Friends of Ours

Feds: Michigan Brothers Tied To Sicilian Mafia

Last week the feds indicted brothers Giuseppe and Girolamo D'Anna for their alleged roles in an extortion scheme involving a violent beatdown against rival restaurateur Piero Ventimiglia in Macomb County, MI, and prosecutors claim the pair has family ties to reputed clan boss Salvatore D'Anna from Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia in the old country as reported by Mitch Hotts for the Daily Tribune:

The [reputed] Mafia family in Terrasini is involved in a host of racketeering crimes there including extortion, assaults, narcotics trafficking and murder, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in court documents filed late last week in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.  "Through his own reputation as being associated with the Sicilian Mafia and a relative of the boss of a controlling crime family in the victim's hometown, Girolamo D’Anna and his brother attempted and conspired to threaten the owners of a rival Italian restaurant that was directly competing with the D'Annas' own neighborhood Italian restaurant," prosecutors said in the documents.

The two brothers previously served 60 days in prison after pleading no contest to state charges for a 2011 assault against Ventimiglia in which they allegedly stuck "him on the head 11 times with an aluminum baseball bat" as reported by WWJ.

Scott Burnstein, the author of Motor City Mafia among other mob books, tells the Daily Tribune that the D'Anna brothers "arrived in the Detroit area in the 1990s," and "their late uncle, Anthony, was a prominent member of the organized crime hierarchy."

Further reading that may be of interest:

Organized Crime In Detroit: Forgotten But Not Gone by James Buccellato and Scott Burnstein for WWJ

 

Tony Zerilli Meets With Federal Investigators About Jimmy Hoffa's Burial Site

Tony Zerilli stunned mob watchers last month when the one-time reputed underboss for the Detroit Mafia announced that he knew the burial spot for slain Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, and now the octogenarian says that he has provided federal authorities with sufficient information to obtain a search warrant to dig up the location along Buell Road in Oakland County, MI as reported by WDIV:  "the land was once owned by Zerilli's cousin Jack Tocco who took over as the Detroit mob boss when Zerilli went to prison," and Zerilli says he heard from Tony "Tony Jack" Giacalone "about putting him there in a shallow grave."  Tony Giacalone and Genovese capo Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano were the two mobsters whom Hoffa was to meet on July 30, 1975 when he disappeared.

Reputed Detroit Mobster Tony Zerilli Claims To Know Burial Spot For Slain Teamsters Boss Jimmy Hoffa

Tony Zerilli once was the alleged underboss of the Detroit Mafia, and the 85-year-old now claims that Jimmy Hoffa "was buried in a field in suburban Detroit -- about 20 miles north of the restaurant where he was last seen" as reported by Marc Santia for WNBC.   However, don't expect Zerilli to name names and provide details anytime soon:  "'I'm not a stool pigeon,' he said."  Apparently, Zerilli simply wants to stop speculation on the numerous theories concerning the disposal of Hoffa's remains, and perhaps generate interest for his forthcoming book.  Although Zerilli was in prison at the time of the Hoffa disappearance and insists he had nothing to do with it the FBI nevertheless believes that the reputed one-time mobster may have relevant information about the case.

Interview Video

Tony was the son of Detroit’s top boss Joseph Zerilli but according to one law enforcement source "wasn't as smart, to be honest" as his father who died in 1977 as reported by Allan Lengel for Deadline Detroit.

Detroit Mobster Vito Giacalone Is Dead

Vito "Billy Jack" Giacalone, the so-called "gambling czar" of the Detroit LCN, has died at 88 as reported by Robert Snell for The Detroit News:  "a 1992 IRS document concluded Giacalone 'remains one of the prime suspects in the 1975 disappearance of former Teamsters leader James R. Hoffa.'"

Hoffa "told a relative on the day he disappeared that he was meeting Anthony Giacalone, Vito Giacalone’s brother, at the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township" as reported by CBS News.  Anthony or "Tony Jack" was a capo within the Detroit Mafia, and he "died of cancer in 2001 while awaiting trial on 14 criminal charges, including racketeering, conspiracy and extortion."

Marvin Elkind, a former gangster who got his underworld start at the age of 18 as the driver for Jimmy Hoffa and later become a government informant, said last year that the one-time Teamsters boss "is resting at the Renaissance Center Hotel, in the concrete, in Detroit, Michigan."

Detroit Mobster Tony Tocco Is Dead At 80

Anthony "Tony" Joseph Tocco, the former consigliere for the Detroit Mafia and brother of once-reputed boss Jack Tocco, died on Friday of natural causes as reported by Christy Strawser for WWJ:

He was charged in 1996, along with 16 other members of what's known as "The Detroit Partnership" in a federal lawsuit with racketeering and other allegations. Among those indicted were his brother Jack Tocco, who was co-owner of the Hazel Park Racetrack at the time, plus underboss Anthony Joseph Zerilli. Tony Tocco was the only one who was aquitted in the case that FBI agents at the time said "drove a stake through the heart of La Cosa Nostra in Detroit."

Blast From The Past:

Aging Leaders of Detroit Mafia Are Among 17 Indicted by U.S.

4 Convicted, 1 Acquitted in Detroit Mafia Trial