Edwards Peter - Business or blood: Mafia Boss Vito Rizzutos Last War

PUBLISHED BY RANDOM HOUSE CANADA

Copyright 2015 Peter Edwards and Antonio Nicaso

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Edwards, Peter, 1956, author
Business or blood : Mafia boss Vito Rizzutos last war / Peter Edwards and Antonio Nicaso.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-345-81376-3
eBook ISBN 978-0-345-81378-7

1. Rizzuto, Vito. 2. Bonanno family. 3. MafiaQubec (Province)MontralHistory. 4. MafiaNew York (State)New YorkHistory. 5. MafiosiCanadaBiography. I. Nicaso, Antonio, author II. Title.

HV6453.C32Q8 2015 364.1092 C2014-905934-5

Cover images: (police car) Reuters / Christinne Muschi;
(mugshot) Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York

v3.1

The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.

AMERICAN PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ,
interpreting Dante Alighieris The Divine Comedy

Men of honour are neither evil nor schizophrenic. They are people like us. The tendency of the Western world is to exorcise the evil by projecting on ethnic groups and behaviours that seem different from ours.

But if we are to effectively combat the Mafia, we should not turn it into a monster nor think its an octopus or a cancer.

We must recognize that the Mafia resembles us.

JUDGE GIOVANNI FALCONE
Murdered by the Mafia in 1992

OCTOBER 16, 1828: Attorney Generals office in village of Cattolica Eraclea in Agrigento province, Sicily, notes presence of criminal organization with more than one hundred members, bound by oath of secrecy that calls for death of anyone who even divulges its existence.

APRIL 12, 1901: Vito Rizzutos grandfather, Vito Rizzuto Sr., born in Cattolica Eraclea to Nicola and Giuseppa Marra.

JUNE 23, 1921: Vito Rizzuto Sr. sentenced by a military tribunal to two months in jail for theft.

MARCH 9, 1923: Vito Rizzuto Sr. marries Maria Renda of his hometown. Shes the daughter of Paolo Renda Sr. and Grazia Spinella.

FEBRUARY 18, 1924: Nicol Rizzuto born to Vito Rizzuto Sr. and Maria Renda in Cattolica Eraclea.

DECEMBER 1924: Nicol Rizzuto is just ten months old when his father departs for North America with a forged passport, leaving his young family behind.

AUGUST 1933: Vito Rizzuto Sr. buried in paupers grave in Patterson, NY, after his body found hidden in a nearby swamp.

MARCH 20, 1945: Nicol Rizzuto marries Libertina Manno, daughter of Antonino (Don Nino), Mafia boss of Cattolica Eraclea. Nicol is twenty-one and Libertina eighteen.

APRIL 22, 1946: Vito Rizzuto baptized in Cattolica Eraclea. His paternal grandmother, Maria Renda, stands up for him in place of his late paternal grandfather, Vito Rizzuto Sr.

FEBRUARY 21, 1954: Vito Rizzuto arrives in Canada at Pier 21 in Halifax on his eighth birthday, with his parents Nicol and Libertina, and his six-year-old sister, Maria. Nicol lists his occupation as farmer and declares he has just thirty dollars. Vito doesnt speak English or French. Hes to be educated in English, considered the language of business.

FEBRUARY 1956: Nicol Rizzuto declares that he is a cement contractor as he buys a fourplex on Montreals De Lorimier Avenue.

SEPTEMBER 11, 1964: Nicol Rizzutos father-in-law, Antonino (Don Nino) Manno, immigrates to Canada.

SUMMER 1967: Nicol Rizzuto is now a partner in four construction-related firms and works on Expo 67 worlds fair. His mob counterparts Paolo Violi and Vic (The Egg) Cotroni are also involved at Expo, supplying hot dogs made from tainted meat.

LATE 1972: Nicol Rizzuto learns there are plans afoot to murder him that were put in motion by Violi. He relocates to Venezuela, getting farther from Violi and closer to South American drug-smuggling routes. The move also puts distance between him and a public inquiry into organized crime under way in Montreal. By this time, Nicol Rizzuto is a partner in five construction-related companies in the city.

JANUARY 22, 1978: A shotgun blast kills Violi as he play cards with supposed friends at the Reggio Bar at 5880 Jean-Talon East in Montreal. His murder clears the way for Nicol Rizzuto to return from Venezuela and assume the top spot in the Montreal underworld.

OCTOBER 1, 1980: Nicol Rizzutos father-in-law, Antonino Manno, dies of natural causes at the age of seventy-six. He had sponsored many immigrants to Canada. He is entombed in a mausoleum crypt in Montreal alongside his wife, Giuseppa Cammalleri Manno. Beside them is the body of their daughter Giuseppina Manno, younger sister of Libertina and Domenico Manno.

MAY 5, 1981: Nicol Rizzutos son, Vito, is among the gunmen slaughtering three mob captains in a Brooklyn social club. The crime secures Vitos status in the Bonanno crime family of New York, which considers Montreal its turf. The slain captains were disloyal to acting family boss Joe (Big Joey) Massino.

AUGUST 2, 1988: Nicol Rizzuto and four others arrested and imprisoned for cocaine trafficking in Venezuela.

MAY 23, 1993: Nicol Rizzuto greeted by thirty friends and family as he returns to Montreal, a few months after he is finally freed from Venezuelan prison.

OCTOBER 24, 1994: Qubcois mobster Raynald Desjardins hit with a fifteen-year prison term for massive marijuana-smuggling conspiracy. While boss Vito Rizzuto is strongly suspected in the operation, Desjardins takes the fall.

MARCH 1999: Vito Rizzutos friend George (George from Canada) Sciascia murdered in New York City by Gambino crime family, with no reaction from Vitos bosses in Bonanno crime family.

JANUARY 19, 2004: Montreal strip club owner and former Rizzuto friend Paolo Gervasi shot dead. He was a mentor for several local mobsters, including Giuseppe (Ponytail) De Vito, who was once also considered part of the Rizzuto group.

JANUARY 20, 2004: Vito Rizzuto arrested at his Montreal mansion and told he faces deportation to New York in relation to the 1981 Three Captains Murders. He immediately begins prolonged legal battle to stay in Canada.

APRIL 21, 2004: Louise Russo, a forty-five-year-old mother of three, paralyzed by a stray bullet while standing at the counter of a California Sandwiches shop in North York, Toronto. The intended target of the hit team, mobster Michele (Mike, The American) Modica, escapes unscathed. Also in the sandwich shop and uninjured were Michael Marrese, convicted of mortgage fraud, Modicas bodyguard Andrea Fortunato Carbone and mobster Pietro Scaduto. Modica, Scaduto and Carbone are later deported from Canada to Sicily.

JUNE 2, 2004: Raynald Desjardins freed from prison on statutory release.