Milwaukee Family associate Peter Picciurro passed away

[Patrickgold]

Considering it was originally tied to the family secrets trial before it was decided to be tried separately, I’m going to go out of limb and say it was an LCN operation. Not to mention more than a couple of those names were identified as LCN associates. Joe Saladino himself was indicted. You know who that is right? If Scully couldn’t prove they were part of the Chicago Outfit, which they are not, then he’s not going to risk a mistrial over proving something he can’t. The fact that it says that they traced the operation to at least 1980 should be a clue. Was there a Rockford family in 1980?

Again that is directly from the horses mouth. I know you so desperately want to believe in a Rockford family hanging on into this century and up to today but the facts (and common sense) don’t bare that out.

The FBI wasn't all-knowing,

No one said they were but their intelligence gathering and infiltration of LCN in the 1980s and 1999s was vastly more extensive and superior than it was in the 1960s. The mid 80s into the 2000s was when they were at their peak in infiltrating and dismantling the mob so the idea that no news source of intel were established in that period to replace the ones lost from the 1960s doesn’t hold water.


From 1983-1986 alone the Feds indicted 2,500 members and associates across the country. Night and day compared to the numbers for 1960-1969. So yeah they weren’t hurting for CIs.


Pogo

Since you seem to be an expert on FBI investigations in Rockford can please explain how many FBI agents were assigned to the Rockford area throughout the years? How many investigations panned out for the FBI in Rockford? Indictments? Convictions? So Rockford was a crew of Chicago or an independent family? The fact is the FBI barely dedicated any resources to Rockford and that is why the FBI doesn’t even know if Rockford is a crew or its own family. Unfortunately for you, the FBI is in the dark when it comes to Rockford like the rest of us.

Dominic Iasperra, the same guy you quoted as saying that the gambling ring that started in 1980, when there definitely was a Rockford LCN organization per your sources but some how in 2006 the organization was completely independent of any LCN ties even though the organization was discovered through a LCN investigation in Chicago, destroyed Rockford LCN files and also testified at the family secrets trial saying that Joe Saladino, one of the indicted, was a LCN associate in the Rockford area. I know you want to make it look like I’m grasping at straws here but the truth is that you are.

I will say this:

When the article came out about the 2006 gambling bust, authorities said it wasn't tied to a larger criminal operation. When I attended the plea/sentencing hearings months later, the prosecuting U.S. attorney kept referencing the Family Secrets case and the Chicago Outfit. Judge Reinhard verbally bashed the attorney repeatedly that this case couldn't be tied to the Family Secrets operation because Frank Saladino died and that severed it from Family Secrets.

When I started researching the Rockford family, I inherited two boxes of files from an investigative reporter who was moving out of town and I spoke at length with him about the family. He said Dominic Iasparro was a liason between street gang members and the Rockford LCN- he would pick up protection money from gang leaders to pass to the LCN often making the pickups behind a convenience store on Kishwaukee Street. Some of this info came from a gang leader who was eventually deported after he stopped paying protection money. I also spoke with two deputies who had said Iasparro was "the mob's man," in their words. It is no surprise he was one of those (that admitted in the newspaper) that he helped destroy police files on the Rockford LCN in the early 1980s and it's no surprise he would say there was no LCN in Rockford.

Soon after Family Secrets came out and tied Rockford to that case, a retired Sheriff's deputy wrote a letter to that investigative reporter and outlined all kinds of corruption within the department and spoke of Joe Saladino, calling him a "field lieutenant with the mob." That letter was written in 2005. Now the Rockford LCN may be defunct but I will tell you Joe is a made guy and is acknowledged by people in Rockford as a leader, but a leader of what- maybe just illegal gambling but he and the rest of those guys are respected and people are afraid of them. Maybe they're trading off that fear from the old glory days, but it still works with some people.

Excellent write up Cavita, as always. I think I can speak for 99% of people on this forum to say when it comes to Rockford information, your word is gold. Did you ever get the files from the reporter that wrote that big Rockford LCN expose in the 1980s? Weren’t those files the copies of the law enforcement files that were destroyed by Iasparro?

Also, any idea on what gang that Iasparro acted as the liaison with? I’m guessing either the Latin Kings or Latin Counts bc you mentioned the leader was deported.

[cavita]

Considering it was originally tied to the family secrets trial before it was decided to be tried separately, I’m going to go out of limb and say it was an LCN operation. Not to mention more than a couple of those names were identified as LCN associates. Joe Saladino himself was indicted. You know who that is right? If Scully couldn’t prove they were part of the Chicago Outfit, which they are not, then he’s not going to risk a mistrial over proving something he can’t. The fact that it says that they traced the operation to at least 1980 should be a clue. Was there a Rockford family in 1980?

Again that is directly from the horses mouth. I know you so desperately want to believe in a Rockford family hanging on into this century and up to today but the facts (and common sense) don’t bare that out.

The FBI wasn't all-knowing,

No one said they were but their intelligence gathering and infiltration of LCN in the 1980s and 1999s was vastly more extensive and superior than it was in the 1960s. The mid 80s into the 2000s was when they were at their peak in infiltrating and dismantling the mob so the idea that no news source of intel were established in that period to replace the ones lost from the 1960s doesn’t hold water.


From 1983-1986 alone the Feds indicted 2,500 members and associates across the country. Night and day compared to the numbers for 1960-1969. So yeah they weren’t hurting for CIs.


Pogo

Since you seem to be an expert on FBI investigations in Rockford can please explain how many FBI agents were assigned to the Rockford area throughout the years? How many investigations panned out for the FBI in Rockford? Indictments? Convictions? So Rockford was a crew of Chicago or an independent family? The fact is the FBI barely dedicated any resources to Rockford and that is why the FBI doesn’t even know if Rockford is a crew or its own family. Unfortunately for you, the FBI is in the dark when it comes to Rockford like the rest of us.

Dominic Iasperra, the same guy you quoted as saying that the gambling ring that started in 1980, when there definitely was a Rockford LCN organization per your sources but some how in 2006 the organization was completely independent of any LCN ties even though the organization was discovered through a LCN investigation in Chicago, destroyed Rockford LCN files and also testified at the family secrets trial saying that Joe Saladino, one of the indicted, was a LCN associate in the Rockford area. I know you want to make it look like I’m grasping at straws here but the truth is that you are.

I will say this:

When the article came out about the 2006 gambling bust, authorities said it wasn't tied to a larger criminal operation. When I attended the plea/sentencing hearings months later, the prosecuting U.S. attorney kept referencing the Family Secrets case and the Chicago Outfit. Judge Reinhard verbally bashed the attorney repeatedly that this case couldn't be tied to the Family Secrets operation because Frank Saladino died and that severed it from Family Secrets.

When I started researching the Rockford family, I inherited two boxes of files from an investigative reporter who was moving out of town and I spoke at length with him about the family. He said Dominic Iasparro was a liason between street gang members and the Rockford LCN- he would pick up protection money from gang leaders to pass to the LCN often making the pickups behind a convenience store on Kishwaukee Street. Some of this info came from a gang leader who was eventually deported after he stopped paying protection money. I also spoke with two deputies who had said Iasparro was "the mob's man," in their words. It is no surprise he was one of those (that admitted in the newspaper) that he helped destroy police files on the Rockford LCN in the early 1980s and it's no surprise he would say there was no LCN in Rockford.

Soon after Family Secrets came out and tied Rockford to that case, a retired Sheriff's deputy wrote a letter to that investigative reporter and outlined all kinds of corruption within the department and spoke of Joe Saladino, calling him a "field lieutenant with the mob." That letter was written in 2005. Now the Rockford LCN may be defunct but I will tell you Joe is a made guy and is acknowledged by people in Rockford as a leader, but a leader of what- maybe just illegal gambling but he and the rest of those guys are respected and people are afraid of them. Maybe they're trading off that fear from the old glory days, but it still works with some people.

Excellent write up Cavita, as always. I think I can speak for 99% of people on this forum to say when it comes to Rockford information, your word is gold. Did you ever get the files from the reporter that wrote that big Rockford LCN expose in the 1980s? Weren’t those files the copies of the law enforcement files that were destroyed by Iasparro?

Also, any idea on what gang that Iasparro acted as the liaison with? I’m guessing either the Latin Kings or Latin Counts bc you mentioned the leader was deported.

I never did get those 1980s files. I was in contact with the reporter but he was always hesitant and kept putting me off so after a few months I just stopped. These were copies of the Rockford LCN files kept by the Rockford Police Department that were copied for the 1984 expose.

I don't know what gang Iasparro allegedly met with, I would have to look through those boxes again, but I believe it was the Gangster Disciples...the leader was deported back to the Bahama Islands or somewhere near there from what I was told.

EDIT:

Supposedly gang member Michael Joseph was arrested on narcotics charges in 1987 because protection money was stopped. Another gang leader allegedly made multiple cash protection payments previously on behalf of Joseph. Sometime around 1990 Joseph was deported to Antigua.

[Patrickgold]

Considering it was originally tied to the family secrets trial before it was decided to be tried separately, I’m going to go out of limb and say it was an LCN operation. Not to mention more than a couple of those names were identified as LCN associates. Joe Saladino himself was indicted. You know who that is right? If Scully couldn’t prove they were part of the Chicago Outfit, which they are not, then he’s not going to risk a mistrial over proving something he can’t. The fact that it says that they traced the operation to at least 1980 should be a clue. Was there a Rockford family in 1980?

Again that is directly from the horses mouth. I know you so desperately want to believe in a Rockford family hanging on into this century and up to today but the facts (and common sense) don’t bare that out.

The FBI wasn't all-knowing,

No one said they were but their intelligence gathering and infiltration of LCN in the 1980s and 1999s was vastly more extensive and superior than it was in the 1960s. The mid 80s into the 2000s was when they were at their peak in infiltrating and dismantling the mob so the idea that no news source of intel were established in that period to replace the ones lost from the 1960s doesn’t hold water.


From 1983-1986 alone the Feds indicted 2,500 members and associates across the country. Night and day compared to the numbers for 1960-1969. So yeah they weren’t hurting for CIs.


Pogo

Since you seem to be an expert on FBI investigations in Rockford can please explain how many FBI agents were assigned to the Rockford area throughout the years? How many investigations panned out for the FBI in Rockford? Indictments? Convictions? So Rockford was a crew of Chicago or an independent family? The fact is the FBI barely dedicated any resources to Rockford and that is why the FBI doesn’t even know if Rockford is a crew or its own family. Unfortunately for you, the FBI is in the dark when it comes to Rockford like the rest of us.

Dominic Iasperra, the same guy you quoted as saying that the gambling ring that started in 1980, when there definitely was a Rockford LCN organization per your sources but some how in 2006 the organization was completely independent of any LCN ties even though the organization was discovered through a LCN investigation in Chicago, destroyed Rockford LCN files and also testified at the family secrets trial saying that Joe Saladino, one of the indicted, was a LCN associate in the Rockford area. I know you want to make it look like I’m grasping at straws here but the truth is that you are.

I will say this:

When the article came out about the 2006 gambling bust, authorities said it wasn't tied to a larger criminal operation. When I attended the plea/sentencing hearings months later, the prosecuting U.S. attorney kept referencing the Family Secrets case and the Chicago Outfit. Judge Reinhard verbally bashed the attorney repeatedly that this case couldn't be tied to the Family Secrets operation because Frank Saladino died and that severed it from Family Secrets.

When I started researching the Rockford family, I inherited two boxes of files from an investigative reporter who was moving out of town and I spoke at length with him about the family. He said Dominic Iasparro was a liason between street gang members and the Rockford LCN- he would pick up protection money from gang leaders to pass to the LCN often making the pickups behind a convenience store on Kishwaukee Street. Some of this info came from a gang leader who was eventually deported after he stopped paying protection money. I also spoke with two deputies who had said Iasparro was "the mob's man," in their words. It is no surprise he was one of those (that admitted in the newspaper) that he helped destroy police files on the Rockford LCN in the early 1980s and it's no surprise he would say there was no LCN in Rockford.

Soon after Family Secrets came out and tied Rockford to that case, a retired Sheriff's deputy wrote a letter to that investigative reporter and outlined all kinds of corruption within the department and spoke of Joe Saladino, calling him a "field lieutenant with the mob." That letter was written in 2005. Now the Rockford LCN may be defunct but I will tell you Joe is a made guy and is acknowledged by people in Rockford as a leader, but a leader of what- maybe just illegal gambling but he and the rest of those guys are respected and people are afraid of them. Maybe they're trading off that fear from the old glory days, but it still works with some people.

Excellent write up Cavita, as always. I think I can speak for 99% of people on this forum to say when it comes to Rockford information, your word is gold. Did you ever get the files from the reporter that wrote that big Rockford LCN expose in the 1980s? Weren’t those files the copies of the law enforcement files that were destroyed by Iasparro?

Also, any idea on what gang that Iasparro acted as the liaison with? I’m guessing either the Latin Kings or Latin Counts bc you mentioned the leader was deported.

I never did get those 1980s files. I was in contact with the reporter but he was always hesitant and kept putting me off so after a few months I just stopped. These were copies of the Rockford LCN files kept by the Rockford Police Department that were copied for the 1984 expose.

I don't know what gang Iasparro allegedly met with, I would have to look through those boxes again, but I believe it was the Gangster Disciples...the leader was deported back to the Bahama Islands or somewhere near there from what I was told.

EDIT:

Supposedly gang member Michael Joseph was arrested on narcotics charges in 1987 because protection money was stopped. Another gang leader allegedly made multiple cash protection payments previously on behalf of Joseph. Sometime around 1990 Joseph was deported to Antigua.

Thanks Cavita. Very much appreciated. Too bad you couldn’t get those files. That 1984 expose was fascinating. A lot of good info there.

[PolackTony]

Peter Pitch Picciurro passed away a couple of days ago. He was Frank Balistrieri’s cousin. Despite the internet rumors he was not the boss and was probably only an associate of the family, never made. He was a bookmaker by trade. One of the last ones still alive. Not sure who is still left except John Balistrieri. I use to see Peter at Pitch’s restaurant sitting in the bar area. Very nice guy.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/na ... SS-oYx8f5A

Was his father Phil Picciurro who was arrested in 1934 with Vincenzo Troia and Frank Longo? What's the Picciurro pedigree, if you know?

I believe is father was John Picciurro who was also a part of the Milwaukee Family. I’m sure he’s related to Phil Picciurro.

Ok....I know there was also a Dominic Picciurro who was pretty active in the 1930s with Jack Enea I think.

Dominic was the brother of John Picciurro, so he was Peter's uncle. They were from Bagheria I believe. I'm not sure about Phil Picciurro. John's sister married Frank's father Joe Balistrieri but John Picciurro was married to another Balestrere who I believe was a cousin of the Balistrieris from Aspra.

The Picciurros were also related to member Vincent Mercurio and his nephews the Maniacis. John and Dominic Picciurro's uncle was married to Mercurio's sister.

Yeah, the Picciurros were from Aspra, Bagheria, like the Balistrieris. Cosimo Picciurro, who was the brother of Pietro Picciurro, father of John and Dominic Picciurro, and the namesake of the Peter Picciurro who just died, married Maria Mercurio, sister of Vincent Mercurio and Rosa Mercurio, the Manicai brothers' mother.

The Filippo Picciurro arrested in Rockford in 1934 with Troia and Longo gave his address in Beloit. He may have been one of the Milwaukee Picciurros using an alias, but it's hard to say. There was no one with that name in either WI or IL. There was a Filippo Picciurro, born about 1890 in Palermo, who lived in Hoboken. Given that he was in North Jersey, and seems to have been the only Filippo Picciurro in the US. maybe he was the guy.

[cavita]

Peter Pitch Picciurro passed away a couple of days ago. He was Frank Balistrieri’s cousin. Despite the internet rumors he was not the boss and was probably only an associate of the family, never made. He was a bookmaker by trade. One of the last ones still alive. Not sure who is still left except John Balistrieri. I use to see Peter at Pitch’s restaurant sitting in the bar area. Very nice guy.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/na ... SS-oYx8f5A

Was his father Phil Picciurro who was arrested in 1934 with Vincenzo Troia and Frank Longo? What's the Picciurro pedigree, if you know?

I believe is father was John Picciurro who was also a part of the Milwaukee Family. I’m sure he’s related to Phil Picciurro.

Ok....I know there was also a Dominic Picciurro who was pretty active in the 1930s with Jack Enea I think.

Dominic was the brother of John Picciurro, so he was Peter's uncle. They were from Bagheria I believe. I'm not sure about Phil Picciurro. John's sister married Frank's father Joe Balistrieri but John Picciurro was married to another Balestrere who I believe was a cousin of the Balistrieris from Aspra.

The Picciurros were also related to member Vincent Mercurio and his nephews the Maniacis. John and Dominic Picciurro's uncle was married to Mercurio's sister.

Yeah, the Picciurros were from Aspra, Bagheria, like the Balistrieris. Cosimo Picciurro, who was the brother of Pietro Picciurro, father of John and Dominic Picciurro, and the namesake of the Peter Picciurro who just died, married Maria Mercurio, sister of Vincent Mercurio and Rosa Mercurio, the Manicai brothers' mother.

The Filippo Picciurro arrested in Rockford in 1934 with Troia and Longo gave his address in Beloit. He may have been one of the Milwaukee Picciurros using an alias, but it's hard to say. There was no one with that name in either WI or IL. There was a Filippo Picciurro, born about 1890 in Palermo, who lived in Hoboken. Given that he was in North Jersey, and seems to have been the only Filippo Picciurro in the US. maybe he was the guy.

Yeah, it would be an interesting angle to think if the Hoboken Picciurro followed Troia and Longo from New Jersey and just gave Beloit as an address. Was this Hoboken guy involved in crime at all do you know?

[cavita]

Considering it was originally tied to the family secrets trial before it was decided to be tried separately, I’m going to go out of limb and say it was an LCN operation. Not to mention more than a couple of those names were identified as LCN associates. Joe Saladino himself was indicted. You know who that is right? If Scully couldn’t prove they were part of the Chicago Outfit, which they are not, then he’s not going to risk a mistrial over proving something he can’t. The fact that it says that they traced the operation to at least 1980 should be a clue. Was there a Rockford family in 1980?

Again that is directly from the horses mouth. I know you so desperately want to believe in a Rockford family hanging on into this century and up to today but the facts (and common sense) don’t bare that out.

The FBI wasn't all-knowing,

No one said they were but their intelligence gathering and infiltration of LCN in the 1980s and 1999s was vastly more extensive and superior than it was in the 1960s. The mid 80s into the 2000s was when they were at their peak in infiltrating and dismantling the mob so the idea that no news source of intel were established in that period to replace the ones lost from the 1960s doesn’t hold water.


From 1983-1986 alone the Feds indicted 2,500 members and associates across the country. Night and day compared to the numbers for 1960-1969. So yeah they weren’t hurting for CIs.


Pogo

Since you seem to be an expert on FBI investigations in Rockford can please explain how many FBI agents were assigned to the Rockford area throughout the years? How many investigations panned out for the FBI in Rockford? Indictments? Convictions? So Rockford was a crew of Chicago or an independent family? The fact is the FBI barely dedicated any resources to Rockford and that is why the FBI doesn’t even know if Rockford is a crew or its own family. Unfortunately for you, the FBI is in the dark when it comes to Rockford like the rest of us.

Dominic Iasperra, the same guy you quoted as saying that the gambling ring that started in 1980, when there definitely was a Rockford LCN organization per your sources but some how in 2006 the organization was completely independent of any LCN ties even though the organization was discovered through a LCN investigation in Chicago, destroyed Rockford LCN files and also testified at the family secrets trial saying that Joe Saladino, one of the indicted, was a LCN associate in the Rockford area. I know you want to make it look like I’m grasping at straws here but the truth is that you are.

I will say this:

When the article came out about the 2006 gambling bust, authorities said it wasn't tied to a larger criminal operation. When I attended the plea/sentencing hearings months later, the prosecuting U.S. attorney kept referencing the Family Secrets case and the Chicago Outfit. Judge Reinhard verbally bashed the attorney repeatedly that this case couldn't be tied to the Family Secrets operation because Frank Saladino died and that severed it from Family Secrets.

When I started researching the Rockford family, I inherited two boxes of files from an investigative reporter who was moving out of town and I spoke at length with him about the family. He said Dominic Iasparro was a liason between street gang members and the Rockford LCN- he would pick up protection money from gang leaders to pass to the LCN often making the pickups behind a convenience store on Kishwaukee Street. Some of this info came from a gang leader who was eventually deported after he stopped paying protection money. I also spoke with two deputies who had said Iasparro was "the mob's man," in their words. It is no surprise he was one of those (that admitted in the newspaper) that he helped destroy police files on the Rockford LCN in the early 1980s and it's no surprise he would say there was no LCN in Rockford.

Soon after Family Secrets came out and tied Rockford to that case, a retired Sheriff's deputy wrote a letter to that investigative reporter and outlined all kinds of corruption within the department and spoke of Joe Saladino, calling him a "field lieutenant with the mob." That letter was written in 2005. Now the Rockford LCN may be defunct but I will tell you Joe is a made guy and is acknowledged by people in Rockford as a leader, but a leader of what- maybe just illegal gambling but he and the rest of those guys are respected and people are afraid of them. Maybe they're trading off that fear from the old glory days, but it still works with some people.

Excellent write up Cavita, as always. I think I can speak for 99% of people on this forum to say when it comes to Rockford information, your word is gold. Did you ever get the files from the reporter that wrote that big Rockford LCN expose in the 1980s? Weren’t those files the copies of the law enforcement files that were destroyed by Iasparro?

Also, any idea on what gang that Iasparro acted as the liaison with? I’m guessing either the Latin Kings or Latin Counts bc you mentioned the leader was deported.

I never did get those 1980s files. I was in contact with the reporter but he was always hesitant and kept putting me off so after a few months I just stopped. These were copies of the Rockford LCN files kept by the Rockford Police Department that were copied for the 1984 expose.

I don't know what gang Iasparro allegedly met with, I would have to look through those boxes again, but I believe it was the Gangster Disciples...the leader was deported back to the Bahama Islands or somewhere near there from what I was told.

EDIT:

Supposedly gang member Michael Joseph was arrested on narcotics charges in 1987 because protection money was stopped. Another gang leader allegedly made multiple cash protection payments previously on behalf of Joseph. Sometime around 1990 Joseph was deported to Antigua.

Thanks Cavita. Very much appreciated. Too bad you couldn’t get those files. That 1984 expose was fascinating. A lot of good info there.

Definitely would love to see them. For the most part over the years, the Rockford LCN thrived because they had the Sheriff's Department in their pocket...that's why so many LCN victims were left outside the city limits because they knew the Sheriff would the investigating agency. They did have a few people on the Rockford Police Department but that agency dogged them over the years.

[Patrickgold]

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