Vincent Meli, reputed member of Detroid Mafia, 87
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Reputed member of Detroit Mafia dies at 87
January 10, 2008
By DAVID ASHENFELTER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
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.