Inside the St. Louis Mob: Crooks, Killers, and Cops

Gangland Wire

Gary Jenkins

Documentary, Society & Culture, True Crime, History

4.6 • 647 Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of Gangland Wire, retired Kansas City Intelligence Unit detective Gary Jenkins sits down with Tim Richards, a former St. Louis intelligence officer and author of Crook’s Kill and Cops Lie. Tim brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge from his years investigating the mob and navigating the thin line between law enforcement and organized crime.
We dive deep into the history and dynamics of the St. Louis crime families and their ties—or lack thereof—to Kansas City and Chicago. Tim reveals how the St. Louis mob and the Syrian mob was into labor racketeering, ghost workers, and union control, profiting off federally funded projects.
Click here to buy Crooks Kill and Cops Lie and to see all of Tim’s books
• Listeners will hear gritty stories about:
• The interplay between Kansas City, St. Louis, and Chicago mob families.
• The “Syrian” mafia’s role in local unions, vengeance, and violence.
• St. Louis mob figures like Paul Leisure, Mike Trupiano, and Jesse Stoneking.
• An unforgettable encounter with Trupiano during a traffic stop.
• The challenges police faced without legal wiretaps, relying instead on FBI intelligence.
• The ripple effects of mob influence reaching as far as Las Vegas gambling operations.
From bloody reprisals to uneasy alliances, Tim shares not just history but lived experience—vivid accounts of hit jobs, betrayals, and the complexities of policing organized crime. As he reflects on how law enforcement strategies and technology have evolved, Tim leaves us with a powerful reminder of the mob’s enduring mark on Midwestern history.
If you want an insider’s perspective on St. Louis mobsters and the Midwest underworld, you won’t want to miss this one.
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Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, hey, all you wiretappers.
0:01.3	Good to be back here in the studio, Gangland Wire.
0:03.4	I have another former intelligence unit detective, Tim Richards.
0:09.7	Now, you know, and if you don't, I didn't introduce myself.
0:12.6	I'm sorry, guys.
0:13.3	Some of you all may be new listeners.
0:15.1	I'm Gary Jenkins, retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit Detective.
0:18.9	I got this podcast, Gangland Wire. We deal with
0:22.0	a mob. And I worked a mob in Kansas City and Tim Richards worked in St. Louis just across the
0:28.1	street. So welcome, Tim. Thank you. Thank you, Gary. I'm really glad to have you. I'm,
0:33.2	I was really glad to find this book. I've been working on a book myself. So I'm looking at your book, seeing how you did certain things, and then going back to mine. And my story is a little bit different, I guess, but different, but the same. You know, we had very, very similar experiences, guys. When Tim and I first started talking on the phone, you know, it was like, oh, my God, that's like I was talking to another guy in the same unit, you know, because we had the same kind of experiences.
0:59.8	Some of them will talk about, some of them we won't talk about on here. So we'll, but we're going to talk about the mafia primarily.
1:05.6	And Tim, you know, what I always found interesting, even back then in the 70s, there seemed to be
1:12.4	little to no relationship or connection between Kansas City and St. Louis, crime families.
1:18.7	Do you remember that like that?
1:21.0	Yeah, I recall that. We knew that Nick Zabella was a powerful guy in the families, but we never really saw anything that he was in St. Louis.
1:30.4	The Chicago Mafia controlled St. Louis with some help from Detroit, the Detroit now.
1:37.4	The Chicago Mafia came in here in the late 50s when they were rebuilding downtown St. Louis and they built the popular
1:45.6	street bridge, which was called the Tunnel Project. They came through East St. Louis with a guy
1:53.1	by name of Buster Workman who controlled everything in East St. Louis. And they used ghost workers.
1:59.5	It was a federal funded bridge building event. And they used ghost workers. It was a federal funded bridge building event.
2:02.9	And they used ghost workers there.
	...

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