Motor City Mob Brass Breaks Bread, Talks Business In Recent Group Of Top-Tier Sit Downs

A series of high-level sit downs between administrators in the Detroit mafia have taken place in the past 3-to-6 months, per exclusive Gangster Report sources, and hosted by a duo of popular local Italian eateries. These meetings were attended by Motown mob powers Anthony (Chicago Tony) La Piana, Peter (Petey Specs) Tocco and Anthony (Tony Pal) Palazzolo, the crime family’s reputed underboss, street boss and consigliere, respectively, according to these sources. Alleged Detroit mafia don, Jack (Jackie the Kid) Giacalone, didn’t attend any of the at-least two syndicate administrative powwows, these sources say, continuing his effort to keep a lower profile since he officially took the reins of the Michigan mob family two years ago.

“Jackie wasn’t there, but all the rest of the meat of the batting order was,” one source said. “P.T. (Pete Tocco) spoke for Jackie. Pal (Tony Palazzolo) and Lop (Tony La Piana) got their early at the first one. They were both laughing about that.”

The exact top-priority matters being discussed at these sit downs are unconfirmed. One local gangland insider heard the subjects talked about between the seasoned triumvirate of La Piana, Tocco and Palazzolo included what would happen if reputed Sicilian-born capo Giuseppe (Joe the Hood) D’Anna is convicted at his federal extortion and racketeering trial next month and how much, if any, cash La Piana owes his fellow Detroit mafia administrators from the 50 million-dollar sale of his U.S. Health & Life Insurance business last year (in order for the sale to the Catholic Church-backed Ascension Health to go through Chicago Tony himself was forced to divest himself of ownership interest in the months before the deal was sealed), among other pressing issues of concern. The disbanding of La Piana’s crew, the old Tocco family crew, was another subject bandied about at least one of the sit downs, claims one source with ties to Chicago Tony aka Tony Lop.

Unlike Giacalone, Tocco and Palazzolo, La Piana, 73, is not a convicted felon. His last arrest was all the way back in 1967 while growing up in the Windy City when he was pinched by the feds for hijacking, but beat the case at trial. The 65-year old Giacalone has multiple gambling and racketeering convictions on his record – he beat his last indictment though at trial in 2008. He’s the son of Vito (Billy Jack) Giacalone and the nephew of Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone, the syndicate’s formidable pair of street bosses for over a half-century. Tony Jack died of natural causes in 2001, Billy Jack followed in 2012.

Specs Tocco, 69, did two years in federal prison for racketeering in the late 2000s. Both he and LaPiana were protégés of Giacomo (Black Jack) Tocco, the longtime Godfather of Detroit mob who died of heart failure in the summer of 2014 after 35 years on the throne. Black Jack is Petey Specs Tocco’s uncle on his mother’s side. He’s alleged to be handling day-to-day affairs for the crime family on behalf of Jackie Giacalone, the Family’s daily overseer and street boss for the entire 2000s and the first portion of the 2010s. According to state police records, Tocco, Giacalone and La Piana were made together at the same February 1986 induction ceremony.

The 72-year old Palazzolo last did time behind bars in the 1990s for running a money-laundering business for criminals. Looking out onto the Motown skyline from the window of a posh suite in a swanky downtown hotel, Palazzolo was recorded telling an undercover “This is my city.” Tony Pal has been responsible for Detroit’s Downriver area since the 1980s.

Along with the Giacalone brothers, Palazzolo’s name has surfaced as a suspect in the now-iconic 1975 kidnapping and gangland slaying of Jimmy Hoffa. Jack Tocco’s underboss and first-cousin Anthony (Tony Z) Zerilli told the FBI in a 2012 debriefing that Tony Giacalone informed him that Palazzolo was the man that killed Hoffa. He once bragged on a wire of stuffing Hoffa’s dead body through a meat auger at his headquarters, The Detroit Sausage Company, located in the far southeast corner of historic Eastern Market.