Cosa Nostra News

UPDATED In the aftermath of former Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto's January 2004 arrest ( following the flipping of Bonanno boss Joseph Massino, who revealed Vito's role in a 1981 triple homicide in New York City), more than 40 people were murdered, abducted, or vanished under mysterious circumstances in and around Montreal. Tony Magi outside a Montreal court in 2010. Many of the cases were tied to the Mafia, many specifically over unpaid debts, though sometimes other inferences could be drawn. On January 19, 2004, for instance, Carmelo Tommasino called home to tell his wife that he would be unable to pick up their young daughter at school that day. "Why? What's happened" his wife asked. Without providing anything by way of an explanation, he hung up the phone and was never seen or heard from again. Since then, the Journal de Montreal has reported  (in French) that Tommasino was killed accidentally during the murder of Paolo Gervasi, who was...

A funeral home with known links to the Rizzuto family was hit by an arson attack yesterday. Picture of Loreto Funeral Complex when Nicolo Rizzuto was waked. No one was injured, and the damage to the Loreto Funeral Complex on Grandes Prairies Blvd., in St-Léonard, Montreal, appears to be minimal. A gasoline can was discovered behind the building. Such an open attack would've been unthinkable only a few short years ago.

Bad Blood: The Vito Rizzuto Story That's the title of a "limited event" television series debuting on FX this summer. It consists of six 60-minute episodes. "Inspired by reputed mobster Vito Rizzuto," the show stars Anthony LaPaglia (Analyze This sequel Analyze That ) as Vito Rizzuto and Paul Sorvino from Goodfellas as Nico (Nicolo) Rizzuto, Vito's father. Bad Blood was filmed in Montreal and Sudbury, the largest city in Northern Ontario, Canada. The story used as its source the best-selling book  by Antonio Nicaso and Peter Edwards,  Business or Blood: Mafia Boss Vito Rizzuto’s Last War . ( Business would've benefited from a more-vigorous fact-check; The Sixth Family by Adrian Humphreys and Lee Lamothe is the  book about the Rizzutos, with landmark research. Another good book is Andre Cedillot's  Mafia Inc.: The Long, Bloody Reign of Canada's Sicilian Clan .)

Gang leader Ducarme Joseph was shot dead in St. Michel on Friday night. A former gang leader with ties to the Canadian Mafia, Joseph allegedly was involved in the 2009 shooting death of Nick Rizzuto Jr., son of the deceased Vito Rizzuto , formerly the powerful head of the Mafia in Montreal. Deceased Cosa Nostra boss Vito Rizzuto, middle, flanked by his father and son, both named Nick. Joseph, who'd gone into hiding, may have started raising his profile in the months following Vito's death. It was a fatal mistake.

With a fresh mob hit raising law enforcement's collective eyebrows in Montreal, and probably the U.S., it is apparent that Vito Rizzuto is preparing for battle. Vito Rizzuto in the good ol' days.  An armoured vehicle costing more than $100,000 and a "well-guarded downtown apartment" are among his recent acquisitions since returning home to Montreal, where just this week a well-connected, powerful Mafioso who may or may not have been in Rizzuto's camp was shot to death, according to the report. Rizzuto has been away, having served eight years in a U.S. prison on charges related to a triple-murder in 1981. While a guest of the U.S. government, Rizzuto's father, Nick Rizzuto Sr., and son Nick Jr. were murdered; his brother-in-law was kidnapped two years ago and is presumed dead. In addition, also killed were several other of his associates. Rizzuto, having lost his father and his son, is not currently in a frame of mind to do much talking, I have heard...