# McClellan Committee: Pierre Salinger on Anthony Zerilli, Jack Tocco and the Detroit laundry and overall industry (June 1959)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/mcclellan-part-53-salinger-zerilli-tocco-1959/

While John LaRocca of Pittsburgh declined to answer, committee investigator Pierre Salinger said the committee had found 'hoodlum-dominated companies' in the Detroit laundry and overall industry, named Anthony Zerilli and Jack Tocco, and called them owners of the Melrose Linen Co. and the Hazel Park Racetrack.

This passage is from Part 53 of the McClellan Committee hearings, June 1959, whose volume record is [filed separately](/items/mcclellan-part-53-1959/). On pages 18736 to 18738, in the proceedings of June 11, 1959, John LaRocca of Pittsburgh declined to answer questions on the ground that his answers might incriminate him. Committee investigator Pierre E. G. Salinger then described the committee's interest in him.

Salinger said the committee was interested in LaRocca's activities "in the laundry and overall industry in Detroit, Mich. There we found certain hoodlum-dominated companies had succeeded in driving out competition, and we found that the proprietors of these companies were in contact with Mr. LaRocca and his associates in the Pittsburgh area." Asked who they were, he said: "The individuals I referred to are Anthony Zerilli and Jack Tocco." He continued that "they are the owners of the Melrose Linen Co., in Detroit, Mich., and also the owners of the Hazel Park Racetrack in Michigan, which was recently acquired in connection with the Wheeling Downs Racetrack in Wheeling, W. Va.," and described telephone calls in October and November 1957 between Tocco, the Melrose Linen Co. and numbers in Pittsburgh.

These are the statements of a committee investigator under oath, not findings of the committee or of a court.

## Sources

- Internet Archive, scan of the printed hearings, Part 53: https://archive.org/details/investigationofi53unit
- Full text (OCR) on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/download/investigationofi53unit/investigationofi53unit_djvu.txt