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Established in the late 1880's by Italian immigrants to aide new arrivals in the US with basic needs like finding housing and jobs while providing insurance for a small monthly fee. The New York chapter of the Unione fell to the influence of blackhand extortionists like Frank Yale and Ignatzio Saietta around the time that prohibition took effect. The Detroit chapter of the Unione Siciliana fell under the controll of Salvatore "Sam" Catalonotte in 1920. Detroit's Unione forged close working relations with it's brother's in Chicago "under the direction of Michele Merlo," Buffalo "run by Joe DiCarlo untill his death in 1921," and Brooklyn where a large contingent of Sicilian immigrants from Castelammare del Golfo made up a large portion of the Unione's membership.
Under the direction of Catalonotte, the Detroit Unione became a peace keeping organization for the cities competing bootlegg gangs during the deration of the 1920's. Catalonotte reached out and offered protection to Gaspar "Gaspare Scilia" Milazzo when he got into trouble over several retaliatory murders in the Brooklyn area in the early '20s. Milazzo/Sciblia joined Catalonotte and rose to a position of great importance in the Detroit underworld as Singing Sam's right hand man. Upon the death of Catalonotte in Febuary of 1930, Milazzo/Sciblia took over the Unione and continued to act as a peace keeper in Detroit's often deadly underworld disputes. This arrangement ended with Milazzo/Sciblia's murder along with Sam Parrina "Milazzo/Sciblia's aide and bodyguard," in the Vernor Fish Market on May 31,1930 by men under the employ of Chester LaMare as the two men sat down to arbitrate a dispute between LaMare and members of the Eastside gang headed by Angelo Meli. Cockeyed Joe Catalonotte "brother of the late Sam," was the next in line to succeed his sibling but ran into trouble and was deported in 1931. The Unione then fell under the influence of Joe Massie who entered into an agreement with leaders of the River Gang, liquor baron Joe Morceri as well as the East and Westside mobs which formed the criminal Partnership that still stands to this day. The Unione had long since ceased to provide the aide to new Sicilian immigrants which it had been established to provide so many years before and faded into oblivion as the great depression swept over the nation. |
