The Bonelatta Gang: Monroe's Mob Connections

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Renee Disch Eichelkraut

A close-up of Andrea Nolen.

Andrea Nolen

media release:The Driftless Historium’s popular Half-Hour History lecture series returns from its summer hiatus on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at 1 p.m. with a riveting presentation by Andrea Nolen. Nolen is the author of Lincoln’s Counterfeiters: The Wisconsin Gang that Funded the Civil War and Started the Chicago Mob. She will share the fascinating and little-known origins of the Chicago mob via an obscure rural Wisconsin gang that also had connections to the Ziegfeld Follies and the New Age movement! No registration is necessary for this event.

Attendees, pay attention! Nolen’s cast of historic characters includes, but is not limited to, Abraham Lincoln (who turned to Monroe, WI-based counterfeiters to help finance the Civil War), Chicago’s Al Capone (nurtured on his path to criminal fame by the well-connected, if outside-the-law, Bonelatta Gang), and President Grant’s Secret Service (who eventually stepped in to stimy the too-big-for-their-britches gang).

Author and historian Andrea Nolen is from Monroe, Wisconsin. Prior to her plunge into counterfeiting research, she was a China analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City and a financial intelligence analyst for a London hedge fund.

Half-Hour History is a once-a-month midday speaker series featuring engaging presentations on local and regional history. Generously supported by a grant from the Mount Horeb Community Foundation, these FREE programs are open to all on the third Wednesday of each month. Up next: next, “The History of Halloween: Folklore & Customs,” presented by author Chad Lewis on Wednesday, October 21, 2026. For more information call 608-437-6486, visit mthorebhistory.org/events or [email protected].

Founded in 1975, the Mount Horeb Area Historical Society operates the Driftless Historium and works to collect, preserve, and share the stories of southwestern Dane County.