http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&topic=37912&gonew=1Ernest (Ernie the Greek) Kanakis refused to die quietly and instead killed the three local mafia “button men†sent to kill him on July 11, 1976. Kanakis, a gambling specialist who broke off a business relationship with mobster Frank (Frankie Razz) Randazzo, was brought to Randazzo’s basement on the city’s eastside and attacked. Stabbed repeatedly with an ice pick, When the assassins went to shoot Kanakis in the head, the gun jammed and a bleeding Ernie the Greek took out a revolver of his own from a holster on his leg and shot Frankie Razz, Joe Siragusa and Nicolo (Nick the Executioner) Ditta, a renowned mid-Twentieth Century Motor City version of Godfather character Luca Brasi. Acquitted of the triple murder on a claim of self-defense at trial, Kanakis survived another attempt by the mob to kill him in 1983.
That time came in December of 1982, when crime family lieutenant, Frank “Frankie the Bomb†Bommarito, a highly-feared local underworld enforcer and trusted member of Vito Giacalone’s crew, summoned widely-known motor city hitman, Charles Acker, to a meeting at a Detroit-area Denny’s Restaurant. After some initial small talk in a secluded back booth of the restaurant, Bommarito offered Acker $5,000 cash if he would kill Ernie the Greek Kanakis. In a gruesome added twist, he said he would throw in an added $2,000 bonus if after he completed the job, took photographs of the corpse and crime scene, and sent them in a Christmas card to the Giacalone brothers.
Acker agreed to the deal and several more meetings ensued between himself and Bommarito to discuss logistics in the hit contract. Eventually, over dozens of cups of coffee, spread over a three month period, the two pair decided how, where, and when they would attempt to kill Kanakis for the second time. This time the mob seemed confidant they wouldn’t miss.
Everything appeared to be going perfectly as planned. The specifics had been worked out and the wheels of the second contract were in heavy motion. However, soon a major glitch was discovered in their homicidal agenda – Acker was working for the federal government.
Since the very first time he had met with Bommarito at Denny’s to discuss murdering Ernie Kanakis, Acker had been wired for sound, secretly recording every conversation he engaged in with Frankie The Bomb and turning them over to the FBI.
“Charlie Acker came to us and told us that Frankie the Bomb wanted him to hit Ernie Kanakis and all we could think of at the office was how sadistic it was to wait in the shadows for almost 10 years and then come after him like that. It was like an animal stalking its prey, waiting just for the exact right time to pounce and devour it.â€
Arrested in January of 1983, Frank Bommarito was convicted and jailed on the charge of conspiracy to commit attempted murder and served close to three years in prison for the offense. On the other hand, Kanakis was in a state of shock, stunned and emotionally shaken by the entire incident, but at the same time refusing to buckle under the pressure being put on him by the local mafia.
Always a man who craved action and fed up with his time lurking in the shadows, around 1987, over a decade removed from streets, Ernie the Greek hooked up with some members of the city’s Arab mafia and went back into running a series of hugely profitable gambling rackets. Partnered with Tahrir “Crazy Tommy†Kalasho, a top lieutenant to his uncle Lou “The Hammerhead†Akrawi, the reputed founder and boss of the local Chaldean (non-Muslim Iraqis) crime syndicate, Kanakis built his gambling business back up to practically the point it had been prior to his falling out with the mob.
The only problem was that all the money Kanakis and Kalasho started making and the clientele they were generating began showing up on the mafia’s radar. They hadn’t forgotten about their old nemesis and they wanted to know why the Chaldeans were doing business with him. Furthermore, they wanted Kalasho to serve him up to them so they could finally have him killed like they had been trying to do for 11 years.
In another stroke of good fortune for Kanakis, the Chaldeans refused to deliver their new and large-earning friend to his butchering. Instead, they went to bat for him and ended up saving his life. Reaching out to one of their contacts in the mafia, Antonio “Tony the Zip†Ciraulo, the Chaldeans requested that Ciraulo, a lieutenant in the Giacalone brothers’ regime, arrange for a sit-down to sort out the two parties’ differences. Ciraulo, eventually convicted on murder charges in the early-1990s and sent to prison for the rest of his life, had the sit-down arranged for the week leading up to Thanksgiving 1987 at his bar in Warren.
Delivering a sizeable chunk of cash to the Giacalones at the meeting and offering them a percentage of their gambling interests, the Chaldeans asked permission to have the contract lifted on Kanakis’ life. Tommy Kalasho said he would personally vouch for Ernie the Greek and take responsibility for all issues related to his work on the street.
The Italians had always respected the Chaldeans for their ironfisted approach to leadership and gutsy takeover of territory almost as soon as they landed in the state of Michigan from Iraq in the early-1970s. This led to the Giacalones finally removing the contract on Kanakis and letting him off the hook. From that point forward, Ernie the Greek was one of the most-rare commodities in the world – someone who unflinchingly challenged the mafia head on and lived.
