Gizzo was once described as being a bookmaker, gambler and traveling contact man for La Cosa Nostra. In the early 1920s, after being arrested on a narcotics charge, Gizzo attempted to bribe a federal officer with $10,000 ($116,528 today). Gizzo was convicted and in 1924 served one year and a day at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1950, with Binaggio's murder, it is believed that Gizzo assumed leadership of the Kansas City family. His driver during 1950 was Nicholas Civella, who would eventually succeed Gizzo as boss of the Kansas City crime family.