John Balistrieri, son of Milwaukee mob boss Frank Balistrieri, dies at 75

On June 12, 2024By Rgal Nv

John Balistrieri, the younger son of Milwaukee crime boss Frank Balistrieri, who was convicted along with his father and brother and fought for years to get back what he lost, has died. He was 75 years old.

John Balistrieri will always be linked to his father — and the crimes they were convicted of — but friends said this week they knew a different man.

“He was the kindest, kindest man you could ever meet,” said Santo Galati, a longtime friend. In recent years, John and his wife, Debi, often ate at Galati’s restaurant, Santino’s Little Italy, in Bay View.

“He was a great father, a great husband and a great friend. I hate all the bad press John got. I have nothing but good things to say about him.”

In recent years, Balistrieri was active in fundraisers and charity events. He chaired the Italian National Golf Invitational, held at Lake Geneva in August.

Late last week, John had a bad fall and died over the weekend. Funeral details were not immediately available. His father died in 1993. His brother died in 2010.

John Balistrieri was born in 1948, around the time his father, Frank, was “integrated” — officially initiated — into the Milwaukee La Cosa Nostra family, according to an FBI affidavit, as reported in a Milwaukee Journal article from 1996.

By 1973, John had graduated from Valparaiso University Law School and opened a practice with his brother Joseph. A few years later, John presented himself as an agent or manager of businesses that the FBI said were controlled by his father – restaurants, vending machine companies and clubs.

In 1977, sources told the FBI that Frank was “grooming” John to take over La Cosa Nostra.

John declined to be interviewed as part of a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation into the 1978 murder of August “Augie” Palmisano.

More:My cousin was killed in a car bomb in Milwaukee. A mob boss was the prime suspect. Now I’m looking for answers.

More:Balistrieri Tapes, Part 12: “Balistrieri Convictions Were Void in Local Mafia, FBI Agents Say”

In 1984, John Balistrieri was convicted – along with his father and brother – of attempted extortion, a felony, after an FBI operation and subsequent federal trial that exposed the role of organized crime in the vending machine business from Milwaukee.

In addition to the vending business, Frank Balistrieri controlled bars, restaurants and strip clubs and was believed to control gambling operations in Wisconsin and flew over casinos in Las Vegas, according to FBI records. He ruthlessly demanded respect and several deaths were linked to him, although he was never charged.

Frank Balistrieri was sentenced to 13 years in prison for extortion. The Balistrieri brothers were each sentenced to eight years in prison, which was reduced to five years after they publicly repudiated their father, calling him an “evil force” who had drawn them into his world and public ruin. , notes the 1996 article. John was released from prison in April 1989.

After their release from prison, the brothers declared that they had “cut all ties with this world”.

John and Joseph lost their law licenses in 1987. John tried several times to regain his license, but was denied by the state Supreme Court. In 2014, the court wrote that he had not “clearly and convincingly demonstrated that he possessed the moral character required to practice law.”

The court noted that “although (Balistrieri) is now prepared to say that his attitude has changed and that he accepts that there was a conviction, he has also stated explicitly in these proceedings that he has nothing done wrong, which means that the conviction must always be illegitimate to some extent in his opinion.

Then-U.S. Attorney Thomas Schneider and other law enforcement officials opposed Balistrieri’s attempt to get his license back.

“John Balistrieri used his skills and training as an attorney to commit this criminal activity (extortion)… just as a burglar uses a pry bar and the darkness of night to steal,” Schneider argued. “Unlike most of those involved in this crime, John Balistrieri enjoyed all the advantages of his wealth, education and skills as a lawyer.”

In a letter supporting the renewal of John’s license, Stephen M. Glynn, John’s defense attorney in the early 1980s, wrote: “He is now, as he has been for many years of his life, struck by the sins of his father. »

“It’s not the way the FBI portrays him – that he’s the heir apparent to the Mafia throne,” Glynn told a reporter in 1996. “Since he got out of prison, he’s been married, started a family and is a law-abiding citizen.”

This week, Glynn said John’s conviction was one of two cases in his career out of hundreds that he still thinks about today, where he believes the verdict should have been not guilty.

“It’s such a shame. It’s one of those classic Hollywood stories: a kid grows up with his family’s curse, does good things in his own life but struggles to get over it,” said Glynn, now retired. .

Marty Kohler, another retired Milwaukee attorney, knew Joseph and John Balistrieri well.

“(John) was extremely bright, a very good lawyer, very intelligent, he understood taxes very well, and he was just the nicest guy to me,” Kohler said this week.

Kohler, now retired for eight years, said he saw John at Santino’s Little Italy a few years ago. They exchanged their usual hugs, he said.

Kohler was walking past the Shorecrest Apartments on N. Prospect Ave on Monday. and thought of John, not realizing he was dead.

“I’m really sorry to hear he’s gone,” Kohler said.

The 1996 Journal article described John as “quiet, serious and good with numbers” and reported that he managed the day-to-day operations of The Shorecrest, an east side residential hotel owned by Joseph.

“I never wanted John to become a lawyer,” Joseph testified. “John has always been interested in business…I’m a lawyer who happens to be in business. My brother John is actually a businessman who happens to be a lawyer.”

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge William Sosnay, who had known Balistrieri for many years, said he was disappointed he didn’t get his license back, but John accepted the high court’s decision.