Paolo Violi

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Paolo Violi
PaoloVioli.jpg
Born(1931-02-06)February 6, 1931
Sinopoli, Calabria, Italy
DiedJanuary 22, 1978(1978-01-22) (aged 46)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Cause of deathGunshot
Resting placeNotre Dame des Neiges Cemetery, Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal
NationalityItalian
Other namesPaul
CitizenshipCanadian
OccupationMobster
Spouse(s)
Grazia Luppino
​
(m. 1965)​
ChildrenDomenico Violi
Giuseppe Violi
Parent(s)Domenico Violi
RelativesFrancesco Violi (brother)
Rocco Violi (brother)
Giacomo Luppino (father-in-law)
AllegianceCotroni crime family
Bonanno crime family
Conviction(s)Extortion (1975)
Criminal penaltySix years' imprisonment; served six months on appeal

Paolo Violi (Italian: [ˈpaːolo ˈvjɔːli; viˈɔːli]; February 6, 1931 – January 22, 1978) was an Italian-Canadian mobster and acting capodecina of the Bonanno crime family's faction in Montreal, the Cotroni crime family.

Violi was born in Sinopoli, Calabria, Italy, in 1931; his father Domenico was the boss of the Violi clan in his hometown. Violi immigrated to Southern Ontario in 1951. He married Grazia Luppino, daughter of the boss of the Luppino crime family in Hamilton. He later moved to Montreal where he became associated with in the Calabrese compatriot Cotroni crime family which had most of the control in Montreal. In the late 1970s, boss Vincenzo Cotroni transferred the day-to-day activities of the family to Violi, and a mob war soon broke out between the Calabrian and Sicilian factions led by Nicolo Rizzuto. The war resulted in the murder of Violi on January 22, 1978, as well as his brothers, as the Sicilian Rizzuto crime family emerged as the preeminent crime family in Montreal by the early 1980s. After Violi's death, his widow and two sons, Domenico and Giuseppe moved to Hamilton; the Violi brothers became affiliated with the Luppino crime family, later also becoming known as the Luppino-Violi crime family.

Early career[]

Royal Canadian Mounted Police chart of the Bonanno crime family's crew (decina) in Montreal

Violi was born in Sinopoli, Calabria on February 6, 1931.[1] Violi was born into the mob; his father Domenico Violi was the head of the 'Ndrangheta Violi clan in Sinopoli.[1] Violi later immigrated to Southern Ontario in 1951.[2] In 1955, he fatally shot Natale Brigante in Toronto, sustaining a stab wound from Brigante.[2] He was charged with manslaughter in a Welland court, but was acquitted claiming it was self-defense, showing the stab wound as evidence.[2] Violi gained Canadian citizenship in 1956 and by the early 1960s was running illegally manufactured liquor from Ontario to Quebec.[2] He became associated with boss of the Hamilton Luppino crime family Giacomo Luppino, but left for Montreal in 1963 on Luppino's orders to avoid clashes with other Hamilton mobster Johnny Papalia.[2]

In Quebec, Violi opened the Reggio Bar in Saint-Leonard in the mid 1960s, which he used as a base for extortion.[2] He developed connections with the Cotroni crime family, while maintaining ties with the Luppino family; he married Giacomo Luppino's daughter, Grazia in 1965.[2] In the 1960s and 70s, boss Vincenzo Cotroni used associate William "Obie" Obront to supervise a bookmaking network in the Ottawa-Hull area that handled around $50,000 in bets per day, with 25 percent going to Violi.[3] Obie also served as Cotroni chief banker and financial adviser, responsible for laundering money.[3] For Montreal's Expo 67, Obie also helped the Cotronis land the meat and vending machine supply contract—most of which was tainted meat.[4]

In December 1970, his bar was bugged with wiretaps by Robert Menard, an undercover police officer who rented the space above Violi's bar for several years, which were later used in subsequent cases.[5][6]

In 1974, Violi and Cotroni were overheard on a police wiretap threatening to kill Hamilton mobster Johnny Papalia and demanding $150,000 after he used their names in a $300,000 extortion plot without notifying or cutting them in on the score.[7] The three were convicted of extortion in 1975 and sentenced to six years in prison. Violi and Cotroni appealed and got their sentences reduced to six months, but Papalia's appeal was rejected.[8] The following year, Violi was arrested to stand before the Quebec government's Commission d'enquête sur le crime organisé (CECO) inquiry into organized crime; he was sent to jail for one year for contempt.[9]

Mob war and death[]

In the early 1970s, Cotroni transferred the day-to-day activities of the family to his Calabrian compatriot Violi, a capodecina together with Nicolas Di Iorio, Frank Cotroni and Luigi Greco.[10][11] Cotroni's role became more that of an adviser to the younger Calabrian.[12][13] Greco led the Sicilian faction of the family until his death in 1972.[14][15]

As tension then grew into a power struggle between the Calabrian and Sicilian factions of the family, a mob war began in 1973.[16][17] During a time of power struggle between the Sicilian and Calabrian factions of the Cotroni crime family.[16] Violi complained about the independent modus operandi of his Sicilian 'underlings', Nicolo Rizzuto in particular.[16] "He is going from one side to the other, here and there, and he says nothing to nobody, he is doing business and nobody knows anything," Violi said about Rizzuto. Violi asked for more 'soldiers' from his Bonanno bosses, clearly preparing for war, and Violi's boss at the time, Vic Cotroni remarked: "Me, I'm capodecina. I got the right to expel."[16] Violi requested permission from the New York bosses to kill Rizzuto, but the request was turned down.[16] In 1977, Rizzuto and Violi met face-to-face in the home of a Montreal resident for a last-ditch effort to resolve their differences, according to a police report. But the peace talks failed, and most of the Rizzuto family fled to Venezuela.[16]

This led to a power struggle mob war in Montreal which began with the murder of Pietro Sciara on Valentine's Day in 1976, Violi's consigliere, who was now acting boss; Sciara's body was left in the street after seeing an Italian-dubbed version of The Godfather Part II with his wife.[16][5] On February 8, 1977, Francesco Violi, the younger brother of Paolo, the family enforcer, was murdered by several shotgun wounds. Shortly after Violi was released from the brief jail sentence with relation to the CECO inquiry, he sold his bar to brothers Vincenzo and Giuseppe Randisi; the name was changed to Bar Jean-Talon.[5] On January 22, 1978, Paolo Violi was shot in the head at close range with a lupara in the Bar Jean-Talon after being invited to play cards by Vincenzo Randisi.[18] Violi's funeral was five days later at Church of the Madonna della Difesa, and was buried at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery in Montreal.[19][20]

Aftermath[]

Although Nicolo Rizzuto was in Venezuela at the time of Violi's murder, his brother-in-law Domenico Manno, was believed to play a major role in the murder under Rizzuto's orders.[21] Manno received a seven-year sentence after pleading guilty to conspiring to kill Violi,[21] as well as Rizzuto confidant Agostino Cuntrera, who received a five-year sentence in relation to Violi's murder.[22] The war ended on October 17, 1980, when Rocco Violi, the last of Violi's brothers, was seated, for a family meal, at his kitchen table in his Montreal home when a single bullet from a sniper's rifle struck him dead.[23] Cotroni died of cancer on September 16, 1984.[24] By the mid 1980s, the Rizzuto crime family emerged as Montreal's pre-eminent crime family after the turf war.[23]

After Paolo Violi's death, his widow and two sons, Domenico (Dom) and Giuseppe (Joe) moved to Hamilton, Ontario, an area controlled by the Buffalo crime family and 'Ndrangheta families.[25][26] A 2002 Halton Police report suggested the Violi brothers were affiliated with the Luppino-Violi crime family in Hamilton started by their grandfather Giacomo Luppino.[27] Domenico Violi subsequently became the underboss of the Buffalo crime family in 2017;[28] the first Canadian to hold the second-highest position in the American Mafia.[29]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Schneider, Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada, pp. 258
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Schneider, Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada, pp. 259
  3. ^ a b Schneider, Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada, pp. 262
  4. ^ Schneider, Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada, pp. 264
  5. ^ a b c Cedilot, Andre; Noel, Andre (7 August 2012). Mafia Inc: The Long, Bloody Reign of Canada's Sicilian Clan. Random House of Canada. ISBN 9780307360410 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ "Murdered mob boss's son pleads guilty in Hamilton to selling drugs to 'made' New York Mafia member". thestar.com. 3 December 2018.
  7. ^ "The shot heard around the underworld". Ottawa Citizen. 7 June 1998. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  8. ^ Schneider, Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada, pp. 326
  9. ^ "How a 1970s inquiry exposed mobsters and educated Quebeckers". theglobeandmail.com. 15 December 2010.
  10. ^ Auger and Edwards The Encyclopedia of Canadian Organized Crime p.195.
  11. ^ L'atentat, p. 65
  12. ^ La Presse, 1er décembre 1973
  13. ^ Idem, p. 63
  14. ^ Lamothe, Lee. Humphreys, Adrian. The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto. pg.27–29
  15. ^ Manning, George A, PH.D Financial Investigation and Forensic Accounting pg.214–215
  16. ^ a b c d e f g "The man they call the Canadian Godfather". National Post. February 26, 2001. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  17. ^ A Mafia hit loaded with symbolism, National Post, November 12, 2010
  18. ^ "The rise and fall of Montreal's Rizzuto mob". torontosun.com. 20 November 2010. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  19. ^ "History Through Our Eyes: Jan. 22, 1978, Paolo Violi". motrealgazette.com. January 22, 2019.
  20. ^ "Rise of Rizzuto family may be echoed in their fall". nationalpost.com. November 12, 2010.
  21. ^ a b "'Don Corleone' figure who helped install Rizzuto family to top of Canadian Mafia released from U.S. prison". 13 December 2012.
  22. ^ "Montreal mobster's death marks a reckoning for the Rizzutos". theglobeandmail.com. 30 June 2010.
  23. ^ a b A Mafia hit loaded with symbolism, National Post, November 12, 2010
  24. ^ Schneider, Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada, pp. 280
  25. ^ Edwards, Peter (10 November 2017). "Accused Violi brothers in trafficking bust come from colourful family" – via Toronto Star.
  26. ^ "Cafe owner gets 13 years for drug trafficking". thestar.com. 30 January 2018.
  27. ^ "2002 Halton Police report had intelligence on accused mobster". thestar.com. 15 November 2017.
  28. ^ "A Canadian murder. 'Buffalo's crime family.' Is the Mafia still around?". Archived from the original on 30 April 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  29. ^ "Shocking mob trial allegation: Hamilton crime figure was Underboss of Buffalo Mafia". National Post. 2018-12-04. Retrieved 2018-12-04.
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