James Dubro - Mob Mistress: How a Canadian Housewife became a Mafia Playgirl

I was just a party girl... a dinner companion. I had frequent dinners with men for them from out of town. Sometimes I went to bed with them. I never asked what they did or where they were from. You weren't supposed to ask questions.... I got into some juicy parties. I played with them, you know. I played the game.

I really dont know what we talked about for seventeen years. We never talked about anything in the papers, anything that was going on.... It was just small talk all the time when they are around people, or else they talk amongst themselves and you just dont listenyou know that you dont listen at all. You knew your place.

When I was asked if I was a nymphomaniac, Id say No, I was looking for something. It wasnt there. I was attracted by the power they had. In bed, somehow I felt that this power might be transferred to me. I was looking for a power trip.

They have an odd sense of morality, especially considering what they do for a living.

Author Photo: Jon Lidolt
Copyright 1988 by James Dubro/Beacon Hill Productions and Shirley Ryce
Foreword to the 2019 edition copyright 2019 by James Dubro

This edition was first published 1988, Macmillan Canada, Toronto

This ebook edition: September, 2019

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior consent of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law.

To Ian Knox and Jack McCombs of the OPP,
who have worked long and hard,
above and beyond the call of duty,
to make Shirleys transition
from Mafia mistress to protected witness
enduring and safe.

O n Friday, August 16, 1930, a crowd gathered at the Railway Street home of Anthony Tony Papalia. He had just been released by the police after an aggressive interrogation about his alleged role in the murder of Bessie Starkman Perri, the common-law wife and second-in-command of Hamilton Mafia chieftain and unchallenged King of the Bootleggers, Rocco Perri. Tony Papalia, who had emigrated in 1900 from the same area of southern Calabria as Perri, had been a lieutenant for Rocco in bootlegging, as well as a close personal friend. Papalias cousin, Ned Italiano, also from southern Calabria, had recently been convicted of running a major narcotics-trafficking ring for Bessie Perri. A reporter from the Toronto Star was at the house at 19 Railway Street, which was in the heart of the Italian district, to find out what Papalia knew about the savage killing.

Bessie had been shot to death at close range by two gunmen as she emerged from her car in the garage behind the Perri mansion. She had taken the full blast of a double-barrelled shotgun, and over one hundred pellets had pierced her body, causing instant death. The gunmen then fled in an automobile with licence plates which were registered to Isadore Ladictoiria (as the name appeared in the press) of Niagara Falls. The plates were discarded down the street. Rocco, who had been with his wife, survived the attack without a scratch, though he claimed that he had been the real target of the gunmen.

Police knew that Tony Papalia had had unique access to the garage where the getaway cars plates had been stolen. Papalia and Domenic Pugliese, also of Railway Street, had visited the garage on the previous Sunday, August 10, on what police and garage personnel felt was a pretext. Tony had brought his Studebaker into the garage for some repair, but the mechanic, on looking it over, found that some bolts that were fastened on by lock washers were missing and some were loose. The mechanic told police that it was his opinion that the bolts were purposely loosened by someone. Furthermore, Papalia was seen to pass near the Ladictoiria car. Inspector John Miller, the senior OPP officer sent down to Hamilton by the Attorney General to investigate the murder, concluded that Papalia was involved in the setup of the murder. The report on his interrogation of Tony Papalia was part of an all-out police intelligence effort to find out what was known in the underworld about Bessie Perris murder.

Comb Sicilian Haunts for Mrs. Perri Slayers screamed a headline in the Toronto Star on August 16 in one of its four major front-page stories on the murder. Papalia, called by his nickname, Tony Popa, was portrayed as loyal to Rocco Perri, and he was interviewed surrounded by his children (including, one presumes, the eldest son, Johnny, then six years old, and Johns younger brother Frankie). He told the Toronto Star that Rocco is my friend even if I knew who did it, I would tell him first ... not the police....

When Miller later suggested to Rocco that his friend Tony Papalia might have had a hand in the set-up of his wifes murder, Rocco at first balked at the suggestion, saying that Papalia would not do anything against me, but after a while he granted that it could be a possibility. In his official report, Miller said Rocco replied that though he had never thought of it before in that light, he thought there might be something to it. Rocco went on to tell Miller that it was too early to learn who commit-ted the murder, but he assured Miller he would find out, if he wasnt himself knocked off first.

The murder was, of course, never solved, and an inquest found that it had been committed by persons unknown. There was some indication that the killers were from Rochester and that they killed Bessie for welshing on a payment for a large shipment of drugs. There is also some evidence that Don Stefano Magaddino, the leader of the powerful Mafia family that controlled organized crime and narcotics-trafficking in Buffalo and western New York State, sanctioned the murder. Rocco may have been forced to acquiesce to his wifes killing, and there is evidence that his good friend Tony Papalia was co-opted by the New York gang to offer tactical assistance to the hit team.