Uniquely Kansas City | The Kansas City Mafia’s war where the River Market now sits

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City’s River Market district is known for its streetcars, people shopping for everything from clothes to produce, and bars and restaurants welcoming a steady stream of patrons.

But one time, the River Market was known as the River Quay and it was ground zero for a war between rival factions of the Kansas City Mafia.

In 1971, Rockhurst University professor and entrepreneur Marion Trozzolo had the idea to develop the quay into a family-friendly district. It was full of restaurants, bars and shops, but no x-rated entertainment. Kansas City’s Civella crime family had different ideas. The mob ran seedy night clubs and strip joints along 12th Street, but it was being sanitized and redeveloped.

Historian and playwright Terence O’Malley explained what happened next.

“They targeted the River Quay to start opening up strip bars and mob hangouts. There was a resistance from the River Quay Businessmen’s Association, that’s kind of what started the conflagration,” O’Malley said.

Part of that push back was from Freddy Bonadonna, owner of the popular River Quay restaurant “Poor Freddies.” But there was a problem; Bonadonna’s father David was a made man in the Civella family. O’Malley says Freddy Bonadonna was encouraged to go along to get along, but he stood his ground. So, the decision was made that if the elder Bondadonna went away, things would change.

“David Bonadonna was found in the trunk of a Mustang he had been shot and apparently tortured a bit before he was killed,” O’Malley shared.

Freddy was grief-stricken by his father’s death, so he enlisted the services of some organized crime associates to provide security for himself and for his business.

The battle lines were drawn. Taking on the Civella family was disastrous. In the summer of 1976, “Uncle Joe’s Tavern,” a bar owned by Joe Cammisano and his brother “Willie the Rat,” was torched. Then in 1977, two popular River Quay establishments, Judge Roy Bean’s and Pat O’Brien’s, were reduced to rubble by bombs. Businesses lost customers.

O’Malley says Freddy Bonadonna’s refusal to cave in to mobsters came at a very high price. He entered the Witness Protection Program. That meant giving up his home in Kansas City, moving to Florida, losing contact with long-term friends.

Fred Bonadonna died in 2002. It took several years for the area now known as the River Market to recover, and it is family friendly. So, the Kansas City mafia’s plan for a long-term money-making operation also failed.

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Uniquely Kansas City is a partnership between KSHB 41 News and retired Kansas City journalist Bill Grady, highlighting the historical stories that make the Kansas City area truly unique through audio and digital storytelling. Is there a piece of Kansas City history you’d like us to share? Send us an email at desk@kshb.com.