Mafia In Detroit Gathers For Wedding Of Up-and-Comer On The Water

The Detroit mob was hearing wedding bells over last weekend, as Peter (Pete Gotti) Tocco, an ambitious reputed young goodfella allegedly being groomed by syndicate higher-ups in recent years, got married in a ceremony that was reportedly attended by several members of the crime family, including the big boss man himself, Jack (Jackie the Kid) Giacalone. The 38-year old Tocco is said to be Giacalone’s driver and bodyguard. The party was held at Mac and Ray’s, a dining and banquet facility resting on scenic Lake St. Clair in Harrison Twp., Michigan, a few miles outside of Detroit to the east.

Local gangland insiders claim Tocco began chauffeuring Giacalone, 65, around a year and a half ago when Giacalone allegedly assumed the reins of the Motor City mafia from dying longtime don Giacomo (Black Jack) Tocco, no direct family relation to the newlywed. Also said to be present at the nuptials and subsequent party were reputed Detroit mob street boss Peter (Petey Specs) Tocco, Black Jack’s nephew, and alleged consigliere Anthony (Tony Pal) Palazzolo.

The two Pete Toccos aren’t related either. Pete “Gotti” is the son of Salvatore (Mops) Tocco, indicted and eventually acquitted in the Family’s Wolverine Golf Club gambling and racketeering case in the 1990s, while street boss Pete Tocco, known either as “Blackie,” for his dark complexion, “P.T.” for his initials or more recently “Specs” for his use of eyeglasses, is the son of old-timer Sam (Junior) Tocco. Jackie Giacalone was included in the 2006 federal indictment, however beat the case at trial.

The just-hitched Pete Tocco got nicknamed “Gotti” after iconic 1980s-era NYC Godfather John (The Dapper Don) Gotti at a relatively young age, according to sources in his childhood peer group, for his desire to be “a tough guy, a wiseguy,” He lives on the mostly non-Italian westside of Metro Detroit, near where Giacalone resides.

“Jackie has had Gotti with him a lot since he got bumped up to skipper,” one area underworld source said. “For a while, he didn’t have a driver. Once he became boss, he felt he needed to have someone watching his back on a more permanent basis. Plus, he’s the fucking big chief he shouldn’t be driving himself.”

There another added bonus or two says the source.

“So he brings the kid on and Jackie can have another buffer and he can get in the kid’s pockets, take a bigger chunk of what he’s making,” he opined.

Giacalone himself came up through the syndicate ranks as a driver and protégé of his father, legendary Detroit mob capo and eventual underboss Vito (Billy Jack) Giacalone in the late 1970s and 80s. Per internal FBI memos and testimony in front of the U.S. Senate, Jackie Giacalone was “made” in 1986 and promoted to a captain’s post in the 1990s. Upon his boosting to street boss in the early 2000s after his uncle, steely-eyed Michigan mafia czar Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone died in 2001 and his dad was imprisoned (1998-2004), he was being driven around town by his good buddy and protégé David (Davey Donuts) Aceto, according to police surveillance logs.

Sources tab Aceto a current captain of the organization’s lower eastside regime, based out of working-class Warren, Michigan. From around the time of his RICO acquittal in 2007 until he became boss in 2014, Giacalone didn’t employ a driver, preferring to roll solo.