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| 1951 |
Ignatius 'Harry' D'Angelo was a member of the Milwaukee Family.
Born August 4, 1908 in Milwaukee to Filippo and Maria Lazzaro from Termini Imerese comune of Palermo, Sicily.
He was involved in criminal activity from a young age, with multiple arrests for disorderly conduct through the 1920s and into 1930. Later that year he and three others were charged with plotting to rob a saloon owner of his $2,000 payroll.
Co-defendants included Rosario Joseph 'Joe Gags' Gagliano (1904-1964) and Gagliano's cousin Dominick Picciurro (1906-1987).
D'Angelo was convicted and sentenced to one-to-two years at the House of Corrections.
In November 1933 D'Angelo and four others were stopped by the Milwaukee PD in a car containing four shotguns. Claiming they had just returned from a hunting trip, the group was briefly held for vagrancy.
Co-defendants were Tony Cicerello, believed identical with Carmello Tony Cicerello (1909-1995) of Sant'Agata di Militello in Messina; Angelo James LaBarbera (1912-1967) of Palermo; as well as the Scaffidi brothers, Joseph aka 'Scarface' (1907-1935) and Anthony (1914-1944), possibly from Santo Stefano di Camastra, also in Messina.
In November 1935 Joe Scaffidi was sitting in a parked car in Chicago when two assailants exited another automobile nearby and opened fire, killing him and passenger Angelo Kleronomos (24y). He was being sought at the time for a bank robbery committed two months prior. Ten years later his brother Anthony suffered a fatal gunshot wound during an attempted hold-up.
Harry D'Angelo was a close associate of Milwaukee Family Member Mike Albano. They were arrested together on at least two occasions, once in 1935 for disorderly conduct (along with a brother to Augie Maniaci) and again in 1940 for extortion. The first case ended in suspended sentences for both, while the extortion case was not pursued.
In between the above cases D'Angelo was convicted of a rape in Ozaukee County and given a one-to-two year sentence to be served at the State Prison in Waupun.
Paroled in October 1938, D'Angelo took up employment as a garbage collector with the city and kept further brushes with the law to a minimum. Two arrests for disorderly conduct in 1949 resulted in fines, and a third in 1951 was dismissed.
The Milwaukee Family was headed at the time by Salvatore 'Sam' Ferrara who, an FBI member source later claimed, held a dislike for D'Angelo that kept the latter from being brought into the Family.
According to this same source, it wasn't until Frank Balistrieri took over as Boss that D'Angelo became a made member.
He and three others were inducted around April 1963 at a ceremony held in the basement of Former Boss John Alioto's restaurant on Highway 100. Those inducted were D'Angelo; Benedetto 'Benny' DiSalvo; and Albert Albana and Dominic 'Pops' Principe, both of Kenosha.
D'Angelo and DiSalvo both later reported to Capodecina Peter Balistrieri.
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| Two years after induction |
By this time D'Angelo was employed with a plumbing and heating company and lived in Saukville, a suburb located north of the city proper. He later worked construction and was given occasional jobs with various Balistrieri-owned nightspots in downtown Milwaukee. As of 1969 he supervised a weekend poker game with Milwaukee Soldier Walter 'Blackie' Brocca and one of the younger Balistrieris held at an aparment on North 24th St.
In May 1973 an informant was shown D'Angelo's photograph and noted he could typically be located playing cards with 'a bunch of old timers' in the basement of Lake Park Recreation Hall at North Lake Drive and Newberry Blvd.
By June 1974 members of Peter Balistrieri's crew included Harry D'Angelo, Jerry DiMaggio, Salvatore 'Sam' DiMaggio, Benedetto DiSalvo and Dominic Gullo.
Informants otherwise reported little involvement on D'Angelo's part either in illegal activities or with general Family matters, although he continued to attend most of the related social functions.
Harry D'Angelo died February 11, 1991 in Mequon, Wisconsin and was buried in Saukville's Union Cemetery.
Those interested in learning more about the Midwest Crime Families should check the Milwaukee Mafia site.
