Milwaukee Mafia Boss Frank Balistrieri

Frank Balistrieri was the boss of the Milwaukee Mafia for nearly 33 years. During his tenure at the top, he expanded the reach of the Family’s racket operations by having the membership become more aggressive and by bringing in several new men as members. He also quickly sidelined anyone who displeased him in even the slightest way.

In fact, over the years. many previously respected members were “aced out” of the Family and found that Balistrieri either half-ignored them or outright “shelved” them. In Cosa Nostra, that amounts to the equivalent of casting them out of the Family and treating them as lepers.

Balistreri was also a figure in the FBI's infamous "Donnie Brasco" undercover operation as we'll learn in this snapshot bio.

Frank (Frankie Bal) Balistrieri -- aka Francesco Pietro Balistrieri (TN) -- was born on May 27, 1918, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he lived and operated his entire life.

He married a local girl named Antonina (Nina) Alioto, whose father just happened to be Giovanni (John) Alioto, the boss of Milwaukee’s mafia at that time. The couple would eventually have five children: two boys they named Joseph and John and three girls, named Benedetta, Tami, and Catherine.

As his sons became young adults, he “groomed” both for a life in Cosa Nostra. Each would eventually become a formally inducted member of the Family.

Frank Balistrieri

It’s said that Frank Balistrieri was officially installed as the new head of the Milwaukee Family by his father-in-law John Alioto, who was planning to retire from leadership in about 1961 or so. Once in the “boss seat,” Balistrieri would rule with an iron fist. He became the clan’s undisputed leader or “Capo Famiglia” for nearly 33 years.

During his tenure at the top, he expanded the reach of the Family’s racket operations by having the membership become more aggressive and by bringing in several new men as members. He also quickly sidelined anyone who displeased him in even the slightest way.

In fact, over the years. many previously respected members were “aced out” of the Family and found that Balistrieri either half-ignored them or outright “shelved” them. In Cosa Nostra, that amounts to the equivalent of casting them out of the Family and treating them as lepers.

In certain circles among Milwaukee Outfit members, these types of moves caused tremendous dissension and bitterness among those who fell into his disfavor. They also encouraged at least one soldier of the Borgata to approach the FBI and become an informant out of revenge.

Tax Evasion and Donnie Brasco

In 1966, Balistrieri was indicted on several counts of Federal income tax evasion. By 1967, he was subsequently convicted of tax evasion after a highly publicized jury trial.

During the mid-1970s, one of the most high-profile criminal cases in the history of the FBI, called the “Donnie Brasco,” investigation got underway. An FBI agent in their resident New York City field office named Joseph Pistone went deep undercover for over 5 years while posing as a young Italian hoodlum to try and establish underworld connections. During his time as “Donnie Brasco,” he successfully infiltrated parts of the Colombo and Bonanno crime Families. Pistone’s deepest penetration was among elements of both the Bonanno Family’s North Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan crews.

Once the investigation ended and indictments were finally drawn up, Joe Pistone’s deep-cover role as Donnie Brasco came to light. Pistone would later retell this case in the book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia , which was eventually made into the Hollywood film Donnie Brasco, starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp.

The book version recounted Pistone’s role infiltrating not only the Bonannos but also several Brooklyn-based members of the Colombo Family, as well as his dealings in Florida with longtime Tampa Family boss Santo Trafficante . Another part of this multi-faceted probe involved infiltrating Milwaukee’s underworld and top members of the Balistrieri Family.

This far-ranging probe would eventually snag Frank Balistrieri himself in a long-running extortion scheme aimed at the Milwaukee Outfit’s domination of that city’s coin-vending machine industry. Balistrieri and his two sons were indicted along with veteran Bonanno “caporegime” Michael Sabella and several others in the conspiracy. It was to cost the Balistrieri clan some jail time.

The Beginning of the End

Frank Balistrieri died on February 7, 1993, in Milwaukee. He was 74 years old. Upon his death, Balistrieri’s brother Peter (Petey Bal) Balistrieri allegedly assumed the mantle of power for approximately four years until he, too, died of natural causes on August 17, 1997.

Thereafter, former underboss/consigliere Joseph (Joe Camel) Caminiti was allegedly installed as the boss. An underworld veteran, Caminiti reportedly stayed at the top of the heap for the next 17 years.

Frank and his two sons.

He helped stabilize the Family after a series of internal conflicts and federal investigations had resulted in dismantling the leadership. These arrests and jailings, and the internal dissension that followed, tore at the Family’s fabric and greatly served to disrupt their operations and rackets.

In recent years, whatever remained of the former “Balistrieri Family” was allegedly governed by the aging Peter (Petey Pitch) Picciurro. Their rank-and-file membership, as well as their existing rackets, have been greatly reduced. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Milwaukee Family is breathing its last breaths, and their extinction is certainly on the horizon in the foreseeable future.

Milwaukee’s “Outfit” will go (if they haven’t already done so)…the way of the dinosaur.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Milwaukee Mafia Boss: Frank (Frankie Bal) Balistrieri

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