User:Haydennorris/William Tocco

Personal Life
Tocco’s personal life is an example of how strongly the mafia influenced his life and how he used his personal life to strengthen mafia business. In 1928, Tocco married Rosalia Zerilli, sister of Joseph Zerilli, and they purchased land in Grosse Pointe Park where they raised their seven children, including Jack Tocco, who grew up and became a feared Mafia member in Detroit. Tocco's success in bootlegging earned him respect from Mafia families nationwide. His marriage to Zerilli is proof of the crime family's relationships in and out of business. In 1952, his son Anthony Tocco married Carmela Profaci, daughter of Joe Profaci. William Tocco’s bloodline reached from New York to Los Angeles just through the marriages of his children. Due to the ties of his family and widespread respect, he was a major factor in aligning the Partnership with several crime families, including the Profaci crime family in New York. In 1953, Tocco’s daughter, Grace, married Carlo Licata the son of Nick Licata, a former mobster who was ousted by the Detroit Family and was adopted by the Los Angeles crime family headed by Jack Dragna. Furthermore, Tocco’s son, Jack, married the daughter of Angelo Meli, a fellow bootlegger from Detroit. Considering Bill Tocco admitted he was a bootlegger himself, many assume this marriage to be proof of Tocco and Meli’s involvement and relationship in bootlegging in Detroit. Nick Licata attended the wedding in Detroit which was proof of the strength of the relationship between families with the Partnership. The family connections at hand are proof that Tocco and other Cosa Nostra members purposefully desired inter-family marriages to strengthen business connections and enlarge their footprint across the country.

William Tocco stepped down from an acting role in the Detroit Mafia after he was arrested for murder in 1920, but he continued to work behind the scenes to help move the crime syndicate forward. He did this by having his own children, including infamous Detroit mafioso Jack Tocco, marrying into other mafia families. His son, Jack, married the daughter of Angelo Meli, who at the time was the acting boss of the Detroit Mafia. Angelo and William Tocco were partners in bootlegging during the prosperous prohibition era of Detroit. It just so happened that the Hazel Park Racing Association, a joint business venture that William and Jack went in on together, was one of the largest gambling ventures in the state. Angelo Meli was said to have a controlling interest in gambling in Detroit, thus making the partnership between Tocco and Meli go hand in hand by allowing his son to be the face of it, while being in the good graces of the gambling czar, Angelo Meli.

William’s other son, Anthony Tocco, was married to the daughter of Joe Profaci, acting head of the Colombo crime family in New York. Anthony stated many times that there was no connection between them other than that they were family but he did say that he worked with one of Profaci’s brothers in the construction business in Detroit doing small building jobs. William was able to align himself with one of the most powerful families from behind the scenes through his children’s marriages.