand, lying about switching the evidence tags between the murder weapon with another gun to confuse ballistics tests in order to protect Gargotta from conviction.
It became a major city scandal, showing the connection between organized crime and politics. It also led to the removal of the assistant prosecutor and several policemen from their posts.
Until next time…”The Other Guy”
