This page is about John B Triliegi, other than his most notorious crime, which is covered elsewhere. He was born May 20, 1914 in Omaha, Nebraska to Bruno Triliegi and Concetta Trovato.
Triliegi, 16, was arrested for attempted auto larceny on April 17, 1931 and sent to the detention home. He was warned and the matter was closed. On April 25, Triliegi was arrested again for aiding and advising the commission of a felony (a burglary). This time, on May 1, he was sent to the St. Charles Home for one year, but di not serve the full time.
John Triliegi was arrested for violations of the Prohibition Act on April 4, 1932. He was turned over to federal authorities the next day. Triliegi, now 19, was arrested on January 14, 1934 as an inmate of a gambling house and was fined $5.
John Triliegi, 25, was arrested for “carnal knowledge and abuse” (statutory rape) on October 24, 1939. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced by Judge John J. Gregory to five years probation.
Triliegi was picked up in Appleton, Wisconsin on June 11, 1947 for peddling an inferior grade of soap, and was ordered out of town by the police chief. Triliegi was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct on June 18, 1950. He was carrying a sawed-off shotgun in his car. The charge was dismissed a month later.
The event that John Triliegi is most remembered for is his part in the Lavere Redfield heist in Reno, Nevada in the early 1950s. This is covered in detail elsewhere. Fast forward, Triliegi was released from Nevada State Prison on July 30, 1954 by the Parole Board. He had served less than two years. We pick up from there.
Triliegi was called in to the Milwaukee Police Department on October 3, 1955 for questioning (presumably on the Mattioli pharmacy burglary because his friend Sam DiMaggio was arrested just the day before). He was released the next day and not charged.
Triliegi was laid off by the Inwood Construction Company on January 3, 1958. Triliegi had been the labor foreman on a job expanding the Boston Store at the Bayshore Mall, but the work was now wrapping up. He was at the Sauna Finnish Steam Bath (933 South 6th Street) the next day. He was in a private room upstairs when he apparently slipped and fell, apparently breaking his left arm, and knocking himself unconscious. He was brought to the Courtland Clinic. His doctor did find cuts and bruises, and some swelling, but his arm seemed to be unbroken.
On January 15, 1958, an informant told the FBI that John Triliegi was not a member of the Milwaukee Mafia, but might have been a representative of the Chicago Outfit. He was said to be connected through “Mad Sam” DeStefano. The informant further said that Triliegi had a reputation for “peddling dope” (heroin or morphine) and that his supplier was a relative in Omaha. A second informant corroborated Triliegi’s connection to the Outfit.
Special Agent John Holtzman observed Triliegi enter the Belmont Hotel on February 25, 1958 and talk about horse race betting. Special Agent Warren Kenney observed Triliegi at the Belmont again the next day, conversing with a well-known gambler.
An informant told the FBI on February 27, 1958 that Triliegi kept in contact with Tony Biase and a man named Sam in Omaha, Nebraska by calling the Owl Smoke Shop there. Biase was a Mafia member in the very small Omaha “family” (generally considered a faction of the Kansas City Mafia). Another informant had earlier told them that Triliegi still had loot from the Reno heist stashed out west somewhere.
John Triliegi began working as a labor foreman for Thomas H. Bentley and Son Company on April 29, 1958. He was involved in the construction of the Boys Technical High School (319 West Virginia Street). Triliegi was laid off on July 18, 1958 after falling into an excavated hole and tearing a ligament. Although he remained in good standing with the union, he would not be rehired on his current job.
Triliegi was employed as a labor foreman for the David Orr Company on September 30, 1958, and oversaw remodeling of the IRS offices in the federal building. His 1958 DeSoto was repossessed the next day by the Badger Auto Finance Company after he failed to make payments. The David Orr Company fired Triliegi on October 14, 1958 after learning of his criminal past. They deemed it too big of a security risk to give a former thief access to the offices of the IRS. Triliegi was kicked out of the Construction Laborers’ Union on December 1, 1958 for failure to pay the last four months of membership dues. Triliegi was evicted from his home (1635 North Farwell) on December 9, for failure to pay rent. He and his family moved to a nearby apartment at 1543 North Humboldt.
John Triliegi was interviewed on June 12, 1961 by Special Agents Clark Lovrien and Warren Kenney. He told them he now lived at 2935 North Maryland Avenue and was trying to support his wife and thirteen children (who lived away from him at 1517 North Humboldt). He had been employed by the Turner Construction Company for the past seven months at Marine Plaza, working as a labor foreman. When asked about unrecovered loot from his Reno heist, he said he did not know where a single quarter of it was, but always felt one of his partners had been holding out on everyone else. Triliegi said that people seem to think he knows where the money was, but if that was true, he would not be working construction jobs in below zero temperatures. He also would not have faced the hardships he had in the last few years.
On May 13, 1963, an anonymous man called the US Marshals office in Milwaukee and told them he was an employee on the construction site of the VA Center in Wood, Wisconsin. The man said the foreman, John Triliegi, was “shaking down” employees and demanding 30% of their paychecks in order to keep working for him.Triliegi had 12 men working under him, building the 1,264-bed hospital. This information was passed on to the FBI, who consulted with US Attorney James Brennan. Brennan declined to start an investigation saying that investigating this “non-specific allegation” could interfere with investigating a more specific allegation that could come later.
US Attorney James Brennan’s office received a letter on June 7, 1963 from the Department of Justice informing him that more specific information had been received concerning John Triliegi’s alleged shakedown attempts and that an investigation was being opened. The first witness was called to Brennan’s office on June 13 and spoke of his experiences with Triliegi and Triliegi’s friend Sam DiMaggio, a well-known burglar and son of influential Mafia member Carlo DiMaggio.
On June 20, 1963, the Special Agent Warren J. Kenney interviewed the manager of the Merritt, Chapman and Scott Corporation who had hired John Triliegi, and the man said he considered Triliegi to be an “excellent foreman” and received “no complaints whatsoever” about his job performance. In fact, Triliegi was the only foreman of the five on site with the authority to hire workers (after they were referred from the local labor union).
On June 24, 1963, Special Agent John Dunn interviewed Salvatore Balistreri, 3426 North Downer, a laborer on the site. Balistreri said he was born in Sicily on April 14, 1899. He was hired on to the job by waiting in line every morning to be picked and was hired on in October 1962. Prior to that, he had worked for Seisel Construction for 17 years. He said he knew Sam DiMaggio and John Triliegi, but was never asked to pay for his position. Special Agent Warren Kenney interviewed Ernest Anthony Christian the same day. Christian said he was born November 19, 1905 in Rhinelander, worked for the union and was hired by Triliegi through a union agent. He had not made any payoffs or heard of anyone else who had either. Furthermore, he said he was an Army veteran who would not allow anyone to shake him down. Dunn also interviewed Manuel Duarte, 719 East Knapp Street, who had been employed on the hospital site since November. He said he had been born January 1, 1903 in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, and became a citizen in 1942. He said he knew Triliegi well, and carpooled to work with him. Duarte said he knew of no kickback scheme and had not paid anything for his job. Numerous other employees told the agents that they had heard “rumors” of kickbacks, but not one of them admitted that they personally paid anything.
The Milwaukee Journal broke the story of John Triliegi’s alleged shakedown attempts on June 27, 1963 (though they did not mention him by name). Inspector Harold Breier (future police chief) told the newspaper that the police had received information that an ex-convict was working on the job site, but had not heard about any payoffs. He said, “We conducted an investigation and found no violation of the law. We turned the matter over to the FBI.” The next day, H. R. Erickson, the industrial relations manager for Merritt, Chapman and Scott Corporation told the newspaper, “We are not aware of anything of the sort, nor has it ever been brought to our attention. We would certainly be favorable toward cooperating with the FBI to the fullest extent to clear this matter up. We will be just as interested in it as the FBI until it is either proven or disproven.” Peter Poberezny, the outgoing president of Laborers Union Local 113, also said he was not aware of any incidents. “If there had been any such payment,” he said, “the man who received it should be in the penitentiary. Our union does not allow such a thing. I’m sure our new regime will look into it.”
Following the newspaper coverage, Representative Clement J. Zablocki wrote a letter to J. Edgar Hoover asking to be kept abreast of the investigation, as he was “deeply interested in knowing the facts” of the matter. Interestingly, the VA Hospital was later named for Zablocki (who also had a school and library named for him after his death).
Special Agent Warren Kenney interviewed John Triliegi on July 16, 1963 concerning the kickback rumors. Triliegi said he was born May 29, 1914 in Omaha and lived at 2933 North Maryland with his wife and children. He had worked on the construction site for the past year in the capacity of foreman, and only hired people with the union’s approval. He openly admitted that he got his sons and sons-in-law hired on to the job, but they had to be approved by the union just like anyone else. He denied collecting any payments or having Sam DiMaggio collect payments for him and said that maybe the rumor started because of the $50 fee to join the union.
Kenney interviewed Sam DiMaggio the same day. DiMaggio freely admitted to being a safe burglar, and said that he was released from Waupun in August 1962 and was hired on to the hospital job through his friend Triliegi and the union. He said he was a devoted union member and even paid his dues while in prison. He said he “would never stoop to taking payoffs” and did not believe Triliegi did either. He said with eight years left on his parole it would be foolish to involve himself in such a trivial criminal move. He did admit that two of his cousins were given jobs at his
suggestion, but they went through the same process as everyone else.
On August 30, 1963, US Attorney James Brennan advised the FBI he was not going to file any charges against John Triliegi or Sam DiMaggio. In his opinion, the kickback story could not be corroborated as the only person who claimed they had to pay was an ex-convict who was deemed unreliable. But soon, Triliegi would be in trouble for something completely different…
On Friday, March 20, 1964, prosecutors said there was a loosely-knit gang of 30 burglars who had done 50-100 jobs and had hauled off $50,000 in loot. District Attorney William McCauley issued warrants for eight members of this alleged gang: Dr. F. E. Nolting, a Kewaskum dentist, accused of receiving stolen goods in Milwaukee and selling them in Minneapolis; Samuel DiMaggio, accused on four counts of burglary; John Triliegi, accused of receiving stolen goods; Harold Vick, four counts of burglary; Edward H Kretlow, one count of burglary; Jerome W Morrison, one count of burglary; Larry V Arndt, one count of burglary; and John Forbes, named in the warrant but not specifically charged. Triliegi was said to be the one who directed the burglars to Dr. Nolting. Some of their burglary targets were: Edward Weber Construction, the Iron Workers union, Hi-Fi Fo-Fum, attorney Donald Jacobsen, the Skylark tavern and Humphrey Chevrolet.
A grand jury indicted Sam DiMaggio and John Triliegi on April 13, 1964 with the crime of stealing over $300,000 worth of checks from a mail train, and transporting $180,000 of the checks to Reno. The US attorney prosecuting the case said he did not know why the checks were sent to Reno.
Federal Judge Kenneth P. Grubb found Sam DiMaggio, John Triliegi, Jerome Morrison and Larry Arndt guilty of stealing mail bags containing $300,000 in securities checks from the Northwestern Depot. Edward Kretlow (DiMaggio’s cousin) was found not guilty.
John Triliegi entered Leavenworth Prison on November 3, 1964. He would serve less than a year, getting released on August 16, 1965. An informant told the FBI on September 20, 1965 that John Triliegi told him that he met Vito Genovese in prison, and was supposed to deliver a message to Genovese’s daughter when he got out. (I do not know why Genovese could not write a letter to his daughter, and also, to my knowledge, Genovese was in prison in Atlanta, not Leavenworth.)
After this, Triliegi stayed out of the eyes of law enforcement. A rumor later circulated that he was selling hijacked cigarettes. Perhaps we will return to that story later…