Prologue: Dominic Frinzi’s Ties to Grande
Joe Bonanno flew into Milwaukee on May 1, 1959 and was met at the Milwaukee County Airport by representatives of the Grande Cheese Company, a company that Bonanno held a 10% interest in. Bonanno attended the two-day national UNICO (United National Italian Civic Organization) convention at the Pfister Hotel. Following the convention, Bonanno went to Fond du Lac in Dominic Frinzi’s car where he toured the Grande Cheese Company and sat in on meetings.
June 17, 1960: Dominic Frinzi attended a business meeting at Grande Cheese with Bill Bonanno. In addition to the Grande Cheese company, both men were active in UNICO and likely knew each other there.
In January 1963, the governor spoke out about organized crime in Fond du Lac (see the episode on Leroy Sommers). Although he was purposely vague, it was clear he was referring to the Grande Cheese company. Grande’s president, John DiBella, was encouraged to go on the record to local law enforcement about what he knew.
On February 1, 1963, DiBella walked into the Fond du Lac Safety Building and offered to open his books to clear the fog around Grande. He agreed to return a week or two later.
Dominic Frinzi met with John DiBella and Al Caruso (another Grande officer) in Fond du lac on February 13. The three of them went to a conference at the Fond du Lac police department with Sheriff Ray Howard, DA Tom Massey and Police Chief Rautenberg. DiBella said he was “fed up” concerning the governor’s recent comments that organized crime was in Fond du Lac, clearly referencing Grande. DiBella denied knowing any hoodlums, and when shown photos of Steve DiSalvo and Joseph Gurera, consulted with Frinzi and then denied knowing them, too.
During the meeting, DiBella and Frinzi had a conversation in Italian. DA Tom Massey secretly made a recording of this conversation.
The FBI later had DiBella’s Italian comments translated. Much of it is not important. At one point, DiBella tells Frinzi, “In 1943 the company was in Chicago. The office was there when we took it over… I do not know who controlled it before 1943.” Frinzi asked DiBella why he moved the business from Chicago. DiBella responded, “What are you going to do in Chicago?” Frinzi then tells the others (in English) that DiBella said it made more sense for the company to be closer to the suppliers (which is not what he said, but was perhaps what he was implying). Frinzi asked about who DiBella bought the stock from when he took over the company. DiBella says, “I want to know why I came here. Why do they want all this information when they have not yet told me the why and wherefore of all this. They have taken down this information on other occasions. Those in the office already have it. Let us keep everything in its place.” Frinzi says, “He thought you came here to tell him that everyone in your family and in your company is clean. He thought this is what you came here to tell him.”
DiBella responds, “I thought he was going to give me an answer as to why all these things have been happening to me. I do not want to have anything to do with them any more. Tell them I had an office in New York and one in San Francisco. You had better stop them there. I am not talking any more.” Frinzi then relates that they want to know what other businesses DiBella has an interest in. He replies, “Tell him to do me the favor to not ask me any more. Tell him not to ask me all these kinds of questions because I am not going to speak any more. He has had his answer. Now what I want to know is why we are here. I did not come here to be interrogated, because if I came here to be interrogated I will keep my mouth closed and tell them absolutely nothing. I do not speak any more.” Frinzi tells DiBella that the men are interested in DiBella’s books, specifically with regard to the cheese distributors he works with. DiBella says he doesn’t know how to read the books and “when they are ready, let us call the accountant. My father was never involved in any legal proceedings in his life. I buy from any individual. All I want to know is what chances there are to make money. I buy from anybody who sells. The company dies with me.” Frinzi says, “He wants to know if you know that (redacted) had a lot of money. He wants to know what you know about the three people who were wounded and blinded.” DiBella says, “I do not know how much money I have in my pocket. I’m selling cheese. This is somebody else’s business, not my business. If they want to talk about cheese, I am ready to talk about it night and day. The less I know, the better off I am.” Frinzi explains they want to know if these people were killed because of the cheese business or for other reasons. DiBella says, “The problem opens up many sorb apples. What can I know now about the poor devils that were killed? I don’t know if it was beer or what, and they did not come and tell me about it.” When asked about his family, DiBella said, “I grew up in the cheese business.” He said he also has one brother and one sister in the United States.
At the same time, the FBI spoke with an informant who said that Leroy Sommers was not a competitor with Grande, and his family’s claims that his suicide was really a murder were nonsense. A Fond du Lac police officer was talked to, and he said a retired Milwaukee policeman who now worked for Pinkerton detective agency had done an investigation for the Sommers family and found that DiSalvo and Gurera met with DiBella at the Retlaw Hotel – in contrast to DiBella’s public claims. Whether or not this was accurate, by the time it got to the governor’s desk, the story was conflated to say they had met with Sommers, which is not true. The officer even doubted the DiBella connection, saying that DiBella had met with two cheese makers from Alibia Cheese at the Retlaw, and the detective may have been exaggerating his claims. When photos were shown at the Retlaw, employees did not recognize DiSalvo or Gurera and the hotel had no record of either of them staying there.)
On hidden microphone MI632-C*, the FBI recorded Dominic Frinzi and John DiBella talking in Italian on May 22, 1963. Because the bug was in Frinzi’s office and the conversation was on the telephone, they only heard one side. Nothing of importance is said, with Frinzi merely asking how DiBella was doing and saying he would “take care of it”.
John DiBella died in September 1964. Police Chief Harold J. Rautenberg said, “He lived a quiet life here. He got on well and was well liked by everyone. If he was mixed up in anything, it didn’t happen around here.” Though he lived most of his life in the United States, DiBella is today buried in Sicily.