Charles Carrollo

Charles Carollo was a Kansas City mobster and later crime boss.

An enforcer for John Lazia during the 1930s, he was with Lazia when he was murdered after driving him to his hotel at 3 AM on the night of July 10, 1934. Carollo was still in the car when Lazia was ambushed by an unidentified "hit team" which gunned down the crime boss in a hail of machine gun fire. While it is unclear if Carollo was involved in Lazia's death, Carollo would succeed him as boss of the north side on behalf of the "Pendergast Machine". While the murder remained unsolved, Carollo and newly appointed police chief Otto Higgins became involved in criminal activities.

Although later federal investigations were hindered by Carollo's intimidation tactics, which ranged from having service refused to federal agents to being shot at, treasury agents under Sec. of Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. were eventually able to convict Carollo, Higgins and Thomas J. Pendergast on charges of income tax evasion in 1939.

References

• Nash, Jay Robert. Encyclopedia of World Crime Vol. III (K-R). Wilmette, Illinois: CrimeBooks Inc., 1990. ISBN 0-923582-00-2
• Nash, Jay Robert. World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime. New York: Da Capo Press, 1992. ISBN 0-306-80535-9