Authors: Lee Lamothe
The Sixth Family (9 page)
While Galante had other things on his mind, what most concerned Vic Cotroni was that the removal of Galante from the streets stripped the Montreal boss of his conduit into New York.
MONTREAL, 1960sAgainst the backdrop of international underworld intrigue, the city of Montreal continued to grow and to bleed as the newly reorganized Mafia tightened its stranglehold. An emerging presence in the milieu was a man who shared Joe Bonanno’s belief in the power of Sicilian stock: Nick Rizzuto.
Considered a soldier in what police were then calling the “Montreal Bonanno Faction,” Nick had quickly become something of a lightning rod, attracting around him a tough, tight crew of transplanted Sicilian gangsters. Nick was a good earner, a contributor who was ambitious and strong, respectful and aggressive—depending on what the circumstances required. Within the Sicilian wing, led by Luigi Greco, Nick carried himself a noticeable cut above the rabble, drawing on his connections to his father-in-law, Antonio Manno, and his network of Agrigento clans to further his criminal interests. In these early years, Nick formed his Mafia organization in Montreal with support from his extended family, such as Calogero Renda, his uncle who had arrived in America in 1925 alongside Nick’s father, and Domenico Manno, Nick’s brother-in-law. The Sixth Family was starting to make its mark.
As Nick’s criminal organization grew, so, too, did his personal family. At the time of the Palermo meetings, Vito Rizzuto, Nick’s only son, had not yet turned 11, his daughter, Maria, was a year younger. The Rizzuto children were growing up in Montreal’s Villeray district and in Saint-Léonard, two largely Italian neighborhoods. Vito was plodding his way through school in Montreal and would eventually complete Grade 9 at St. Pius X High School, an English-language Catholic school. He was also being tutored in what would become his true calling. Young Vito was immersed in outlaw culture from the day he was born and, as he grew, he assimilated the accepted and expected behavior of his family. Everywhere Vito looked, on both sides of the family, he encountered outlaw role models (just as his own children would a generation later). Vito was carefully groomed in the old ways, while having in his grasp all the latitude and promise of the changing times.
At every turn, he was taught the importance of staying close to his kin.
CHAPTER 6
BOUCHERVILLE, QUEBEC, MAY 16, 1968The fire alarm sounded a little after 1 a.m. at the Centre d’Achat Place-la-Seigneurie, a small shopping mall in Boucherville, a suburb of Montreal on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River.
The clamor roused members of the town’s fire department, who quickly arrived in force; 23 firefighters would respond that night, hauling out the six hoses they would need to attack the flames that were thickest around the Renda Barber Shop, which seemed to be the center of the blaze. The first contingent of firefighters to arrive, however, were confronted by an even more alarming sight: two men burst through the shop’s back door and ran frantically into a field, their clothes ablaze. As the startled firefighters watched, the men dropped to the ground and started rolling in the dirt to extinguish the flames. The firemen rushed to help, but before they could reach them, one of the men jumped to his feet and dashed away in the other direction. The firemen watched as he disappeared into the night, his clothes still smoldering. The other man, apparently in too much pain to keep running, remained on the ground, where firefighters and, soon after, the police found him.
The young man was rushed to hospital where he was treated for serious burns. Police would later identify him as Paolo Renda, 28, of Montreal, owner of the barbershop and known to the other businessmen at the shopping center as a simple barber. Detectives suspected that the mystery man who had fled would be in similar need of medical care, and police officers started visiting nearby hospitals. Hours later, they found a man who had arrived at Montreal’s Santa Cabrini Hospital seeking treatment for severe burns. He fit perfectly the description given to them by the firefighters.
The man identified himself to police as Vito Rizzuto.
Then 22 years old, Vito at first dismissed questions from suspicious investigators by saying he had suffered the burns when the gas tank of his car exploded that night. That explained both the damage to his skin and the unmistakable smell of gasoline, of which he reeked. After police learned that Renda was Vito’s brother-in-law, the weak alibi soon crumbled and, under questioning, Vito eventually admitted that, yes, he had in fact been at the Renda Barber Shop in Boucherville that night. But he insisted he had absolutely nothing to do with starting the fire. Detectives remained dubious.
By morning, back at the fire scene, the last of the flames had been extinguished. The damage was significant. Renda’s Barber Shop was completely destroyed. A neighboring business was largely consumed by the flames and 16 other businesses were damaged by either the smoke or the water from the fire hoses. Damage was calculated at $115,000, a large sum by 1968 standards. Fire investigators quickly determined that the blaze had been deliberately set. They found that the two men had been pouring gasoline on to the floor of the barbershop with the intention of setting it ablaze. While they were pouring, however, the gas ignited prematurely, sending a fireball roaring through the shop and enveloping Vito and Renda. This was not the first time the business had been set on fire; the previous December, a smaller fire was doused before it could destroy the premises.
Police slapped both Vito and Renda with serious criminal charges. More than three years elapsed before the case went to court. Judge Georges Sylvestre heard how the fire at Renda’s Barber Shop had been set by the two men in a bid to fraudulently collect an insurance claim. Renda apparently was ready for a change of career.
He was well-positioned for a move into crime. A native of Cattolica Eraclea, Paolo Renda is the son of Calogero Renda, the man who had made the ill-fated moved to America in 1925 before returning to Sicily to marry into the Manno family. Paolo, who immigrated to Montreal in October, 1958, later solidified his Sixth Family standing by winning the hand of Maria Rizzuto, who was Nick’s only daughter and Vito’s younger sister.
Had the gasoline in Renda’s barbershop not ignited before the men could flee, they might well have gotten away with it. As it was, they were found guilty of a raft of charges: arson, criminal conspiracy, two counts of fraudulently burning property and nine counts of being negligent with fire. Renda, the business owner and beneficiary of the insurance policy, was found to be more culpable than Vito, who was seen as having been brought into the scheme merely to help out Renda. A dutiful member of the Sixth Family, Renda did not protest that view. On January 29, 1972, Vito was sentenced to two years in prison for the arson and conspiracy charge and nine months on each of the other counts, to be served concurrently. Renda was handed four years for arson and conspiracy and 18 months on each additional charge, also to be served concurrently. For Renda, it was his first—and only—criminal conviction. Vito, however, had one previous—tiny—stain on his record, a conviction for disturbing the peace in the summer of 1965 when he was the tender age of 19. He had been fined $25 and spent eight days in jail.
It was a decidedly inauspicious start for the future head of the Sixth Family.
By the time young Vito was playing with matches, his father, Nick, had built a formidable criminal coterie in Montreal. He had a loyal core that, although officially pledged to protect and contribute to the Bonanno organization, maintained a distinct loyalty to their own flesh and blood. Along with marriage vows and blood ties, the growth of the Rizzuto clan into the organization that is the Sixth Family can most suitably be described in business terms, in that they doggedly adhered to a winning strategy of carefully selected mergers and acquisitions. As with most aggressive corporations, what they sought first was a mutually agreeable assimilation of a smaller corporate entity that allowed for profit for all parties. If that failed, a hostile takeover was almost inevitable.
The first significant merger in Canada for the Rizzutos came in the 1960s when Nick forged a bond with the Caruana-Cuntrera family, a clan from the Sicilian town of Siculiana, just a winding 10-mile drive from Cattolica Eraclea. For decades, back in the Mafia triangle of Agrigento, the clans had been friendly, interrelated, and occasionally comrades-in-arms. When Nick’s father first arrived in the New World in 1925, he arrived with two men from Cattolica Eraclea and three men from Siculiana; most, if not all, of the men were related in some way. One, Vincenzo Marino, was married to a Caruana, and another, Giuseppe Sciortino, was related to Calogero Renda, who in turn was related to Nick. In Canada, these bonds were strengthened. Fusing the Rizzutos with the Caruana-Cuntreras was a strategic alliance of immense value to both parties, who were keenly interested in the same sorts of commodities. The merger gave Nick a significant boost, increasing his international presence and his access to drugs and money-laundering services. The Caruana and Cuntrera families, who formed a single criminal organization, also had considerable influence within the Sicilian faction in Montreal. On the flip side, having the Rizzutos as partners offered the Caruanas a form of physical protection and a far more robust presence on the streets of Montreal as they concentrated on matters abroad. While the Caruanas boosted the Rizzutos’ contacts in Europe and South America, the Rizzutos gave the Caruanas direct contact with New York.
“When the Caruanas and Cuntreras moved to Montreal in the mid- 1960s, they became affiliated with Nicolò Rizzuto and his son Vito Rizzuto. They began to work together in drug trafficking activities,” an FBI report says.
The internal structure of the Sixth Family—by itself—was starting to mimic the vast transatlantic structure that had taken more than two dozen mafiosi from two countries four days of heated discussions at the Grand Hôtel et des Palmes to achieve. Next came another merger and acquisition of a distinctly non-hostile nature.
MONTREAL AND TORONTO, NOVEMBER 1966Late in the day on November 28, 1966, two Montreal police constables asked three men who were sitting in a car parked on a side street to slowly get out of their vehicle. The officers’ concern was palpable, as the men, despite their neat short hair, suit jackets and expensive clothing, still looked like tough customers and, far more alarming, three .32-caliber handguns were clearly visible on the car seats. The men were arrested and additional police officers soon arrived, as did a second car full of civilians who were likewise asked to get out of their vehicle. When a starter pistol was found under the seat of their car, the four new arrivals were also arrested.
At a Montreal police station, the seven men stood about impatiently, smoking cigars and asking that the proceedings be moved along more quickly. Police were taking their time, however, because of the unusual cast of characters before them and the many questions they had for them. Most of the officers were personally familiar with only one man in the group: Luigi Greco, whom they knew as a local hoodlum whose fortunes in the underworld had been soaring of late. The remaining men were all American. Wearing a casual and slightly wrinkled dress shirt, unbuttoned at the neck, and black pants, Bill Bonanno towered over Greco. With them were Vito DeFillipo and his son, Patrick DeFillipo. Patrick, who became known to fellow gangsters as “Patty from the Bronx,” would go on, more than 30 years later, to orchestrate the execution of one of the key members of the Sixth Family, a rare attack on the clan. Peter Magaddino, of Brooklyn, Joe Bonanno’s cousin and close ally, was also identified by police. He wore a suit almost identical to Patty DeFillipo’s but filled it out considerably more, in all the wrong places. Also identified by police were Carlo “Buddy” Simaro, of New Jersey, and Peter Notaro, of New York, both Bonanno bodyguards. (Notaro later joined Joe Bonanno when he was deposed and went into exile in Arizona.) Bill Bonanno recently said he came to Canada with the soldiers who remained closest to his father, Joseph, during an acrimonious split within the organization in New York.
“They were loyal to us. Patty was there with his father, Vito DeFillipo. Vito DeFillipo was one of our closest confidants. He was very loyal to us,” said Bonanno.
Had the approach by the constables been accidental, the officers would likely have been stunned to find Bill Bonanno and his cronies in Montreal. It was, however, part of an extensive police surveillance operation. Throughout the day, investigators had secretly watched as the men met with Vic Cotroni, Paolo Violi, who was Cotroni’s favored young gangster in Montreal, and Giacomo Luppino. Luppino was an old boss of the ’Ndrangheta, the Mafia organization originally formed in Calabria, the southern part of mainland Italy, who had moved to Hamilton, Ontario, and had recently become Violi’s father-in-law. Police had seen Bill Bonanno, with Notaro and Cotroni, in a shopping plaza making dozens of telephone calls, one after another, from a public pay phone. In police custody, however, they were far less talkative. Grilled by detectives about drugs and illegal immigrant smuggling, gambling and extortion, the mobsters feigned ignorance of it all. They had only come to Canada, they insisted, to attend a wedding.
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