Reviewed by Michael Bushnell
As an amateur Kansas City historian, pretty much any book that offers a glimpse into the city’s past or its notorious gangster history is going to be on my bookshelf. Living in Kansas City’s Northeast neighborhood for over 30 years and knowing what houses go with what families makes Frank Hayde’s new book, Hoffa’s Connection, the story of Sylvia Pagano: the story of a Kansas City girl at the center of the Mafia’s alliance with the Teamsters Union, even that much better.
Back in the middle 80’s and early 90’s, it was not unusual to see bumper stickers claiming, “Jimmy Hoffa is in my Trunk.” While the lighthearted bumper stickers may have mocked the ongoing investigation as to the actual whereabouts of the Teamster President’s body, Frank Hayde’s new book Hoffa’s Connection expertly lays out the events leading up to his disappearance, the people that surrounded Hoffa, and the Kansas City connection that has largely remained a mystery up until recently.
“I hope you never have to go to prison. Its hell on earth, only hell couldn’t be this bad.” Jimmy Hoffa
Hoffa’s Connection, c. 2026 by Boundless Book Publishers is the perfect complement to Hayde’s previous book, The Mafia and the Machine, (c. 2010 by Barricade Books) and profiles the complicated and often violent relationship between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Kansas City Mob.
Hoffa’s Connection follows the path of North End native Sylvia Pagano and her family from their modest days living in Kansas City’s North End at 522 East 5th St., through her strategic rise to power, ultimately sitting at the right hand of the country’s most powerful union official, James R. Hoffa.
Sylvia came up immersed in the ways of La Cosa Nostra. Her father was a known Charles Binaggio associate and her husband had close ties to other known mob associates with Kansas City’s organized crime family. Sylvia, however, always observed the code of omerta, or the code of silence, making her an easy choice to ascend to one of the most powerful positions in the country, a seat she held for over two decades, up until her death in 1975.
Hoffa’s Connection is Hayde’s third book chronicling Kansas City’s mob and he does an excellent job connecting the dots between his two previous works The Mafia and the Machine and his 2023 Mafia Dreams to the events outlined in Hoffa’s Connection. Hayde’s writing style and his attention to detail make this 215-page book not only an easy read, but a literal compendium of facts, dates and personalities tied to the long-disappeared Teamster leader’s legacy.
“The Teamsters Union is indeed a racket-perhaps the world’s biggest, a bigger money maker than all the betting in Las Vegas. In fact, without the Teamsters, there might not even be a Las Vegas, at least as we know it.” Investigative Journalist Jonathan Kwitney, 1979.
While Hayde does not spill all the beans on Hoffa’s whereabouts, he expertly and in detail lays out a number of possible scenarios involving some of Hoffa’s closest and most trusted associates.
Most books of this nature aren’t long on cited source material, but Hoffa’s Connection has almost 20 pages of source citations including hundreds of newspaper articles, congressional records, law enforcement case files from the Kansas City Police Department and the FBI, and a host of already printed work on Hoffa and his relationship with the mob. The addendum also includes testimony from Teamsters Union members on their real-life experiences with the union.
This is an excellently researched piece of history that Hayde tells in an engaging and interesting, and fact-filled manner. If you are a fan of local Mafia history and its connections to larger events and players on a national scale, Hoffa’s Connection is a must read.
Available at Amazon or where other fine local history books are available.
(For signed copies with free shipping, contact the author at frankhayde@hotmail.com.)
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