Mafia
Q & A

Q.

Can you explain the decline of the Detroit Mafia family?

A.

In Detroit, as elsewhere in the United States, the Mafia was hurt through a combination of old age and successful federal prosecution.

The growing affluence of younger Sicilian and Italian males has helped to dry up the pool of prospective Mafiosi and has helped make long prison sentences and cash penalties into more effective deterrents. Law enforcement infiltration of crime families has also served to discourage families from reaching out to new members. Without new recruits, Mafia organizations wither.

The FBI has played a large part in the Mafia's overall decline since the early 1960s, when Apalachin- and Valachi-related revelations forced the Bureau to recognize the existence of the interstate criminal conspiracy and the appointment of Robert Kennedy as attorney general compelled FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover to take action.(1)

The Detroit portion of that conspiracy gained some national attention in fall of 1963, when city Police Commissioner George C. Edwards testified before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He said, "The Detroit area Mafia of the 1960s is big business. On the legal side, it is involved in selling everything from horse races to fruit juice; on the illegal, everything from dope to football bets." Edwards identified the leadership of the crime family as a panel of five men - Joseph Zerilli, John Priziola, Peter Licavoli, Angelo Meli and William Tocco.(2)

Drawing further federal attention to Detroit's underworld - often referred to as "The Partnership" - was the disappearance of former Teamster union boss Jimmy Hoffa on July 30, 1975. Hoffa was last seen in the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Township. He was believed to be waiting to discuss with local and national Mafiosi his plans for returning to the leadership of the Teamsters.(3)

Once it was able to identify the individuals and places associated with the Detroit Mafia, the FBI really went to work. It obtained legal permission for electronic surveillance and tape recorded a 1979 Mafia meeting in Dexter Township. That tape appears to have been used as a lever for acquiring additional information through surveillance and informants over a 17-year period.(4)

In 1996, federal prosecutors unveiled a racketeering case charging senior members of the Detroit "Partnership" with gambling, loansharking, illegal Las Vegas casino investments, extortion and other offenses. The 17 defendants included reputed local boss Jack William Tocco, then 60 years old. Tocco was believed to have succeeded the late Joseph Zerilli as boss. Zerilli died in 1979.

Also charged as Partnership leaders were Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone, 77, who was linked with Hoffa's disappearance; Anthony Joseph Tocco, 65, Jack Tocco's brother; Anthony Joseph Zerilli, 68, son of Joseph Zerilli and cousin to the Toccos; and Anthony Joseph Corrado, 60.(5)

The case was resolved in 1998 with 13 convictions and one acquittal. Prosecutors dropped charges against two defendants and one other defendant died awaiting trial.(6) In that year Jimmy Hoffa's son, James P. Hoffa, was elected to his father's old position at the head of the Teamsters union. (7)

The government was apparently unhappy with the light, year and a day sentence imposed on Jack Tocco (he could have received up to 30 years in prison) and appealed. Two appeals served to lengthen Tocco's term of incarceration to just 34 months - time served. Prosecutors decided in March 2004 that they would not seek any more prison time for the 76-year-old mob boss.(8)

It seems clear that the FBI continued to watch the Detroit underworld very closely. While the Partnership bigshots of the early 1960s are out of the picture, some familiar names turned up in a federal racketeering indictment early in 2006. Among the 15 charged with gambling, money laundering and loansharking were Peter Dominic Tocco, 55; his son Peter Tocco, 27; Dominic Corrado, 35; and Jack V. Giacalone, 55.(9)

Boss Jack Tocco was Peter Dominic Tocco's uncle. Other of Peter Dominic's relatives included William "Black Bill" Tocco, the Zerilli family and the Profaci and Bonanno families of New York and Arizona. Jack V. Giacalone's uncle was "Tony Jack" Giacalone. Dominic Corrado's father was Anthony Joseph Corrado, who was convicted of racketeering in the 1998 case. Still, investigators stopped short of calling the betting ring a Mafia operation.

Also noteworthy is the impact that the passage of time is having on that underworld. "Tony Jack" Giacalone died in 2001 while awaiting trial for racketeering. Anthony Corrado died in prison in October 2002. (10) Vincent Angelo Meli, another link to the old Partnership (his uncle was the Angelo Meli named by police as part of the Detroit leadership panel in 1963), succumbed to bone cancer at the age of 87 in January 2008.(11)

Notes

1. Though there was some earlier FBI activity directed against the Mafia, Hoover's wholehearted commitment to battling organized crime seems to date from a letter he issued to his special agents in charge in Feb. 15, 1963. Gentry, Curt, J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1991, p. 529.
2. Perlmutter, Emanuel, "Detroit is called a crime paradise," New York Times, Oct. 11, 1963, p. 28.
3. Waldron, Martin, "The Hoffa puzzle: Pieces still don't fit," New York Times, Aug. 13, 1975, p. 14; Gage, Nicholas, "Key theory in Hoffa case is still lacking evidence," New York Times, Nov. 26, 1975, p. 11.
4. Shepardson, David, "Detroit Mafia cases wrap up," Detroit News, March 29, 2004.
5. Meredith, Robyn, "Aging leaders of Detroit Mafia are among 17 indicted by U.S., New York Times, March 17, 1996.
6. Jack Tocco's brother Anthony was acquitted. "U.S. finally nails Detroit Mafia," Detroit Free Press, April 30, 1998.
7. Greenhouse, Steven, "Man in the news: A contradiction to many: James Phillip Hoffa," New York Times, Dec. 6, 1998.
8. "Mob boss avoids more time behind bars," Detroit Free Press, Dec. 17, 2003. Shepardson, David, "Detroit Mafia cases wrap up," Detroit News, March 29, 2004.
9. "Racketeering indictment unsealed," press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, March 3, 2006.
10. Shepardson, David, "Detroit Mafia cases wrap up," Detroit News, March 29, 2004.
11. Ashenfelter, David, "Reputed member of Detroit Mafia dies at 87," Detroit Free Press, Jan. 10, 2008.