John Joseph Morn was born January 29, 1932. Vital records on him are difficult to find for reasons I don’t understand. His parents were John Morn and Martha Pavlovich, who told census takers they were from Austria. Listing “Austria” was more complicated in those days — it included Hungary, Romania, Czecoslovakia and more.
Morn was picked up September 23, 1957 in Wauwatosa for playing dice with Carl Aloysius Schalk, the man who would replace him as company president.
December 27, 1957: The Wauwatosa police arrest John Morn “and another subject” at his place of business for gambling. The business was probably Town and Country Insulation, which he operated since 1951. For a while, his business partner was Norman Radler – I do not think Radler was the other gambler, though he had a past arrest for car theft so wasn’t completely clean.
November 1960: John Morn was succeeded as Town and Country Insulation president by Carl Schalk. The company vice president was Robert Warren Tate (who had served time in Waupun for burglary). It’s not clear if Morn left the business at this time.
July 5, 1961: a report on the Town and Country Insulation Company had officers listed as: Carl Schalk, president and treasurer; Robert Tate, vice president and secretary. Schalk had succeeded John Morn and held 70% of the stock. Tate had the other 30%.
October 4, 1961: John Morn was at a Shell station in Santa Claud, Arizona and called Midge’s Tavern in Sheboygan from a pay phone. The next day, Midge’s called him back at the Dunes Motor Hotel in Phoenix. Midge’s called Morn again on October 7 while he was in “Cuba” (apparently a city, not the country). Midge’s was owned by known gambler Eldor F. Heimbecker. (Heimbrecker also factored into the Milton Lutzke murder, covered on the Fox Cities Murder and Mayhem podcast.)
January 18, 1963: John Morn was seen at the Clock Bar (715 North Fifth) talking with Buster Balestrere, but as soon as they realized they were seen they split up. The Clock was operated by Archie E. Lewis.
April 15, 1963: John Morn incorporated the Morn Insulation Company, with an office at 8422 est Lapham in West Allis.
September 27, 1963: At the FBI’s request, Milwaukee PD pulled John Morn’s record. Other than his gambling arrest in Wauwatosa, his record consisted of only minor traffic offenses and one count of being “drunk” in October 1949 (at age 17) where he was sent to a detention home.
October 2, 1963: John Morn was at the Clock Bar with Sid Brodson and they were photographed by the Milwaukee police.
October 14, 1963: An informant alerted SA John Gassaway to John Morn. He was described as a gambler who hung out at the Clock Bar with Sid Brodson. He was said to be in his late 20s (he was actually 31), 6’1″ and with “a very ruddy complexion.” A file was opened on Morn.
November 1, 1963: SA Knickrehm was told by an informant that a “gambling operation” was going on at the Clock Bar, and it involved Sid Brodson and John Morn.
December 11, 1963: An informant said Brodson was a bettor and a handicapper, but not a bookie.
Brodson had been betting a great deal through John Morn, but Morn was now “bearding” for Brodson because of the volume of bets going through – Morn was afraid taking them all himself could bankrupt him.
February 7, 1964: The FBI went looking for John Morn at the Morn Insulation Company (11800 West Ripley) but found a note on the door directing them to the Acceta Cabinet Company at the corner of Ripley and 119 Street. An employee there informed the agent that Morn had left for Florida but any messages could be passed on to him or one of his associates.
April 17, 1964: SA Gassoway spoke with an informant about local gambling. Sid Brodson was said to still be in Florida, but John Morn was back and booking from his home at phone number GR6-6531. Three days later, a police officer saw John Morn at the Clock Bar around 11:30am.
July 20, 1964: The Los Angeles office proposed simplifying the interstate gambling operations by creating a control file. The suggested calling it PROGAM (Professional Gambler), modeling it off the VEGMON (Vegas Money) skimming investigation, and putting it under designation 162. Los Angeles believed that local bookmakers generally did not violate interstate laws and when they received bets from out of state, they were often unaware of the source. Los Angeles believed gambling to be a nationwide coordinated effort with gamblers and bookies playing the odds in their favor. (If the odds were better in Los Angeles than Boston, for example, a Boston gambler would call in a bet to Los Angeles. The bookie may not even know it is a long distance call.) The bookie is not knowledgeable of the bigger network; likewise, local police are often not knowledgeable. Los Angeles believed the passage of federal gambling laws divided up the centers of gambling. They pointed to horse handicapper Al Mones and a clearinghouse that operated in Cincinnati and Newport, Kentucky from 1930 to 1959. Now, following congressional investigation and new laws, it was spread out through Boston, Frank Rosenthal in Chicago and Miami, Sid Brodson in Milwaukee, bookie Max C. Courtney and oddsmakers elsewhere. (Rosenthal was at a low point in his career now because he had recently been caught fixing a college basketball game.)
August 11, 1964: FBI Headquarters responded to Los Angeles’ gambling investigation proposal and said it was not feasible. While the ideas had “considerable merit” and were “appreciated,” the method proposed would involve an increase of paperwork and the filing of additional reports. The “administrative burden” may be too great In the meantime, HQ gave a list of men who should be investigated more intensely. Frank Rosenthal made the list.
September 15, 1964: A memo from Milwaukee to Headquarters was blunt about why they could not concentrate on investigating John Morn. The office had lost three agents who previously worked “top hoodlums” and gambling, putting an increased workload on Alexander LeGrand, who already had 11 gambling cases, and 14 anti-racketeering cases. In addition, LeGrand had assisted o na kidnapping case, multiple bank robberies, and was supposed to be devoting half his time to “develop top echelon informants.” In short, the transfer of those agents weakened the ability to investigate gambling and likely reduced the usefulness of informants LeGrand was working on. LeGrand said despite this, Morn was worth investigating because in conjunction with Sid Brodson he was betting cross-country, meaning the FBI could discover numerous interstate violations of gambling laws through Morn.
September 21, 1964: The Criminal Intelligence Digest had an article by Agent Frank H Townsend titled, “Analysis of a Sports Book.” The Milwaukee office noted this would be a helpful guide on how to pursue Brodson and Morn.
November 12, 1964: Around this time, the FBI effectively closed the John Morn investigation, and decided to continue coverage under the Sid Brodson file. The reason for this was that Morn was believed to be Brodson’s “beard” and not necessarily an independent entity. They made reference to their use of “Analysis of a Sports Book” as their guide, and then laid out a thorough plan of moving forward. Milwaukee said there was a tendency to open files on local bookies, and this should be decreased in the future. A preliminary check to see if they had an interstate component was worthwhile, but often they were strictly local in nature. This took up valauble time and resources and did not result in potential for prosecution. (Not explicitly stated, but the FBI placed high importance on closing cases for statistical reasons.) The national layoff centers that supply gambling lines (spreads) are few in number and should be the priority, as taking them down would cripple syndicate gambling in a way attacking bookies never could. Milwaukee was concerned that the biggest people weren’t getting properly investigated because things were “fragmented” – many case files were opened on many individuals passing along gambling information, but there was no clearinghouse. Although a dozen gamblers could be traced back to one source, the information is in a dozen files, often in different states. If information in one office could aid investigation in another, they may never know.
The normal way this is dealt with is a “control file,” but that is a poor solution because the file would be too massive and details would get buried. Further, some offices do not have agents with gambling expertise to analyze such a file. Milwaukee’s SAC recommended creating a monthly “Gambling Intelligence Digest” that could be compiled by Headquarters or one of the major offices. Something more than a newsletter that gave information on patterns to look for. This digest should focus on “clarity” and “essential information.” The Digest would be broken down into different headings of major bookmakers, with their phone numbers and addresses, as well as for “BR men” and layoff operations. (I’m not sure what BR men are, that abbreviation usually mean bank robbery in FBI memos.) Each office would submit a monthly report and the digest would take these reports and combine them to create a single digest. Lastly, it was suggested to keep an administrative page similar to other files so that confidential information could be separated from the body of the digest.
December 4, 1964: The Dallas SAC responded to Milwaukee’s gambling digest suggestion and wholeheartedly endorsed it. They said that issue one should have the photos of all the major bookmakers and each issue should have a column of phone numbers sorted by city, with each office being responsible for adding or removing from that list. This would eliminate duplication and the need to repeatedly consult the phone company. They further suggested a section on gambling terminology for agents new to gambling, or to keep up on changing words in the world of gambling. Dallas was of the opinion that gambling was the major source of income for organized crime and that any simplification of investigations would be a smart move. In addition to the investigations themselves, a good deal of time is spent by stenographers writing each report and having to make multiple copies as the same information is written again and again. Freeing up their time would be advantageous.
December 8, 1964: Los Angeles responded to the Milwaukee gambling proposal. The tone of their memo strongly suggests they were offended that Milwaukee’s proposal was well-received following how their own proposal was rejected. However, they conceded that a monthly gambling digest was a good idea and conceded that Sidney Brodson deserved to be on the list of covered individuals – he had not made the HQ list. Los Angeles suggested that the best place to compile such a digest would be HQ, and because of the sheer magnitude of information coming in each month, it might be best to limit the tips passed on from those received by “top echelon” informants in the gambling field.
December 16, 1964: The Boston office of the FBI felt the Milwaukee digest plan had “merit.” Unlike the multi-page responses of other offices, Boston had a concise one page response, saying their only suggestion was to make the digest semi-annual rather than monthly to decrease repetition.
On February 1, 1965, an informant told the FBI that John Morn had made $18,000 booking in the last week. A month later, when asked about gambling, an informant said the biggest gambler he saw downtown was John Morn, who regularly received envelopes with bets over the counter at the Clock Bar.
April 14, 1965: An informant said Sidney Brodson and John Morn hung out together at the Clock Bar. Morn would keep a “look out” whenever Brodson used the phone. (Archie Lewis of the Clock Bar would pass in December 1967; I don’t know if anyone took over after him.)
John Morn was arrested on July 7, 1968 at the Club Las Vegas (6309 West National Avenue) after getting into a fight with another man.
On September 28, 1968, the Rutt (a West Allis club) burned, killing two people who lived upstairs —Bernardine Krancki (50) and George Krancki (9). Bernardine’s husband and a second son made it out alive. Arson was suspected. The owners were John Morn, Joseph Kusch and Peter Anthony Merschdorf. Morn had put $8,000 into the business, which was used to expand into a pizzeria called Nero’s at 8533 West Greenfield. Morn was represented by attorney Joseph Balistrieri in his business dealings. (Why not Brodson?)
On October 12, 1968, Peter Merschdorf was fined $32 for letting people loiter around his club, the Rutt. At the same time, John Morn was fined $107 for abusing an officer and disorderly conduct. Later that month, a man associated with Morn (Wilbur McCauley) was found murdered in a Milwaukee hotel – but that’s another story.
Morn was married around 1970 and would have a handful of children over the next decade (not named here for privacy reasons).
He was involved in a big gambling bust in 1972, which will be covered elsewhere. This seems to be the end of his gambling career.
By 1978, Morn made Florida his permanent home and owned a hotel there that specialized in psychic phenomena and spirits. Following his passing in 2011, his wife continued to operate the hotel and I believe still does as of 2024.