FBI Vault file on John Scalish

The Vault lists one part for this subject, “John Scalish Part 01 (Final).” Its report pages carry the Cleveland file number CV 92-167. The first page is a deleted-page sheet and the fourth a 1963 bulky-exhibit form. This archive read the first 400 pages through the viewer’s OCR, which is poor in places, and checked the pages quoted below against the scans.

The details section of the main report opens: “This investigation was predicated upon information received from the Bureau advising that subject was allegedly present at the meeting of nationally known hoodlums at the home of JOSEPH BARBARA at Apalachin, near Binghamton, New York, in November, 1957.” (scan 56.)

The page shown above (scan 75, report page 21) records, among other items: “In April, 1950, information was received advising that the Cleveland group, which included THOMAS J. MC GINTY, MORRIS KLEINMAN, MORRIS DALITZ and SAMUEL A. TUCKER, had obtained a license to operate the Desert Inn, Las Vegas, Nevada. It was said that LOU ROTHKOPF had an interest in this gambling place and that JOHN SCALISH represented the Italian element which also had an interest in the Desert Inn.” It reports a former agent’s account that in August 1952 the Buckeye Cigarette Service Company was owned and operated by Frank Embrescia, John Scalish, Milton Rockman and Sam Scalish, and that “ROCKMAN is the brother-in-law of JOHN and SAM SCALISH.” And: “In October, 1953, T-7 advised that AL POLIZZI is the ‘big boss’ for the Mafia in the Ohio area, although POLIZZI at present resides in Florida,” with Scalish said to give the orders in Cleveland “subject only to POLIZZI.”

These are the Bureau’s records of what informants, identified only by symbol numbers, told it. They are unevaluated reports, not findings. Other pages of the file give birth and family details from city records, which this archive does not repeat.