The Baseball Commission’s report on Rose notes that “Tommy Gioiosa, Rose’s constant companion who ran bets for Rose,” told Peters in 1986 “that Rose was unable to pay Peters because he had to pay a Mafia bookmaker in New York. Because Peters was not paid the $34,000 owed to him by Rose, he did not take any further baseball betting from Rose until May 1987.”
The Commission’s report also notes that in 1987, “Val,” a Staten Island, N.Y. bookie, “refused to accept bets on behalf of Rose due to Rose’s failure to pay his gambling debts.”
Another potential early whistleblower was Lori, Ron Peters’ former wife, who divorced him in 1986.
The Dayton Daily News was unable to find any evidence that Lori Peters informed on her former husband until April 7, 1989, when she agreed to be interviewed by two investigators for Business Risks International, the company conducting the investigation of Rose for the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
Lori Peters told investigators that her former husband was involved in bookmaking on a “small scale” until 1983.
Early in 1986, she said Ron Peters told her that he “had an impressive new client that was placing bets with him” — Pete Rose.
“Ron told her that Rose was placing his bets through Tommy Gioiosa ... a good friend of Rose’s,” according to the investigators’ report of the interview. “If Ron was unable to handle or cover all the bets he received, he ‘laid off’ that which he could not cover with other bookies in the area.”
Shortly after moving into a home in Springboro on Dec. 23, 1986, “Ron came home with a paper bag full of cash money,” Lori Peters told investigators. “He counted the money on the family room floor, and it totaled $110,000.”
Lori Peters said she had little knowledge of her husband’s gambling activities. She said she never met Rose and was unaware “that Ron made tape recordings of his wagering conversations with bettors.”
In 1989, Peters was convicted on federal charges of cocaine distribution and making a false statement on his 1986 income tax return. He was sentenced to 24 months in prison.
He also served a year in prison in 1998 and 1999 for a theft conviction.
In 2001, Peters was sentenced to six months in prison for owing $39,000 in dependent support.
In 2004, Peters suffered a gunshot behind his left ear outside a Dayton grocery store parking lot.
Peters was found dead in his apartment in November 2016 during a welfare check by Franklin police. He was last seen on Nov. 8. There were no signs of foul play. He received an indigent cremation.
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