Sunday, March 24, 1996
By Norman Sinclair
Detroit Journal Staff Writer
At times during the five years of the federal government's latest investigation into the Detroit Mafia, FBI agents found themselves in the un-likely position of protecting bookies, numbers operators and even the leader of a major motorcycle gang.
Agents who normally would be making cases on these underworld types became their protectors, warning them when the FBI learned they were to be harmed, or that their lives were in danger.
"It was something we had to do once we knew someone was being set up," a federal source said.
The protection provided by the agents eventually paid dividends in helping prosecutors develop the cases against 17 men indicted March 13, including Jack Tocco of Grosse Pointe Park, described as the boss of the Detroit mob.
Given the choice between being squeezed by mob enforcers or squeezed by the feds, some of the gamblers who were threatened "did the right thing and told the truth to the grand jury," said one investigator.
But investigators scoffed at one published report speculating that the case hinges on former Mafia members testifying against their old colleagues.
"There are no ex-members of La Cosa Nostra, and you don't have volunteers jumping in to testify," a former federal prosecutor said.
One bookie chose to spend more than three months in the federal prison at Milan rather than testify before the grand jury, despite a grant of immunity from prosecution.
Others, including a businessman who wrote checks for more than $500,000 to a street mobster, lied to the grand jury, according to investigators.
The businessman, however, took the advice of FBI agents and went to Florida for three months after he was warned that he had been set up for a beating.
The government's case against Jack Tocco, his brother Anthony, underboss Anthony Joseph Zerilli and reputed old-guard "capos" or captains, Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone, his brother Vito (Billy Jack) Giacalone and Anthony Joseph Corrado, is built around the actions and words of Nove Tocco and Paul Corrado.
More than 700 hours of tapes of recorded conversations between the two gave agents the keys to the case.
Nove Tocco is a cousin of Jack Tocco and answered to his uncle Anthony Zerilli, according to investigators familiar with the hierarchy of the alleged organization.
Paul Corrado is the son of Dominic Corrado, a capo who died several years ago. Paul Corrado reported to his uncle, Anthony Joseph Corrado, investigators said.
Federal sources say that it was these two who convinced Jack Tocco to give his blessings to their reviving the old mob custom of forcing bookies and gamblers to pay a "tribute," or street tax, to operate.
"Whatever these two or any of the other enforcers did, they had to get permission from the boys," an investigator said, describing the racketeering and conspiracy allegations against the older men in the indictment, Zerilli, the Tocco brothers, the Giacalones and Anthony Corrado.
Jack Tocco's lawyer, Russell Williams, has described the charges as "ridiculous."
Lawyer William Buffalino II, who represents Nove Tocco and others in the case, said the allegations against his clients were rumors and innuendo.
The investigation geared up in 1991 as mobsters began taking notice of a new and very lucrative numbers lottery game run out of Detroit-area party stores with some stores taking in as much as $150,000 a week in illegal betting.
Starting in October of 1991, and continuing to last month, the 57-page indictment details a number of visits to homes or businesses of gamblers and numbers operators by Nove Tocco and Paul Corrado.
Sometimes the meetings took place in restaurants or bars, usually with Nove Tocco and Paul Corrado going together or sometimes with others accompanying one or both of them.
Each time the men traveled around in Nove Tocco's Chrysler or Paul Corrado's Lincoln, the agents were listening and recording their conversations.
"They spent a lot of time in the car beating the bushes for new customers," one investigator said.
One of the first trips they made was to the Plymouth home of a bookie nicknamed BB, where investigators say the pair "scared the living s--- out of him."
A potential victim who did not cooperate was a southwest Detroit numbers operator nicknamed Jessie.
Jessie told Nove Tocco and Paul Corrado to get lost when they demanded money, according to the indictment and investigators.
Described as an older man and a nice guy, Jessie was later visited by FBI agents and warned to be careful and not to travel alone because he had been marked for death by the organization.
Another man targeted for death who also got a warning from the FBI was Harry (Taco) Bowman, at the time the president of the Detroit Outlaws motorcycle club and a former national president of the bikers.
The indictment pointed out that Nove Tocco and Paul Corrado drove by Bowman's Detroit home Oct. 23, 1992, scoping out the location.
FBI agents had to convince the wary Bowman to meet them so they could deliver the message that he was targeted for death.
Investigators said that initially there was some opposition by the Giacalones to shaking down the party store numbers operators.
"They were afraid it would bring down too much heat and they were right," an agent said.
The resounding publicity surrounding the recent federal press conferences announcing the indictments drew the ire of Michigan Attorney General Frank J. Kelley.
Last Tuesday, Kelley met with U.S. Attorney Saul Green and other federal officials in what some witnesses said was noisy and heated session as Kelley protested being left out of the case.
A spokesman for Kelley confirmed the session but said it was a discussion of "issues of mutual interest."
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