What Mob Boss Vito Rizzuto Did When Joe Massino Flipped
Police used a Canadian comedian to infiltrate Vito Rizzuto's Montreal Mafia organization , the Montreal Journal reported tonight. The effort occurred in Cuba. Though the comedian, Michel Courtemanche , was allegedly unaware of the role he'd played, Fidel Castro 's Communist regime eagerly participated in the operation. In 2003, members of the New York-based Bonanno crime family phoned Rizzuto and told him that the crime family's boss, Joseph Massino , had flipped (two calls were placed; the first apparently told Rizzuto to go to a restaurant on Montreal's South Shore, where he got the news). Rizzuto and his wife promptly hopped on a flight to Cuba. Rizzuto knew he was facing serious trouble; he'd participated in a triple homicide in Brooklyn, New York, in 1981 that Massino had direct knowledge of. As a rising star in New York's Bonanno crime family, Massino had actually orchestrated the hit on three dissident Bonanno capos. The form...