William F. Roemer Jr. (June 16, 1926 – June 14, 1996) was an
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
agent for 30 years. He is known for his battle against
organized crime
Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...
and being the most highly decorated agent in FBI history. After retirement he became a private attorney for businesses being muscled by the
mob
Mob or MOB may refer to:
Behavioral phenomena
* Crowd
* Smart mob, a temporary self-structuring social organization, coordinated through telecommunication
Crime and law enforcement
* American Mafia, also known as the Mob
* Irish Mob, a US crimin ...
. He was the author of several books,
including biographies on mobsters
Tony "The Ant" Spilotro and
Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo. Throughout his career, he encountered and dealt with
Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio,
Gus Alex
Gus Alex (April 1, 1916 – July 24, 1998) was a Greek-American mobster affiliated with the Chicago Outfit, who succeeded Jake Guzik and Murray Humphreys as the Outfit's main political briber and " fixer".
Early life
Alex's family came from the ...
,
Jackie "The Lackey" Cerone,
Sam "Mooney" Giancana,
Murray "The Camel" Humphreys,
"Mad" Sam DeStefano,
Joseph Bonanno
Joseph Charles Bonanno (born Giuseppe Carlo Bonanno; ; January 18, 1905 – May 11, 2002), sometimes referred to as Joe Bananas, was an Italian-American crime boss of the Bonanno crime family, which he ran from 1931 to 1968.
Bonanno was born ...
, and
Ralph Pierce, among others. Roemer died in 1996 of
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...
, just two days before his 70th birthday.
Early life
William F. Roemer Jr. was born in
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
to William F. Roemer (March 4, 1894 – September 25, 1971), a former
Jesuit
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, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
seminarian, and Carmel Luther Roemer (May 7, 1904 – April 23, 1980).
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he served as a Private (1st Class) in the
U.S. Marine Corps. He attended
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...
for a legal career. While there, he became an amateur
boxer Boxer most commonly refers to:
* Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing
*Boxer (dog), a breed of dog
Boxer or boxers may also refer to:
Animal kingdom
* Boxer crab
* Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans
* Boxer snipe ee ...
, and was nicknamed "Zip" for his skills.
Career highlights
William F. Roemer Jr then joined the FBI in 1950 and served there for 30 years before retiring in 1980. When
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation ...
created the
Bureau's Top Hoodlum Program
A spinning top, or simply a top, is a toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom, designed to be spun on its vertical axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect.
Once set in motion, a top will usually wobble for a few se ...
in 1957, Roemer was personally selected for the task. The program consisted of surveillance of organized crime figures. Roemer also developed (or tried to develop, "flip") several mob
informants
An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informant ...
.
Richard Cain
Richard Cain (October 4, 1931 – December 20, 1973), also known as Richard Scalzitti, was a notoriously corrupt Chicago police officer and a close associate of Mafia boss Sam Giancana.
Early life
Richard Cain was born to John and Lydia (n ...
, a disgraced former cop turned
mafioso, was one of those. With his efforts, he helped the Feds put away Outfit bosses like
Sam "Teets" Bataglia and
Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio within a year of their rise to leadership. Roemer also tried over a period of time to "flip"
Outfit
Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...
"
hitman
Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...
"
Charles "Chuckie" Nicoletti, to no avail. Roemer was indirectly related to the death of
William "Action" Jackson
William Jackson, also known as Action Jackson (December 13, 1920 – August 11, 1961) was an enforcer and loan collector for the Chicago Outfit. He earned his nickname of "Action" because it was slang for "Juice Man", which meant debt-collector. ...
who was the victim of a grisly gangland murder after Roemer was observed trying to make Jackson an informant and the Chicago Outfit suspected him of snitching. Roemer relocated to Arizona and was assigned to
Joe Bonanno
Joseph Charles Bonanno (born Giuseppe Carlo Bonanno; ; January 18, 1905 – May 11, 2002), sometimes referred to as Joe Bananas, was an Italian-American crime boss of the Bonanno crime family, which he ran from 1931 to 1968.
Bonanno was born i ...
, and helped the FBI convict him. Roemer mentions how he had to go through Bonanno's trash to obtain torn pieces of paper written by Bonanno outlining his daily agenda and having to
wiretap
Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...
the different phone booths Bonanno used to relay his messages.
Retirement and later life
During retirement Roemer was an Arizona neighbor with
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
mobster Joe Bonanno. In the 1996
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
movie ''Sugartime'' Roemer appears as a
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
agent who recruits Sam Giancana to assist the US in killing
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
. That is
artistic license
Artistic license (alongside more contextually-specific derivative terms such as poetic license, historical license, dramatic license, and narrative license) refers to deviation from fact or form for artistic purposes. It can include the alterat ...
because Roemer worked for the FBI, not the CIA, and that is not how the CIA recruited the Mafia. The movie ''Sugartime'' is based on Roemer's 1989 book, ''Man Against the Mob''.
On June 14, 1996, two days before his 70th birthday, Bill Roemer Jr died of natural causes at his home in
Tucson, Arizona
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
. He was cremated in Arizona. A plaque in his honor is located at the Cedar Grove Cemetery,
St. Joseph County, Indiana
St. Joseph County, commonly called St. Joe County by residents, is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 272,912, making it the fifth-most populous county in Indiana. Formed in 1830, it was n ...
(see his two entries at findagrave.com).
Family
Roemer was uncle to
Tim Roemer
Timothy John Roemer (born October 30, 1956) is an American diplomat and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1991 to 2003 as a Democratic Party (United States), Democrat from Indiana's 3rd congressional district ...
, an American diplomat and politician.
Bibliography
*Roemer, William F. Jr. (1989) ''Roemer: Man Against the Mob'', New York : D.I. Fine,
*Roemer, William F. Jr. (1990) ''War of the Godfathers: The Bloody Confrontation Between the Chicago and New York Families for the Control of Las Vegas'', New York : D.I. Fine,
*Roemer, William F. Jr. (1994) ''The Enforcer: Spilotro, The Chicago Mob’s Man Over Las Vegas'', New York : D.I. Fine,
*Roemer, William F. Jr. (1995) ''Accardo: The Genuine Godfather'', New York : D.I. Fine,
*Roemer, William F. Jr. (1994) ''Mob Power Plays: The Mob Attempts Control of Congress, Casinos, and Baseball
References
External links
*
*http://www.ipsn.org/roemer.php
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roemer, William F. Jr.
1926 births
1996 deaths
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents
Organized crime memoirists
Military personnel from Indiana
Non-fiction writers about organized crime in the United States
University of Notre Dame alumni
Writers from Indiana
United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
United States Marines