page_title: Detroit Partnership
section_title: Tocco era (1977-1996)
hierarchical_section_title: Detroit Partnership / History / The establishment of the Detroit Partnership / Tocco era (1977-1996)
caption_attribution_description: English: Detroit Partnership member Vito Giacalone in 1992.
context_page_description: The Detroit Partnership, also known as the Detroit crime family, Detroit Combination, Detroit Mafia, or Zerilli crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family based in Detroit, Michigan.
context_section_description: Upon his death in 1977, Joe Zerilli was succeeded as boss by the most senior member of the Ruling Council, John Priziola, known affectionately to his peers as "Papa John".  Born Giovanni Priziola, the longtime Detroit Mafia leader was one of only two charter ruling council members left alive and active at the time of Zerilli's death. 
  The other senior ruling council member was former Down River Gang leader and Prohibition era czar, Peter Licavoli, who by this time was himself semi-retired and living in Tucson, Arizona not far from his friend, retired Mafia boss Joe Bonanno.
  Licavoli was a powerful Detroit Partnership member who had been the crime family's Toledo, Ohio operations overseer and held a great deal of influence over Detroit area gambling operations, along with many other personal business interests. Rumor has it that when Bill Tocco's retired in the early 1960s Pete Licavoli was named underboss of the Detroit crime family until around 1970 when a new, younger acting leadership came to power within the Detroit Partnership.
  Pete Licavoli ran his business affairs from his Arizona ranch which he then sold to Estes Homes for development in 1980. He died of natural causes on January 11, 1984 at the age of 81, the last of the original ruling council members. With the death of boss Joe Zerilli, John Priziola as the Detroit Partnership's most senior leader effectively became the top boss of the crime family. Only Peter Licavoli held the same status and a similar level of authority as a charter ruling council member. Priziola had been a longtime Detroit Mafia leader who was greatly respected throughout the Detroit Mafia, but much of his power came from being the leader of a powerful and wealthy faction within the Detroit Partnership.
  The "Partinico faction" was a group of Detroit Mafia leaders that included Raffaele Quasarano and deported Sicilian-American mafiosi, Francesco "Frankie Fingers" Coppola. These men, along with associates in San Diego, California and Windsor, Ontario ran the crime family's heroin importation operations. Through their influential underworld connections nationwide they amassed a great deal of wealth and power over the years with the help of their narcotics contacts in Sicily.
  Priziola was a traditional, old world mafioso who ran his affairs and those of the crime family from the shadows, so to run the day-to-day operations he officially named Joe Zerilli's nephew and Bill Tocco's son, Giacomo "Jack" Tocco as the acting boss of the crime family. Papa John acted as the crime family's official consigliere, but due to his senior position and the great deal of power and influence Priziola carried throughout the Detroit Partnership his word was final. 
  The long criminal career of Papa John Priziola within Detroit's underworld was influential, but his time as the top boss in Detroit was short lived as he died of natural causes at the age of 84 on April 14, 1979 less than two years after his predecessor, Joe Zerilli.
  Joe Zerilli had demoted his son and chosen successor Tony as acting boss after he was convicted in the early 1970s and allegedly before his death Zerilli gave his blessing and encouraged his supporters to name his nephew and protégé, Jack Tocco as his eventual successor to the throne of the Detroit crime family. Jack Tocco's intelligence and abilities as a leader were known within the Detroit underworld during the time the young Tocco made his way through the ranks of the Detroit Partnership in the 1950s and 60s. The fact that Tocco basically held a "mafia pedigree" and was considered "mafia royalty" as the son of Black Bill Tocco worked greatly to his advantage and he was eventually named the new sitting boss of the Detroit crime family soon after the death of Papa John Priziola.
  According to law enforcement sources Jack Tocco allegedly became the official boss of the Detroit Partnership on June 11, 1979 in a ceremony held at the Timberland Game Ranch in Dexter Township. Apparently as a sign of appreciation for the support his father gave him and to show that they were united as a family
caption: Detroit Partnership member Vito Giacalone in 1992.
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