Just 90 miles north of an Al Capone-controlled Chicago, Milwaukee was home to its own Mafia. Bootlegging, counterfeiting and extortion all found their way to the Cream City beginning in the early 1900s as organized crime brought mob violence to Wisconsin.
Wisconsin writer Gavin Schmitt captures this little-known history through more than 200 vintage images in The Milwaukee Mafia: Mobsters in the Heartland. Members of the Milwaukee Mafia included doctors, tavern owners and union presidents, as well as crooked lawyers and corrupt cops. This dense, scholarly collection paints a unique portrait of Milwaukee’s organized crime history that highlights its place in the Sicilian criminal network. Packed with intimate details, The Milwaukee Mafia is a captivating, entertaining look at nearly a century of Milwaukee’s more sinister side.
Schmitt is also the author of an Images of America book on Kaukauna, Wis., where his family draws its roots. He will speak at the Milwaukee Public Library, 814 W. Wisconsin Ave., in an event co-sponsored by Boswell Book Co., 6:30 p.m., July 13.