Detroit mafia leader Anthony Palazzolo recently passed away of natural causes according to reports.
The 78-year-old mobster was known to be low key and elusive during his long career in the mafia. He served as a captain in the Cosa Nostra family for years before getting bumped up to consigliere approximately five years ago. He was one of the last people alive to be linked to the murder of legendary Teamsters labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa. It was long believed that Hoffa had used his ties to organized crime to take over as President of the powerful union and it was those same ties which ultimately lead to his 1975 disappearance and death.
“Anthony Palazzolo”
Hoffa’s insistence on taking back control of the union after his release from prison didn’t fall in line with what the mafia wanted. He disappeared while heading to a lunch meeting with Detroit mafia street boss Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone and was never seen again. Palazzolo’s name popped up early on in the Hoffa investigation according to the feds. At the time he was still young and trying to make his way up the ranks to be part of something that big it showed that he was a real up and comer.
Former Detroit mob underboss turned informant Tony Zerilli fingered Palazzolo as a member of the hit team that took out Hoffa. According to Zerilli, he was the driving the car that picked up Hoffa from the Bloomfield Township, Michigan restaurant parking lot and was one of the men who killed him. Then in the 1990’s while in control of Detroit’s Canadian rackets Tony Pal was caught talking about the Hoffa hit on a wiretap. According to court records during the investigation a Canadian undercover cop working with the feds got him to admit his role in the Hoffa murder saying that he disposed of the body by running it through a sausage auger at the Eastern Market headquarters of the Detroit Sausage Company.
That investigation ended up with Palazzolo getting sentenced to five years behind bars on money laundering and drug charges. But he was not charged with anything having to do with Hoffa’s disappearance. The mafia in Detroit has always been a small and low key family and they remain that way today. Veteran mobster Jack “Jackie the Kid” Giacalone now heads the family with Anthony “Chicago Tony” La Piana reportedly serving as underboss. It is unclear as to who is next in line to fill the now vacant consigliere position.
