Name Anthony Cardarella | Died 1984 | |
Anthony J. "Tiger" Cardarella (1926–1984) was a Kansas City, Missouri mob figure involved in large-scale fencing operations. Cardarella was the owner of Tiger's Records shop on Independence Avenue in Kansas City. He was also a suspect, along with Felix Ferina, in a gangland shooting for which he always insisted on his own innocence. Cardarella served five years in prison for receiving stolen property including firearms. He was noted for paying professional thieves and shoplifters to steal records from other record stores, such as Walmart. A lifelong gambling addict, it is believed that he was murdered over extensive gambling debts that he had accumulated.
Physically small, "Tiger" got his ferocious nickname from other boys at Boy Scout camp as an ironic reference to his lifelong fear of bees. It stuck when H. Roe Bartle, the future mayor of Kansas City, referred to him as "this little 'Tiger'" when he handed him a Life Scout award. Sadly, in later life it gave a small and gentle man an unwarranted reputation for a fierceness that he did not have.
In February 1984, he disappeared after leaving a local restaurant. After a frantic search by his family, police found the body of Anthony Cardarella in the trunk of his car. He was identified by his eldest son. His body was intact, and the cause of death was suffocation. The abandoned car, located near a freight company, had been towed off the street to the city impound lot. The body had sat in the trunk for several days before being discovered.
His murder remains unsolved.