Gavin Schmitt
Gavin Schmitt is the author of thirteen books on Wisconsin crime and history. As a professional historian, he focuses on state crime within a broader social and political context. Through use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), he has made public over 1,000,000 pages of documents from local, state and federal agencies.
His book Milwaukee Mafia: Mobsters in the Heartland (2015) was the first ever to focus on organized crime in Wisconsin, and spawned multiple sequels, as well as speaking engagements for a variety of organizations and private groups. From there, he was asked to co-host the Milwaukee Mafia podcast. With over 100 episodes, this series is regularly among the top five podcasts on organized crime (by number of subscribers).
He was a consultant and on camera guest for a PBS special on Al Capone (January 2024), a consultant and guest for the USA Today podcast My Cousin Augie (Summer 2024), and as a researcher and on camera guest for My Haunted Hometown on the Discovery Channel.
Gavin was asked to edit and co-author a memoir of Latin Kings leader Alberto Vallejo, as well as co-author a memoir (Life Sentence) of John Balistrieri, son of Milwaukee’s long-time Mafia boss Frank Balistrieri. He is both engaging as a speaker and deeply knowledgeable.
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