Gaspar Milazzo - Later Years

Later Years

After the death of Catalonotte in February 1930, Milazzo continued to be a high-ranking member of the Detroit crime family, although the actual extent of his power is under debate. Some organized crime writers and authors claim that Milazzo was the successor to Sam Catalanotte, but if that was even true he had a very, very short reign. It is known that Milazzo was a close associate of the East Side Gang led by Angelo Meli, William "Black Bill" Tocco and Joseph "Joe Uno" Zerilli who took over and led the East Side Mob, the remnants of the former Gianolla Gang, Vitale-Bosco Gang and eventually became the first three leaders of the modern Detroit Parnership, otherwise known as the Detroit Combination or the Zerilli crime family. Milazzo also had a close working relationship with the other leading Detroit Mafia factions including the Down River Gang led by brothers Thomas "Yonnie" and Peter Licavoli and their cousins, the brothers Joseph "Joe Misery" and Leo "Lips" Moceri, one of the more formidable Mafia factions within Detroit whose members would become the members of the Detroit Partnership's highest levels. There was the West Side Mob which was the remnants of Sam Catalanotte's faction, Wyandotte-area Boss, Joseph "Joe the Beer Baron" Tocco, and the La Mare Gang led by Chester "Big Chet" La Mare of the Hamtramck area. Being that the West Side Mob was the remnants of Catalanotte's faction, Milazzo would have had obvious ties or a working relationship with these leaders in the rackets, as they were once under Catalanotte.

Whatever Milazzo's position within the Detroit Mafia, whether he was only the Boss of the Castellammarese Clan or faction within Detroit's Italian underworld, it is very clear that Milazzo held a level of respect and influence that allowed him to associate and work with or among the various Mafia factions that made up the Detroit Mafia during the 1920s. It is a widely held belief that Milazzo's skills as a mediator and adviser is one of the contributing factors or reason that Milazzo held his considerable underworld power and influence among the other Mafia Bosses. Another factor was the fact that Milazzo had been a leading mafiosi in New York and was still well connected to high-ranking New York Mafia members, along with other high-ranking Mafia members from Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Buffalo and the Pittston-Scranton area, no matter what his official tile was during his reign as a leading Detroit mafiosi, if he even held a title. The Consigliere title, which best suits Gaspar Milazzo's character and possible position within the Detroit and American Mafia, was not used until late 1931, but it is safe to assume that Milazzo was considered a universal councilor of sorts among the Detroit mafiosi, and the events that surround his murder actually strengthen that belief.