MO MO - Paul Douglas Cappo, 30, Kansas City, 10 June 1980

[Kano]

• Missing Since06/10/1980
• Missing FromKansas City, Missouri
• ClassificationEndangered Missing
• SexMale
• RaceWhite
• Date of Birth12/08/1951 (69)
• Age28 years old
• Height and Weight5'10, 240 pounds
• Distinguishing CharacteristicsCaucasian male. Brown hair, brown eyes.
  
  Details of Disappearance
  Cappo was last seen in Kansas City, Missouri on June 10, 1980. He left his home driving a dark blue four-door 1977 Plymouth, which had a Kansas license plate and damage to the front fender, en route to Las Vegas, Nevada. He often went to Las Vegas to gamble and, at the time of his disappearance, he owed at least $75,000 in gambling debts.
  
  Cappo's wife tried to reach him on his pager at 5:30 p.m. each day, and he would either call her immediately or talk to her between 1:00 and 1:30 the next morning. He told her if he didn't get in touch after she paged him, she was to contact his attorney as soon as possible. He has never been heard from again.
  
  Cappo was an associate of organized crime figures in the Kansas City area. He told his lawyer his friends would "soon enough stab you in the back as look at you" and that he was afraid for his life, and before he left he told his wife he was meeting "some pretty bad people" in Las Vegas.
  
  His wife tried to collect on his $50,000 life insurance policy, but the insurance company refused to pay and the courts supported their decision, because the policy was only supposed to be for accidental death and Cappo had bought it anticipating that he would eventually become the victim of a homicide.
  
  No one has ever been charged in Cappo's disappearance, but he is presumed to have been murdered.
  
  Paul Douglas Cappo – The Charley Project

 

[alb1on]

It would be interesting to understand the nature of Paul Cappo's association with organised crime in Kansas City. There are two main reasons for this;

• Firstly, the name Cappo recurs in relation to the Kansas City mafia. Back in the 1930s a member of the KC mafia was Larry Cappo (who was gunned down in 1934). Later, from the 1940s through to the 2000s there were the Cacioppa's (Charles Sr and Charles Jr), prominent mafiosi. Charles Sr was also known as Charley Cappo. The nature of his relationship with either of these lines (if there is one) would point to the obvious lines of inquiry.
• Secondly, his disappearance coincides with an FBI operation targeting skimming by the KC mafia at the Tropicana in Las Vegas, which is where Cappo owed the $75k. The FBI operation was well sourced and took out most of the local leadership. It would be very interesting if Cappo was involved in this in any way, either working for the mafia or as an informant for the FBI.

Of course, all of this may just be coincidence and Cappo may have no familial relationship with mafia members or any knowledge of the skimming or FBI operation.

 

[Kano]

It would be interesting to understand the nature of Paul Cappo's association with organised crime in Kansas City. There are two main reasons for this;

• Firstly, the name Cappo recurs in relation to the Kansas City mafia. Back in the 1930s a member of the KC mafia was Larry Cappo (who was gunned down in 1934). Later, from the 1940s through to the 2000s there were the Cacioppa's (Charles Sr and Charles Jr), prominent mafiosi. Charles Sr was also known as Charley Cappo. The nature of his relationship with either of these lines (if there is one) would point to the obvious lines of inquiry.
• Secondly, his disappearance coincides with an FBI operation targeting skimming by the KC mafia at the Tropicana in Las Vegas, which is where Cappo owed the $75k. The FBI operation was well sourced and took out most of the local leadership. It would be very interesting if Cappo was involved in this in any way, either working for the mafia or as an informant for the FBI.

Of course, all of this may just be coincidence and Cappo may have no familial relationship with mafia members or any knowledge of the skimming or FBI operation.

Good info, i'll dig later tonight and see if i can find any info on his family history. I know cases like this might not be for everyone but i tend to love them. Something just stands out to me from them, that there's a story to tell. It's all the makings of a grand b movie script

 

[StarrChance]

April 1991

Snipped from The Kansas City Star Wednesday April 17 1991

A mobster was in a dangerous business and knew he could be 'rilled even before his disappearance in 1980 So his wife does not deserve money from his life insurance.

His body was never found The ruling in favor of Allstate Life Insurance Co upholds a 1990 decision by Jackson County Circuit Judge C William Kramer Cappo was a used car broker who often went to Las Vegas to iambic sometimes accompanied by organized crime figures Carl Civdla and Peter Joseph Ribaste according to court records CiveUa the former leader of organized crime in Kansas City is serving a 30-year sentence for skimming money from the Tropi- cana casino in Las Vegas where Cappo owed $75000 in gambling debts Ribaste who the FBI says holds a managerial role in the Kansas City outfit was convicted of mail fraud in 1989 and is on probation His conviction in US District Court was for failing to list more than $90000 in Las Vegas gambling debts on financial statements to banks and the Small Business Administration Cappo told his wife before his last trip to Las Vegas that "he had some business arrangements with some pretty bad people out south" according to court records She was fb call him oa a beeper at 3:30 pm each day and jie would call her back immediately or early the next morning If he did not call Cappo told his wife she was to contact his lawyer immediately Claudia Cappo pleaded guihy in US District Court last year to running an illegal bookmakinj ring that handled more than $2000 in bets a day

 

[MadMcGoo]

https://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/MSHPWeb/mpphotos/A1001001A18K21B42423F230061.pdf

5137DMMO- Paul Douglas Cappo

Identifiers
Dentals: Not Available
Fingerprints: Available
DNA: Not Available

 

[Kano]

April 1991

Snipped from The Kansas City Star Wednesday April 17 1991

A mobster was in a dangerous business and knew he could be 'rilled even before his disappearance in 1980 So his wife does not deserve money from his life insurance.

His body was never found The ruling in favor of Allstate Life Insurance Co upholds a 1990 decision by Jackson County Circuit Judge C William Kramer Cappo was a used car broker who often went to Las Vegas to iambic sometimes accompanied by organized crime figures Carl Civdla and Peter Joseph Ribaste according to court records CiveUa the former leader of organized crime in Kansas City is serving a 30-year sentence for skimming money from the Tropi- cana casino in Las Vegas where Cappo owed $75000 in gambling debts Ribaste who the FBI says holds a managerial role in the Kansas City outfit was convicted of mail fraud in 1989 and is on probation His conviction in US District Court was for failing to list more than $90000 in Las Vegas gambling debts on financial statements to banks and the Small Business Administration Cappo told his wife before his last trip to Las Vegas that "he had some business arrangements with some pretty bad people out south" according to court records She was fb call him oa a beeper at 3:30 pm each day and jie would call her back immediately or early the next morning If he did not call Cappo told his wife she was to contact his lawyer immediately Claudia Cappo pleaded guihy in US District Court last year to running an illegal bookmakinj ring that handled more than $2000 in bets a day

Wish we had more info on those texts and how far he got.

 

[alb1on]

Carl Civella was the acting boss of the KC mafia when Cappo disappeared (the official boss, Nicholas Civella - his brother - was in jail). If Cappo was travelling with Civella I would bet money that either he was deep into the skimming operation or was both skimming and informing. Someone who is just a gambler, or a minor foot soldier, does not travel with the boss.

 

[MadMcGoo]

17 Apr 1991, 62 - The Kansas City Star at Newspapers.com



I believe sources may be incorrect on his date of birth. Most of the records I found list December 8, 1950, which would make him 29 at the time of his disappearance. However, I did find it listed once as the same day in 1949. I found photos of him when he was younger which show a little of his teeth.


Name: P Cappo
Yearbook Date: 1967
School: Raytown South High School
School Location: Raytown, Missouri, USA

 

[Betty P]

Carl Civella was the acting boss of the KC mafia when Cappo disappeared (the official boss, Nicholas Civella - his brother - was in jail). If Cappo was travelling with Civella I would bet money that either he was deep into the skimming operation or was both skimming and informing. Someone who is just a gambler, or a minor foot soldier, does not travel with the boss.

Seems logical. I can't imagine they would trust just anyone to drive with them to Vegas.

I'd always heard about the Mafia in Kansas City, but thought it was an exaggeration until I read Pileggi's book "Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas".

Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas - Wikipedia

You can read it for free at Internet Archive

Casino : love and honor in Las Vegas : Pileggi, Nicholas : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

It's a thorough, well researched book about the Mafia control of casinos in Las Vegas during the 60's and 70's. It does mention the Kansas City Mafia involvement, along with Chicago and others on the East Coast.

KC just didn't seem like the kind of city to have a big Mafia presence, its such a friendly, midwestern, laid back, but religious kind of place. People I worked with there talked of knowing some Mafia members, patronizing their businesses, etc.

Civella's were powerful in Kansas City because they were linked to Roy Williams, who was head of the Teamster's Union in Kansas City. Williams later became head of the Teamsters Union. It was money from the Teamsters Union pension fund which backed a lot of the cost of establishing or expanding the casinos in Vegas that the Mafia later used for skimming profits. It was kind of complicated, but Pileggi explains it pretty well.

 

[HistoricWrath]

The Kansas City Crime Family, colloquially known as “The Outfit” fascinates me. Part of it is because I’m born and raised in Kansas City. But what really fascinates me is how they were simultaneously considered a small family yet were involved in some of the most “profitable” mafia schemes of the 1970’s and 1980’s. The fact that Cappo was associated with Carl “Cork” (not Corky as he’s often referred) Civella and PJ Ribaste suggests he was no small time hood. Ribaste just died last year from COVID. He was considered the “bag man” for the Outfit’s most profitable schemes. As mentioned before in this thread, Civella was acting boss at that time as his brother Nick was in prison.
The KC Outfit was at one point one of the most violent crime families in America, although the last confirmed “hit” associated with them happened in the early 1990’s though there have been a few murders since then where rumors have swirled. The zenith of violence associated with the Outfit occurred in the mid-1970’s when they were engaged in a turf war in a popular area of Kansas City then known as the River Quay. It was a bustling area of nightlife until the mob tried to move in. Several business owners tried to resist their influence which resulted in multiple murders and a large building being obliterated by a huge explosion. That area is now known as the River Market and is now bustling and popular, no explosions have been reported.
Cappo was clearly murdered by his mob associates. It is interesting to me that they made sure he was never found. Often times, but not always, mafia hits are made to be found to send a message. The KC mob especially was not “quiet” in their killings.

 

[Pennysmom1]

Missing Person / NamUs #MP11978

View NamUs missing person case MP11978 for Paul Douglas Cappo missing from Kansas City, Missouri. Date of last contact: Jun 10, 1980. NCMEC case number: --.

namus.nij.ojp.gov

Paul Cappo

www.kcpd.org