On this day in 2014, Joseph Caminiti or Joe Camel as he was known passed away at the age of 87. Joe was the last known reputed boss of the Milwaukee Crime Family, having become boss in 1997 when he was 70 years old.

On this day in 2014, the American underworld quietly lost one of its last old-guard figures when Joseph Caminiti, better known in mob circles as "Joe Camel," passed away at the age of 87. His death marked the end of an era for one of America's most storied regional crime organisations — the Milwaukee Crime Family — which had once wielded considerable influence across Wisconsin and beyond.

Caminiti's rise through the ranks of the Milwaukee outfit was measured and patient, qualities that served him well in a world where recklessness was often fatal. The Milwaukee Family had deep roots stretching back to Prohibition, when figures like Joseph Vallone and later the powerful John Alioto helped establish the city as a significant outpost in the broader American mob landscape. Milwaukee's outfit maintained close ties with the Chicago Outfit, the dominant force in the Midwest, and by extension had historical connections to the criminal empire that Al Capone had helped build in the 1920s. Though Milwaukee was never a powerhouse on the scale of Chicago or the New York Five Families, it was a disciplined and functional organisation that commanded respect within the Commission's wider structure.

By the time Caminiti assumed leadership in 1997 at the remarkable age of 70, the Family was a shadow of its former self. Federal prosecutions throughout the 1980s had decimated mob organisations across the country, and Milwaukee was no exception. The RICO statutes, wielded aggressively by the FBI and federal prosecutors, had sent key figures to prison and forced the outfit into a prolonged period of retrenchment. That Caminiti was elevated to the top position at such an advanced age spoke volumes about both the depleted state of the organisation and the esteem in which he was personally held by those who remained.

As boss, Caminiti presided over what was essentially a skeleton crew, maintaining what structure and tradition he could during the Family's twilight years. He kept a low profile, avoiding the attention that had brought down so many of his predecessors, and by most accounts he guided the remnants of the Milwaukee outfit with a quiet dignity befitting a man of his generation.

When Joe Camel drew his last breath on 30th January 2014, he took with him a living connection to decades of organised crime history in America's heartland. His passing effectively signalled the end of the Milwaukee Crime Family as a functioning entity, closing the final chapter on an organisation that had operated for the better part of a century.