By the 1990s, the Kansas City mafia appeared to be on its last legs. Death and incarceration had crippled the city’s once-powerful crime family. But a younger generation of aspiring gangsters looked to take up the mantle, and law authorities continued to battle an underworld presence that would stubbornly survive into the next millennium.

In a discussion of his new book Mafia Dreams: A True Crime Saga of Young Men at the End of an Era, author Frank Hayde details the FBI’s efforts to stamp out those vestiges of organized crime in Kansas City. He spotlights the investigation of Travis Riley, the head of an insurance fraud enterprise, and a sting operation that led to the shooting death of Riley’s son Joe, an aspiring mobster.

Drawing from copious research and interviews with principal participants, Hayde pieces together an epic true crime tale with surprising connections and startling events.

Hayde is a career law enforcement officer and the author of four previous books including The Mafia and the Machine: The Story of the Kansas City Mob and Italian Gardens: A History of Kansas City Through Its Favorite Restaurant.

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