Organized Crime Figure. The first unified boss of the Detroit underworld, he was born in Seleni, Trapani, Sicily on February 15, 1894. He arrived in Detroit in 1905, and was a popular figure who held tremendous influence in the Italian community due largely in part to charitable donations and his standing as the head of Detroit’s Unione Sicilione. He operated as a gunman for Sam and Tony Gianolla during the Gianolla / Vitale conflict. By the conflict’s end, the lives of more than 100 men had been lost between both sides.