Notorious figures
Angelo Meli
1897–1969 · consigliere and leader of the Detroit Partnership
Sicilian-born baker and restaurateur who became a leader of Detroit's warring Mafia factions and the Detroit Partnership's first and longest-serving consigliere.
- Born
San Cataldo, Sicily, Italy- Died
aged 72- Detroit years
- 1915–1969
- Field
- Notorious figures
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Angelo Meli, the youngest of 13 children from San Cataldo, Sicily, worked in a Pittsburgh foundry before settling in Detroit in the late 1910s, where he ran a bakery, restaurants and the Whip Cafe. He joined the Giannola gang and became one of its gunmen in the bloody Giannola–Vitale war. In 1919 he helped start the West Side Mob in Hamtramck with Sam Catalanotte, Chester LaMare and Leo Cellura, and in the 1920s the partners ran the Venice Cafe while LaMare rose to dominate the rackets. Police tried to arrest Meli 16 times between 1915 and 1963 but he was convicted only once, on a 1920 concealed weapon charge. He was considered the leader of the stronger side in the Crosstown mob war of 1930–1931, armored his cars and, after LaMare's murder in 1931, oversaw the merger of the factions into the Detroit Partnership, serving as its first consigliere. His family intermarried with other mob families: his daughter married future boss Jack Tocco. He died in 1969.
Highlights
- Co-founded Hamtramck's West Side Mob in 1919
- Led the dominant faction in Detroit's 1930–1931 mob war
- First and longest-serving consigliere of the Detroit Partnership
- Arrested repeatedly but convicted only of a 1920 gun charge