Joseph D. (Joe the Bum) Massei — aka Joe Massey, Joe Masse, Joseph Massy, Joseph Massai, Joseph Massli, Joseph Massie, Joseph Thomas Massei, Jim Massie, Moe Massie, Jose Massie, Joseph Masse, Jim Massa, Danny Massie, and Giuseppe Daniele Massei (TN) — was born on February 6, 1899 in the town of Wyandotte, Michigan. At the time of his birth, the family was living in a small, modest home at 52 Blm Street, Wyandotte — a tiny town of only 5,000 residents. Within a decade the Massei family moved to Oak Street. He had one older sister by the name of Angeline.
Despite his suspected longtime status as a “made man” within Cosa Nostra and his later meteoric rise to a top boss status within the Italian underworld, Joe Massei was actually only half-Italian. HIs father Daniele was born in Italy. But his mother, Margaret (nee’ Daley), was born in Iceland and of English and Irish ancestry.
Records show that on March 21, 1919, four months after the end of WWI, he signed up for military service. Joe was 20 years old.
Six years later, some early documents state he married a young woman by the name of Melba Hoel. But there is other official data pointing to him marrying a woman named Vera Heal, three years his junior, on November 28, 1925, in Michigan. (Given the similarity of their first and last names, its quite possible these documents refer to the same person.)
By the late 1920s, Joe and Vera were residing at 3423 Van Alstyne Boulevard, Wyandotte.
Joe and Vera never had any children of their own. And according to law enforcement authorities, despite some records showing that he had an older sister, FBI agents say Joe didn’t have had any extended blood family to speak of. Although, throughout his lifetime, it does seem that Vera’s mother, Claira, lived with them.
By at least the late-1930s, agents say the Masseis enjoyed the luxury of a steady live-in housemaid and a personal butler to cater to their every whim.
In 1942, during the height of the second World War — fought between the years 1939 and 1945 — military records show that despite already being middle aged, Massei was still required to register with his local draft board office. Joe was already 43 years old at the time of this registration.
His draft card describes Massei as being 5 feet 5 inches in height, with a stout build at 160 pounds. He had jet-black hair, hazel eyes, and a dark-Mediterranean complexion.
FBI #597894, Detroit-PD #13808
Vicious Detroit Hoodlum
Despite the gentlemanly demeanor and genteel legitimate persona he displayed in his later years, back when he was first cutting his teeth as a gangster-in-making in Detroit during the 1920s and 30s Prohibition era, “Joe the Bum” was widely known to both his community and his underworld cronies as a vicious and deadly individual.
Local authorities knew him as a wanton killer who had little compunction about murdering anyone on the spot who dared to double-cross him or who he perceived had possibly disrespected him in some way.
To members of the Detroit Police Department, he was file #13808 with an extensive criminal record of at least 16 arrests dating back to 1920, which included two arrests for murder, another two arrests on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, armed robbery, carrying concealed weapons, attempting to bribe an officer, liquor bootlegging, disorderly conduct, vagrancy and more.
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But despite the many very serious charges lodged against him through the years, “Joe the Bum” had successfully managed to beat every single charge, with the exception of two minor convictions for bribery and contempt of court.
For the first twenty years of his underworld career, Massei involved himself in a wide variety or criminal rackets. He and his cronies dabbled in armed-robberies, truck thefts, strong-arm extortion, alcohol-bootlegging and smuggling branded whiskey from over the Canadian border, policy-numbers and lotteries, bookmaking, usurious money-lending, dirty work like contract murder and more.
Often Imitated. Never Duplicated. Button Guys of The New York Mafia...There's Only One!
