This book delves into four interconnected murders, each of them unsolved, in which the common denominator is the underground world of sex trafficking. Using police and FBI records never before made public, underworld links are made between numerous vice centers in the Midwest. What does a small mining town in upper Michigan have to do with organized crime in Peoria, Illinois? More than you might think!
Within these pages, meet corrupt night club owners, dancers who moonlight as callgirls, interstate burglary rings, Milwaukee Mafia members, bank robbers and more. All part of one giant web, they come together in a story that has remained largely untold—until now.

Gavin Schmitt is a local historian working in northeast Wisconsin. He has previously written on Milwaukee organized crime, the Menominee tribe, and various film topics, with some of his work appearing in Horrorhound magazine.

Gavin Schmitt
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 198
Bibliographic Info: 35 photos, notes, index
Copyright Date: 2024
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9088-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5120-0
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments ix

Prologue: Jay Bass 1

Midwest Vice: Hurley, Wisconsin 5

The Peoria Underworld  41

Interlude: Malcolm O’Bannon 75

Interlude: Milwaukee Jazz  81

Izzy Pogrob and the Brass Rail  87

The O’Bannon Gang, Part Two: Robert Langenour 109

The Return of Willard Woodring  121

The Continuing Saga of Layton and Fordyce 141

Further Suspects 149

Addendum: Where Did They Go? 153

Chapter Notes 157

Index 171