John Alioto – Milwaukee Mafia Mob Boss

Hey everybody. Welcome to the Milwaukee Mafia. This is Eric Wulterkens. This is Gavin Schmitt.

Gavin – take it away!

We have something a little different today. We are going to talk about the Mob Boss in Milwaukee before Frank Balistrieri. We are moving up to the 1950s now. This is going to be John Alioto.

We are going to start at the beginning of his life. He is living on Detroit Street in the 1910’s. This was where a lot of the guys lived. He worked as a garbage collector. For whatever reason it was apparently a dangerous job collecting garbage because he had two fingers that were cut off from his left hand while doing this job. This greatest alleged criminal act prior to becoming the Mob Boss was the murder of Albert Scorsone a small time hoodlum that used such aliases as “Giuseppe Nenapali and Liberto Natalie” Scorsone and some other guys robbed a saloon on St. Paul Avenue.

The owner and five patrons were forced into a closet and 320 dollars was stolen. That is $7,400 today. The men were soon arrested in Chicago. While in the Milwaukee County Jail they allegedly threatened the life of the guard and their trial date was moved up.

They were sentenced to a variety of terms, imprisoned for between 12 and 25 years. Scorsone only served 7 years. While inside he made the acquaintance of Nicolo Gagliardo. Both men were released in the summer of 1922 and immediately began working together transporting bootleg liquor between Chicago and Milwaukee.

After being free from the State Prison for only three weeks Scorsone was seated for dinner with Joseph Sciortino in the basement of a boarding house on Detroit Street. They had a hearty meal of sardines, cauliflower, fried potatoes and tomato soup.

In the middle of dinner he gets shot. Eight shotgun blasts come in through the window and Scorsone’s head is blown to pieces. Detective Dieden, the guy who could speak Italian questioned people in the neighborhood but nobody claimed to know about the incident. Some said they didn’t even hear it.

A man that lived there with his wife and son said that he had known Scorsone as a child in Sicily before coming to Milwaukee but he didn’t know anyone that would do this. He was a good guy.

The Police found his partner in the bootlegging business. He was shocked when he heard the news – he had no idea about it – he did not know who did it.

Later an informant told the FBI that the murder was carried out by Joe Gumina and John Alioto. The Guardalabenes had wanted Scorsone gone and Alioto was the man for the job.

Now this is not firm. This is the 1920s and the FBI thing isn’t for decades later. I can not say that what the informant said is accurate but it is generally pretty good.

Alioto knew that his future was in the restaurant and tavern business.

While working with the restaurants he was still working with the garbage department but he switches over to the Street Department and he rises up to Labor Foreman which is basically a Supervisor position.

A strange detour comes in this story in the 1930s where he turns up in an unlikely place. Barbara McAndrews Oddario was brought to court in Brooklyn New York, June 1939 and held on $10,000 bond. The District Attorney had this amount granted after telling the Judge “The reasons for this high bail can not be disclosed at this time but the District Attorney’s Office in conjunction with the Police are investigating further ramifications.” Apparently this was good enough because the Judge granted it.

Oddario was believed to have lied on her marriage application claiming to be divorced from her second husband when she was not. These further ramifications soon came to light. Police arrested three more people in Brooklyn. – Real Estate Broker Frank Sbeglia , his wife Josephine and Charles Fishgold.

Oddario’s charge of perjury was dropped but now she was involved in a new scandal. Frank Sebilia had an idea to use a man named Alfred Oddario, a man with terminal cancer and heart disease, in an insurance scam. Oddario lived in a room run by Charles Fishgold. Sbeglia and Fishgold had another man who was healthy take a physical for Oddario getting two life insurance claims for $5,000 each. Which today would be a total of $84,000.

In the meantime Barbara McAndrews was married and changed her name to Oddario. She didn’t marry Alfred Oddario – they never met but she used his name on the marriage certificate.

Not long after that the real Oddario passed as he had terminal cancer and heart disease. Barbara then showed up at the insurance company with a death certificate claiming her money. She handed it off to the other people who gave her $1,000 for her trouble.

While she didn’t think this was enough money, she complained and reported the fraud to the insurance company who then of course told the Police.

The Police started suspecting the man buried in the cemetery under the name Alfred Oddario might not have even been Alfred Oddario. This might have been another part of this elaborate scam.

They dug up the body under the suspicion that maybe he had been murdered. He was not murdered. Detectives went to the home of Frank Subelio’s brother, Mario. Mario was investigated because he was a witness on the fake marriage certificate. He was arrested and while arrested two men were in his apartment visiting him - Millwaukee mobster members, Michael Amodo and John Alioto.

They were arrested for violating the Sullivan Law which at that time it was illegal to own handguns. If you had a gun that was small enough that you could hide it in your pocket that was illegal in New York.

One of them had an automatic 1920caliber 635 – it was a fully loaded pistol. John Alioto had a 38 caliber Colt Police Positive Special, fully loaded. Mike Amato had a fully loaded 32 Colt. They were packing. They were ready for something.

What connection did Alioto and Amato have to Brooklyn and the Sebelas? I have no idea. We talked about who Alioto was – Amato was Pete Guardalabene’s partner in a funeral business. He was somebody known to.

Back in Milwaukee, Alioto tried his hand at being a tavern owner, again, and opened the Express Bar on Michigan Street. The tavern closed in 1950. (about 5 years). In 1948 he opened Alioto’s Supper Club at the corner of VanBuren and Michigan. This was actually popular but eventually the city bought them out in 1958 as part of urban redevelopment. This is when the freeway went through.

Alioto had to move his restaurant to Wauwatosa which still stands to this day. Alioto’s is now on Highway 100. It is still called Alioto’s.

Alioto lobbied hard to be the next Mob Boss after the current Boss Sam Ferrara was going to be stepping down. He approached one bar owner and offered his services if the bar owner if got in trouble. In August 1951 the bar owner came to Alioto and said he needed help. Alioto asked him “Where’s the envelope?” The man said “What do you mean? What is the envelope?” Alioto said we have to put the fix in and pay off a couple of guys. The owner walked away saying the incident wasn’t that serious and he could just go to court and take care of it himself.

John Alioto does become the Mob Boss. It was said that he got the position by talking to a lot of people in Chicago. The Chicago guys liked John Alioto. They thought he was a good guy. It helps when you have Chicago backing you up.

The FBI even though they were very active yet were already aware of Alioto being the Mob Boss as early as December 1952. They had heard that Ferrara stepped down and Alito took over. They also believed that Frank LaGalbo was not the head of the younger section of the mafia crew. He was the Captain of some of the younger guys.

During Alioto’s reign as Boss some Milwaukee rackets would grow, most notably the relationship with organized labor. (like the Teamsters Union)

Why was Sam Ferrara stepping down so Alioto could take over? Allegedly he had tried to steal the Ogden Social Club – this is the gambling club that jumps around to different house. He had tried to take it over from Frank Balistrieri. He wanted Balistrieri out of there and then wanted to kick him out of the family completely but John Alioto, protecting his son in law said “No, no, no” and he called in some friends from Chicago.

When the Chicago guys came in and everybody saw that John Alioto and Frank Balistrieri were buddies with the Chicago guys- Granted Ferrara is the Mob Boss and should be able to do whatever he wants – but he overstepped it on this one.

The Mob Boss in Milwaukee could do what he wanted but if it came to Chicago and Milwaukee getting into a fight Chicago’s going to win. Milwaukee is not part of the Chicago Mob but the Chicago Mob does have a lot of influence.

When members were brought to “the chair” for violations- which means they were sat down and talked to the men that would preside over them were John Alioto, the UnderBoss Mike Mineo, two Captains, Frank Balistrieri and Joe Gumina and Counselor/Advisor Charles Zarcone. They were the top guys for Alioto’s years.

Under Alioto’s rule, the muscling of gamblers and illegitimate businesses actually stopped. It was normal for people to try to get a cut of the money from gamblers and protection money from businesses but Alioto wasn’t a fan of that. He toned that down.

They did have some internal problems. A man named John DiTrapani spread the word that he would pay per hit in order to get the leadership role after John Alioto. It would lead to his eventual death. It also caused DiTrapani’s friend, Frank LaGalbo to lose a lot of influence because he was seen as siding with this guy instead of the real people in charge. And another ally of John DiTrapani, Jack Enea would later be killed too.

Alioto tended to focus more on his legitimate business prospects, the restaurants, and did as little as possible to bring on the heat from the Police and Federal Government. He retired from his city job in 1958. He spent his later years working out of his restaurant.

His connections were still evident though. When the FBI would run his phone records, they found out that he was still talking to mob guys in Des Moines, Rockford, Chicago. He was still keeping up with them.

Bill Bonanno, the son of one of the Mob Bosses in New York (there are five Mob Bosses in New York) wrote that Alioto was present at his “making” ceremony. Which may or may not be true.

Alioto does eventually step down. He does not stay Mob Boss until his death. He also ends up getting replaced. There is only a handful of murders during the time he is the Boss. It’s relatively peaceful time. There are also fewer high profile crimes. It seemed like he was phasing things out.

I don’t know why Alioto wanted to be the Mob Boss. The majority of his money came from his legitimate businesses. His whole family was involved in the mafia and he was tight with all of the guys in the mafia going all the way back. He was raised in it, it was a lifestyle he knew and at some point he became successful as a normal business owner.

After John Alioto stepped down, Frank Balistrieri took the Mob Boss position and things went back to the old way of doing business. Frank Balistrieri is in charge for 30 years and he is very closely involved with the gamblers. There are times when businesses are getting shaken down for money. There is one time a bakery gets blown up because they are not paying money.

All of the things that Alioto was scaling back on come back. As the story goes along we are going to see Alioto and Balistrieri butting heads.

John Alioto lived out his life in Milwaukee only once was he ever in any trouble. He was pulled over and given a $5 fine for failure to yield the right of way in a vehicle. Really an incredibly boring figure.

The FBI monitored him up until his death. They followed him because they knew he was the Mob Boss and he was Frank Balistrieri’s father in law. He was a top target but they never found anything other than he was making phone calls. The FBI hadn’t tapped his lines so they didn’t know what he was talking about. Just the fact that he is talking to these guys – he was still in the loop. Lou Fratto, in Des Moines, he has no reason to talk to that guy. Tony Musso in Rockford, no reason to talk to that guy.

Tony Musso is a terrible guy. So not only are the people he is talking to mob members they are also pretty dark members. Tony Musso Is nasty. I don’t know if we talked about it or not because it is more of a Madison story – not a nice guy. He had businesses but everybody knew who he was and he was not a legitimate guy by any stretch.

We will talk about the murders that happened when John Alioto was the Mob Boss. This is about it for anything that is directly about him. He was always in the background.