The Violent Years (5 page)

By ruthless methods, the River Gang consolidated their control over most of the large-scale rum-running activities on the upper Detroit River between the eastern city limits of Detroit and Mt. Clemens, Michigan. According to one Detroit underworld source, the River Gang operated outside of the Detroit city limits to make it more difficult for the Detroit police to interfere in their activities. According to another account, most of the newly arrived gangsters in the Detroit area stayed out of the city because by the mid-’20s, the Purple Gang and its various factions maintained a tight control over the Detroit underworld’s most lucrative rackets.

The River Gang never hauled its own loads. The gang made its money by carrying the loads of other rumrunners in its boats and charging a 25 percent tax for protection on whatever the load of liquor was worth on the retail market. If their speedboats were pursued by the U.S. Coast Guard or Customs’ cutters and the loads had to be dumped into the Detroit River it was the owner’s loss and not the River Gang’s. Any whiskey haulers who refused to use the services of the River Gang and attempted to run their own loads were frequently hijacked, beaten, or worse. If they continued to haul liquor without paying tribute to the River Gang, they would often disappear. The hijacking of independent rumrunners occurred so frequently that by the later ‘20s most of the larger independents were either paying protection money to the River Gang or had been forced out of business.

Pete Licavoli’s consent counted as much as the government’s if you wanted to run liquor as an independent whiskey hauler on the Detroit River. According to one account, “it was not wise to go into business without Pete Licavoli’s okay, as your first trip may be your last.”

A number of men who were associated with the River Gang during the period 1925-1930 would become important leaders in the modern-day Detroit area Mafia organization. Among those who worked in various capacities for the River Gang during this period were: Sam Orlando, Tony Orlando, James Moceri, Mike Moceri, Vito Scola, Joe Marlow, Moses Massu, Joe Mercurio, Tom Delano, Angelo Meli, James Pizimenti, Mike Rubino, Barilow Frontiera, Art Simmons, Gerald Lewis, Dominic Badalamenti, Charles Aiello, Sam Palazzola, Frank La Rosa, William Steinberg, Martin Thomas, Mel Raymon, Burt Medica, Mat Species, Tony Parisi, Elmer Macklin, James Licavoli, Sam Paul, John Ventimeglia, and Joe Tallman.

On September 8, 1927, an event would occur that would have important consequences on the evolution of not only the River Gang, but also the future underworld organizations of both Detroit and Toledo, Ohio. Acting on an anonymous telephone tip, members of the Windsor Police and the Ontario Provincial Police busted into a room in Windsor’s Prince Edward Hotel and arrested Thomas Licavoli and Frank Cammarata. The men were reported by the Windsor, Ontario, police to be suspects in the $15,000 robbery of a liquor export dock in LaSalle, Ontario, the previous week. In reality, the anonymous telephone caller had told the Windsor Police that the two men were registered at the hotel and that they had pistols in their possession. Exactly what Licavoli and Cammarata were doing in Windsor at that time is open to speculation. One rumor that was circulating in the Detroit underworld was that the two men had gone to Windsor to kidnap some wealthy liquor exporters. A loaded U.S. Army .45 caliber automatic pistol was found in their room, tucked under the pillow on “Yonnie” Licavoli’s bed. A .38 caliber automatic pistol was also found in the side pocket of Cammarata’s car, which was parked in the hotel’s garage. Both men were arrested and charged with having “offensive weapons” in their possession in Canada without a permit. They were held at the Essex County Jail in Sandwich, Ontario, pending their arraignment on the charge.

Both Licavoli and Cammarata were granted bail bonds of $15,000 each, which they were unable to raise. At their trial in the Essex, Ontario, Court House in October 1927, defense attorneys for the two men argued that the two guns that had been found by the police actually belonged to two other men whom Licavoli and Cammarata knew only by their first names as Tony and Joe. Tony and Joe were supposedly hired by Licavoli and Cammarata to run liquor across the river to Detroit for them. The jury was out only four hours and returned a verdict of guilty as charged on October 24, 1927. Cammarata and Licavoli were remanded to custody and scheduled to be sentenced the following day by Justice William Wright. Wright had been the presiding judge who had sat on the case. The two men could receive up to a maximum sentence of five years in prison on the gun conviction charge.

On October 20, 1927, Wright sentenced Thomas Licavoli and Frank Cammarata to three years each in the Kingston Penitentiary at Portsmouth, Ontario. The two men continued to be held in the Essex County Jail in Sandwich, while their lawyers appealed their convictions to the Appellate Court at Toronto, Ontario. Their appeal was eventually turned down, and their convictions were upheld. On November 28, 1927, Thomas Licavoli and Frank Cammarata entered the Kingston Penitentiary. At the time of their Canadian conviction, both Licavoli and Cammarata were wanted by Detroit police on a charge of assault with intent to kill for an incident involving Nelson Riley, a Detroit policeman who was attacked and beaten on the corner of East Jefferson and Field Avenues on September 7, 1927. His gun and night stick had been taken from him by two men alleged to be Thomas Licavoli and Frank Cammarata.

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Joseph Tallman was a well-know Jewish bootlegger and rumrunner. Tallman had been involved in the Detroit area liquor rackets since the early years of Prohibition and was known in the Detroit underworld as a “Rum Czar.” He had partnered with several well-known Detroit area rumrunners and gunmen in the rackets. At one time, Tallman had been in business with Mike Dipisa, a notorious Sicilian gangster who was killed while trying to extort money from a downriver blind pig operator. Tallman and Dipisa had been partners in a Clifford Street blind pig known as the Green Front.

Tallman had also partnered with Joe Moceri in his rum-running business and in several blind pigs. By the mid-’20s, however, Moceri had taken on several new associates as partners, including Pete and Yonnie Licavoli, and Cammarata. Tallman split from Moceri and began operating with an ex-Prohibition agent named Pete Clifford and Sam Rosenberg, a younger brother of Purple Gangster Abe “Buffalo Harry” Rosenberg. Clifford and Tallman were partners in a Third Avenue blind pig.

The exact reason for the split between Joe Tallman and Joe Moceri is not known. The two men and their business associates continued to work together at various times until the spring of 1927. As late as March 9, 1927, Tallman was arrested in the company of a number of men who were associated with the Licavoli/Moceri River Gang. This group included Charles Moceri, Joe Bommarito, Dominic Badalamenti, and Tony Parisi. The men were arrested at the foot of Walker Street in Detroit for violation of the state liquor law. They were stopped by Detroit police and Customs officers, as they were driving away from the riverfront in several trucks that were found to be loaded with liquor, cordials, and bootlegging supplies. The contraband had just landed from Canada. All of the men were eventually convicted on the charge and given a choice of six months in the Detroit House of Corrections or a $500 fine each. They opted for the fine. The Detroit police confiscated a valuable load that included: 688 quarts of whiskey; 240 quarts of whiskey; 36 pints of wine; 168 quarts of champagne; 176 pints of champagne; 118 pints of brandy; 36 quarts of gin; 180 gallons of whiskey malt; 200 quarts of whiskey; 480 gallons of whiskey; 24 pints of whiskey; 362 quarts of cordials.

But by early fall of 1927, there were indications that Tallman and Moceri were at odds. The feud was first evidenced when a boat that was owned by Moceri’s River Gang was rammed and sunk by one of Joe Tallman’s boats. The incident occurred in the Detroit River near Peche Island. According to Detroit police officials, Tallman had been operating independently of the River Gang for several months. His boats had been hijacked a number of times during this period. He had supposedly rammed the Moceri boat to prevent another hijacking of one of his loads.

The hijacking of Tallman’s boats by the River Gang and the boat-ramming incident were only the beginning of the trouble. On October 11, 1927, four truckloads of Tallman’s liquor en route from Port Huron, Michigan, to Detroit were hijacked by members of the River Gang. The trucks were stopped just outside the Detroit city limits on Harper Road. The hijacking had been well planned. Traffic was stopped on Harper Road at the point of sawed-off shotguns and pistols, while all four trucks were commandeered by the River Gang. All of the drivers were taken to Detroit and later released. All of them except for Tallman’s new business associate Sam Rosenberg, that is. The River Gang made off with 100 cases of Tallman’s liquor valued at $25,000. Rosenberg was kidnapped and taken to a room in a rundown hotel at Randolph and Atwater Streets in Detroit. He was held captive by the River Gang with a ransom of $10,000 demanded for his release. Tallman’s other drivers were reportedly beaten by the River Gang and warned to keep their mouths shut before they were released.

Members of the Detroit Police Department’s Black Hand Squad told reporters that they had received information that the hijacking of Tallman’s trucks and the kidnapping of Rosenberg had been engineered by Thomas Licavoli and Frank Cammarata from their jail cell in Ontario, Canada. The purpose of the hijacking and kidnapping was to raise the $15,000 bail each that was required by Canadian authorities to release the two men on bond. This theory was probably accurate as Tallman had broken with his old partners and had already engaged in several skirmishes with the River Gang.

Moceri and Licavoli had underestimated Tallman. Joe Tallman was a physically tough man who stood over six feet in height and prided himself in settling his problems with his fists. He was never known to carry a gun. Tallman found out where Rosenberg was being held and, accompanied by one of his lieutenants, Oscar Wuester, went to the rooming house and physically overpowered the three men who were guarding Rosenberg. Rosenberg was released, and Tallman took the three guards as hostages.

Sam Rosenberg’s older brother Abe had notified the Detroit police when Sam had failed to return home the night of October 11, 1927. Interestingly, this was not Sam’s first kidnapping. Both Abe and Sam Rosenberg had been kidnapped in early September 1927. The Rosenberg brothers had been abducted at gunpoint as they were walking down Hastings Street. Abe, who had been armed at the time of the kidnapping, never had a chance to use his gun. The two men were rumored to have been held captive for five days and released only after they had paid a $25,000 ransom. At the time, local newspapers speculated that the kidnappers were “New York gunmen.” It is more likely that the Rosenbergs had actually been kidnapped by the “Legs” Laman kidnapping Mob of Detroit. The Laman gang was engaged in the very profitable business of kidnapping local wiseguys and holding them for ransom.

After Sam Rosenberg was rescued by Tallman and Wuester, he was picked up by the Detroit police for questioning. Acting on information received from Sam Rosenberg, police raided the rooming house where Rosenberg had claimed to have been held and arrested nine men. Sam Rosenberg identified three of the nine men arrested as the men who had been involved in the hijacking and kidnapping plots. They were James Licavoli, Joe Moceri, and William Steinberg. Sam Rosenberg was scheduled to appear at police headquarters on October 12, 1927, to sign a deposition. He failed to appear and his brother Abe came in his place to tell police that Sam was out of town. The case against Licavoli, Steinberg, and Moceri was dropped when Sam Rosenberg failed to appear as a witness against the three men, and they were released. A
Detroit Times
article mistakenly printed that Sam Rosenberg had been rescued by the police. The story of how Joe Tallman had freed Rosenberg did not come out until several years later.

In the meantime, Tallman had taken his hostages to an apartment on Third Avenue in Detroit where they were held prisoner. Tallman held the three men captive for 10 days according to underworld rumors. One of the hostages was reported to be Pete Licavoli himself. Finally, Tallman’s old partner Mike Dipisa went to Tallman and offered to be the intermediary between Tallman and the River Gang to aid in negotiating for the release of the three gangsters. An agreement was reached, and Tallman’s 100 cases of hijacked liquor were returned to him and the hostages were released.

The agreement was supposed to be a peace gesture between the River Gang and Tallman, but by that time, Tallman may have already been a marked man. The River Gang leaders had always suspected Joe Tallman as the person who had made the anonymous phone call to the Windsor, Ontario, police headquarters. This was the tip that led to the arrest and eventual conviction of Thomas Licavoli and Frank Cammarata on the Canadian gun charge.

On November 8, 1927, John “Jack” Burke, one of Tallman’s men, was shot to death in a boat well at the foot of Field Avenue in Detroit. Burke had been working on the engine of one of Tallman’s speedboats. Two unidentified men walked down a path from Jefferson Avenue and opened fire on Burke and Oscar Wuester. The gunmen had evidently mistaken Burke for Tallman, as the two men bore a striking resemblance. Wuester was also wounded in the attack. Joe Tallman, who was working in another boat well less than 50 feet away, was missed completely.

After “Jack” Burke was shot to death, Tallman was rumored to have paid off Moceri for the boat that Tallman had rammed and sunk off Peche Island. Tallman raised and renovated the boat afterwards. Fearing for his life as a result of repeated incidents, Tallman left for Florida, where he tried his hand in some Gulf Coast rum-running. According to underworld sources, he lost more than $20,000 in his Gulf Coast venture.

In the spring of 1928, Tallman moved back to Detroit and again went into business running beer and liquor from Canada. On April 10, 1928, Pete Clifford, Tallman’s partner in a Third Avenue blind pig, was badly wounded and his car riddled with bullets by River Gang gunmen.