After the violent and bloody Detroit Mafia wars of the 1910s, rivalries and smaller conflicts continued between the various Mafia factions or gangs based in the city and surrounding areas until Sam Catalanotte was able to broker an uneasy peace and organize the local gangs into a loosely unified Mafia group under what was known as the "Pascuzzi Combine", established by Catalanotte with the co-operation of all the top local Mafia leaders and their factions around 1920. Catalanotte was born in 1894 and arrived in Detroit in 1905 from Salemi, Sicily, the same province as Milazzo. He was a former gunman under brothers and early Detroit Mafia leaders Sam and Tony Gianolla during the Gianolla/Vitale wars of the 1910s.