Milwaukee 1963

[B.]

One source (maybe Maniaci) said the old timers referred to Balistrieri operating like a "Camorrista". Seems he was bringing in relative outsiders to bolster his own faction, much as he brought guys from Kansas City to oversee enforcement.

It's interesting too because the Balistrieris were apparently very proud of their heritage in Aspra. Obviously not enough to be a factor in his recruitment practices.

[davidf1989]

Did Frank Balistieri have any connections with the Chicago Outfit and their Vegas skim? I think that he was a suspect in the attempted bombing of Lefty Rosenthal's car.

[chin_gigante]

Did Frank Balistieri have any connections with the Chicago Outfit and their Vegas skim? I think that he was a suspect in the attempted bombing of Lefty Rosenthal's car.

Balistrieri was the first guy Allen Glick approached to get the loan from the Teamsters for the casinos. Balistrieri then went to Kansas City, who went to Cleveland. Then Chicago got a piece of the skim for settling a beef between Milwaukee and Kansas City over the split. So the families getting a share of the skim were Milwaukee, Kansas City, Cleveland, and Chicago.

[B.]

- On the mid-1964 recording of the Milwaukee consiglio, they discuss how Tucson is a Bonanno decina rather than its own borgata and "Joe" (not Caminiti) compares it to a "La Rosa" who was once a remote capodecina under Milwaukee. There was a Tony LaRosa who was a meat wholesaler associated with the Family but he lived in Milwaukee and was a suspected police informant, doesn't seem to have even been a member. Anyone know of any LaRosas or a similar name that were connected to Milwaukee but lived remotely?

Since the comparison is with the Bonanno Family's Arizona decina, this Milwakee decina must have been some distance away. Tom LoBue comes to mind who was ID'd by Maniaci as a former capodecina in the 1920s-30s and he moved to California later but there's no indication he was ever a capodecina there. "LaRosa" and LoBue don't sound alike but do both start similarly and there were multiple Milwaukee members in California at various points which could lend itself to a decina once existing. The California-based members I'm aware of over the years are: Minetto Clementi Oliveri (shelved), Francesco Balistrieri, Pietro Balistrieri (suspected member?), and LoBue. Frank Bomp also ID'd Phil Damiano as a Milwaukee member living in CA when he first began cooperating but later said he was made with Rockford (which Maniaci said too) then transferred to LA. There was also Dr. Salvatore Megna, Milwaukee member who moved to Arizona.

- There is an unrelated reference much later in the conversation to contacting a capodecina, then some short unintelligible comments, followed by mention of Minnesota in connection with this. Nothing to suggest they had a captain in MN but does suggest Milwaukee was involved there in some way. We know that Madison member Vincent Troia once lived in Minnesota.

- Even though Augie Maniaci told the FBI the Milwaukee "outfit" came from the old "mafia" and exclusively uses the term "outfit" to refer to Milwaukee, during this meeting they consistently use "Family" to refer to themselves and at one point an attendee refers to their organization as the "Mafia". Just pointing this out because it shows many terms were in use and Maniaci's take (or the FBI's interpretation of it) isn't the only word on how the Family was referred to. Balistrieri also refers to Sam Giancana as the "representative" of Chicago but it's translated from Sicilian so he was referring to him as "rappresentante". Shouldn't be a surprise to anyone but since people still create fantasy ranks in Chicago (top boss, bottom boss, boss-boss) this lays it out very clear that Giancana was the rappresentante officiale.

--

The 1964 meeting is explicitly referred to by Joe Caminiti as a "meeting of the chair", but it's translated from Sicilian so he would have used the same term Maniaci used to describe it, "seggia". The attendees as interpreted by the FBI were:

- Frank Balistrieri - Boss
- Joe Caminiti - Former capodecina and current or future underboss
- John Alioto - Capodecina, former boss
- Pete LNU (not Balistrieri)
- Joe LNU (likely Gumina) - If Gumina, former underboss/capodecina and future capodecina
- Phil LNU
- Nino LNU (probably Antonino Albano)

- Later they are joined by Peter Balistrieri and a "Tom". There were seven original attendees and the two others make nine. Pretty big for a consiglio so my guess is the first seven attendees were the actual council, which is already pretty big, and the other two were allowed to sit in. Most of the councils we're aware of had five seats and Milwaukee wasn't a large Family yet a lot of people had a voice as consiglieri.

- Not sure who a few of these guys could be. I'm not aware of another "Pete" except Pete Balistrieri but it's clear the individual referred to as "Pete" is separate from Pete Balistrieri. "Tom" could be Tom LoBue who as a former capodecina might have been welcome at a seggia meeting but he'd have to be visiting Milwaukee from California. It's possible "Tom" was a phonetic take on "Dom" but I'm only aware of Dominick Principe who was only made the year prior. Similarly, "Pete" and "Phil" could be misinterpretations of other names or were members otherwise unidentified by Maniaci and other sources.

- "Joe" could also be Joe Balistrieri as at one point Frank Balistrieri refers to someone as "Dad" but I think he's speaking to his father-in-law John Alioto. I'm not convinced Joe Balistrieri is there and there's a reference to Frank's father that suggests he might not be in attendance. The "Joe" at the meeting is very dominant and knowledgeable during the conversation, plus former underboss Joe Gumina would be promoted to capodecina replacing John Alioto within a year or two of this meeting so he was definitely still involved. Gumina was also identified as part of the seggia the following year...

- In 1965, the FBI identified the following members sitting on the seggia: Frank Balistrieri, Joseph Caminiti, John Alioto, Peter Balistrieri, Joseph Gumina, Michele 'Mike' Mineo and Vito Seidita. Mineo was a former capodecina who sat on the seggia when previous bosses were in charge according to Maniaci so either he was off the council for a time and returned or he was somehow confused for a "Pete" or "Phil". Vito Seidita could have been confused for one of those names as well, maybe "Pete". The FBI identifying 7 members of the seggia in 1965 lends itself to the 1964 seggia meeting having seven actual consiglieri and two additional visitors.

- Differences between the 1964 and 65 consiglio show that at the very least "Nino" lost his seat, with questions as to whether "Pete" and "Phil" were butchered names or individuals who also lost their seats.

---

- With the above in mind, interesting to compare the 1964 and 1967 charts given by Maniaci:

1963
Boss - Frank Balistrieri
Underboss - Vacant
Consigliere - formerly Carlo Zarcone but Maniaci isn't sure he still holds it
Capodecina - John Alioto (crew of old timers)
Capodecina - Peter Balistrieri

1967
Boss - Frank Balistrieri
Underboss - Joe Caminiti
Consigliere - Vito Seidita?
Capodecina - Joe Gumina (crew of old timers)
Capodecina - Peter Balistrieri

- Maniaci said the 1967 hierarchy had been the same for one or two years previous so it goes back to 1965 or 66. He also said he was guessing Seidita was the consigliere because he was the "logical choice" but as with 1963 / Zarcone he doesn't seem to know who actually held the position of official consigliere. He doesn't have a problem identifying who holds the other ranks but consigliere was only vague to him.

- Interesting too that the position of capodecina over the elderly group was first held by a former boss then held by a former underboss. According to Maniaci, Gumina also once had a decina reporting to him while he was underboss. It's clear that members could go up and down in rank in Milwaukee.

- Comparing the 1963 hierarchy to the 1964 consiglio, you have the boss, the (soon to be?) underboss, and the capidecine attending (though unclear if Pete Balistrieri had an actual seat yet), but the other seats were held by soldiers. Carlo Zarcone was not on the consiglio in 1964 despite being the former consigliere but they do make reference to "Zaccone" (ph) on the tape, no doubt Zarcone.

[B.]

As for what the consiglio discussed at the meeting:

- A policy requiring that all Family members attend member-connected funerals and weddings. Balistrieri stressed the importance of following this protocol and acknowledged his own failure to invite all members. He says even members who live out of town must be invited. However he says he purposely didn't invite former boss Sam Ferrara to an event but says it was an honest mistake that he failed to invite Sal Marino. This could be a reference to San Jose member Sal Marino, whose relatives were Milwaukee members, or more likely it's a reference to Sal's nephew Santo "Sam" Marino of the Milwaukee Family who was also Ferrara's brother-in-law.

- A favor requested of Balistrieri by the Bonanno Family. The Bonannos went directly to Balistrieri who tried to grant the favor but Sam Giancana was upset as the Bonanno Family was supposed to contact Balistrieri's Chicago avugad first before requesting favors from Milwaukee. They also discuss Milwaukee's relationship to Chicago as their Commission avugad and how even though Milwaukee is expected to help Chicago when asked, Chicago also has to help Milwaukee when asked.

- Problems with Wisconsin-based Bonanno member John DiBella. Balistrieri was very unhappy with how DiBella was conducting himself and described an interaction where DiBella requested that Balistrieri give him a gift of cheese for Christmas and Balistrieri responded by telling DiBella to stuff the cheese down his pants. Balistrieri then reported his problems with DiBella to Sam Giancana. DiBella would die later this same year.

- Arizona-based Bonanno member Pete Sciortino's unsanctioned visit to Milwaukee. Sciortino, who was a paesan / relative of Milwaukee figures, had visited the area without his superiors in the Bonanno Family first notifying Balistrieri and Balistrieri didn't even know Sciortino was in the area. As a result, Balistrieri felt disrespected / threatened and wanted to kill Sciortino. He discussed this with Giancana and apparently Balistrieri contemplated whether Milwaukee or Chicago should be the ones to kill Sciortino. He also apparently felt the Bonannos should do it themselves given Sciortino was their responsibility. John Alioto cautioned Balistrieri not to hurt Sciortino during the meeting which upset both Balistrieri and Joe Caminiti, both of them talking after the meeting about Alioto's disrespectful tone and his questionable approach to the Sciortino situation. John DiBella was also part of this problem with Sciortino.

- During the meeting Balistrieri shares that he had met with Santo Trafficante in Chicago and that Santo passed word to say hello to one of the consiglio members (probably John Alioto).

- After these topics were discussed the attendees drank cognac together and talked casually.

[chin_gigante]

Great breakdown B

[B.]

Looking at it again, Balistrieri didn't actually tell DiBella to stuff cheese down his pants but wanted to. It is hard to tell if this was a separate issue or related to Sciortino which connected to DiBella as well.

What's clear is Balistrieri was very upset with the Bonanno Family's presence in Wisconsin in general and felt the Bonannos were a threat as did Giancana, who he was consulting with on these matters. Keep in mind this is months before the Bonanno conflict came to a head.

[B.]

Another thing about the seggia meeting is at one point "Joe" (likely Gumina) refers to the organization as "La Cosa Nostra".

Maniaci told the FBI about an earlier Family meeting held to discuss the Valachi hearings where Balistrieri brought up the term "La Cosa Nostra" and asked whether the membership had ever heard it used. Maniaci said only two members had ever heard it and most had not, and some were confused by it. One senior member said "Casa Nostra" (Our House) would make more sense to him than "Our Thing".

I don't know if Gumina was one of the members who knew the term pre-Valachi or if "Joe" quickly adopted it after hearing it from Valachi. The seggia meeting was entirely in Sicilian so he wasn't inserting the term into an English conversation but one that was primarily Italian.

Their use of "Family" was likely Famiglia given it was in Italian, too. St. Louis was another Family that casually referred to themselves as "the outfit" on the streets like Milwaukee and Chicago did, but in a recorded meeting of Family leaders they also used the term Famiglia to refer to other Midwestern Families.

Balistrieri used the term "borgata" during the seggia as well which we see more of on the East Coast but that term clearly has roots overseas. Borgata was the main term or Family used by Magaddino on his wiretaps, Tony Lima used it to refer to the Pittsburgh Family that initiated him, and Joe Valachi did use it too but it was clearly in common use in different places before him as Nicola Gentile also used it.

--

Another thing I want to point out that's made me revise my view -- Maniaci was under the impression the consiglio was no longer in use after Balistrieri settled in as boss and the argument/tension between Balistrieri/Caminiti and Alioto on the 1964 tape added to this, but the FBI got information in 1965 that it was not only still intact but some of the seats had changed. I don't think the seggia was disbanded, at least not when I previously thought, but it does appear the tension between Balistrieri and Alioto led to Gumina eventually replacing Alioto as capodecina over the elders.

[B.]

Question I had when re-reading the tape through a more updated lens:

Who was the secretary / chairman of the Milwaukee seggia?

- Balistrieri obviously has a certain level of dominance during the discussion as he is the boss, but Joe Caminiti and "Joe" (Gumina) do as well. John Alioto challenges Balistrieri during the discussion but for one that is a function of the consiglio as a whole and as his father-in-law and a former boss Alioto may have had his own reasons for speaking up that went beyond formalities.

- Caminiti became underboss by early 1965 and could have already had the title at the time of this meeting, plus he was described in one report as Balistrieri's advisor, so it could go either way. Maybe he was the chairman or his underboss role and relationship to Balistrieri gave him added authority during the conversation. He is the one who refers to the discussion as a meeting of the seggia so he acknowledges its formal purpose.

- As a former underboss and technically a soldier at this time, Gumina could have been elected to a secretary role ala Paul Ricca or Tony Accardo in Chicago.

- We've discussed whether the official consigliere was always the secretary / chairman, as that does seem to be the case at times in certain Families, but it's not obvious if it was a rule. We don't know who the official consigliere was in 1964 as Carlo Zarcone is not in attendance and even if Vito Seidita was the consigliere and in attendance as "Pete" (ph) it's not obvious that he's the secretary.

- Consider Detroit, where Bompensiero said Priziola was the underboss and there's a tape of Tony Zerilli saying they have to bring an issue to Priziola so an implied council meeting can be held. Burnstein is adamant that Priziola was the consigliere but as I've said before, it's possible Priziola was both the underboss and the secretary which would have made him the head consigliere of the council even though his rank in the hierarchy was underboss -- on the consiglio every participant was a consiglieri and the chairman would be consigliere di consiglieri -- this could explain Scott's info. It's not obvious to me that Detroit had an "official consigliere" as we typically understand it, at least at that time, although the head of the council would have served that function like we see in San Jose and Chicago. If Priziola was both the underboss and chairman, it would lend itself to Joe Caminiti possibly having the same dual roles. Detroit referred to their council as "the chair" but given they were as Sicilian as it comes I imagine they used the Italian "seggia" much as Milwaukee did.

[PolackTony]

Great write up and discussion of the 1964 meeting here. I can add that Frank Zito in Springfield was captured on a bug also using the term borgata.

The nomenclature questions are always a lot more interesting and complicated than is often apparent at face value, given that members might talk one way casually and another way formally. Apart from the variability of members and associates coming from different background and generations, guys might tell the FBI that terms like “outfit” and “street boss” etc were the common usage, but in a formal Family meeting use “mafia/cosa nostra”, “Famiglia/borgata” and “capodecina”. These latter weren’t for public consumption, but for internal use among the membership in specific contexts, and thus we get things like Ross Prio and Dom DiBella whispering about the term “Avugad” when discussing organizational matters in public. In 1963, the FBI even had a report claiming that the term “Family” was not used by the Milwaukee outfit, based on CI accounts, but then the next year they recorded a Council meeting where it was in fact used.

The key lesson of course is that the use of different terms, whether simultaneously or in specific contexts, did not denote any organizational distinction. Whether a Family tended to use “outfit”, or “mafia”, or “cosa nostra”, made no substantive difference with respect to the organization and their place within that system.

This discussion also underscores how valuable bugged meetings and sit downs are, as even the self-consciously reported account of a member may differ in some ways from a document that gives us a sense of how things worked in practice organizationally. I’d be very confident in betting, for example, that some would be very surprised by how Chicago talked formally if we had access to a recorded Consiglio meeting.

[PolackTony]

Joe Gumina was an interesting figure also. We were discussing this, but the FBI said that he had been criminally active in both Milwaukee and Chicago; though he was not one of the Milwaukee guys originally from Chicago, there were Guminas in Chicago from Bagheria that could well have been relatives. Further, Gumina’s wife’s family, the Burgarinos and Gendusas, were from Chiusa Sclafani. A 1964 CI even mistakenly beloved that Gumina was a Chicago member (though this may have been a general error where this source believed that the entire Milwaukee outfit belonged to Chicago). One of Gumina’s sons married the daughter of Sam Ferrara, while older brother Vincenzo Gumina was married to a Balistrieri (his naturalization was also witnessed by Giuseppe Alioto, who also witnessed Joe’s naturalization along with Antonino Regalbuto), while a sister married a Seidita. Multiple relatives, including several of Joe’s siblings, wound up moving out West to CA.

Very low profile guy from the public perspective, however, totally belying his role within the actual Family’s leadership. In his file, the FBI notes that per Maniaci, Gumina was “inactive” with respect to criminal activities. Reading that, we might otherwise think of a guy like that as “retired”, except with Gumina we have intel that he was still very much actively involved in the administration of the Family and serving as a captain, despite having no apparent involvement in criminal rackets by this time. This is the sort of thing one needs to keep in mind when reading about a guy being “inactive” or “retired”, as this can refer to operational activities while being misleading with respect to active participation in the organization itself.

[B.]

Gumina's only arrest was for assault in 1929, beyond that he only had speeding tickets. He didn't even have an FBI number assigned to him as of 1966. This is a longtime underboss who had a personal decina reporting to him but without inside sources they had no idea he was an important figure for so long. His FBI file says he was born in Santa Elia, just north of Porticello and Santa Flavia, and his naturalization was witnessed by Giuseppe Alioto. He said he was in Milwaukee since 1916.

When the FBI learned he'd been promoted to capodecina over the old timers in the mid-1960s they reported that they'd be investigating him as it appeared he was getting back involved in crime, but Maniaci told them he was not engaged in any illegal activity. Obviously the FBI saw his promotion back into the hierarchy as a criminal affair when the reality was the capodecina over what Maniaci termed the "old faction" was an example of a purely representational role -- the elders didn't like Balistrieri's leadership and wanted to answer to a former boss (Alioto) then a former underboss (Gumina) from the previous generation. He wasn't promoted to become a crime manager and beyond alleged bootlegging activity in his younger years there isn't much to suggest he was a major criminal.

With the terminology, a good example of that is the street-level perception of Chicago's council. We have numerous references to a "board of directors", committee, and similar language but the one time we have an important member explaining it to a visiting member, it was referred to as the "consignu" (ph), a dialect version of consiglio. With wiretaps like the 1964 Milwaukee consiglio meeting it's important too to note when the FBI says the conversation was translated from Sicilian / Italian, as many of the terms that are transcribed (chair, representative, Family) were originally seggia, rappresentante, and Famiglia. This is true for the Magaddino tapes as well, as he frequently spoke in Sicilian.

We see the difference in language too in the tape of Chicago member Joe Costello meeting with Giancana. Whereas most info tends to describe captains in Chicago as "crew boss" or similar language, in this conversation "capodecina" is explicitly used, as is the term "avugad". This wouldn't need to be pointed out if there wasn't so much dogmatic arguing about what these terms mean formally.

[PolackTony]

Important points on both Gumina and nomenclature. I edited the above post to also underscore that Gumina was reported to be “inactive” criminally while we know he was very much active organizationally.

[B.]

The FBI had next to nothing on him. Worked a day job, rented a modest home, and was by all accounts a gentleman with a thick Sicilian accent. Yet he was the Milwaukee underboss with a crew of soldiers direct w/ him for close to thirty years under three different bosses.

He was shelved in 1972 due to problems with Balistrieri and interestingly in 1973 he and Augie Maniaci (also shelved) were going to visit Fond du Lac to try and get reinstated. Who there would have been in a position to help them? John DiBella was dead, so maybe Phil Candela of the Madison Family (though they disbanded that year) or Phil Ponto of the Chicago Family? Any other made members known to live or have a presence in Fond du Lac?

--

Something interesting too is John Alioto was never a capodecina or part of the admin before he became boss. Went straight from soldier to boss, then became a capodecina after that. Frank Balistrieri on the other hand was a capodecina under Alioto before becoming boss.

[PolackTony]

Presumably Gumina and Maniaci were trying to get Candela to speak on their behalf, as Ponto was in Vegas at that time and didn’t relocate to Fon Du Lac until the 80s.