by Patrickgold » Thu Jan 18, 2024 2:30 pm
Q&A: Author Gavin Schmitt on the rise of the Milwaukee Mafia and the reign of Frank Balistrieri
Author Gavin Schmitt discusses the history of the Milwaukee mob with reporter Mary Spicuzza. Mary is writing a story and a podcast about searching for answers in the car bombing of her cousin August "Augie" Palmisano in 1978.
Mary Spicuzza
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Ever since librarian and local historian Gavin Schmitt started writing books about organized crime, one question keeps coming up: People want to know whether he gets a lot of threats due to his work.
“I really don’t,” he told me. “It’s extremely rare that somebody is actually upset.”
But Schmitt said he hears from the adult children — or more often, grandchildren — of people he's written about, who have questions about their family’s past.
“A lot of times people don’t hear it from their own parents. They hear it from a friend who somehow knows something. And so it skips that generation, where the grandparents knew something,” Schmitt said. “But they kind of put it upon themselves not to pass it along.”
Schmitt, who works as a librarian in the Fox Cities, has written several books, does podcasts and runs a Milwaukee Mafia website.
After I began investigating the 1978 car bombing murder of my cousin, August "Augie" Palmisano, I asked Schmitt to speak with me about his research on organized crime in Milwaukee, especially the era dominated by reputed crime boss Frank Balistrieri.
Here are some highlights from our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
What have you heard about Augie Palmisano's murder?
I find it to be possibly the most shocking mob murder in the entire history of the Milwaukee Mafia.
The bomb wasn't timed. The bomb was set to the ignition. The person who planted the bomb would have no idea who is in the garage when that happens. And that troubles me, because not that it's okay to kill Augie, obviously — but you don't know if kids are going to school, or just the average person is going to work the same time that Augie is going to work when he turns that ignition. I mean, every car parked anywhere near him took some damage. And it's a small miracle that nobody else got injured.
Do you have any theories on why Augie Palmisano was killed?
My sources are limited to what was in the newspapers and what's in the FBI files — I haven't seen anything beyond that at this point. The general belief seems to be it was directly related to gambling, whether it was he wasn't paying in the "proper cut" or he wasn't going through the "right channels." But somehow, his gambling through the different taverns that he operated, such as Richie's on Broadway, he just wasn't paying "proper respect." So there's that.
The second theory is just that he was — whether it was directly tied to gambling or not — that he was highly disrespectful of Frank Balistrieri. There's the often repeated quote that apparently Frank said, "He called me a name to my face, and now they can't find his skin."
And then lastly, the third theory is that he was killed because he was an informant. And that to me is the least likely of the three. I've seen absolutely nothing to substantiate that.
More:How former undercover FBI agent Joe Pistone, aka Donnie Brasco, helped infiltrate the Milwaukee Mafia
Could you talk about what the reputation of Sicilians was like, from your research?
In Milwaukee, as just about anywhere else in this country, the reputation of Sicilian immigrants was not positive. The other Italians, even in their own community, generally looked down on them, and this goes back to Italy itself. Southern Italians were looked down upon.
So when the Italians moved over to the United States in the early 1900s, those prejudices came with them... that these people were of a questionable, secretive nature and had a hot-blooded temper and things of that kind.
I generally don't think it's good to, you know, paint an entire people with one brush.
That’s always the tough thing with talking about (the Mafia), because nearly 100% of Mafia members are Sicilian. But you have to be really clear to people it's only like 1% of Sicilians.
Video:Declines and glorious comebacks are all part of Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward
Frank Balistrieri has come up a lot. How would you describe him to people who don't know who he was?
I never met the man. He passed away in 1993, so that's before I was actively investigating any of this. But what I understand, based on what I've read and speaking to people who knew him, he was a stern man... He was very firm in his convictions, and some of those convictions weren't necessarily good convictions.
He went to Marquette Law School. He had no reason to go into organized crime. It was just about the power and feeling that he was somebody important. That's speculation, but that's how it comes across to me.
So he's a mysterious man. I don't know that I fully understand him, and I probably never will.
What kind of businesses was Frank Balistrieri involved in that you know of?
In his early days it was taverns, it was hotels, specifically the Hotel Roosevelt, which got torn down as part of the city's redevelopment. And he spread out into other taverns and nightclubs, which is probably what he's best known for today. He had a number: Gallagher's, the Downtowner, the Ad Lib, the Brass Rail. I mean, it goes on and on.
He's generally seen as having the Shorecrest Hotel and the Snug’s restaurant that was inside of it. That's debatable because the Shorecrest was in his son's name, so officially it was Joe's hotel.
Vending machines is probably the one that he's most known for outside of the nightclubs.
And gambling throughout his entire life, gambling was the backbone. I don't know how much he personally was involved in any bookmaking, but he was definitely involved in overseeing bookmaking through a number of people. And then ultimately, that's one of the main things that he was taken down for in the early 1980s — a gambling operation involving sports betting. So it's a thread that goes through his entire life, I mean, a solid 40 years.
It seems like Frank Balistrieri was one of the architects of Vegas casino skimming and the Teamsters Union's Central States Pension Fund loan. What have you read about what his involvement was?
So, Frank Balistrieri’s role in Las Vegas. I don't want to overstate it, but at the same time, I don't think he's been given as much credit – if that's the right word – as he maybe should have.
The Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas on Dec. 10, 1970. Frank Balistrieri helped orchestrate a skimming operation at this casino and others, which formed the basis of the 1995 film "Casino" directed by Martin Scorcese.
What his role really was: There was a real estate developer in San Diego and his name was Allen Glick. He wanted to move on to Las Vegas from San Diego.
And Frank (Balistrieri) was able to get Glick a substantial loan through his friend in the Teamsters Union, because his friend in Milwaukee sat on the board of the pension fund. So Balistrieri was a key piece in getting the mob into the Stardust, the Fremont, the Hacienda, all these casinos.
He got paid from the skim, but how much he knew about the day-to-day operation, I don't know.
What has your research told you about what happened to organized crime here?
I'm always really clear and upfront with people when I get asked, "Is there a Mafia in Milwaukee today?"
Publicly, I've seen no evidence. I've definitely seen that since Frank Balistrieri's passing, it's essentially vanished. I hear rumors here and there that things are still going on. But as far as I can definitively say, it seems like when Frank left, it just kind of left with him
Q&A: Author Gavin Schmitt on the rise of the Milwaukee Mafia and the reign of Frank Balistrieri
Author Gavin Schmitt discusses the history of the Milwaukee mob with reporter Mary Spicuzza. Mary is writing a story and a podcast about searching for answers in the car bombing of her cousin August "Augie" Palmisano in 1978.
Mary Spicuzza
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Ever since librarian and local historian Gavin Schmitt started writing books about organized crime, one question keeps coming up: People want to know whether he gets a lot of threats due to his work.
“I really don’t,” he told me. “It’s extremely rare that somebody is actually upset.”
But Schmitt said he hears from the adult children — or more often, grandchildren — of people he's written about, who have questions about their family’s past.
“A lot of times people don’t hear it from their own parents. They hear it from a friend who somehow knows something. And so it skips that generation, where the grandparents knew something,” Schmitt said. “But they kind of put it upon themselves not to pass it along.”
Schmitt, who works as a librarian in the Fox Cities, has written several books, does podcasts and runs a Milwaukee Mafia website.
After I began investigating the 1978 car bombing murder of my cousin, August "Augie" Palmisano, I asked Schmitt to speak with me about his research on organized crime in Milwaukee, especially the era dominated by reputed crime boss Frank Balistrieri.
Here are some highlights from our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
What have you heard about Augie Palmisano's murder?
I find it to be possibly the most shocking mob murder in the entire history of the Milwaukee Mafia.
The bomb wasn't timed. The bomb was set to the ignition. The person who planted the bomb would have no idea who is in the garage when that happens. And that troubles me, because not that it's okay to kill Augie, obviously — but you don't know if kids are going to school, or just the average person is going to work the same time that Augie is going to work when he turns that ignition. I mean, every car parked anywhere near him took some damage. And it's a small miracle that nobody else got injured.
Do you have any theories on why Augie Palmisano was killed?
My sources are limited to what was in the newspapers and what's in the FBI files — I haven't seen anything beyond that at this point. The general belief seems to be it was directly related to gambling, whether it was he wasn't paying in the "proper cut" or he wasn't going through the "right channels." But somehow, his gambling through the different taverns that he operated, such as Richie's on Broadway, he just wasn't paying "proper respect." So there's that.
The second theory is just that he was — whether it was directly tied to gambling or not — that he was highly disrespectful of Frank Balistrieri. There's the often repeated quote that apparently Frank said, "He called me a name to my face, and now they can't find his skin."
And then lastly, the third theory is that he was killed because he was an informant. And that to me is the least likely of the three. I've seen absolutely nothing to substantiate that.
More:How former undercover FBI agent Joe Pistone, aka Donnie Brasco, helped infiltrate the Milwaukee Mafia
Could you talk about what the reputation of Sicilians was like, from your research?
In Milwaukee, as just about anywhere else in this country, the reputation of Sicilian immigrants was not positive. The other Italians, even in their own community, generally looked down on them, and this goes back to Italy itself. Southern Italians were looked down upon.
So when the Italians moved over to the United States in the early 1900s, those prejudices came with them... that these people were of a questionable, secretive nature and had a hot-blooded temper and things of that kind.
I generally don't think it's good to, you know, paint an entire people with one brush.
That’s always the tough thing with talking about (the Mafia), because nearly 100% of Mafia members are Sicilian. But you have to be really clear to people it's only like 1% of Sicilians.
Video:Declines and glorious comebacks are all part of Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward
Frank Balistrieri has come up a lot. How would you describe him to people who don't know who he was?
I never met the man. He passed away in 1993, so that's before I was actively investigating any of this. But what I understand, based on what I've read and speaking to people who knew him, he was a stern man... He was very firm in his convictions, and some of those convictions weren't necessarily good convictions.
He went to Marquette Law School. He had no reason to go into organized crime. It was just about the power and feeling that he was somebody important. That's speculation, but that's how it comes across to me.
So he's a mysterious man. I don't know that I fully understand him, and I probably never will.
What kind of businesses was Frank Balistrieri involved in that you know of?
In his early days it was taverns, it was hotels, specifically the Hotel Roosevelt, which got torn down as part of the city's redevelopment. And he spread out into other taverns and nightclubs, which is probably what he's best known for today. He had a number: Gallagher's, the Downtowner, the Ad Lib, the Brass Rail. I mean, it goes on and on.
He's generally seen as having the Shorecrest Hotel and the Snug’s restaurant that was inside of it. That's debatable because the Shorecrest was in his son's name, so officially it was Joe's hotel.
Vending machines is probably the one that he's most known for outside of the nightclubs.
And gambling throughout his entire life, gambling was the backbone. I don't know how much he personally was involved in any bookmaking, but he was definitely involved in overseeing bookmaking through a number of people. And then ultimately, that's one of the main things that he was taken down for in the early 1980s — a gambling operation involving sports betting. So it's a thread that goes through his entire life, I mean, a solid 40 years.
It seems like Frank Balistrieri was one of the architects of Vegas casino skimming and the Teamsters Union's Central States Pension Fund loan. What have you read about what his involvement was?
So, Frank Balistrieri’s role in Las Vegas. I don't want to overstate it, but at the same time, I don't think he's been given as much credit – if that's the right word – as he maybe should have.
The Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas on Dec. 10, 1970. Frank Balistrieri helped orchestrate a skimming operation at this casino and others, which formed the basis of the 1995 film "Casino" directed by Martin Scorcese.
What his role really was: There was a real estate developer in San Diego and his name was Allen Glick. He wanted to move on to Las Vegas from San Diego.
And Frank (Balistrieri) was able to get Glick a substantial loan through his friend in the Teamsters Union, because his friend in Milwaukee sat on the board of the pension fund. So Balistrieri was a key piece in getting the mob into the Stardust, the Fremont, the Hacienda, all these casinos.
He got paid from the skim, but how much he knew about the day-to-day operation, I don't know.
What has your research told you about what happened to organized crime here?
I'm always really clear and upfront with people when I get asked, "Is there a Mafia in Milwaukee today?"
Publicly, I've seen no evidence. I've definitely seen that since Frank Balistrieri's passing, it's essentially vanished. I hear rumors here and there that things are still going on. But as far as I can definitively say, it seems like when Frank left, it just kind of left with him