The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released a set of 130-page documents related to Pete Rose, the player with the most hits in Major League history, who was banned from baseball and the Hall of Fame until the beginning of this year for betting on baseball games.
The documents focus on Ronald Peters, the deceased bookmaker from Rose, and a mid-1980s investigation into drug trafficking and gambling operations that Peters ran.
Part of the information in Rose’s file appears to have been covered in the 1989 Dowd Report, commissioned by Major League Baseball.
Rose was banned from baseball in 1989 after an investigation revealed that he bet on baseball. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred removed Rose from the ineligible list permanently in May, allowing him to be eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame.
In the documents published by the FBI, it is not specifically mentioned that Rose bet on baseball, something he eventually admitted to having done.
On September 30, 2024, Rose passed away at the age of 83. Following a person’s death, the FBI publicly releases the records it maintains on individuals, often with redactions. Many names in Rose’s file have been redacted.
It is unclear whether there will be more releases of files related to Rose. In this release, an additional 125 pages were removed due to duplicates or for reasons such as inter-agency or intra-agency memos, personnel or medical files, an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, or the disclosure of the identity of a confidential source.
Among the documents was a 1987 memo requesting an FBI investigation. The memo cited a cooperating witness who “at one point, Rose owed Peters $90,000 in sports betting losses”.
In the same memo, it is said that Franklin, Ohio police officers often saw Rose enter Peters’ establishment, called Jonathan’s, “through its private entrance.” The same memo alleged that Rose was a “silent partner in a bar that Peters operated in Cincinnati before (Peters) moved to Franklin.”
A November 1987 interview with a person whose name was redacted said that Rose bet on 10 American football games each weekend in 1986, typically between $1,000 and $2,000 per game, and that at one point Rose owed Peters $80,000. The individual also “believes that Rose only bet on American football, basketball, and horse racing; he never saw Rose place a bet on a baseball game”.
The report also said that the individual believed that another person “stole $3,500 from Rose’s money” and that person then left town.
The same person also told the FBI that Rose “sometimes places bets with an individual known only as [redacted] in New York when Peters does not accept Rose’s bets”.
In a summary of a March 1988 interview with a redacted individual, the individual said that someone made bets by phone for Rose, but that “if I had made bets by phone for Pete, or if I knew if [redacted] did, I wouldn’t say it. I don’t want to implicate a baseball player.”
A summary of a July 1987 interview with an individual stated that that person was in a business partnership with Rose until Rose’s “gambling debts” created a financial problem for him.
The individual ended the relationship with Rose, but remained in contact with him and with Peters, according to the summary.
A large portion of the file focused on the FBI’s request for subpoenas for telephone records and surveillance recordings related to Peters.
It’s unclear if any of those citation requests were also related to Rose or her involvement with Peters.
