William Tocco
Testified at the Kefauver Committee's Detroit hearing in 1951, where he named Joe Zerilli as a partner in the State Products Co. and said he had been a bootlegger during Prohibition; an FBI teletype of 1962 calls him William 'Black Bill' Tocco.
- Aliases
- Black Bill Tocco, William "Black Bill" Tocco (FBI teletype, 1962), Bill Tocco
- Rights
- Biography on this page is limited to what the cited federal records and the filed newspaper pages state.
On the record
- 1912 — Kefauver testimony (1951): Tocco said he came to the United States in 1912, "barely 15 year old," and served twenty-one months in the U.S. Army after enlisting at nineteen.
- 1951-02-09 — Kefauver Committee, Detroit: born "near Palermo"; "I have two sons. Jack and Anthony." He named "Mr. Zerrilli" ("Joe Zerrilli") among his partners in the State Products Co. Asked whether he was a bootlegger during Prohibition he answered "Yes." Counsel read arrests from a police record beginning in 1920; Tocco said he had never been brought to trial on any of them.
- 1951-02-08 — Kefauver Committee, Detroit: asked "What relation is he [Jack Tocco] to Black Bill Tocco?" Carl Renda said "I believe he is a son ... Of Bill."
- 1958-07-01 — McClellan Committee, Part 32: investigator George H. Martin named "Black Bill Tocco" among Detroit men "interrelated through various marriages."
- 1962-07-19 — FBI Detroit teletype: Anthony Giacalone was observed at the Hillcrest Country Club, Mt. Clemens, with a redacted person and "William quote Black Bill unquote Tocco, local hoodlums." "Local hoodlums" is the Bureau's wording.
- 1963-10-10 — An FBI page summarizing a newspaper account says Commissioner George Edwards named William Tocco among five Detroit "dons." Second-hand.
- 1963-10-10 — Named on the 1963 subcommittee chart: the "Ruling Council" band of Exhibit 18, "The Mafia Organization in the Detroit Area," presented by Detroit Police Commissioner George C. Edwards, carries a name plate for William Tocco. A chart label, not a finding.
No family or role is set: the records filed here are his own testimony, a committee investigator’s marriage chart, a Bureau teletype’s label and a second-hand account of a police commissioner’s testimony. The Kefauver Committee did not charge him. Counsel read his tax return as that of “William V. Tocco.” No filed record gives his birth date or death.
Records
itemKefauver Committee, Detroit: testimony of William Tocco (9 February 1951)William Tocco, with his attorney Walter Schweikart, testified at Detroit about his family, his businesses and the State Products Co., named 'Joe Zerrilli' among its partners, and answered 'Yes' when asked whether he had been a bootlegger during Prohibition.itemKefauver Committee, Detroit: Carl Renda and the 1949 dance program (8 February 1951)Questioned about the program of a November 1949 dance he presided over, Carl Renda told committee counsel that Tony Zerilli is related to Joe Zerilli, that he believed Jack Tocco is a son of 'Black Bill' Tocco, and that he did not know who Tony and Bill 'Giacolone' were.itemMcClellan 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.
itemFBI Detroit teletype: Giacalone seen at the Hillcrest Country Club, Mt. Clemens (19 July 1962)An urgent teletype from the Detroit office reports that Anthony Joseph Giacalone was observed 'yesterday' at the Hillcrest Country Club, Mt. Clemens, Michigan, with a redacted person and 'William Quote Black Bill Unquote Tocco, local hoodlums'.
itemFBI Detroit report page summarizing Commissioner George Edwards's McClellan testimony (October 1963)A page of a Detroit report in the Giacalone file summarizes a Detroit Free Press article of 11 October 1963: Police Commissioner George Edwards had told the McClellan subcommittee that the Detroit area was controlled by a five-man 'council' whose members were called 'dons'.
itemExhibit No. 18: "The Mafia Organization in the Detroit Area"Detroit Police Department fold-out chart presented on October 10, 1963: a "Ruling Council," "The Big Men," and lower tiers, with photographs, a relationship legend and a criminal-activity code.
itemFBI Detroit teletype: Giacalone seen at the Hillcrest Country Club, Mt. Clemens (19 July 1962)An urgent teletype from the Detroit office reports that Anthony Joseph Giacalone was observed 'yesterday' at the Hillcrest Country Club, Mt. Clemens, Michigan, with a redacted person and 'William Quote Black Bill Unquote Tocco, local hoodlums'.itemFBI Detroit report page summarizing Commissioner George Edwards's McClellan testimony (October 1963)A page of a Detroit report in the Giacalone file summarizes a Detroit Free Press article of 11 October 1963: Police Commissioner George Edwards had told the McClellan subcommittee that the Detroit area was controlled by a five-man 'council' whose members were called 'dons'.itemExhibit No. 18: "The Mafia Organization in the Detroit Area"Detroit Police Department fold-out chart presented on October 10, 1963: a "Ruling Council," "The Big Men," and lower tiers, with photographs, a relationship legend and a criminal-activity code.