By the early 1920s, Lazia had graduated from street crime to organizing voters for the Pendergast machine and supplying bars with bootleg whiskey.
In October 1932, Lazia's men broke into the Army armory in Kansas City to obtain more guns to fight these competitors.
The plan was to ambush the law enforcement escort at Union Station in Kansas City and to free their prisoner.
Lazia reportedly provided Miller with Adam "Eddie" Richetti and Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, a notorious bank robber.
The tremendous public outrage over the shootout convinced the Pendergast machine that Lazia had become a liability that needed to be eliminated.
The Pendergast politicians also started funding a competitor, the former Lazia lieutenant Michael LaCapra, to set up competing gambling dens and distribution networks for alcohol and narcotics.
On August 12, 1933, Lazia associate Charles Gargotta and other gunmen ambushed Ferris Anthon, a gunman allied with LaCapra, on a city street.
On July 10, 1934,[1] at 3:00 a.m., Lazia arrived at his residence in the Park Central Hotel at 300 East Armour Boulevard after spending the night touring his nightclubs and gambling dens with his wife and Carrollo.
As Lazia was exiting the car, gunmen armed with a submachine gun, and a sawed-off shotgun emerged from the bushes.