Joseph Zerilli, one of the most powerful figures in Detroit’s organized crime history, led a sprawling criminal enterprise for decades while carefully staying out of the spotlight. Born in Sicily in 1897, he immigrated to the United States in 1914 and settled in Detroit, where he started as a pick-and-shovel laborer before rising through the ranks of the city’s underworld. During the early 1920s, Detroit’s illegal alcohol trade was dominated by the Purple Gang, a group of Jewish gangsters who controlled most of the city’s bootlegging operations. Zerilli joined forces with them in various illegal ventures, forming a partnership that would eventually grow into an enterprise generating an estimated $150 million in annual profits.
Zerilli also collaborated with Gasper Milazzo, a Sicilian mobster known as a skilled mediator. Milazzo had arrived in the United States in 1911, settled in Brooklyn, and built a reputation in the Italian underworld before developing a close working relationship with Salvatore Catalanotte, a powerful Detroit Mafia boss. The Detroit Italian underworld was torn apart by violent power struggles during the late 1910s, and after Catalanotte’s death from pneumonia in February 1930, the organization once again fractured. Rivalries between the East Side and West Side mobs escalated into open conflict.
Angelo Meli, the East Side leader, received a request from West Side boss Chet LaMare to meet and discuss Mafia affairs. Suspicious of LaMare’s intentions, Meli sent Milazzo in his place, believing the respected mediator would be seen as the only person capable of settling the dispute. Milazzo agreed to attend the meeting on May 31, 1930, at the Vernor Highway Fish Market in Detroit. While he and his driver, Sam Perrino, sat eating lunch and waiting for LaMare or his representatives, two gunmen jumped out and opened fire with shotguns.
Milazzo was killed instantly, and Perrino died shortly after from his wounds. Milazzo was 43 years old. Some organized crime historians have suggested that Milazzo’s murder played a role in the bloody Castellammarese War in New York City between Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, noting that Masseria had begun supporting LaMare’s attempt to take over the Detroit Mafia. Others dispute this theory, pointing out that a Maranzano ally had been killed in New York at Masseria’s direction three months earlier.
With the Purples moving on to more lucrative roles in national gambling syndicates, Zerilli rose to the top of Detroit’s underworld. He took control of the East Side mob alongside William “Black Bill” Tocco and Angelo Meli, founding what became known as the Zerilli crime family, also called the Detroit Combination or the Detroit Partnership. In 1931, Lucky Luciano established the Commission, a national governing body for organized crime. It initially included seven family bosses, among them the leaders of New York’s Five Families, Al Capone of Chicago, and Stefano Magaddino of Buffalo.
The Philadelphia family, led by Angelo Bruno, and the Detroit family, led by Zerilli, were admitted to the Commission following a meeting in 1956. Unlike some Mafia leaders, Zerilli did not turn down prostitution, embracing any activity that generated revenue. Publicly, he posed as a baker and businessman while living in a $500,000 home in Detroit. His criminal record was surprisingly minor for a man of his power, consisting mostly of fines for speeding and two convictions for carrying a concealed weapon.
Zerilli was one of the few Commission members who did not operate from New York. He consistently respected the authority of other bosses in their own territories but pushed for Detroit to have the same level of autonomy. Despite his influence, he never played a role in the national organization’s broader operations. In his early seventies, Zerilli retired from his position as head of the crime family and successfully installed his son, Tony Zerilli, as his successor.
This was an achievement that other Dons had attempted and failed to accomplish. The elder Zerilli was so respected that no one challenged his decision. Zerilli was forced to retake control in 1975, partly because his son had been sentenced to four years in prison for plotting to acquire a covert interest in a Las Vegas casino. The case of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa also demanded his attention.
Hoffa had become increasingly headstrong following his release from prison. Zerilli’s top lieutenant, Tony Giacalone, told the labor leader to calm down and accept that everyone was happy with Frank Fitzsimmons running the Teamsters. Hoffa refused to back down. Jimmy Hoffa vanished on July 30, 1975, and is widely believed to have been murdered.
According to conventional wisdom, the likely attackers were New Jersey mobster Tony Provenzano and Pennsylvania-New York boss Russell Bufalino. Giacalone was the person Hoffa was supposed to meet outside a Detroit-area restaurant that day. Nothing happened in Detroit without Zerilli’s approval. Other Mafia families were required to ask his permission before committing murders in his territory.
Joseph Zerilli died of natural causes on October 30, 1977. After his death, Jack Tocco, his nephew, was appointed to lead the organization. Tony Zerilli was made underboss and was to report to Tocco after his release from prison. The family continued operating under Tocco’s leadership for decades.
In April 2000, Nove Tocco, a member of the Detroit crime syndicate and Joseph Zerilli’s grandson, agreed to testify against his cousin Jack Tocco. Since the family’s founding in 1921, Nove Tocco was the first member of the Detroit crime family to cooperate with authorities.