My Wife's Dark Family History

I really don't know if I should be telling this on-line where everyone has access to see this. I could get into some trouble by my wife's family if they object. I though it was interesting. Since I have an Italian background friends always assumed that I had some Mafia ties. I had asked my father about that and he always denied it. I knew that some Italians had some shady people in their family but it wasn't in mine.

On the east side of St Paul, where I'm familiar with growing up. in the 60s and 70s, there was a good sized community of Italian decent. The location of the Roma bakery that my grandparent owned was on the east side. Predominately, Minnesota citizens are of Western European decent. The largest populations are German, Norwegeian, Irish and Swedish. In rural Minnesota its mostly Swedish and Norwegeian. It seems that they are all Lutherans.

In years past, St Paul has been a known location for gangsters to be in the 20s and 30s. Dillinger was also known to stay at the Lincoln Court apartments in St Paul on a regular basis. Others known to frequent St Paul were Babyface Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd and Ma Barker.

As everyone knows Z and I like to travel, and once we took a trip to northern Wisconsin. She had told me that her family was from Cumberland, Wisconsin, near Hayward. One of the stops we went to was Al Capone's Hideaway. The Hideaway is near Hayward, in Couderay Wisconsin. She had told me about a dead relative that had been known to have a shady past.

A few years later we heard that her Great Aunt Winnie wasn't doing well so we went to Wilmar to visit and help her do some cleaning of her apartment. Aunt Winnie was in her 90's and nearly blind.

When Winnie's husband was alive they lived in Burbank, California. He owned a bakery in California. They had lived next door to the actress Angie Dickenson (of Police Woman). I have heard that Angie, Burt Bacharach, Dominic and Winnie used to play cards together.

Looking at Angie's history, I could see how they could be close because Angie was born in South Dakota and Winnie grew up in Browns Valley Minnesota area in western Minnesota on the Dakotas borders. Winnie also had relatives that had farms in North Dakota. For those unfamiliar with Minnesota, Browns Valley is the western most bump on the Minnesota map.

After Dominic retired, Winnie and Dominic moved back to Browns Valley. They had lived there for many years. Z remembers as a child visiting them for a weeks almost every summer. Before I married Z, Dominic had died and was buried in Browns Valley. When he died his grave stone was placed on the grave on the hill of the cemetary overlooking the valley, there was two names engraved upon his side. Along with Dominic's name there was the name of his brother Ralph.

When Great Aunt Winnie died every one in the Zaccardi clan made a automobile convoy to Browns Valley. We stayed overnight in Willmer before going on to Browns Valley. As well as her family (mainly us) there was quite a lot her friends and people that had known her from her church.

After the burial everyone met in the basement of the church for the funeral meal. After the dinner Z and I were making our rounds and we joined a group of Lutheran women that were talking to Zoey and Myrna (my mother-in-law). Being these women cornering us were from Browns Valley, I believed most of them had last names such as, Swenson, Johnson, or some other Scandinavian name ending in "son".

They were all wondering why under Dominic's name on his stone was the name of "Ralph Zaccardi". Zoey sheepishly looked at Myrna, the matriarch of the Zaccardi family, and then to Z and I. We all knew the story but had kept it quiet for fear of what could happen if this history escaped the inner circle of the family. Since Winnie had past on and it has been a number of years since Dominic and Ralph died, it was now time to tell this family history. Zoey started it out by saying a very slow and quiet, "Well..." At that moment the the circle of people closed in tighter and quieter to listen more intently.

This is how it went...

Ralph's wife separated from him we think because she didn't want to be connected at all with him. When Ralph died he was cremated and after the service, his ashes were left at the funeral home. No one claimed his ashes. Even his wife didn't want to do with with his ashes. Before Dominic had died he wished to have his brother buried with him.

These Lutheran women from western Minnesota were amazed that a family could turn their back on a relative even after death. What could have this man named Ralph had done that was so bad. Zoey continued saying that he was in trouble with the law.

See, Ralph did work for Al Capone as a driver. Our family knew that we was deep into the Capone ginner circle because when Ralph's mother died, the FBI was waiting for him at the funeral. Waiting for him to show up. As the story goes, he had either paid his repects to his mother well before the funeral or he was hiding in a tree at a distance watching the service.

He was known in our family as a criminal.

He had once went to Myrna and Robert (Z's mom and dad) home to ask for money. They would've given him money but, they had none since they were raising seven children.

The women at the funeral were stunned and intrigued that their quiet town, in almost the western most point of Minnesota, had a connection to the Mafia.