Giacomo Luppino: Last Old-Style Mafia Boss
Quebec, including the key city of Montreal, fell under the purview of Joseph Bonanno; Southern Ontario, including the waterfront steel-making town of Hamilton, belonged to Bonanno's cousin, Stefano Magaddino.
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| Don Luppino |
The two feuded the rest of their lives over Canada, which had been recognized as a key platform from which to smuggle drugs into the U.S. from Europe.
Carmine Galante, the mental dullard with the low IQ who is believed to have banged 90, including a renowned Italian journalist, was among the first to recognize this (for Bonanno) and was consumed with a passion to capitalize on his discovery until his brutal gangland death on Knickerbocker Ave., in 1979. He'd begun using his connections in Canada to control the importation of drugs, primarily heroin, into America for distribution on the streets of New York and other major cities.
Canada consisted of various crime families that had immigrated (or fled from) the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and Calabrian Ndrangheta. Indeed, the territory is so rife with families, both Siciliian and Calabrian, that it would seem there were more Mafioso in Canada than in Italy. The two groups always had a rivalry, while the distinction was less important to the American Mafia, which used this rivalry to manipulate the territory.
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Paolo Violi was best placed to
establish a legacy for Don
Giacomo Luppino.
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That was Bonanno's strategy, anyway, in Montreal. The proud Sicilian protege of Maranzano developed a brilliant plan, appointing a two-man panel to oversee his interests; he favored one man, Ndrangheta boss Vic Cotroni, and appointed the Sicilian Cosa Nostra boss Luigi Greco as Cotroni's lieutenant.
Bonanno "gave Cotroni the edge," as Lee Lamothe and Adrian Humphrey's reported in The Sixth Family.
This balance of power by Bonanno established two decades of peace and prosperity.
As for Magaddino's Ontario group, he named the well-respected Giacomo Luppino as the Buffalo crew's long time representative, as noted in Andre Cedilot and Andre Noel's "Mafia Inc.: The Long, Bloody Reign of Canada's Sicilian Clan."
Giacomo's term also was long and stable. In Southern Ontario as well, even to a greater extent, there was a precarious balance of power due to all the crime families and other organized crime rings riddling the area, especially the key port town of Hamilton. Also, Giacomo seems to have been more of a negotiator, and a not very violent boss who failed to even avenge the slaying of his own son-in-law, Paolo Violi, by the Rizzuto clan. He even was known for providing safety to the widows and children of Rizzuto victims.
He had many children, but amazingly none ever rose far in the criminal underworld. The most well known of them was Vincenzo, who died a natural death and never saw the inside of a jail cell.
It is interesting to note that the violence -- the real violence, for control of the region -- didn't commence until Giacomo's death, at age 88, in 1987, which is when Johnny "Pops" Papalia assumed control. It was then that the third family in Hamilton, the Musitanos, worked with Rizzuto family boss Vito when he first tried to consolidate power there in the late 1990s. Rizzuto was, in fact, closely involved with the hits on the Papalia family, so close that one of his right hand men was seen by law enforcement meeting with Musitano family leaders after each of three key hits went down in the late 1990s. Among the killed: Johnny "Pops" himself.
Afterward, Vito himself was seen meeting with Musitano boss Pat.
All three of the key families in Hamilton -- the Luppinos, Papalias and Musitanos -- were Calabrian Ndrangheta clans. Still, Pat Musitano, boss of the family in the late 1990s, "fell in with Vito Rizzuto."
Consolidation of power in Southern Ontario, something never before attained, may be at the root of the violence occurring even now in the region, with the execution last week of a Calabrian hitter who is believed to have been done in by Cosa Nostra forces controlling Vito Rizzuto's crime family, carrying out policies Vito himself likely would have held.
Paolo Violi, who played a lead role in the Montreal battles and was in the best position to create an ongoing legacy for Giacomo Luppino, arrived in Canada in 1951 at age 20. In 1955 he killed another Calabrian, Natale Brigante, in what was determined by law enforcement to be "self-defense" following a parking lot altercation. It may have in fact been a hit ordered in Calabria. (Natale had pulled a knife and stabbed Violi in the chest; Violi unleashed four shots into his opponent, according to the police report. While Violi was not charged, the police believed Natale had been the victim of a sanctioned hit, a settling of a vendetta begun in Calabria.)
Violi, establishing his bona fides by murdering for his Mafia family, was taken under the wing of the Luppino boss, Giacomo, who had been friends with Violi's father, who had settled in the U.S., near Cleveland. Violi had eyes on eventually running the show; Giacomo likely saw him as a possible heir to the throne, especially when Violi married Luppino's daughter, Grazia, in 1965.
Violi had by then moved to Montreal to help back up none other than Vic Cotroni, the Calabrian boss in Montreal who had decided he needed more Ndrangheta support when his "partner" Greco had formed an alliance with Nicolo Rizzuto.
Magaddino had every reason to be furious; one f his key people in Ontario had hauled up shop and journeyed to Montreal to work for his cousin, Bonanno. He "was not well pleased," with Violi's actions but the venerable Giacomo Luppino reassured him somehow. Precisely how he accomplished this is not known, nor on what basis Violi set out for Montreal with Giacomo's blessings. Giacomo told Magaddino that Paolo's move would not unsettle things in Ontario; he was correct, at least during both their lifetimes, Giacomo's and Magaddino's.
Violi would gradually eclipse all the Cotroni lieutenants, including the Sicilian Luigi Greco. He was an old school mobster, who did not want to traffic in drugs -- "Stick with stealing; it's safer," is the advice he gave to one low-level mobster who approached him seeking finance for a drug deal.
Respect also was a big deal for him; he never ceased complaining to American bosses that one Sicilian refused to respect him -- Nicolo Rizzuto, who had by then become very popular with these very same American Cosa Nostra bosses, especially Joseph Bonanno who was probably realizing Nicolo, a fellow Sicilian, was perhaps the right man for the job as opposed to his initial pick of Vic Cotroni.
The opposition between Vic Cotroni/Paolo Violi and Nicolo Rizzuto began to harden and strengthen when Rizzuto began striking out on his own in places like Venezuela. He lost sight that he was viewed by his Montreal counterparts as a soldier of the Bonanno family under an appointed boss (Cotroni) and that it was his duty to report to his boss, as any soldier would.
Violi was loyal to Cotroni and saw himself as taking over for the boss when the boss stepped down. The problem was Rizzuto saw this as well, and had no desire to play second fiddle.
That is the foundation that would lead to the eventual war in Montreal between the Sicilians and the Calabrians. The war only got hot once Cotroni sought permission from the Bonannos to kill Nicolo Rizzuto. They declined to support this move, then told Nicolo what was going on.
Don Luppino comes back into the picture after the murder of Paolo Violi in 1977. He was dining with some companions when an assassin burst into the restaurant and blew his head off with a lupara, the double-barrelled sawed-off shotgun favored by Sicilian Cosa Nostra members seeking to permanently solve a problem.
In 1980, Paolo's brother, Rocco, was deported from America. The Rizzutos viewed him as a potential threat, even though in America there was one Cosa Nostra that all Italians belonged to by then, whether of Sicilian, Calabrian or even Neapolitan descent. Rocco even had shown fealty to the Gambino family before his deportation by attending the funeral of Carlo Gambino.
The Rizzutos still took him out.
While eating dinner with his family, in Saint-Leonard, a borough of Montreal, a sniper's bullet tore into his head, ending him in front of his horrified family. (This is exactly how Nicolo Rizzuto would die decades later. Coincidence? The Mafia doesn't believe in coincidences, nor do I.)
The widows and children of the slain Violi brothers packed up and moved under the warm, protective umbrella of Don Giacomo Luppino, where his Hamilton Mafia was still keeping the peace.
"The last of Canada’s old-style Mafia godfathers" died in 1987, at age 88.
"Pops" Papalia, who then assumed control, had two lieutenants: Enio "Pegleg" Mora and Carmen Barillaro.
In the 1990s, Mora borrowed $7.2 million from Vito Rizzuto, giving the bulk of it to Johnny Papalia and Carmen Barillaro. When Vito start inquiring about repayment of the loan, he was ignored.
The violence, the real violence, commenced on Sept. 11, 1996. Pegleg Mora was shot four times in the head at point blank range after pulling his gold-colored Cadillac into the driveway of his farm in north Toronto.
The Rizzutos began their first attack on Southern Ontario.
Luppino's sons never outgrew their father's shadow. After the Don's natural death, Vincenzo became less active within the family. Orders were even given to kill Luppino and his brothers; the plans were aborted for reasons unknown. This is according to Ken Murdock, the hit man who pulled off the three Papalia hits for Rizzuto and Musitano, during an interview in 1999.
Vincenzo Luppino, the most high profile of the sons, who'd been a Papalia associate, led an uneventful criminal life, likely dabbling in small-time crime. He died on July 13, 2009, at the age of 83. His funeral was well attended, with about 350 mourners, including members of the Hells Angels.
Luppino was never convicted but two of his brothers were imprisoned for 1982 crimes.
Bonanno "gave Cotroni the edge," as Lee Lamothe and Adrian Humphrey's reported in The Sixth Family.
This balance of power by Bonanno established two decades of peace and prosperity.
As for Magaddino's Ontario group, he named the well-respected Giacomo Luppino as the Buffalo crew's long time representative, as noted in Andre Cedilot and Andre Noel's "Mafia Inc.: The Long, Bloody Reign of Canada's Sicilian Clan."
Giacomo's term also was long and stable. In Southern Ontario as well, even to a greater extent, there was a precarious balance of power due to all the crime families and other organized crime rings riddling the area, especially the key port town of Hamilton. Also, Giacomo seems to have been more of a negotiator, and a not very violent boss who failed to even avenge the slaying of his own son-in-law, Paolo Violi, by the Rizzuto clan. He even was known for providing safety to the widows and children of Rizzuto victims.
He had many children, but amazingly none ever rose far in the criminal underworld. The most well known of them was Vincenzo, who died a natural death and never saw the inside of a jail cell.
It is interesting to note that the violence -- the real violence, for control of the region -- didn't commence until Giacomo's death, at age 88, in 1987, which is when Johnny "Pops" Papalia assumed control. It was then that the third family in Hamilton, the Musitanos, worked with Rizzuto family boss Vito when he first tried to consolidate power there in the late 1990s. Rizzuto was, in fact, closely involved with the hits on the Papalia family, so close that one of his right hand men was seen by law enforcement meeting with Musitano family leaders after each of three key hits went down in the late 1990s. Among the killed: Johnny "Pops" himself.
Afterward, Vito himself was seen meeting with Musitano boss Pat.
All three of the key families in Hamilton -- the Luppinos, Papalias and Musitanos -- were Calabrian Ndrangheta clans. Still, Pat Musitano, boss of the family in the late 1990s, "fell in with Vito Rizzuto."
 |
Bonanno appointed a two-man panel,
which established a long time of peace.
It ended in bloody violence that
continues to this day.
|
Consolidation of power in Southern Ontario, something never before attained, may be at the root of the violence occurring even now in the region, with the execution last week of a Calabrian hitter who is believed to have been done in by Cosa Nostra forces controlling Vito Rizzuto's crime family, carrying out policies Vito himself likely would have held.
Paolo Violi, who played a lead role in the Montreal battles and was in the best position to create an ongoing legacy for Giacomo Luppino, arrived in Canada in 1951 at age 20. In 1955 he killed another Calabrian, Natale Brigante, in what was determined by law enforcement to be "self-defense" following a parking lot altercation. It may have in fact been a hit ordered in Calabria. (Natale had pulled a knife and stabbed Violi in the chest; Violi unleashed four shots into his opponent, according to the police report. While Violi was not charged, the police believed Natale had been the victim of a sanctioned hit, a settling of a vendetta begun in Calabria.)
Violi, establishing his bona fides by murdering for his Mafia family, was taken under the wing of the Luppino boss, Giacomo, who had been friends with Violi's father, who had settled in the U.S., near Cleveland. Violi had eyes on eventually running the show; Giacomo likely saw him as a possible heir to the throne, especially when Violi married Luppino's daughter, Grazia, in 1965.
Violi had by then moved to Montreal to help back up none other than Vic Cotroni, the Calabrian boss in Montreal who had decided he needed more Ndrangheta support when his "partner" Greco had formed an alliance with Nicolo Rizzuto.
Magaddino had every reason to be furious; one f his key people in Ontario had hauled up shop and journeyed to Montreal to work for his cousin, Bonanno. He "was not well pleased," with Violi's actions but the venerable Giacomo Luppino reassured him somehow. Precisely how he accomplished this is not known, nor on what basis Violi set out for Montreal with Giacomo's blessings. Giacomo told Magaddino that Paolo's move would not unsettle things in Ontario; he was correct, at least during both their lifetimes, Giacomo's and Magaddino's.
Violi would gradually eclipse all the Cotroni lieutenants, including the Sicilian Luigi Greco. He was an old school mobster, who did not want to traffic in drugs -- "Stick with stealing; it's safer," is the advice he gave to one low-level mobster who approached him seeking finance for a drug deal.
Respect also was a big deal for him; he never ceased complaining to American bosses that one Sicilian refused to respect him -- Nicolo Rizzuto, who had by then become very popular with these very same American Cosa Nostra bosses, especially Joseph Bonanno who was probably realizing Nicolo, a fellow Sicilian, was perhaps the right man for the job as opposed to his initial pick of Vic Cotroni.
The opposition between Vic Cotroni/Paolo Violi and Nicolo Rizzuto began to harden and strengthen when Rizzuto began striking out on his own in places like Venezuela. He lost sight that he was viewed by his Montreal counterparts as a soldier of the Bonanno family under an appointed boss (Cotroni) and that it was his duty to report to his boss, as any soldier would.
Violi was loyal to Cotroni and saw himself as taking over for the boss when the boss stepped down. The problem was Rizzuto saw this as well, and had no desire to play second fiddle.
That is the foundation that would lead to the eventual war in Montreal between the Sicilians and the Calabrians. The war only got hot once Cotroni sought permission from the Bonannos to kill Nicolo Rizzuto. They declined to support this move, then told Nicolo what was going on.
Don Luppino comes back into the picture after the murder of Paolo Violi in 1977. He was dining with some companions when an assassin burst into the restaurant and blew his head off with a lupara, the double-barrelled sawed-off shotgun favored by Sicilian Cosa Nostra members seeking to permanently solve a problem.
In 1980, Paolo's brother, Rocco, was deported from America. The Rizzutos viewed him as a potential threat, even though in America there was one Cosa Nostra that all Italians belonged to by then, whether of Sicilian, Calabrian or even Neapolitan descent. Rocco even had shown fealty to the Gambino family before his deportation by attending the funeral of Carlo Gambino.
The Rizzutos still took him out.
While eating dinner with his family, in Saint-Leonard, a borough of Montreal, a sniper's bullet tore into his head, ending him in front of his horrified family. (This is exactly how Nicolo Rizzuto would die decades later. Coincidence? The Mafia doesn't believe in coincidences, nor do I.)
The widows and children of the slain Violi brothers packed up and moved under the warm, protective umbrella of Don Giacomo Luppino, where his Hamilton Mafia was still keeping the peace.
"The last of Canada’s old-style Mafia godfathers" died in 1987, at age 88.
"Pops" Papalia, who then assumed control, had two lieutenants: Enio "Pegleg" Mora and Carmen Barillaro.
In the 1990s, Mora borrowed $7.2 million from Vito Rizzuto, giving the bulk of it to Johnny Papalia and Carmen Barillaro. When Vito start inquiring about repayment of the loan, he was ignored.
The violence, the real violence, commenced on Sept. 11, 1996. Pegleg Mora was shot four times in the head at point blank range after pulling his gold-colored Cadillac into the driveway of his farm in north Toronto.
The Rizzutos began their first attack on Southern Ontario.
Luppino's sons never outgrew their father's shadow. After the Don's natural death, Vincenzo became less active within the family. Orders were even given to kill Luppino and his brothers; the plans were aborted for reasons unknown. This is according to Ken Murdock, the hit man who pulled off the three Papalia hits for Rizzuto and Musitano, during an interview in 1999.
Vincenzo Luppino, the most high profile of the sons, who'd been a Papalia associate, led an uneventful criminal life, likely dabbling in small-time crime. He died on July 13, 2009, at the age of 83. His funeral was well attended, with about 350 mourners, including members of the Hells Angels.
Luppino was never convicted but two of his brothers were imprisoned for 1982 crimes.