Criminal Career
After returning to Detroit, Tocco joined his cousin Giuseppe Zerilli and Angelo Meli in backing the Giannola Brothers' bootlegging operations. On August 11, 1920, he was arrested for the murder of Antonio Badalamenti, a Vitale Gang leader killed in retaliation for an attack on Giuseppe Manzello and Angelo Polizzi. The charges were dropped two days later. With Manzello dead, Meli took over the Giannola Gang, renaming it the Eastside Mob, and appointing Tocco and Zerilli as his top aides.
After Giovanni Vitale's death on October 2, 1920, Salvatore Catalanotte dominated the Sicilian crime syndicate and organized the Pascuzzi Combine - a liquor syndicate consisting of the remaining gangs. With profits made by Tocco and Zerilli's in the Pascuzzi Combine, they purchased the Pheiffer Brewing Co. Pheiffer's assets were then taken over by States Products Co. The company continued producing malt products and did well for around five years, then it was changed to the Pheiffer Products Co. On February 5, 1932, Tocco was arrested for conspiracy to violate the National Prohibition Act. Eight days after the raid, a federal injunction closed Pheiffer Products and Meyer Products for alleged wort production. Not long after this Zerilli and Tocco were barred from participating in the legal beer business by the Michigan State Liquor Control Commission and ordered to sell their interest in the Pheiffer Brewing.
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