Gaspar Milazzo - Arrival in Detroit

Arrival in Detroit

After leaving Brooklyn in 1921 and moving to Detroit Milazzo quickly used his connections to his associates back in New York and to others in areas like Chicago his maintain his involvement in the Prohibition era rackets. Detroit contained a large Sicilian immigrant population, not as big as New York, but large enough and the area was one of the east coast's bootlegging hubs with many crime groups involved in the rackets. One of the more famous being the Jewish Purple Gang, which at the time of Milazzo's arrival into the "Motor City" controlled much of the liquor smuggling within the Detroit area. Milazzo quickly established himself as a leading mafioso with very important and influential connections within the American Mafia considering Milazzo had previously operated in New York, the American Mafia's base of power where the most powerful and influential of the Sicilian Mafia Bosses and their crime families were located. Milazzo once established himself as one of the leading Castellammarse Clan members and aligned himself with Salvatore "Singing Sam" Catalonotte, local president of the Unione Siciliana and the leading Sicilian Mafia boss in Detroit's Italian underworld. Milazzo soon won considerable respect and influence in Detroit's dangerous underworld as what else, an adviser to various Mafia leaders and a mediator of business disputes and other conflicts that seem to be part of the underworld.

Gaspar Milazzo began working with Sam Catalonotte and created a close working relationship and alliance with the powerful Mafia leader in the early-to-mid-1920s, there are conflicting reports as to exactly when Milazzo arrived in Detroit, possibly making stops in other cites with Castellammarese Clan influence such as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and even California where he could look over his criminal and business opportunities in these areas of the country, but by no later than 1923 Milazzo was established in Detroit. Catalanotte who had taken over the remnants of the old Gianolla Gang and was recognized as the Detroit Mafia's "Godfather" who was able to aligned the various Mafia factions within the Detroit underworld into a cohesive criminal unit or group that controlled bootlegging operations, gambling, narcotics, prostitution and other rackets, Catalanotte's "peace treaty" was known as the "Pascuzzi Combine", which operated without the many conflicts and bloody battles that had occurred within Detroit's Italian underworld over the previous decade. Eventually with the help of Milazzo's mediating skills the two influential mafiosi kept the peace within Detroit's Italian underworld and were able mentor and advise Detroit's future Mafia Bosses so they could lead the organization into the next era.