McClellan Committee: investigator George H. Martin on the Detroit intermarriage chart (1 July 1958)

In the committee's 'Mafia' hearings, investigator George H. Martin explained a chart of intermarriages to chief counsel Robert F. Kennedy and named Detroit men he said were 'interrelated through various marriages'; the committee's printed list of Apalachin contacts adds Detroit entries.

Date

1958-07-01

Kind

hearing

Source

Internet Archive, scan of the printed hearings, Part 32

Retrieved

2026-10-12

Docket

Investigation of Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field, Hearings before the Select Committee, Part 32 (June 30-July 3, 1958)

Rights

A work of the United States Congress, printed by the Government Printing Office. Public domain in the United States. 17 U.S.C. § 105. The scan is of a GPO printing on the Internet Archive.

Part 32 of the printed hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field (the McClellan Committee) covers the sessions of June 30 to July 3, 1958 on the Apalachin meeting and the “Mafia.” On pages 12252 to 12254 committee investigator George H. Martin explained exhibit 4, a chart of family connections, to chief counsel Robert F. Kennedy. He said each star on the chart “reflects a record of arrest,” adding, “I want to make the distinction that these are arrest records.”

Asked about Detroit, Martin said that before the early 1920s “the Purple Gang, a notorious syndicate, pretty much ruled the Detroit underworld,” and that with Prohibition the “Mafia element” had “supplanted the Purple Gang as the rulers of the underworld in Detroit.” He went on: “I refer, of course, to characters like Papa John Priziola, Pete Licavoli, Sam and Joe Zerilli, Black Bill Tocco, and Angelo Meli, all of whom appear here, and, as can be seen by an examination of the chart, are interrelated through various marriages.” He said Licavoli’s wife’s sister “is married to Sam Zerilli who is in turn the brother of Joe Zerilli.”

The committee’s printed staff list “Individuals at Apalachin and Names of Some of Their Contacts and Associates” (pp. 12195-12201), filed separately and admitted by the chairman for guidance rather than as evidence, includes “Zerilli, Joseph (Detroit): Associate in various rackets of Pete Licavoli et al.” and describes “Papa John” Priziola as “Closely associated with the Licavolis, Zerillis, and Toccos.” The same list calls Alfred Polizzi of Coral Gables “A former leader of the notorious Mayfield Road gang (Cleveland).” On July 2, 1958 (pp. 12342-12343), New York detective Thomas O’Brien testified that Joseph Profaci had told him a daughter, Rosalie, “is married to Anthony Zerilli, and she resides in Michigan,” and another daughter to Anthony Tocco; Profaci declined to answer when asked.

These are statements of committee staff and witnesses, not findings, and a chart of marriages and arrests is not a chart of ranks. This archive does not place any of these names on a family chart.