(This article was originally assembled July 30, 2013. Major revision/expansion in January 2026. Honestly, it still needs work, but it’s presented here for your information. Surname spellings come from the newspaper unless I could definitively identify the correct spelling.)
The Ogden Social Club, Incorporated was registered with the secretary of state on February 19, 1941. The office address was 629 East Ogden. Wanda Gagliano (1519 North Jackson) was elected president. Michael Scalici (522 East Pleasant, brother-in-law of gambler Joseph Piscione) was elected vice president. Rosario “Joseph” Gagliano, Wanda’s husband, was elected secretary and treasurer. Directors were Rosario Gagliano, Martin Gagliano (1513 North Jackson) and John Picciani (518 East Lyon). These people, with Rosario Picciurro (1421 North Van Buren) replacing Picciani, signed the articles of incorporation in front of Mario A. Megna, Jr. as witness.
The club’s charter said that its purpose was to “foster and promote the best interest and welfare of its members socially and economically, and to foster sports amongst its members.” Membership was open to any “adult person of good and moral character.”
The first trouble occurred at 11:30pm on December 15, 1941, when Officer George Nason peered through the transom at 1446 North Jackson. He was hoisted up by Sergeant Joseph Poshepny. He glimpsed six men playing cards, which was enough to secure a search warrant. When they returned, 37-year old Joseph Gagliano (1519 Jackson) was arrested as keeper of a gambling house. Not much evidence was found – a dozen decks of cards, a few penciled notes, and some IOU slips – but it was enough to get Gagliano fined $100 by Judge Harvey Neelen.
The Victory Social Club was raided on September 30, 1943 at 1533 North Jackson Street. 15 officers lead by Sergeant Edward Rentner broke in at 3:45am. 21 people were arrested – 15 men and 6 women. Two pairs of dice, a dice table, playing cards and two poker tables were seized. Among those inside were John Triliegi, Thomas Puccio and John Rizzo, who were each fined $10. James Anastase, 44 or 47 depending on sources, was caught running bottles of whiskey to the boiler room. He was charged with being the keeper of a gambling house and fined $100. At court, it was learned that detective Melvin Gerds had acquired a membership card to the club a while back and had been keeping notes on what he saw.
The Ogden Social Club was raided on May 17, 1944 when it was at 1446 North Jackson Street. John Triliegi was fined $250 for being the house custodian and possession of horse race betting sheets, and the police seized four telephones that they said were used for gambling. Rosario Gagliano and seven other men were arrested as patrons, but were released without charge because no gambling was actively occurring at the time of the raid. The club’s attorney, Eugene J. Sullivan, successfully argued for the phones to be returned to the club unless proof of their misuse was given. He said there was good reason to have four telephones – the club had 300 members, and 100 of those were in the military. Phone calls were common. Francis J. Hart, attorney for Wisconsin Telephone Company, said the phones were removed at the direction of Chief Joseph Kluchesky, but Hart said his understanding was that the phone service had no legal right to remove telephones, regardless of what they were used for, with the exception of obscene calls.
On November 17, 1944, the state attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit to get 1446 North Jackson padlocked as a public nuisance. This was done at the request of district attorney James J. Kerwin. Individuals named in the suit were Rosario Gagliano (president), Joseph Piscioni (vice president), Martin Piscurio (treasurer), Rosario Picciurro (secretary), John Triliegi (member) and Mary Mortorano (owner of the property). As part of the suit, the state requested to see the club’s membership roster and any income books.
At the time of this announcement, assistant district attorney Henry Wagner called attention to another club – the Victory Social Club at 1533 North Jackson, which had been identified as one of the places the Ogden gamblers operated. Wagner said club manager Anthony Montello had recently been picked up for selling liquor without a license. Montello protested, saying no one was charged for drinks and all club members “pitched in” to cover the cost of stocking alcohol.
Mrs. Mortorano was called to testify on November 19. She said she walked through the club each day, because her apartment was upstairs and she had to go through to tend to the furnace. “There are two round tables and chairs in the club and an oblong, green covered felt table with sides on it in the kitchen,” she said. She claimed not to know what the table was for, but that it had a little rake on top. She said she collected $65 per month in rent and was thinking of ending this when the rent was due again. This eviction would prevent any padlock action. Mortorano testified she had been told months ago by the district attorney that gambling was going on, but when she asked the “men downstaits,” they said there was no gambling. She said the rent was paid promptly, but did not know the names of the men who paid the rent. Originally she thought John Picciurro was in charge, but she had not seen him in a long time. (All of her testimony was translated by her daughter, Genevieve Bonpenser.)
Joseph Piscione, who called himself the “honorary vice president,” was called to testify on November 28. It was pointed out to him that the club’s charter says members must be of good moral character. He responded, “It must be so if that’s what it says there.” State attorney Stewart Honeck then brought out the photos and criminal records for 20 members, who had offenses ranging from gambling all the way up to murder. (The murderer was James Leonard Carter, who killed a man in Ohio in 1920. He also had a counterfeiting arrest in Chicago in 1944.) Piscione explained the phones as ways to contact service members, and the bulletin board allegedly for posting race results was actually to hang up news clippings of war heroes. When asked about the 2×4 keeping the door shut, he said the “doors were very flimsy.” Honeck was annoyed that the role of president and vice president were transferred to members in the service (not identified in the newspaper) because the law said papers could not be served on active service members. This effectively blocked many legal options.
By March 1945, the club had expanded from the first floor to take up both floors.The war manpower commission, in conjunction with the police, put pressure on the club to honor the midnight curfew in effect. While it took a few tries, by the end of March they seemed to be complying. On March 31, the club (1446 North Jackson) was served with an injunction to stop it from gambling or face a padlock. Attached to the injunction were the names of 21 men alleged to be frequent visitors who had lengthy criminal records in violation of the club charter. Identified as the property owner was Peter Frank Balistrieri, who had taken over from Mary Marino Mortorana.
The Ogden Social Club was raided on April 27, 1945 when it was at Rosario Gagliano’s house. Gagliano was fined $25 for kneeing policeman Orval Zellmer and punching him in the nose.
On May 6, 1945, Judge Kleczka gave out an order allowing police to “peek” in the Ogden Social Club, meaning that they could walk through without a warrant. The judge felt with repeated gambling raids, and with only Joseph Piscione admitting to being an officer (he was president), it was a reasonable action to keep the club away from illegal activities.
The Ogden Social Club was raided on July 11, 1945 when it was at 1442 North Jackson Street. They found a croupier’s stick, a dice field, several decks of cards, horse race betting sheets, three telephones and a billiard table that could be converted to a dice table. The building was then padlocked by police. Dominic Picciurro was fined $200 for keeping a gambling house. Philip M. Azzolina, Peter Fucarino, Robert Puccio and Carmello Valenti were charged as patrons. Rosario Gagliano, Peter Frank Balistrieri, John B. Triliegi, Joseph Piscione, James G. Bruno and Thomas Puccio would face contempt of court charges on July 23, but they were dismissed. Judge Kleczka threatened to jail him if any evidence came up that they were involved in gambling, saying, “If you defy the law you will be punished. If you think you are greater than the state of Wisconsin, you are mistaken.”
Clarence William Hibbert lost $164.90 at a craps game on September 24, 1945 at the Ogden Social Club. The money he used he had stolen from his employer, a filling station where he worked as a truck driver. He said that John Triliegi was running the game, but when later brought to court, “forgot” the incident in question. Sent to jail for embezzlement, Hibbert told the court, “I’m ready to take my medicine. All I want is protection after I get to prison, because of the statement I gave to the district attorney about the Ogden club.” (Before the case was tossed because Hibbert backed out, defense attorney Sam Schransky had Dr. Edward Schwade write a letter saying Triliegi was “afflicting with a severe anxiety, accompanied by depression, self-pity and fits of weeping.”)
The “floating” Ogden Social Club was raided January 12, 1946 while at 1439 North Jackson. Police said the building represented a “camouflaged pillbox” with steel doors, secret panels, peepholes and a hidden stairway.
The “floating” Ogden Social Club was raided March 1, 1946 while at 1444 North Jackson, with Leonard Mercurio being the keeper of the house.
The “floating” Ogden Social Club was raided on March 27 and 28, 1946 at 1439 North Jackson Street. Among others arrested were John Triliegi and Rosario Gagliano. Sam Cefalu was arrested for being an inmate of a gambling house on the 28th, but was released. The first floor window had a sign saying they repaired radios, but inside was only a pool table. The upstairs windows were all covered with paneling.
The “floating” Ogden Social Club was raided on March 8, 1947… still at 1439 North Jackson Street. A hydraulic ram was needed to get through the steel-jacketed doors. Around 30 people were arrested, and dice, cards and hundreds of dollars in cash were seized. Rosario Gagliano, Giovanni L. Taglialovora, Joseph Azzarella and Martin Azzolina (older brother of the above-mentioned Philip) were charged. Gagliano, John Triliegi and Frank James DeNicola were each fined $50. Isadore Tocco and Alfio “Fred” Aveni were fined $25. According to a family member, Martin Azzolina remained a gambler his entire life while Phil may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time — he lived a crime-free life and operated a jewelry store in the Merchant Marine bank. Joseph Latona, 38, got it the worst – he received 60 days in the house of correction. He was arrested as an inmate, but told police he was the keeper. His admitting this freed Carl J. Balistreri, 32 (2238 North 34th) who was accused of being the keeper but was merely a doorman earning $1 an hour in order to afford Dale Carnegie “Human Relations and Selling” courses.
The “floating” Ogden Social Club was raided for the ninth time on June 3, 1947 at 3:15am… this time at 1500 North Jefferson Street. Police used battering rams to simultaneously knock in four doors, all of which were reinforced with steel strips and plywood. Sergeant Harry Kuszewski of the vice squad said the doors were so well guarded that in the first few attempts to knock them in, the ram “just bounced off like a rubber ball.” A dice table, poker table and two telephones were confiscated. Seven men were arrested — six for being inmates of a gambling house and one (Charles Piscuine, 30, of 514 East Lyon) for being the keeper of a gambling house. The six men were: Rosario Gagliano, Martin Azzolina, Dominic Picciurro, Giovanni L. Taglialovora, Carmello Valenti and Frank DeFacende. Piscuine was fined $100. Gagliano was fined $15 and most of the others were fined $5.
The club came up in the news once more (besides incidental references) and that was July 1947, when George M. Turowski agreed to pay cabbie Paul Gruber to drive him from Dubuque, Iowa to Milwaukee. Turowski was brought to the Ogden Social Club and then refused to pay Gruber, resulting in a warrant for fraud. The club was not implicated in this.
March 7, 1948: The Victory Club (1553 North Jackson) was raided after police busted through 2-inch plywood doors with a 100-pound battering ram. It took five minutes to break in, which might be why they only found three decks of cards and a few pairs of dice. Paper had recently been tossed into the furnace. At first, 51-year old James Anastase was booked as the keeper, but this was later switched to his brother, 37-year old Samuel Anastase. Ten others were charged with being inmates, including Samuel Mattiano, John Lampare, Ben Gagliano, Nicholas Seremo, Frank Trovato, Angelo Patti, Charles Clarto and Frank Mazzone. (Spellings as the newspaper did, which may be far off.)
Whether Ogden continued to operate is unknown, but going into 1948 the government cracked down hard on gambling in Milwaukee – a probe called in dozens of gamblers and employees of known gambling dens. The focus was on the Jewish gamblers, like Joseph Krasno, David Kohler and Louis Simon, but the Italians caught up in the Ogden raids were not immune from questioning.