A Year In The Life: Federal Documents Track Former Detroit Mobster Billy Giacalone’s Affairs In 1986

An FBI dossier detailing surveillance and intelligence gleaned from a series of confidential informants related to deceased Detroit mafia chief Vito (Billy Jack) Giacalone’s activities throughout an eight-month span in 1986 shows how much the government knew about Giacalone’s daily affairs at the time and the fact that not surprisingly he had people close to him feeding info on him to the feds. The dossier covers May 1986 through December 1986.

Giacalone and his older brother Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone were the faces of the mob in the Motor City in the second half of the 20^th Century, the Tocco-Zerilli crime family’s street bosses from 1960 until 2001 when Tony Jack died of kidney failure. Billy Jack would rise to underboss of the crime family in the 2000s before he retired from the “life” in 2010 and eventually died of natural causes in 2012. His son, Jack (Jackie the Kid) Giacalone, is Motown’s alleged current mob boss.

Below is a highlight of the revelations in the dossier dated January 1987:

*CI says BILLY GIACALONE returned to Detroit in late April 1986 after spending the winter in Florida at his luxury apartment in the Turnberry Isle complex on the shores of North Miami Beach. His brother TONY GIACALONE was released from a seven-year federal prison term for extortion and tax evasion on January 15, 1986 and spent the winter with him in Florida.

*CI says the GIACALONE BROTHERS’ biggest sources of illegal income stem from sports gambling, loansharking, extortion and labor racketeering, but remain involved in drugs, numbers and prostitution as well.

*CI says known DETROIT LCN (La Cosa Nostra) member SAM “SAMMY G”GIORDANO has been acting as BILLY GIACALONE’s driver since he got back from Florida in April 1986. Giordano picks up Giacalone at his home in Sterling Heights, Michigan every morning between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. in a 1983 Cadillac El Dorado.

*CI says BILLY GIACALONE’S son, JACK V. GIACALONE manages his day-to-day business in Detroit when he’s out of town in Florida and has been gaining increasing responsibility in his crew in recent years. In the summer of 1986, BILLY GIACALONE sent JACK V. GIACALONE to Toledo, Ohio on a number of occasions to speak on his behalf and handle some disputes in the area. BILLY GIACALONE has overseen mob activity in Toledo since the late 1950s.

*CI says BILLY GIACALONE is holding most of his meetings in walk-and-talks on the golf course at the Wolverine Golf Club or at a number of strip clubs along 8 Mile Road, such as Virgio’s and the Silent Woman. The Wolverine Golf Club is owned by the LUCIDO FAMILY.

*CI says while GIACALONE BROTHERS were in Florida in the winter of 1986 they aggressively conspired to push Teamsters president Jackie Presser out of office for the coming 1988 election. BILLY GIACALONE held several meetings at his Turnberry Isle residence with mob associates and labor union officials to discuss the matter. According to the CI, the GIACALONE BROTHERS back William McCarthy, a Boston-based Teamster leader and former Jimmy Hoffa protégé, for the job. Hoffa, the Teamsters president of the 1950s and 60s, was executed in 1975. Both GIACALONE BROTHERS are considered “top suspects” in the planning and carrying out of the unsolved murder conspiracy.

*CI says back in 1972 the GIACALONE BROTHERS extorted a large-scale drug operation being run out of the Santa Maria Hotel in South Florida.

*CI says as soon as TONY GIACALONE got to Florida in January 1986 following his release from prison he sought to extort a businessman he knew for $10,000 after the businessman got into a feud with an associate of Giacalone’s while Giacalone was incarcerated. According to the CI, Giacalone has told the businessman he will kill him if he doesn’t pay the $10k fee for his stepping in and resolving the issue. In February 1986, BILLY GIACALONE called the extortion victim twice demanding payment to his brother and then in March 1986 TONY GIACALONE called the victim and again threatened his life if he didn’t come up with the money.

*CI says while the GIACALONE BROTHERS were in Florida in the winter of 1986, TONY GIACALONE got into an altercation with a “mob connected” Florida resident and called back to Detroit for clearance to murder him, but the murder never took place.

*CI says BILLY GIACALONE is of the opinion that the DETROIT LCN ENTERPRISE is “stagnating and needs an influx of new blood” and is advocating for a making ceremony now that his brother is out of prison. BILLY GIACALONE told the CI that he has discussed this with DETROIT LCN BOSS JACK TOCCO who agrees with the assessment and an LCN induction will occur soon. According to the CI, the GIACALONE BROTHERS desire an eventual “restructuring” of the organization and hope to someday push Tocco out of power.

*CI says BILLY GIACALONE held several meetings with DETROIT LCN administrators JACK TOCCO, TONY TOCCO, TONY ZERILLI and TONY CORRADO on the golf course at the Wolverine Golf Club – Zerilli is JACK TOCCO’s underboss and TONY TOCCO and TONY CORRADO are both capos. Giacalone and Corrado met at the club almost every day in the summer of 1986. According to the CI, Giacalone and Corrado each have over 100 bookies working for them on the street. Giacalone and Corrado are avoiding JACK TOCCO’s Hillcrest Country Club because they deem it “too hot,” the CI said.

*CI says BILLY GIACALONE has instructed all of his bookies to stop using land telephone lines and begin using only mobile phones to conduct gambling business, which they are told to only use for a few weeks at a time and then dispose of.

CI says BILLY GIACALONE has access to a police scanner and other anti-surveillance equipment to aid in his effort to thwart FBI detection of his activities and keeps a set of high-powered lense binoculars in the glove compartment of his car.

CI says BILLY GIACALONE, JACK V. GIACALONE and SAM GIORDANO met local bookmaker and gambling specialist HENRY ALLEN HILF for lunch at least once a week at Beau Jacks restaurant in Bloomfield Twp., Michigan during the summer and fall of 1986. Hilf is the state’s biggest bookie. According to the CI, the lunch group would often not that they were eating their meal across the street from the shopping mall where Jimmy Hoffa was last seen in 1975.

CI says BILLY GIACALONE splits his evenings between his family’s home in Sterling Heights on the eastside of Metropolitan Detroit and the home of his longtime girlfriend in West Bloomfield, Michigan on the westside.

CI says BILLY GIACALONE is suspicious of certain people in his inner circle in the wake of a June 1986 arrest on gambling, racketeering and tax evasion charges when an FBI agent joked that Giacalone would be missing a dental appointment he had scheduled that morning while he was being hauled away in handcuffs. Giacalone told the CI “only a couple people knew about that appointment.”