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News and Features about Organized Crime, Mafia and La Cosa Nostra taken from National and Local News Sources. In an attempt to get you this type of coverage in a timely manner we can not be responsible for the content of the following material. |
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3-15-00 Mobster betrays family. Nove Tocco bares details of his involvement in Mafia at hearing for reputed mob boss. March 15, 2000 By Norman Sinclair / The Detroit News DETROIT -- In a hushed federal courtroom, convicted mobster Nove Tocco took the witness stand and betrayed his own family by revealing secrets of the Detroit mafia. A hearing before U.S. District Judge John Corbett O'Meara to determine if reputed mob boss Jack W. Tocco, 73, is well enough to return to prison turned into a public family confrontation. In hopes of earning a reduction in the 19-year prison term he is serving, Nove Tocco took the witness stand and identified his elderly cousin, Jack Tocco, as the head of the Detroit mafia.
Nove Tocco, 52, told Assistant U.S. Atty. Keith Corbett that he is a second cousin to Jack Tocco and a nephew of Anthony Joseph Zerilli, identified previously as the underboss of the crime family. During Nove Tocco's testimony, Jack Tocco stared straight ahead. Nove Tocco told Corbett that he was introduced to the family business at age 19 when he was taken to Las Vegas by his uncle, Anthony Zerilli, and another mob member, the late Michael "Big Mike" Pollizzi. The men showed him around the Frontier casino hotel. Shortly afterward, he was taken to a meeting with brothers Jack and Anthony Tocco. The brothers asked him what he thought of the operation at the Frontier, indicating it was under their control, Nove Tocco recalled. Nove Tocco testified he was told about a 1979 mob meeting at a game farm in Washtenaw County where Jack Tocco was elected boss of the Detroit family.
Tocco described a meeting he and his fellow street enforcer, Paul Corrado, had in 1991 with Jack Tocco, Zerilli and Anthony Corrado, Paul's uncle. Nove Tocco said he and Paul Corrado were setting up a scheme to shake down gamblers and numbers operators and collect payments from them. After giving his approval, Jack Tocco laid down the ground rules for the operation, Nove Tocco testified. Jack Tocco told them they could not touch anyone already paying tribute to the family. After his conviction on racketeering and conspiracy charges in 1998, Jack Tocco was sentenced to one year and a day in prison by O'Meara. The government appealed the sentence. In January, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered O'Meara to resentence Tocco after an evidentiary hearing. The hearing will continue April 4. Copyright 2000, The Detroit News
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