--- title: Who was Sam Danton? description: "Let me be clear from the first sentence: I don't believe Sam Danton was a criminal, nor do I believe he assisted criminals in doing anything nefarious. However, because his name comes up more than once during police investigations, it…" url: "https://milwaukeemafia.com/wiki/who-was-sam-danton/" updated: "2026-11-05" category: Milwaukee Mafia / Biography tags: - danton - palmisano --- # Who was Sam Danton? Let me be clear from the first sentence: I don't believe Sam Danton was a criminal, nor do I believe he assisted criminals in doing anything nefarious. However, because his name comes up more than once during police investigations, it seems worthwhile to know a bit more about him and his relationships. Danton was born as Sante DiAntoni, Jr. around 1937 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His father Sante DiAntoni was president of the Lake Shore Ice Cream Company. His wife Elvera was secretary. In December 1948, they changed the name of the company to Lake Shore Food Distributing Company. Sante Jr was the third and last child of this union – his older siblings were Lois and Joseph. The DiAntoni family was part of the Italian community by virtue of their heritage, but their family ties may have been less tightly bound than others. Most Italians in Kenosha came from Calabria, in the south of Italy, while the DiAntoni family was from the Marche region in central Italy. Elvera DiAntoni was related to people in Kenosha, as she had the common maiden name Greco. Calabrian relatives in town included the Reda and Alfano families. November 1954, Sante Jr was enrolled at Northwestern Military and Naval Academy in Lake Geneva. At some point, he also graduated from Marquette University. Joseph Danton had been with the Milwaukee office of Merrill Lynch in the Bankers Building since at least 1960, where he was partnered with Lew Wartman. Sam began working with his brother for Merrill Lynch in 1962 and would stay there 10 years. This is likely when he started going by “Danton,” as his brother apparently already was. In April 1964, Joe was promoted at Merrill Lynch from an account executive in Milwaukee to the management training department in New York. In August 1964, Sam Danton married Schaarie Ann Lindmark in Fox Point. The pair honeymooned in San Francisco and then made their home at 4863 North Santa Monica Boulevard in Whitefish Bay. The wedding announcement referred to him as “Sam Danton” despite identifying his father as Sante DiAntoni. In February 1972, the Danton brothers quit their jobs and opened Danton Associates, an investment management firm headquartered in London. They believed that American investors living abroad did not have access to adequate financial information ,and they could fill that gap. They estimated that Europeans had $40 billion in American investments, and noted the London – not New York – was the true financial center of the western world. What happened to Danton Associates is unclear, but Sam was back in Milwaukee within a few years, if not sooner. On May 1, 1975, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) passed a mandate eliminating fixed rate brokerage commissions on stock trades, an event that became known as “May Day.” This deregulation ended 183 years of non-negotiable commissions on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Until then, the NYSE had a fixed commission schedule, which all member firms were required to follow charging the same minimum fee (1%–2% of the trade's value) depending on the size of the trade, a practice dating back to the 1792 Buttonwood Agreement. The change on May Day 1975 transformed Wall Street’s business model by introducing price competition for trading services. Investors, who had previously paid uniformly high fees, soon benefited from lower trading costs, while brokerage firms faced new competition. The decision followed nearly a decade of debate and negotiation involving the SEC, the Department of Justice, leaders of the NYSE, Congress, and major brokerage firms. These discussions addressed growing antitrust concerns, market inefficiencies, and the desire for a more accessible market. In May 1976, Sam was named a “managing partner” in the Chez Paul restaurant at 211 Green Bay Road in Thiensville. He was identified in the press as “a former stock and commodities broker.” The controlling partner in Chez Paul was William Contos of Chicago. Chef and manager of the restaurant was Jean-Paul Weber, a native of the Alsace region on the French/German border. He had worked at Maxim's in Paris before coming to Milwaukee. Chez Paul closed on October 3, 1976, only a few months after Danton joined. When asked about the closure, he told the Milwaukee Journal, “Location had a lot to do with it. Chez Paul was a $12 cab ride from downtown, which meant it didn't get the convention trade. If Chez Paul were picked up and put someplace else in this area where there is some population – I don't care if it was the South Side or what – I think you would see three times the volume you saw in Thiensville.” Following the closure, the chef opened his own restaurant, the Jean-Paul Restaurant Francais (811 East Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee). The restaurant space where Chez Paul was became Trovato's Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge, operated by Mafia associate Frank Trovato. A fire completely destroyed the restaurant in January 1979. (There is NO connection between Sam Danton and Frank Trovato, but it's interesting his restaurant was later mob-affiliated and likely destroyed by arson.) ![](https://milwaukeemafia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Danton-Sam-1977.jpg) Around mid-1977, Wisconsin Discount Securities Corp (1024 East State Street) was established. It was the only discount brokerage firm in Milwaukee at the time. Fees were kept low because they only bought and sold securities, and offered no financial advice. The only overhead (besides salary) was the transaction fee paid to Becker Securities of Chicago. Robert J. Koehler was president of the firm. He told the Milwaukee Journal, “Low commission rates are why people come to us. We figure that we saved our customers more than $100,000 in fees (in a year's time)... When the investor knows what he wants and doesn't want any advice, just to buy or sell a security, we can do it cheaper.” Sam Denton was the head of the firm's subsidiary called Wisconsin Discount Commodities Corp. He said, “Most of our customers utilize both us and regular brokers. Our value is to those who know what they want to do and just want a better price.” As far as being a discount broker, Danton said, “We do have people who look upon us with a great deal of suspicion because we're not Merrill Lynch... We service customers the same as any other commodities operation – but with a difference, the lower fee.” The fee for a trade was a flat $24, about half what other firms charged. “We want people who understand the rules, recognize and avoid risks. In short, we want sophisticated traders.” On July 5, 1978, while investigating the murder of August Palmisano, Milwaukee police called Sam Danton and made an appointment to top by his home (12619 Yvonne Drive, Mequon), arriving around 8:25pm. Taking the lead on this was Detective James Kelley, assisted by Roman Blazer. Danton said he was employed at Wisconsin Discount Securities as a partner of Robert Koehler, and his business was buying and selling stocks for clients at a discount. He said his name had been Sante DiAntoni, but used the name Sam Danton. The police told Danton they were talking with him because of an artwork they found depicting Vincent Maniaci in jail and August Palmisano outside the jail, with his (Danton's) name on it. Danton acknowledged he had the watercolor made by a woman named Drakse Lauderbach. He had become familiar with the people on Commission Row while doing stock counseling there. Danton hung out at Palmisano's tavern and got to know Lauderbach, Palmisano and Maniaci well over the last few years because of drinking there twice a week. Lauderbach was known to be a good artist, having done work for the Yellow Pages, and she painted an image of Palmiano superimposed over Commission Row called “King of Commission Row.” The painting of Vince in jail was a joke, as Maniaci and Palmisano frequently joked about Maniaci's likely jail term for interstate theft. Danton stressed that the painting was done before any jail time; the pair thought it was better to joke about something than to get upset. Danton said he did not know Palmisano as a gambler, only as a tavernkeeper, but he also was “more or less” Danton's banker, as Danton cashed all his checks with Palmisano. He said when Palmisano died, he and his wife cried as they had grown close to him and were even counseled in their marriage by Palmisano. Danton expressed the belief the murder could not be solved, but he hoped he was wrong. Danton said Palmisano was “tight-lipped” when it came to his business dealings, but recalled not long ago Palmisano saying, “I think I'm in a lot of trouble. I was told if I help Vince, I would be in more trouble, that I should stay away from Vince forever.” Danton also recalled a time recently where Palmisano went to the Milwaukee airport to pick up Maniaci, who was coming home from Hawaii. The pickup never happened, because Maniaci landed in Milwaukee and immediately got back on a plane to Hawaii, apparently feeling he was not safe in Milwaukee. Palmisano was noticeably “frightened” by this incident. The next time Maniaci called, Palmisano told him, “It's better for you to stay where you are, and I'll stay where I am, that will be best for both of us.” When asked who would kill Palmisano, Danton said he did not know. The only trouble he was aware of concerned a man named “Sweet” or “Sweets” in Madison who was upset that Palmisano's produce route was taking away his business. The police asked if Palmisano had any friends in Texas, and Danton asked if they meant Houston. He said two months ago Palmisano had mentioned putting everything in his son John's name and then moving to Houston to open a new tavern and produce business. Danton was under the impression Palmisano had many friends there but did not know any by name. Texas also had a more favorable tax structure for starting businesses. More recently, Palmisano seemed happy to Danton, and noted that he had $80,000 owed to him by people and this money was finally coming in. The tavern and produce business were both good, and things were going in the right direction. ![](https://milwaukeemafia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Danton-Sam-1980.jpg) December 1980, a branch of discount broker Raymond James and Associates opened in Milwaukee, headed by Joseph and Sam Danton. Their office was in the Heritage Trust building (411 East Mason). Sam had been at Milwaukee's other discount broker (see above) and Joe had recently been with Dean Witter Reynolds Inc in Florida after spending 11 years with Merrill Lynch. “We'll be offering services that a full-service broker offers, but without the information,” Joe told the Milwaukee Journal. “By chopping out the information, many jobs are eliminated. We bring the brand of trading that's been offered to institutions to individuals, enabling them to have the same reduced cost.” After only a week in business, Joe said, “We've been inundated with calls from throughout the state.” November 1981, the discount brokerage firm was moved to 742 North Milwaukee Street and put under a new name, Robert Thomas Securities (a subsidiary of Raymond James). Interestingly, the newspapers reporting the move identified the office's representative as “Sante DiAntoni,” the first time he had used his given name in decades. May 1984, during a story on discount brokers, it was found that the number of such firms in Milwaukee had grown to 14. Joseph Danton said, “We've turned away customers who don't know what they're doing. Our average customer is more sophisticated and has been in the market. He's a decision maker on his own, an independent thinker.” Asked about other brokers, he said, “We're simply not performing the same function. We handle a transaction. We don't offer advice.” Danton said he had five brokers working for him and 10,000 customers. He also handled one of Marquette University's endowment funds. ![](https://milwaukeemafia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Danton-Joe-1984.jpg)