Jan 10 2008
Reputed member of Detroit Mafia dies at 87
Vincent Angelo Meli, a reputed member of the Detroit Mafia, was remembered by his son Wednesday as a “great family man” and loving father.
Vincent Meli died of bone cancer Monday at St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospital in Warren. He was 87.
“We are a very close-knit family because of my father,” Frank Meli said.
He said his father never talked about business activities, but he heard the stories.
“At first it made us mad, but we eventually got to the point that we didn’t think about it,” he said.
Vincent Meli was born in Sicily in 1921, and came to the United States with his parents when he was 10.
He was a captain in Army intelligence during World War II. After the war, he married Grace Mercurio, had six children and lived in Grosse Pointe Woods.
The FBI described Vincent Meli’s father, also named Frank, and uncle Angelo Meli as Detroit-area Mafia leaders.
Vincent Meli and his father owned and operated the now-defunct Meltone Music and White Music jukebox companies in Detroit. The old U.S. Treasury Bureau of Narcotics said they were key figures in Detroit’s mob-controlled jukebox business.
In 1984, Vincent Meli began serving a 3-year sentence for extortion after being convicted with other men of using his underworld reputation to frighten truck drivers into paying pension deductions that should have been paid by their employer.
In addition to his son, survivors include sons Carl, Vincent and Paul; two daughters, Carmen Thomas and Phyllis LaPiana; 15 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be at 9:30 a.m. today at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, 467 Fairford Road, Grosse Pointe Woods, with mass at 10 a.m. Entombment will follow in Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton Township.
Reputed member of Detroit Mafia dies at 87 - January 10, 2008 - By DAVID ASHENFELTER - FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER - http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080110/NEWS06/801100388/1008/NEWS
