The Balistrieri Tapes, Part 5: 'Sally Papia target of Balistrieri ire, FBI agent says'

“The Balistrieri Tapes” was a twelve-part series originally published in the Milwaukee Sentinel beginning October 31, 1988. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is republishing select excerpts from the series.

Frank Balistrieri died in 1993 and his son Joseph Balistrieri died in 2010. His son John Balistrieri was released from prison in 1989, after the publication of this series. In 2014, the Wisconsin Supreme Court denied John Balistrieri’s request to reinstate his law license despite the recommendation of a court-appointed referee who said his conduct had been exemplary since his release.

***

One of the people Frank P. Balistrieri reportedly yearned to kill was restaurant operator Sally Papia.

"He hated her," said Gail T. Cobb, an undercover FBI agent who infiltrated Balistrieri's organization.

Balistrieri, who headed organized crime here, threatened to kill Papia in the early 1970s, Cobb said.

And in 1980, Balistrieri angrily denounced Papia and two of her employees during conversations that were secretly taped by the FBI. Balistrieri threatened to have the two men dumped on her doorstep.

"Every time somebody wants to be tough, they're not around anymore," Balistrieri said.

Papia, the operator of the popular Sally's Steak House, 1028 E. Juneau Ave., is known for her association with public figures, lawyers, union leaders and gangsters.

Apparently, it was her connections with underworld figures in Chicago that shielded her from Balistrieri's wrath.

Papia had no comment when told about the contents of this story.

According to federal officials, Papia bothered Balistrieri in a number of ways:

• She was a successful woman in a business in which he had never been successful.

• Balistrieri was concerned that under pressure she might talk to government agents.

• He didn't know ahead of time that an attempt would be made to torch a restaurant as a result of a dispute she had.

Cobb said Balistrieri's hatred of Papia apparently originated or was heightened while he was serving a prison sentence for income tax evasion in 1971 and '72.

"When he was in prison, Chicago sent up a guy to look after things while he was gone. There were some dealings. I don't know all what they were, but there were some dealings she pulled, and this other guy pulled, and he (Balistrieri) wasn't told about.

"Frank felt she should have been looking out for his interests. Frank wanted to kill her. Frank wanted a contract on her, and Chicago wouldn't let him. That was after he came out of Sandstone (federal prison)."

Frank Buccieri, a Chicago hoodlum, was frequently in Milwaukee during the time Balistrieri was in prison.

Papia had announced in 1970 that she and Buccieri were going to be married, but the wedding was called off.

Now in his late 60s, Buccieri is a roguish looking, tough man who also can be very likable.

A Chicago source said that he once saw Buccieri pay a restaurant bill for a man Buccieri didn't know when the embarrassed gentleman found he didn't have enough money with him.

"Hey, I've been there, I understand," Buccieri said.

Another time, the source said, he saw Buccieri use his fist to launch a man 20 years younger than he was. The man landed across the room.

Buccieri's brother, Fifi, a widely known Chicago loan shark, was recorded laughing about a man being hanged on a hook. That macabre discussion was quoted in the introduction to "The Exorcist," and set the tone for the horror that followed in the widely known best seller.

Balistrieri did not like the fact that Papia got involved with Frank Buccieri, Cobb said.

Cobb added, "He (Balistrieri) would sneer and comment about her in the same tone he used when referring to the FBI.”

"On two or three occasions when her name was brought up, he was very sarcastic in his appraisal of her. He forbid one of his girlfriends to go into her restaurant. He didn't want his friends patronizing her (Sally)."

Another source of friction between Balistrieri and Papia was a 1974 arson at the Northbrook Inn, then a restaurant at 9601 N. 124th St. A former employee of Papia's was a partner in the Northbrook operation.

The fire in December 1974 was started without Balistrieri's knowledge, and he was furious that no one had told him in advance.

Joseph V. Basile, one of three men convicted in the arson plot, gave this account of Balistrieri's reaction during a taped conversation:

"The old man's hysterical. Absolutely hysterical.... Frankie Bal scooped me up with a pistol. He says, 'Why did you burn the joint down without telling me?"'

Referring to Papia and the fire, Basile said, "She ain't got the clout to be doing this. It probably came through the back door with some friends of hers in Chicago, and it turns out her friends are calling Frank's and giving the ... details, and he don't like it.

"He's more concerned if people are trying to go around him."

Basile also said, "Now, they scooped me up with pistols. He (Balistrieri) says, 'I've gotta talk to you.' He says, 'I don't want to hear no (obscenity).'

"I was afraid to tell 'em .... I said, 'Well, I'm sorry I didn't tell you.'

"Every ... time I tum around I'm in the back seat of a car. I can't ... believe It," Basile added.

The fire at the Northbrook caused $7,000 damage.

It stemmed from a dispute between Papia and Kurt B. Amidzich, a former chef at Papia's restaurant. Amidzich owed Papia money, left his job with her and went into the Northbrook partnership.

An intensive investigation resulted in Papia being found guilty of extortion for threatening Amidzich.

Three of her associates – Basile, Maximillion J. Adonnis and Russell Enea – were found guilty of conspiracy to commit extortion.

Jacob J. Schlecter testified that he set fire to the Northbrook on orders from Basile. He also testified that Adonnis ordered him to take Amidzich to a garage where Adonnls and Enea could beat him. Schlecter was told by Enea to break Amidzich's wrists so he could never cook again, Schlecter said.

However, police broke up the plot.

Balistrieri's anger with Papia surfaced again in January 1980, after Papia was interviewed for a profile published in The Milwaukee Sentinel.

In a conversation taped after the article appeared, Balistrieri expressed anger with Papia and two men who worked for her.

Mentioning Jim Jennaro and Frank Trovato, whom Papia referred to as her bodyguards in the article, Balistrieri said, "I'll have to show 'em, you know, who is the tough guy.

"I told her I'd go out and drop both pimps, the pimp and the bodyguard right on the doorstep. The only reason I told her that, I'm not gonna do it right now."

In the 1970s, Jennaro was convicted of soliciting a prostitute, a charge that reportedly embarrassed him. He once worked for Balistrieri, but has managed Papia's restaurant since 1972. He is regarded as a likable man who is extremely loyal to Papia.

"He doesn't show me enough respect," Balistrieri complained.

Referring to the nine months and nine days he spent in prison on tax evasion charges in 1971-'72, Balistrieri said, "While I was in jail, Jim Jennaro screwed up, was cabareting, he was entertaining, drinking my whisky ... with his girlfriends ... chicken friends that he had over there and wheeling and dealing… Everybody thinks Jimmy's with me. ... He failed me, see?"

Jennaro had operated the Ad Lib, one of Balistrieri's downtown night clubs, from 1965 to 1972. The club booked well-known entertainers, then became a strip joint and in the early 1970s booked female impersonator dancers.

In June 1972, Jennaro became manager of Sally's Steak House.

“I gave him (Jennaro) the job," Balistrieri said in the 1980 recording, an apparent reference to Jennaro being hired by Papia. "And she wouldn't have hired him until I told her, 'Hire him.' … Soon as I take my arms ... off of him, Sally'II fire him.”

"I took him off the banana truck and put him over there, and he hasn't been coming around, not even once."

Referring to Papia, Balistrieri said, "So … she comes down with another bodyguard ... and then I told 'em about it, and she says, 'Well, Jimmy Jennaro loves you…’

"'Keep your…mouth shut,' I said, 'When I get in trouble, do I call on Jimmy Jennaro?' ...

"He made all his contacts at the Ad Lib. When I was in jail he, ah, he abandoned me. No, I'm through with every, with, with everybody and I mean it, and I told my guys, too, either they go to work, no bonuses out, not after last year .... "

Balistrieri also indicated in the rambling conversation with his son, Joseph P. Balistrieri, that he was upset with Papia for hiring Trovato, who – like Jennaro – was said to be a friend of Buccieri.

As the conversation continued, Balistrieri's comments became increasingly fragmented and difficult to understand.

Near the end of the tape, Balistrieri suggested that Papia had wanted to join with him in an unspecified enterprise and that she had made some promises to an unidentified party.

"See, they either expect something from her, has promised something. Not that she would deliver, but with her big mouth, she'd implicate us."

Balistrieri apparently was still concerned about her, despite the fact that she had demonstrated a certain degree of toughness over the years.

Papia went to jail for 66 days under a work-release program on the Northbrook extortion charge, rather than talk to authorities about what she knew of the underworld.

And a few years earlier, her unflappability was documented when she was shot at while driving on an expressway here. Balistrieri was not involved in this incident.

Someone fired a shot which struck the rear door of her car. The gunshot was meant to scare her as a result of a business dispute, but she had too many associations here and in Chicago to be frightened then, she told friends.

The man who shot at her reportedly left town.

***

Read the next selected excerpt: The Balistrieri Tapes, Part 6: "Top mobster Bonanno visited Balistrieri to discuss problems"

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The Balistrieri Tapes, Part 5: 'Sally Papia target of Balistrieri ire, FBI agent says'