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Vinvent Piersante, a legendary Michigan battler against organized crime, died Friday in the Lansing area at age 94.
After retiring from the Detroit Police Department in 1967 as chief of detectives, he led an organized crime task force in the state attorney's office until 1985. He was its main investigator into Jimmy Hoffa's 1975 disappearance and presumed murder.
His obituary posted by a funeral home does not give a cause of death. "Our family is so proud of such a wonderful man, father, and human being," daughter Robin Grein says in an email to Deadline Detroit.
Vincent Piersante: July 5, 1919 -- Sept. 27, 2013
In a 1991 book, "Hoffa," author Arthur Sloane quotes Piersante as saying "Hoffa's disappearance did a lot of good for law enforcement." He added:
All kinds of anti-crime strike forces were reactivated in its wake, instead of being the casualties of Ford administration budgetary cutbacks. . . . All kinds of mobsters went to jail who wouldn't have gone otherwise. . . .
If Jimmy ever wanted to get a measure of revenge against the mob for refusing to back him [in efforts to return as Teamsters president], he certainly got it in his death.
Piersante's integrity drew praise from nationally prominent mob specialist Ralph Salerno In a November 1983 interview with Robert E. Martin of Michigan:
"When he was chief of detectives in Detroit, he was fired by then-Mayor Jerry Kavanaugh because he led a huge raid against organized crime in Detroit. He collected books and records, and among those was a payoff list to people in the police department."
Salerno, a Justice Department consultant, was a former New York City supervisor of detectives in the police intelligence division who testified at 1963 congressional hearings into Mafia ties to organized labor.
Piersante is survived by his second wife, Joan, a son, four daughters and a brother. He had 13 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Visitation is Monday from 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. at Gorsline Runciman Funeral Home, 900 E. Michigan Ave. in Lansing. A funeral mass will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Church Of The Resurrection, 1531 E. Michigan Ave. in Lansing.
Online tributes can be posted here at the funeral home's site.
