Kansas City "Capo" Joe Cusumano

Giuseppe (Joe) Cusumano was considered by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies as being one of the most important and powerful members of the Kansas City Mafia . Despite his low-key persona, Cusumano was suspected of holding the high rank of a “capo di decina.”

Cusumano was an enigma of sorts because although he was indeed a highly-respected and wealthy mafioso, he was never known to have actively been engaged in any underworld rackets or criminal activity.

He was more the “businessman” type mafioso who used his intelligence and business acumen to advance Cosa Nostra’s infiltration into legitimate industries, including the popular Roma Bakery located on Independence Street in Kansas City .

Keep reading to learn more about Kansas City "Capo" Joe Cusumano in this Racketeer Snapshot .

Joe Cusumano - Early Years

Born in Castelvetrano, Sicily on January 25, 1900, by the early 1920s, Giuseppe (Joe) Cusumano had immigrated to the United States.

The young mafioso traveled out to the Midwest where he chose Kansas City, Missouri to set down permanent roots.

In 1929, he met and quickly fell in love and married a young 20-year-old Italian girl named Carmelina (nee’ Mentesano,) who everybody called Carmela. The young couple would eventually have three daughters they named Rose Marie, Frances, and Josephine.

Giuseppe Cusumano

Joe Cusumano stood 5-feet 7-inches tall and was stockily built at approximately 190 pounds. He had dark brown eyes and hair that had turned salt-and-pepper by his fifties.

As a young husband and father, Joe soon bought a home for his growing family at 101 South Van Brunt Boulevard in Kansas City. This is where Joe and Carmela would raise their girls and remain for the rest of their lives.

FBI #828237-B

Most Important and Powerful

Through the years the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kansas City Police Department (KCPD), and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD) all labeled Joe Cusumano as being one of the most important and powerful members of the Mafia operating in Kansas City.

He had a minimal police record (two arrests) that started in 1940 (during WWII) when he was picked up for failing to register under the Alien Registration Act.

His second arrest was for a minor Food and Drug Law Violation for which he paid a fine.

Yet despite his low-key persona, Joe was suspected of holding the high rank of a “capo di decina” with the local Mafia organization.

Side note: After getting arrested as an alien in 1940, Joe made it his business to become a citizen of the United States. He was naturalized at Kansas City a few years later on December 18, 1944...And that was that!

Joe Cusumano was an enigma of sorts because although he was indeed a highly-respected and wealthy mafioso, he was never known to have actively been engaged in any underworld rackets or criminal activity.

He was more the “businessman” type mafioso who used his intelligence and business acumen to advance Cosa Nostra’s infiltration into legitimate industries.

As a young man, he invested in and opened up what would later become one of the largest and most financially successfully retail and wholesale bakeries in the entire State of Missouri.

Roma Bakery

Right after Prohibition ended, he and a boyhood friend from his days back in Sicily started up the Roma Bakery, located at 1301 Independence Avenue in Kansas City.

His partner just happened to be Giuseppe (Joe) Filardo, who was also a very high-ranked Kansas City mafioso and a dear personal “compare” to Cusumano.

The original Roma Bakery.

Joe Filardo is behind the counter serving customers (fellow mafioso John Mangiaracina next to him on far right.)

Filardo was listed as Roma’s president, while Cusumano served as the company’s vice-president and secretary-treasurer.

Joseph Filardo, of course, was also one of sixty-two top mafia bosses from across the United States who were nabbed by NYS Troopers at the infamous Apalachin Mafia Convention on November 14, 1957.

Roma Bakery soon became “The” place for quality Italian breads and pastry products.

An early advertisement for Roma.

They quickly expanded on their good fortune by expanding the bakery and adding a fleet of delivery trucks so they could service restaurants, nightclubs, various other eateries, and local supermarkets.

Today, Roma Bakery is a huge conglomerate boasting dozens of trucks and a sprawling facility.

Cusumano and Filardo are both long gone, but I’m sure they’re smiling down at the sight of what their bakery business has become.

During their heyday, the two Joe’s were both active in the business, but Cusumano was the one who worked the bakery more on a day-to-day basis.

Roma Bakery today!

Roma Bakery was well known to the general public who quickly fell in love with their bread.

The bakery also became very well known to both local and federal law enforcement authorities who kept the location under periodic surveillance because of all the mafiosi, hoodlums, and racketeers who were known to frequent the place over the years.

Underworld Associates

Cusumano numbered among his closest underworld associates some of the most important and dangerous Mafia figures in the city, including former “Outfit” bosses James Balestrere, Giovanni (John) Blando, brothers Giuseppe (Scarface Joe) and Pietro (Sugarhouse Pete) Di Giovanni, Vincenzo Chiapetta, and Nicholas (Nick) Civella.

Other notorious “Outfit” soldiers and capos known to be close to Joe Cusumano were the brothers' Joseph and Frank DeLuca, Alexander Presta, Carl Civella, Frank La Rocca, Joseph (Joe School) Lascuola, and his kid brother Michael (Mikey School) Lascuola, Giacomo (Jack) Ancona, and Gaetano (Tano) Lococo.

After having spent a lifetime as a very successful legitimate businessman as well as a highly-placed mafioso, augmented by his uncanny ability to largely remain in the shadows, Giuseppe (Joe) Cusumano quietly passed away in 1973 at the age of seventy-three years old.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Racketeer Snapshot: Kansas City “Capo” Joe Cusumano

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