After my recent post describing the early criminal record of Mike Miske, the local businessman now accused by federal prosecutors of being the ringleader of a violent criminal enterprise, a couple of people left comments asserting that there were “violent mobsters” on his father’s side of the family going back to the 1950s.

Here’s one comment (slightly edited):

This article is on the right track but the timeline is off. Start with the beginning. The Miske organized crime family has been going since the 1950’s. Mike’s grandfather and uncle had well publicized felony arrests for serious crimes. The Miske rackets included stolen jewelry fencing and cocaine trafficking.

Based on my research, the characterization is not true. Or perhaps I should say that it is ot supported by the evidence.

I’ve been through court records and newspaper archives. Miske’s paternal relatives have a relatively short list of arrests and charges, not the kind of record accumulated by career criminals. None of the crimes alleged or charged against Miske’s grandfather or uncle involved violence, and I couldn’t find any evidence in the record of organized crime links. Further, Mike Miske was just six years old when his father died and he was taken to live with his mother’s extended family, so it’s unlikely the Miske family history had much to do with molding Mike Miske’s character. There are overlaps with members of his mother’s family in his early years of crime, but none that I could find pointing back to the Miske side of the family.

However, that’s not to say there’s no story here. In fact, I initially intended to focus on his Miske grandfather, and to a lesser extent his uncle, because their story is just a a good yarn. But as my research progressed, I had to admit it seemed to be more of a sideshow.

So, for the record, here’s what I did find.

Michael John Miske, Jr.’s grandfather, Walter Lawrence Miske, Jr., was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in February 1927 (although some records put his birth in 1926). The senior Miske was born with the family name Miszewski, but had adopted the shorter and Americanized “Miske” by the time he was an adult.

Walter Miske became a gemologist and jeweler. In January 1958, 31-year old Walter Miske was working as a wholesale jeweler in Milwaukee when he was arrested and charged in the burglary of another jeweler’s store and making off with an estimated $68,000 of gems. In today’s inflation-adjusted dollars, the jewels taken in the heist would be valued at more than $600,000.

According to the Stevens Point Journal newspaper, Miske was seen in the building where the burglary took place on the night of the break-in.

While under investigation for the burglary, a police officer responding to a complaint about a couple fighting in a hotel in Marinette, Wisconsin, several hours from Milwaukee, seized a small gold and diamond-studded badge from Miske which identified him as a special investigator for the district attorney. Miske reportedly told the officer he had gotten the badge from a Milwaukee deputy district attorney. The District Attorney’s office denied the claim, and said the badge must be a “phony.”

Miske later said he had found the badge, and added his name and a diamond.

At the time, Walter Miske was also being investigating for “numerous sales of watches and other jewelry items at reduced prices to Milwaukee firemen and policemen,” the Daily Tribune in Wisconsin Rapids reported.

Walter Miske eventually pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of receiving stolen jewelry with an admitted value of $52,347.

“Miske had admitted receiving about 90 watches and 42 rings from two strangers who came to his shop the morning after the burglary,” a local newspaper reported at the time. “Miske said he resold about 30 items at cut rates.”

Miske said the bulk of his jewelry business at that time involved discount sales to local fire fighters and police officers.

He was sentenced to not more than eight years in prison, but was released in 1960 after just 20 months behind bars.

While still on parole from the Waupum State Prison, the senior Miske quickly sought and was granted a divorce from his wife, who reportedly had provided police with the information leading to his arrest in the burglary case. Along with the divorce, Miske was also given custody of the couple’s six children, according to a story in the Portage Daily Register newspaper.

In the mid-1960s, Walter Miske moved to hawaii with his second wife and six children to become a vice-president of the House of Adler, the international jewelry business of Jacques Adler. For Miske, the move to Hawaii appeared to offer a new beginning.

The association with Adler certainly helped him become established in the business community. Adler had become a household name in Hawaii with his advertising slogan, “If you didn’t buy your diamond from the House of Adler, you paid too much.”

By 1966, Miske’s name appeared on the roster of associate members of the Hawaii Jewelers Association for the first time.

Later, the senior Miske started his own retail stores, operating the jewelry counters in several Holiday Mart Stores, before that company went into bankruptcy, and launching his own independent jewelry business, The Diamond Exchange, along with Golden Hawaii, a manufacturer of local jewelry. His sons, Michael (father of the alleged crime leader), Gary, and Thomas also followed him into the jewelry trade as young men.

Walter Miske had one additional brush with the law after moving to Hawaii. In June 1970, Miske was indicted on federal charges of “conspiracy and false invoices for importing jewelry,” the Honolulu Advertiser reported at the time. Available records do not indicate the outcome of the case.

Walter Miske died in November 1999 at age 72.

Gary Miske, who followed his father into the jewelry profession, was arrested at the Diamond Exchange store on Kapiolani Boulevard in February 1980 after agreeing to buy what he believed was stolen jewelry from undercover police officers in an HPD “sting” operation. Police said Miske met the undercover agents in a parking lot near the Diamond Exchange on New Year’s Day, and the transactions were reportedly caught on video and audio recordings.

Miske, then 29, was charged with three counts of first-degree theft, a Class C felony. He was released on $6,000 cash bail.

It appears from the court record that Gary Miske was granted a deferred plea, and after successfully completing five years probation, ending in August 1985, the conviction was removed from his record.

In June 1980, Mike Miske’s father–Michael John Miske–died of natural causes. He was just 27 years old. And his son, Micheal John Miske, Jr, who now faces trial on several capital crimes, was only six.

There are a couple of additional twists to this Miske tale. Stay tuned.