Stanley George Haukedahl was born in Madison — his father was of Norwegian ancestry, while his mother could trace her roots to America before the revolution. He was in many ways the All-American boy.
By 1937, was married to Helen Landis and had two children.
At UW-Madison, Haukedahl was known as “The Hawk” and lettered in multiple sports: baseball, football and basketball. He over-extended himself and in the 1937-1938 season he was ineligible to play because he had failed history and economics.
From 1942-1947: state highway patrolman
In September 1947, Kenosha Police Chief John T. Sullivan died and a coveted position became available.
January 19, 1948: Haukedahl became the Kenosha police chief following a 3-2 vote by the police and fire commission. The search had gone on for months, with 34 candidates vying for the job. When the applicants dropped to three, it was Haukedahl, Captain Matthew Kirsch, and Deputy Sheriff William Schmitt. Following the vote, commission member Morgan Chase told the press, “Haukedahl’s appointment marks the dawn of a new day for Kenosha and strikes a staggering blow to organizing gambling and racketeering here. It also warns local ‘protectors’ and ‘payoff boys’ that Kenosha is determined to permanently cancel the easy pickings.”
July 1948: Haukedahl made headlines for an incident where he was taking a bath, and heard tires screeching. He jumped out of the bath, threw on some clothes and cited Kenneth Bray for circling the block in a reckless manner to scare his estranged wife.
September 1948: Haukedahl was criticized for not shutting down gambling as quickly as some people hoped. He said that other crimes required more immediately attention. Then, he lead the raid on Ollie O’Mara’s pool hall and confiscated poker chips, a gaming table, loudspeakers announcing horse race results and more. Twenty patrons were rounded up. O’Mara was considered the biggest gambling figure in town and was a former Milwaukee Brewer.
September 30, 1948: Following the arrest of O’Mara, Haukedahl next raided Frank “Ditchy” Greco’s Kenosha Athletic Club. Similarly, cards, dice, tables and speakers were taken. The club was not far from the police station.
Jul 26, 1949: Police raided the swanky gambling den of George Ebner. Haukedahl suspected a tipoff because no patrons were inside during the raid, but Ebner was still booked. The establishment was fancy, including leather furniture, air conditioning and clearly catered to a higher class of gamblers.
September 1949: Haukedahl personally handled the attempted murder case of Harry Nelson. Nelson had been shot by his wife Genevieve (Jenny), who then turned the gun on herself successfully. Harry had to have a .32 caliber bullet removed from his scalp, but he survived. After questioning Harry, Haukedahl noted conflicting stories and wondered if things really happened the way he was told.
September 1949: Haukedahl was involved in the arrest of three Miami men running a gambling scam in Kenosha. Albert Mancino, Edwin Gebhardt and Sidney Hertz had used a wiretap to access the local racing wire. They would then using a radio to tell results to one of their group who wore a fake hearing aid with a receiver. By getting results faster than some gambling dens, they could bet on the winners as a sure thing. Following their arrest, an agent from the Federal Communications Commission came to speak with them. Haukedahl believed the men were part of some nationwide “big operation,” which is possible considering they were not local men.
October 1949: The gambling wars in Kenosha were in full effect as a homemade bomb hiding inside a gasoline can went off, shaking two floors of gambler George Ebner’s downtown building. Windows were shattered, an office destroyed and poker chips strewn about from a cabinet. This incident followed the holdup of gambler Ollie O’Mara’s billiard hall and the arrest of three Miami gamblers who were caught in town wiretapping.
November 7, 1949: Bartley W O’Mara was fined $450 for running a gambling joint (horse betting). Also fined as being his employees were Joseph Fasulo, Angelo Germinaro and Louis Molinaro.
July 1, 1950: Four gambling dens in Kenosha were raided simultaneously by state and local police, with 100 people rounded up as gamblers. Chief Haukedahl personally lead the raids with state agent David Pritchard. Seven men were charged as operators. The Lakeshore Restaurant on Highway 42 was actually raided twice the same night. Ollie O’Mara was arrested at his pool hall, John Butera was arrested for operatign the Kenosha Athletic Club, and Harry Steinhoff was running George Ebner’s place. Other operators were Edward Griffman, Matt Miller, Morris Shapiro and Paul Gastrowski.
October 1951: A grand jury indicted Sheriff Leonard Jensen for accepting bribes and his connection to Kenosha gamblers. City councilman Felix Olkives was also indicted for trying to bribe Sheriff Haukedahl $1,000 in November 1948 to go easy on gambling. Haukedahl took some pressure from the Police Commission – even though he turned down the bribe, they were disappointed he had not reported it to them.
March 7, 1952: Ollie O’Mara, George Ebner and Frank Greco were indicted by a grand jury with trying to bribe Chief Haukedahl, and also with convincing city councilman Felix Olkives to bribe Haukedahl $1,000. Councilman Howard Coates was accused of accepting $1,000 to influence his vote on a new city manager.
March 11, 1952: Olkives was on trial already, and Haukedahl testified that he had tried to put $1,000 in his pocket and said Ollie O’Mara was his friend and a “good guy.” Olkives’ defense was that there was no proof of this interaction and it was made up because of political differences. The jury deliberated for five hours and could not come to a decision. The state vowed to retry the case.
March 20, 1952: Kenosha city councilman Howard Coates was sentenced to 5 years in Waupun for accepting bribes.
October 1952: Howard Coates and councilman Felix Olkives were on trial again for attempting to bribe Chief Haukedahl. Coates was found not guilty, and the prosecutor dismissed the charges against Olkives, believing he could not win a conviction without the first case going successfully.
July 1954: Haukedahl again personally handled a murder case, this time the beating death of Mary Whorley by a ex-convict in a west side tavern. She was bruised and cut in numerous places on her head and body. Initial reports did not release the man’s name, but said he had served time in Green Bay for burglary. Whorley had repeatedly been charged with drunkenness as well as lewd and lascivious behavior.
There were no traffic fatalities in Kenosha between Memorial Day and Labor Day 1955, which earned them a reward from the state. Chief Haukedahl noted it was “ironic” that soon after the award was announced, three children died in traffic accidents within 48 hours. One 14-year old boy, Robert Lucas, was hit by a car while on his bike and went flying into another oncoming car. He landed face down and continued to skid, his face almost completely removed from his head by the friction.
February 1958: Chief Haukedahl was the leader of the Governor’s Coordinating Committee for Traffic Safety. One goal of the committee was to design a better, more efficient traffic ticket.
On August 6, 1958, Patrolman Henry Czarnecki placed a bet on a horse race at John Louis Seggiaro’s barbershop in Kenosha. He won the race, but then signaled Kenosha Police Chief Stanley Haukedahl and three other officers outside. Seggiaro was arrested for bookmaking.
December 4, 1958: Kenosha night club owner Arthur Molinaro was murdered, his hands bound by his own necktie and then shot. The case received a good deal of attention – not only was it a murder, but Molinaro was from a well-known family. Although any umber of shady characters could have been involved, the suspect turned out to be Ivo Ivanic, a Navy man stationed at Great Lakes. He was turned in by a female companion.
The Milwaukee FBI Bureau Chief sent a memo to the Director on February 28 (1961?) concerning Kenosha Police Chief Stanley G. Haukedahl. He began with praise, saying that Haukedahl was “prominent in enforcement circles” and was “a strong friend and supporter of the FBI”. But then he passed on the story that Haukedahl’s wife was seeking a separation “as a result of unsubstantiated rumors concerning… alleged extra-marital affairs.” There was further rumor that Haukedahl may have been receiving as much as $500 per month from John Rizzo in order to turn a blind eye to gambling. These rumors were of concern to the FBI because Haukedahl had been a 1953 graduate of the FBI National Academy. If the rumors turned out to be true, Haukedahl would have to be removed from the National Academy directory.
The Kenosha Sheriff’s Department visited four gambling locations in Kenosha on March 18, 1961 and told them to stop their operations. These were the 56th Street Cigar Store, the Kenosha Athletic Club, the Rite Spot tavern and the Badger Hotel. This caused friction with the city police, who were allowing the games to run openly. A police inspector called Sheriff Floyd Hughes on March 20 and told him that the raids put the city police on the spot because Chief Haukedahl was vacationing in Miami Beach. Immediately following the phone call, Sheriff Hughes wrote a letter to Chief Haukedahl, which read in part: “I wish to inform you that I have been receiving altogether too many anonymous phone calls pertaining to gambling in the city of Kenosha. It is certainly becoming very annoying to myself and my family, and as you well know, ignorance of what is going on in the city of Kenosha is no excuse for the sheriff, who is the chief law enforcement officer of Kenosha County. I hope you will take care of this matter immediately so that it will not be necessary for me to take further action.”
Chief Stanley Haukedahl asked Sam Gerolmo, whom he considered a friend, to set up a meeting with John Rizzo and William Covelli in May or June 1961 (shortly after Robert Kennedy publicly declared a link between Kenosha and Antioch gambling). Haukedahl asked them if the “syndicate” was involved in Kenosha gambling, and the two men told them that while Buster Balestrere had been an important man in Kenosha, he was not acting on behalf of organized crime. The two men convinced Haukedahl that the dice game was not as large as law enforcement believed it to be. Haukedahl considered Covelli and Rizzo “informants” for the Kenosha Police Department.
December 1961: Haukedahl’s son Blane married the daughter of the Whitefish Bay police chief.
Next: The Fall of Stanley Haukedahl.