Originally Posted by
EastsideAl
In the old days in Greektown there was always a little gambling that went on in the coffee shops and in the back rooms of some of the restaurants. This, combined with the fact that restaurants and bars were open a little later there than in most of the rest of the city, the proximity to downtown, and, ironically, the proximity to the police headquarters, made it popular as a hangout for certain "types."
None was more so than the now long-gone Grecian Gardens on the south side of Monroe run by Gus Colacasides [[with secret ownership by Pete Vitale), which served after hours and had almost open gambling in the back. A lot of mafia figures, athletes, local entertainment figures, politicians, and top cops stopped in there regularly.
I think it was in 1962 when an after-hours alcohol investigation [[part of the anti-organized crime "clean-up" campaign of new police commissioner George Edwards - an important and fascinating, though now mostly forgotten, figure, who left a seat on the Michigan Supreme Court to become Detroit Police Commissioner under Jerry Cavanagh) discovered Detroit Lion Wayne Walker playing cards in the back of the Grecian Gardens with a group that included the infamous Giacalone brothers.
It turned out that Colacasides, the Giacalones, Tony Zerilli and others had been sponsoring a "party bus" to take them and some Lions players to out of town games and various fun spots around town. The ensuing investigation resulted in the suspension of Alex Karras from the NFL for a year when it came to light that he was a business partner in another infamous gambling spot, the Lindell AC, and after he had the temerity to try and defend his association with Mr. Butsicaris and his habit of placing 'harmless little bets' on games to Pete Rozelle.
Another Grecian Gardens raid in, I think, 1967, turned up Gus Colacasides "little black book" of amounts paid and gifts given to members of the DPD. One of the people named there was Cavanagh's second Police Commissioner, Ray Girardin. This was one of the things that deeply hurt Cavanagh's popularity, even before the riots that summer pretty much sealed his political fate.