William Tocco

"Black Bill" Tocco & "Joe" Zerilli (1931)

Vito William "Black Bill" Tocco , b. Guglielmo Vito Tocco , ( February 12, 1897 - May 28, 1972 ) was an Italian-American mobster of the American Cosa Nostra and during the early 1930s the head of the Detroit Crime Family , also known as the Detroit Partnership or Detroit Combination . He is the father of Anthony Joseph "Tony T." Tocco and Giacomo "Black Jack" William Tocco , who was also the boss of the family from 1979 to 2014.

Life

Early years

Vito William Tocco was named Guglielmo Vito Tocco in Terrasini ( Sicily born) son of Giacomo Tocco and Nicolina Moceri and emigrated in 1910 with his family to the United States to Detroit ( Michigan ), where he during the First World War , after his service in the US Army, was naturalized .

Rise to power

In the late 1910s, after his return from the war, he teamed up with his brother-in-law Joseph "Joe Z." Zerilli and Angelo Meli , who were involved in smuggling operations for the brothers Antonino and Salvatore Gianolla . At the time, the Gianolla brothers' group was competing with the gang of an influential mafioso named Giovanni Vitale . In 1919 both brothers lost their lives during this conflict and the mafioso Giuseppe Manzello took their place as a leading figure. Vitale was seen as the new boss of the Detroit Mafia at the time.

On August 11, 1920, William Tocco was arrested for the murder of Antonio Badalamenti , who was a high-ranking member of Giovanni Vitales gang and was murdered in retaliation for a drive-by shoot ordered by Vitale on Giuseppe Manzello; however, the charges against Tocco were dropped just two days later. Vitale was also murdered on the morning of October 2, 1920 when 18 bullets were fired during a drive-by shoot.

The gangster Salvatore Catalanotte was the most powerful member of the former Gianolla faction after the murder of Manzello and generally recognized as the new head of the mafia in Detroit after Vitale's death. Catalanotte formed a strong alliance that came to be known as Detroit's Westside Mob , and he appointed Angelo Meli as the new leader of the Manzello group, with Tocco and Zerilli as its right-hand man, known as the Eastside Mob . This combination in turn became known as the Pascuzzi Combine . Under Catalanotte, the organization controlled the liquor smuggling, the black market, the gambling, the prostitution, drugs and other business fields.

In 1928 "Black Bill" Tocco married his lover Rosalia Zerilli and bought a piece of land in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, where they raised their seven children.

In February 1930, Salvatore Catalanotte died at the age of 36 of complications from pneumonia and his partner Gaspar Milazzo took the lead in the organization, but on May 31, 1930 he became a member of the Mafioso Cesare Lamare - also a member Westside Mob - murdered during an ambush in a restaurant. Lamare became the new head of the Detroit mafia, but went underground during the roughly a year-long war between Eastside and Westside gangs that killed more than a dozen mafia members in Detroit. La Mare was betrayed by two of his own people on behalf of Angelo Meli in February 1931 and he was shot in the back when he arrived at his house with them.

Head of the family

The now most powerful man in the Eastside gang, "Bill" Tocco, joined forces with his closest confidants "Joe" Zerilli and Angelo Meli with Giovanni "John" Priziola and Peter Joseph Licavoli ; five mafiosi, who from then on ruled on one level as a body. Instead of Pascuzzi Combine , the Mafia in Detroit was now also called the Detroit Partnership .

Vito William "Black Bill" Tocco was now the official head of the organization, Joe Zerilli became its underboss and Angelo Meli served as consigliere . Tocco's reign lasted about five years until he was charged with tax evasion in March 1936. He resigned due to legal problems and Joe Zerilli became his direct successor. Although Tocco was sentenced to eight years in prison, he remained Zerillis number two as an underboss until his official retirement in 1963.

Last years

Tocco spent most of the last nine years of his life in Miami ( Florida ). He died on May 28, 1972 in Bon Secours Hospital in Grosse Pointe Park . He was 75 years old and left behind his wife Rosalia, seven children and 28 grandchildren. His funeral mass was held in the Holy Family Church in Detroit and he was laid to rest in the Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Southfield . His son Giacomo “Black Jack” William Tocco was the longest-serving head of the family from the late 1970s until his death in 2014. His older son Anthony Joseph "Tony T." Tocco was the consigliere of "Black Jack" Tocco from 1993 to 2008.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Viral Nova - 7 Mafia Families That Are not From New York Or Chicago
2. ↑ The American Mafia - Detroit Crime Bosses
3. ^ Find a Grave - Antonino Giannola, Jr
4. ^ Find a Grave - Giovanni Vitale
5. ↑ The American Mafia - Who Was Who: Lamare, Cesare
6. ^ Find a Grave - William Vito Tocco
7. ↑ The Detroit Mafia, Mario Machi .