The Milwaukee Mafia by Gavin Schmitt

Author:Gavin Schmitt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780942637731
Publisher: Barricade Books

Pasquale Caruso and Waukesha’s Little Italy

WHILE THE BULK of Wisconsin’s Sicilian Mafia was based in Milwaukee, the western suburb of Waukesha had its own Italian colony with its own problems. One cannot fully appreciate the history of the Milwaukee Mafia without involving their closest neighbors.

Frank Maretta, 22, entered a Waukesha tobacco store on Whiterock Avenue on September 7, 1913 while his friend waited in the car. When he exited, he saw his friend talking to three Italians, so he went over to join them. Somehow, a gunfight broke out and Maretta found himself in a duel where he was shot. Charles Schruth witnessed the shooting and chased the getaway car, but stopped when they fired upon him. He then informed the sheriff. Milwaukee police said they had no record of Maretta, and the likelihood of catching his assailants was quite improbable if they were as tight-lipped as everyone else in the Italian colony. Tony Cortoso, Maretta’s cousin who was with him at the time of the shooting, was held by Sheriff Gibson for not talking. Maretta, who was living at 307 Jefferson Street, died of internal hemorrhaging soon after. Milwaukee police speculated there may have been a connection between the Maretta murder and the murder of John Sorce.

In August 1918, two Waukesha Italians were surrendered to the sheriff by bondsmen Frank P. Cayll and Anthony Inzeo. The men had been involved in a “cutting fray” at Frank Koehler’s saloon on Whiterock Avenue. Cayll, a plumbing contractor and real estate man, was considered the king of Waukesha’s Italian colony, the equivalent of Vito Guardalabene or Michele Vitucci. His home was not in the neighborhood, however, but a mile south in the College Hill neighborhood. Was he a force for good or bad?

Cayll held a meeting with thirty Italians at the court house on the evening of Saturday, December 2, 1922. He then returned home around 9:00pm, checking to see if his wife wanted to go downtown. As he walked up to his doorway, he he turned to notice a faint light in the vehicle, and then the automobile exploded. The force smashed every window in his home and pieces of the car were found blocks away. Mrs. Cayll was knocked to the floor. Ironically, the gas tank was undamaged. Sheriff Clarence Albert Keebler deduced that the bomb was timed, though the assassins were off in their calculations by mere minutes. Keebler was also unable to get Cayll to make a statement about any enemies he might have or what the meeting he had was about.

Violence continued the next year. Core maker Louis Joseph Sasso, Natale “Leo” Grasso, Vincenzo Orlando and Paolo Latta spent the afternoon of April 29, 1923 at construction worker Nick Flamingo’s house in Waukesha, working in the garden. Shortly after they left, Grasso was shot five times and stabbed seven times by the other two men. One bullet severed his spinal column at the base of his neck, killing him instantly. Grasso’s body was found on the Waukesha Springs sanatorium grounds by passerby Joe Katzfala.

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