At the end of 1966, Balistrieri’s defense attorney Maurice Walsh had a heart attack, putting the trial on hold. A few months later, it would begin again.
January 17, 1967: An informant said it was expected that August Chiaverotti would testify in Balistrieri’s tax trial, particularly concerning business at the Para Corporation. Informant said that obviously any testimony from Chiaverotti would be favorable to Balistrieri.
February 4, 1967: It was announced that Balistrieri’s tax trial would start up again on March 6.
February 14: An informant told the FBI that Jerry DiMaggio told him that Frank Balistrieri was spending $1,500 per day when in Springfield to cover legal costs, lodging, travel and so on. Balistrieri did not have this kind of money, so it was suspected the tab was being picked up by someone in Chicago, probably Felix Alderisio. (This number seems high, but what do I know?)
March 7: The Balistrieri tax trial was up and running, with witnesses being two tax agents and handwriting expert Edwin Schroeder. The expert said that five different names signed to certificates, bank records and tax records all were done in Balistrieri’s handwriting. The names were Rudolph Porchetta, Stephen DiMaggio, Sebastian Balistrieri (possibly Buster Balestrere), Peter Balistrieri and Santo Curro. These names were signed on documents for businesses Frank said he had no involvement in. The government expected they could wrap up in a day or two, but the defense’s non-stop objections to IRS testimony dragged it out a week. When the prosecution rested around March 13, Walsh moved to have the case dismissed for insufficient evidence – this was rejected and he was ordered to begin the defense immediately.
March 8, 1967: An informant said Balistrieri was claiming the tax trial cost him $80,000 but the informant had no idea if this was true.
March 15, 1967: Top hoodlum Harold Klein testified in favor of Balistrieri and his finances at trial. Called next was politician Peter J. Granata of Chicago, a close associate of Sam Giancana and other Chicago hoodlums. The defense was not expected to call many others, and it rested March 16, with the case to go to the jury on March 22 because Judge Poos had prior commitments before then.
March 22: The whole day was spent on closing arguments, and it was handed off to the jury at 5:05pm. Judge Poos told them if they did not reach a verdict by midnight to go to bed.
March 23, 1967, at 10:30am Frank Balistrieri was convicted on two charges of felony income tax evasion for years 1959 and 1960. A third charge, conspiracy, was thrown out. The defense expressed that they desired a new trial, and Judge Poos gave them 30 days to file a motion.
On April 10, 1967, an informant told the FBI that he believed that Felix Alderisio was the one paying Frank Balistrieri’s legal fees. Further, if Frank went to prison, it was believed that Peter Balistrieri would take over the Family, because Peter would be subservient to Frank.
April 21: Balistrieri filed a motion for an extension to file a motion for new trial. This was granted, with a new deadline of May 25. This would be met and a hearing was scheduled for June 14.
June 12, 1967: A Chicago Sun-Times article referred to Balistrieri as the head of organized crime in Wisconsin and this got him “hot.” He told people he might sue the newspaper.
On June 14, 1967, Balistrieri’s series of 15 mistrial motions in Springfield were all denied by Judge Poos. The most likely motion to succeed was the contention that Balistrieri’s conversations with his attorney were illegally bugged. Poos said the court did not allow any such recordings to “taint” the trial —no evidence from the IRS came from the FBI’s tapes. The defense argued that even though the evidence was gathered from legal sources, the bugs gave them “leads” of where to look for those legal sources. This was not convincing, and Poos ordered a pre-sentence investigation.
Frank Balistrieri was in New York City from June 17 through June 22, 1967. He was there meeting with Joe Bonanno on the top floor of a hotel, who he knew because Bonanno had an interest in Grande Cheese. Balistrieri wanted Bonanno’s backing in case he risked losing his leadership position. Although Milwaukee / Chicago did not answer to New York, with the recent upheaval in Chicago, Balistrieri would be wise to have a protector. Felix Alderisio was also there.
September 5, 1967: Frank Balistrieri visited Felix Alderisio. Alderisio seemed resigned to the fact his appeals would soon be rejected and he would spend his days in prison.
Frank Balistrieri was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Springfield on September 18 to two years in prison out of a maximum 20. He was also fined $10,000 and ordered to pay $4,600 in court costs. He posted $15,000 bond pending appeal. An informant told the FBI that if Balistrieri’s appeal failed and he went to prison, Joe Caminiti would take over as boss, with Peter Balistrieri as underboss and John Aiello as capodecina. The FBI believed Caminiti taking over “may not be logical” due to his age and reluctance to risk his union position.
July 22, 1968: An informant said that Balistrieri’s tax appeal hearing was set for September, and if he went to jail he would ask for a one-week delay before reporting to prison. The time would be used to “make” four new Mafia members.
Balistrieri’s appeal was argued on September 26 before Judge Lathan Castle. Balistrieri’s attorney, Maurice Walsh, argued on a few grounds. First, he said it was prejudicial that witness Harold Klein was asked if he was ever convicted of a felony. Although the question was objected to at the time, the question itself may have left an impression on the jury. Government attorney Charles McNelis said he agreed the question was “improper,” but told Judge Castle it was not prejudicial. It was only one improper question during a long trial —any long trial is bound to have a bad question arise. Walsh argued that Balistrieri was unfairly targeted, with the federal government conducting a “saturation investigation” with surveillance, illegal wiretaps and more, and despite all the coverage could only come up with “a pitifully poor tax case.” Walsh said that although the illegal bugs were not allowed in trial, it would still impact how the agents reacted and what they knew. McNelis countered that “they got their end results from legally obtained evidence. The evidence presented in court was not the result of illegal acts.” He pointed to informants, postal inspectors and other legal tactics. Walsh finally made the complaint —though not directly related to the trial —that the tapes from the illegal bugs had been destroyed, but logs from the bugs remained. He described them as “editorialized reports,” meaning FBI agents could write or not write what they wished without anyone being able to check the source material. Even if the logs were accurate, they could be taken out of context or not take into account inflection.
On November 7, a three-judge panel of Seventh Circuit appellate judges upheld Balistrieri’s tax conviction. On November 25, an informant said that Balistrieri was telling people he got a “bad deal” from the Court of Appeals and was willing to do just about anything to stay out of prison. He said he would not be against “getting to” (bribing) a judge, but knew nobody with connections to the judges on that court.
On December 31, the Court of Appeals rejected Balistrieri’s motion for a rehearing. He was given thirty days to appeal to the US Supreme Court. Of course, he did.