Gaspar Milazzo
April 25, 1887, to May 31, 1930.
Milazzo, who entered the U.S. about 1911, appears to have shared in the leadership of a Brooklyn Mafia criminal organization comprised of immigrants from Sicily's Castellammare del Golfo region during the pre-Prohibition years.
(Strangely, Joseph Bonanno, whose autobiography contains much information on Castellammarese Mafiosi, had little to say about Milazzo.)
Milazzo and Stefano Magaddino ruled their Brooklyn gang until police pursuit and a Bucellato mob vendetta over their involvement in a New Jersey murder forced both to flee.
Magaddino traveled to Buffalo and became a key figure in the DiCarlo-Palmeri Mafia there. Milazzo set himself up as a big shot in Detroit. It appears he worked closely with local crime boss Sam Catalonotte (the Mike Merlo of Detroit). Milazzo was widely respected in the fragmented and competitive Detroit underworld.
It appears that Milazzo graduated to Mafia crime family boss in Detroit by 1930 (according to some sources, he was a chief lieutenant in the East Side Gang led by Angelo Meli, Bill Tocco and Joe Zerilli). He immediately showed support for Chicago's Joe Aiello (a Sicilian) against Alphonse Capone (a Neapolitan).
New York's Joe Masseria, a Capone ally and Unione Siciliana opponent beginning about 1928, tried to convince Milazzo to cease his support of Aiello. When he failed in that effort, Masseria backed Cesare "Chester" LaMare as boss of the Detroit Mafia.
LaMare had Milazzo and his bodyguard Sasa "Sam" Parrina killed at a supposed peace conference at the Vernor Highway Fish Market on May 31, 1930. Some believe LaMare was ordered by Masseria to eliminate Milazzo. Others say the killing was the accidental result of an attempt on the life of Angelo Meli, which would have eliminated the most prestigious Detroit Mafioso.
Milazzo's death was cited as evidence by Castellammarese Mafiosi in Detroit (they would soon have additional evidence), Buffalo and Brooklyn and conservative Sicilian gangsters in Chicago that Masseria and Capone were at war with them.
Some historians mark the start of the Castellammarese War at the slaying of Milazzo.
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