Milwaukee family

This page is a hub for the organization that an FBI Milwaukee airtel of January 6, 1965 calls “the Milwaukee family of La Cosa Nostra.” The chart above stays empty. The records on file are mostly federal court opinions about Frank Balistrieri’s tax case (1968-1979), his Milwaukee gambling and extortion cases (1985), and the Las Vegas skimming cases tried in Kansas City (1985-1987), with three FBI Vault files.

• Court opinion. A federal court’s own statement after a trial record. The strongest kind here.
• Government charge, as a court summarized it. What the prosecution alleged, in the court’s words. An allegation, not a finding.
• FBI file. The Milwaukee office’s reports and airtels, including passages that repeat what informants said.
• A defendant’s own description, as a court reported it. What a person said about himself, recorded by the court without a finding.

The person pages

• Frank Balistrieri: the FBI’s 1965 airtel calls him “boss of the Milwaukee family of La Cosa Nostra.” FBI file. The Eighth Circuit (1987), in a footnote to its summary of what “The Government charged,” says “co-conspirator Frank Balistrieri was the head of the Milwaukee group.” Government charge, as a court summarized it. A 1958 FBI report records an informant calling him “‘top man’ in Italian-American element, Milwaukee.” FBI file, repeating an informant. The Seventh Circuit (1985) affirmed his convictions for running an illegal gambling business and for extortion conspiracy. Court opinion.
• John H. Balistrieri: the Seventh Circuit (1985) says Frank Balistrieri “acted in concert with Ruggiero, and his sons John and Joseph,” and affirmed John’s extortion conviction. Court opinion. In the Kansas City skimming trial the court entered a judgment of acquittal for him. Court opinion. No record states a role.
• Joseph P. Balistrieri: the same 1985 opinion affirmed his extortion conviction, and the same Kansas City acquittal is recorded. Court opinion. No record states a role.
• Benjamin Ruggiero: the Seventh Circuit records that he “described himself as a member of the Bonanno crime family of New York” and arranged the July 29, 1978 meeting with Frank Balistrieri. A defendant’s own description, as a court reported it. He pleaded guilty in the Milwaukee extortion case.
• Joseph Pistone: an FBI agent, not a member of anything. The Seventh Circuit records that, working undercover in New York “under the alias Donnie Brasco,” he mentioned to Ruggiero that another agent had moved to Milwaukee. Court opinion.

What the chart still waits for

The seats are Boss, Underboss and Consigliere. Two statements put a seat-like title on Frank Balistrieri: the FBI’s 1965 “boss of the Milwaukee family of La Cosa Nostra,” an internal Bureau description, and the Eighth Circuit’s “head of the Milwaukee group,” which is a footnote to the court’s summary of the government’s charge. Neither is a court finding. An FBI Milwaukee report of 1974-75, already filed for the Las Vegas section, calls Steve John DiSalvo a “Milwaukee LCN ‘Capo,’” repeating source information; a capo is not a seat on this chart, and he has no person page. No record on file names an underboss or a consigliere. A name goes into a seat only by a separate, cited decision on this page.