Movie profile

Black Hand Strawman: The History of Organized Crime in Kansas City

The message was simple: pay...or else!

The film shines a light on Kansas City’s less glorious past when it was a major distribution hub for heroin in the 1930s and 1940s. Black Hand Strawman explains how Kansas City’s Mafia exercised control over the Teamsters Union Local 41 from the 1950s into the 1980s.

Directed by Terence Michael O'Malley