The Detroit True Crime Chronicles: Tales of Murder and Mayhem in the Motor City

The Detroit True Crime Chronicles sets forth the rich history of criminal activity in the Motor City. Using information from declassified federal documents and many firsthand accounts, the book focuses on the city’s local Mafia, key mobsters, drug kingpins, serial killers, and unsolved crimes.

Included in this comprehensive account of criminal life in Michigan’s great border city are the stories of “Ernie the Greek” Kanakis, Henry “Blaze” Marzette, Eddie Jackson, “Baby Ray” Peoples, Demetrius Holloway, Butch Jones, Leroy Buttrum, “Frank Nitti” Usher, “Maserati Rick” Carter, “Rocking Reggie” Brown, “Wonderful Wayne” Davis, Young Boys Inc. (YBI), Murder Row, Best Friends, Pony Down, John Wolfenbarger, “Billy Wadd” Smith, Harry “Taco” Bowman, “Tony Jack” Giacalone, “Frankie the Bomb” Bommarito, “Singing Sam” Cattalanotte, the Purple Gang and the Burnstein Brothers, “Black Bill” Tocco, Joseph “Legs” Laman, Christopher Busch, the Chaldean Mafia, the Chambers brothers, “Joe Uno” and “Tony Z” Zerilli, “Black Jack” Tocco, “Papa John” Priziola, “Machine Gun Pete” Corrado, “Jimmy Q” Quasarano, “Gentleman John” Claxton, Carmine “The Doctor” Lombardozi, Angelo “The Chairman” Meli, “Frankie Three Fingers” Coppola, “Cockeyed Joe” Catalanotte, the Badalamenti Group, Benedetto Evangelista, Bobby “The Animal” La Puma and, of course, Jimmy Hoffa.

No other Amerian city can boast such a cavalcade of remarkable criminal character. Scott Burnstein has brough them all together in one unforgettable book.

About the Author

Scott Burnstein is an attorney, journalist and organized crime historian. He is the author of Motor City Mafia: A Century of Organized Crime in Detroit and Family Affair: Greed, Treachery, and Betrayal in the Chicago Mafia. He is the coauthor (with Phil Leonetti) of Mafia Prince: Inside America’s Most Violent Mafia Family and the Bloody Fall of La Cosa Nostra.