Some gamblers didn�t wait and this indiscretion resulted in their operations being raided by the police. Other gamblers set a date of July 1, to see what would happen with Smith. When that day came and went, gamblers were told there was an additional 30-day moratorium due to unforeseen circumstances. When the 30-day period ran out, angry gamblers were looking for someone to blame. It was Binaggio who had handled the campaign financing and made the promises. Whether he made those promises on his own, or on someone else�s assurances, would never be known.
On the evening of April 5, 1950, Binaggio was picked up by his chauffeur Nick Penna. The two men drove to the Last Chance Tavern in which Binaggio had an interest with Charley Gargotta, who he planned to meet there. The tavern, a gambling house, was located on the borderline between Kansas and Missouri. Whenever raiders from one state came to close the operation, the players would just move to the opposite side of the room. Law enforcement officers from both states could never seem to synchronize their raids in order to arrive at the same time.
Shortly after Binaggio arrived at the club, around 8 p.m., he received a telephone call. He then asked one of the employees at the club if he and Gargotta could borrow his automobile. As the two men started to leave, Nick Penna began to follow.
"You needn�t come, Nick," Binaggio told him. "We�ll be back in 15 or 20 minutes."
Penna later told police that when the pair had failed to return, he waited until 4 a.m. and then went home.
Binaggio and Gargotta then drove to the First District Democratic Club. Who they met there is not known, but around 8:30 three residents of the Como Hotel, located above the club, heard what sounded to them like gunfire.
The bodies of Binaggio and Gargotta were found around 4 a.m. the following morning. Police believed the killers were known to both men as neither one was armed. Binaggio�s body was sprawled in a swivel chair at his desk. His assassin pressed a .32 caliber automatic to his head and pulled the trigger four times. All four wounds bore powder burns.
Police theorized that Gargotta then ran for the front door to escape. The first of four bullets hit Gargotta in the back of the head from several feet away. After he fell to the floor, his killer stood over him and fired three more bullets into his head at close range.
The sensational double murder made headlines across the country, reverberating all the way to the Capital Building in Washington D.C. The day after the killings, Missouri Republican Dewey Short addressed the House of Representatives and inferred that Binaggio had been "bumped off" because he opposed the nomination of President Truman�s hand-picked candidate for senator.
The funerals were held on April 10. Foremost among the mourners that day was Frank Costello from New York. Costello was rumored to have been negotiating with Binaggio to place slot machines in Kansas City. Costello was in the company of "several Chicago representatives of the Capone syndicate." Anthony Gizzo, the heir apparent to Binaggio, hosted the group.