Free The Violent Years by Paul R. Kavieff

who sold his services to the highest bidder. Amico was not well trusted by either side until LaMare took him into his confidence and made him his bodyguard. Joe Locano was a gunman and strong-arm man for Joe Tocco’s Wyandotte Mob. The Tocco gang was a satellite branch of LaMare’s Westside outfit.
    Both Amico and Locano were held for trial in the murder of Gaspare Scibilia, after they were arrested on July 30, 1930. This was based on the earlier identification of mug shots by witnesses who were at the scene of the shooting. The Scibilia murder trial opened in Detroit Recorders Court on October 17, 1930. Almost immediately, the state’s case against the two men was severely weakened. Both state’s witnesses now claimed in open court that they were no longer positive of their original identification of the defendants. They had only seen the backs of the men as they left the rear door of the fish market and walked down an alley. Philip Gaustello, the owner of the market, told the court that Locano and Amico had been in the front of the fish market talking to him when the murders had occurred. Two other men had actually been in the back room talking with Scibilia and Parina. Gaustello named these two men as Ben “Benny the Ape” Sebastiano and Sam Lombino.
    The case was given to a jury on October 23, 1930. Both Locano and Amico were acquitted of the murder of Gaspare Scibilia. The jury returned its verdict after deliberating for five hours and 45 minutes. The two men were immediately rearrested for the murder of Sam Parina. Sebastiano was also picked up and held for trial as the third suspect in the Parina case. The second murder trial in the fish market case presented even more confusing evidence to the jury. Now all three defendants, Amico, Locano, and Sebastiano, claimed that they had talked to Scibilia and Parina the day that they were murdered but had stepped out of the room shortly before the two men were shot to death by unknown assassins. The defense attorney, Emil Colombo, was successful at creating enough doubt in the jurors’ minds that all three defendants were acquitted after the jury had deliberated for only one hour and a half.
    The Fish Market Murders were the spark that exploded into an all-out gang war between the Eastside and Westside Mafia factions. Meli swore to avenge the deaths of his two representatives and vowed that the war would not end until Chester LaMare was dead. There would be no further peace meetings or compromises.
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    Gangland executions were often carried out in broad daylight in front of many witnesses. On June 7, 1930, two of LaMare’s ace gunmen, Joe and Sam Gaglio, were brutally shot down while changing a tire at a gasoline station at Mack and Mt. Elliot Avenues in Detroit. Another car filled with rival gangsters noticed the two men working on their vehicle and casually pulled up alongside of the men and opened fire. Shortly afterwards, a Meli gunman named Sam Cillufo was shot 11 times in the back when he stopped for a traffic signal on a busy Detroit street. Potential witnesses would quickly forget everything when confronted by police investigators.
    Between May 31, 1930 and July 23, 1930, at least 14 men were murdered, all the victims of gangland guns. The high-profile gang war seemed to stop abruptly with the murder of Gerald Buckley on July 23, 1930. Buckley was an extremely popular WMBC radio commentator suspected of having underworld ties. He was shot to death in the lobby of the LaSalle Hotel in Detroit the same night that Detroit citizens voted to recall Mayor Charles Bowles. It was generally believed that Buckley’s participation in the recall campaign led to his death. Angelo Livechi, Ted Pizzino, and Joseph (Scarface) Bommarito, all Eastside Mob gunmen, were later tried and acquitted of the Buckley murder. Following Buckley’s death was an all-out Detroit police crackdown on the underworld that all but ended the high-profile gangland murders that were