Mobsters in the Cream City

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The Sicilian-American Mafia of Godfathers and Sopranos is usually associated with New York and New Jersey, if not Prohibition Chicago or Rat Pack Las Vegas. But the Mob operated in most big cities, including Milwaukee, where Mafiosi began turning up more than a century ago.

Wisconsin author Gavin Schmitt has written a groundbreaking account in The Milwaukee Mafia: Mobsters in the Heartland. The new book builds off his previous publication, also called The Milwaukee Mafia, which was part of the Images of America series, published by Arcadia, which focused more on photographs than text. With the new book, Schmitt gives a detailed chronicle of the local Mob from its inception among turn-of-the-20th-century immigrants through the early 1960s when Frank Balistrieri assumed control.

“It was a topic that hadn’t been tackled,” Schmitt says. “Beyond newspaper articles, the subject was largely unknown, making me want to explore it even more.”

Schmitt researched The Milwaukee Mafia by poring over newspaper accounts as well as examining court files, police records and the inevitable coroner’s inquests. Unfortunately, the publisher cut the list of sources in the interest of trimming page count and similar considerations, forcing the book to conclude in the ’60s. “My research is ongoing, and if there’s enough interest, I’m more than willing to tell the rest of the story,” the author says.

Is the old Sicilian-American Mafia still at work in Milwaukee? “I used to believe it died in 1993 when Balistrieri was buried. But now I’m not so sure,” Schmitt says. “For legal reasons I can’t name any specific names, but at least a handful of ‘made men’ still live in Milwaukee. The bulk of organized crime in the state today is centered in Kenosha, but don’t count Milwaukee out just yet—The Mafia is a candle that’s hard to snuff out.”

Gavin Schmitt will discuss The Milwaukee Mafia at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 14 at Boswell Book Co.