Angelo Meli
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Angelo Meli (b. February 10, 1897 - December 1969) was an Detroit, Michigan mobster who became a consiglieri and then leading Chairman of the Detroit Partnership criminal organization of La Cosa Nostra.
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[edit] Criminal career
Angelo Meli was born on February 10, 1897 in Terrasini, Sicily. As a youth, Meli's family immigrated to Detroit. In the early 1920s, Meli, Leo Cellura, and Chester LaMare opened the Venice Cafe in Detroit. The Meli Boys excelled in extorting brothels, gambling houses and bootlegging operations. With Meli's assistance, LaMare soon dominated crime in Hamtramck, Michigan. It required an effort by state investigators on recommendations from Michigan Governor, Alex Groesbeck to crush the organization. He is the son-in-law of Frank Livorsi. A niece of Angelo's arried William Bufalino, a cousin of mob boss Russell Bufalino. Thirty-one criminals were convicted of liquor law violations, including Hamtramck Mayor Peter C. Jezewski. Meli escaped the crackdown and entered into an agreement with Salvatore Catalanotte, boss of Detroit's Unione Siciliane. With Catalanotte's support, Meli formed the Eastside Mob with top aides Leo Cellura, William Tocco, and Joseph Zerilli. Catalanotte was instrumental in establishing the arrangement bringing the Eastside Mob into partnership with the River Gang and other Jewish groups.[1]
After Catalanotte's death in 1930, LaMare began raiding Meli-controlled speakeasies, blind pigs, and liquor storage houses. Angelo took diplomatic steps to end the conflict, calling a meeting at the Vernor Fish Market between the Catalanotte Gang, Westside Mob and Gaspar Sciblia and Sam Parina from the Unione Sicilione. Sciblia and Parina were ambushed by Joe Amico, Joe Locano and an unidentified shooter. Meli responded by putting out a contract on LaMare's life, which was executed on February 6, 1931. After LaMare's murder, Meli oversaw the merger of Detroit's various mob factions into what later became the Detroit Partnership.
[edit] After the Establishment of the Partnership
Once the Detroit Partnership was established, Meli became consigliere. He was a major figure in illegal weapons smuggling and in settling labor disputes. His involvement in labor racketeering helped Jimmy Hoffa's rise in the Teamsters Union.[2] Meli also participated in heroin trafficking into the United States as part of the French Connection. He suffered only one conviction on charges of carrying a concealed weapon. Meli had extensive legitimate business holdings in the Michigan area. He remained a powerful figure in the Detroit Partnership until his death in December 1969 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Salvatore Catalanotte.
- ^ Dan E. Moldea, The Hoffa Wars, Charter Books, New York: 1978 (ISBN 0-441-34010-5)
[edit] References
- Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
- Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001. ISBN 0-8160-4040-0
- Dan E. Moldea, The Hoffa Wars, Charter Books, New York: 1978 (ISBN 0-441-34010-5).
- Charles Brandt, I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran and the inside story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, and the last ride of Jimmy Hoffa, Steerforth Press, Hanover (NH, USA) 2004 (ISBN 1-58642-077-1).
