by Lamothe, Lee
Brooklyn murders
as “cooperating witness,”
Coppa’s implications
death of Perrino
death of Sciascia
defection of
FBI bug
on Ferrugia
on Galante
on informants
J&S Cake
on Joe Bonanno
LoPresti death
Massino’s distrust of
Massino’s phone codes
meeting with Vito Rizzuto
order for Tuzzio murder
parking lot business
Persian rug smuggling
on Rastelli’s death
on Sciascia
Sciascia’s funeral
working for Massino
on the Zips
“Vito Ruzzuto’s Criminal Affiliations by Kinship and Intermarriage,”
Vulcania
W
Wagner, Richard
“war wagons,”
Waters, Ethel
weapons smuggling
Weinberg, Barry
West End Gang
Wilborn’s Restaurant
Williams, John
Windsor, Ontario
Winton, Danny
Woodbridge, Ontario
Wyckoff Heights Medical Center
Y
York Grill
York Regional Police
Z
Zaffarano, Michael “Mikey Z,”
Zappia, Beniamino
Zappia, Giuseppe “Joseph,”
Zappia International
Zarbo, Jennie
Zbikowski, Stephan, Jr.
Zbikowski, Stephan, Sr.
Zicarelli, Joseph “Joe Bayonne,”
Zips
acceptance of
allegiances
Alphonse Indelicato and
Bonanno dissension
at Bono wedding
Brooklyn murders
drug trafficking
entry through Canada
FBI interest in
Galante and
illegal immigrant smuggling
influx of
investigation of
reorganization and
support of Massino
view of
Zita, William
About the Authors
Adrian Humphreys covers organized crime for the National Post and is the author of The Enforcer, the best-selling biography of Johnny “Pops” Papalia, one of North America’s longest-reigning Mafia bosses. He was the principal consultant for History Television’s popular series “Mob Stories” and has written on crime for the Chicago Sun-Times, Britain’s Daily Telegraph and Reader’s Digest. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Lee Lamothe is the author of the bestseller Bloodlines: The Rise and Fall of the Mafia’s Royal Family; Global Mafia: The New World Order of Organized Crime; Angels, Mobsters & Narco-Terrorists; and The Last Thief, a novel about the Russian Mafia. As a journalist and writer, he has covered organized crime across North America, Europe, South America and Asia.
A FAMILY AFFAIR
VITO RIZZUTO (top, on the right) stands solemnly with his father, Nicolò, and mother, Libertina, at the marriage of Vito’s eldest son in 1995. Vito is recognized as the current leader of the Sixth Family, a powerful Mafia organization more than a century old. Vito typically wears appropriate attire as the head of a corporate-like Mafia, such as in 1998 (bottom left) and more recently (bottom right).
FAMILY ROOTS
THE SIXTH FAMILY’S ROOTS are in Cattolica Eraclea, a remote village of 6,000 in the southwestof Italy’s island of Sicily, the birthplace of the Mafia. The roadside sign (above) alerts the few visitors who come to wander these narrow streets (below).
A FIRST GENERATION of the Sixth Family moved to America in 1925, including Vito Rizzuto (left), who provided a name and an outlaw culture to a grandson who would become notoriouson three continents. With him was Calogero Renda (right), his brother-in-law, whose descendents would remain at the Rizzuto family’s side. They moved quickly to New York, where the American Mafia was forming. Once there, Rizzuto met a messy end and sparked a U.S. visa fraud scandal.
THE VITO RIZZUTO of this generation was working his way through school in Montreal while his father, Nicolò, built formidable criminal ties in Canada, Europe and South America. Vito, well-dressed and smiling, is in the middle of the back row in this high school photograph.
NEW YORK LOOKS NORTH: Joe Bonanno, who gave his name to the Bonanno Family (far left) took an early interest in Canada. Carmine Galante, his underboss, (top, middle) secured Montreal for the family, an interest later maintained by subsequent Bonanno bosses, including Philip Rastelli (top, right). Joe Bonanno’s son, Bill, (below, second from left) met with Luigi Greco (below, far left) while in Canada with a group of New York gangsters for Vito’s wedding in 1966, a visit ending in their arrest. The men are seen at their arraignment in a Montreal Court, below.
EVOLUTION
VITO’S STYLE and fashion has changed with the times, as seen in his police booking shots. From 1973 (top) when in jail for a botched arson; 1982 (middle left) when charged with hashish importation;1986 (middle right) during another drug arrest; and finally, (left) in a photo taken in 2004 when he was arrested for drunk driving. This photo was used by U.S. authorities in their request for his extradition.Despite the arrests, Vito has not been convicted of any crimes since 1972—until he faced American justice 35 years later..
OPPOSITION IN MONTREAL came from two men, Vic Cotroni (top left), the old Godfather, and Paolo Violi (top right) his street boss. Violi’s mob secrets were aired at a public crime commission and he was called to testify, as seen above. Despite his refusal to cooperate, he was killed soon after (below), securing Montreal for the Sixth Family.
“THE ZIPS”
THE BONO WEDDING in 1980 was a meet-and-greet for drug barons; when photographs from the wedding were seized by the FBI, it was an intelligence coup. (top) Vito, Joe LoPresti and Gerlando Sciascia pose at the Sixth Family’s table (with police-adhered name tags stuck on the photos). Santo Giordano, a fellow “Zip,” is seated at the far left of the photo in a light-gray suit. (middle) Cesare Bonventre and Baldo Amato (standing above Bonventre) at their table. Sal Catalano, the Zips’ Brooklyn street boss (left), was among the hundreds of guests, not all of whom were involved in crime.
THE THREE CAPTAINS
Alphonse “Sonny Red” INDELICATO
Philip “Philly Lucky” GIACONNE
Dominick “Big Trinny” TRINCHERA
A NEW YORK REBELLION was led by “Sonny Red” Indelicato (seen in the bottom picture, in briefs, walking with his son, Bruno) supported by “Philly Lucky” and “Big Trinny.” Sonny Red’s faction, seen at the Bono wedding (middle), was an early distributor of the Sixth Family’s heroin in New York. Their relationship soured, however, and members of the Sixth Family then joined with Joe Massino in plotting to quell the rebellious group.
AFTERMATH
THE DAY AFTER the three captains were massacred in Brooklyn, the FBI caught Vito Rizzuto (middle, with garment bag and cigarette) leaving a motel in the Bronx with Joe Massino (far right), Gerlando Sciascia (left) and Giovanni Ligamarri, another Zip involved in their drug ring.
WEEKS LATER, Sonny Red’s body was found in a vacant lot in Queens. He had been shot and dumped in a shallow grave. His slaying would not be solved for more than 20 years.
SONNY BLACK was found dead and rotting outdoors after his New York colleagues learned that Donnie Brasco, the supposed crook he was pushing for Mafia membership, was actually an undercover FBI agent. He refused the government’s protection and embraced his underworld death sentence: “Hit me one more time; make it good,” he said, after being shot and wounded by his mob pals. They complied.
CESARE BONVENTRE fared no better, despite his standing as a leader among the Zips and a friend of the Sixth Family. In 1984, just as he was about to be arrested in the Pizza Connection case, he
was also brutally killed by his colleagues. When police found his body in a New Jersey warehouse it was in two pieces, each half in a different metal drum.
DRUGS FLOWED into North America by plane, train, boat and truck, thanks to the Sixth Family. In 1987, police seized the trawler Charlotte Louise (above) on the east coast of Canada and eventually found a load of hashish hidden in its water tanks (left). Police suspect it was one of many.
TOO MUCH MONEY was a problem. To launder some of their cash, the Sixth Family turned to Joe Lagana, a Montreal lawyer, who used what he thought was a crooked money exchange service but was really an undercover RCMP operation. Lagana (above middle, in suit) and another lawyer (right) meet with undercover officers as they launder $91 million, some of which is seen on the exchange service’s desk (left).
“GEORGE FROM CANADA”
GERLANDO SCIASCIA was the Sixth Family’s man in New York, earning him the nickname “George from Canada” and attracting intense interest from federal agents (seen in FBI pictures above) until Bonanno boss Joe Massino felt threatened. It meant a messy end for Sciascia in 1999 (below), an attack Massino was desperate to hide from Vito and would lead to Massino’s downfall.
VITO’S FATHER, Nicolò Rizzuto, was clearly unhappy during his arrest in Venezuela in 1988 (left) although he appears far happier a few years later, below. At bottom, as he is often seen on the streets of Montreal, well dressed and wearing a fedora. He is seen here walking with Paolo Renda, Rocco Sollecito, Pietro Triassi and Francesco Arcadi in 1999.
FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Domenico MANNO
Paolo RENDA
Emanuele RAGUSA
Agostino CUNTRERA
Joseph LOPRESTI (middle) with Vito and Giuseppe BONO in 1980 (with police labels).
FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Leonardo RIZZUTO
Nick RIZZUTO
Francesco DEL BALSO
Lorenzo GIORDANO
Alfonso CARUANA
Giacinto ARCURI
Frank CAMPOLI
Gaetano PANEPINTO
Giuseppe TORRE
VITO AND HIS FAMILY lived a comfortable life in Montreal. Vito’s mansion (bottom) features a three-port garage. In a row on the same short street are the homes of his father, Nicolò (top), and brother-in-law, Paolo Renda (middle).
RIZZUTO HEADQUARTERS is a café in Montreal that, despite its name, is decidedly unwelcomingto outsiders (top). For decades, police have watched Vito from afar: (middle left) with Antonio and Roberto Papalia, businessmen in Vancouver, in 2001; (middle right) at a boxing match in 1983; (bottom) on the phone while walking with Claude Sénécal (2) and Anthony Volpato (3) in 1991.
GROWING PAINS
SHOWING RESPECT in 2000 at the funeral of Gaetano Panepinto, one of Vito’s men in Ontario. Walking down the church steps are (left to right in white shirts) Francesco Arcadi, Rocco Sollecito, Joe Renda and Paolo Renda. Panepinto’s murder was one of several stumbles as the Sixth Family absorbed Ontario.
VITO RIZZUTO (seated, left) with Juan “Joe Bravo” Fernandez (seated, right) and Frank Campoli (standing, right). Fernandez was later arrested and Vito’s ties to Campoli were revealed.
THE RATS OF NEW YORK
“Big Joey” MASSINO
“Good-Looking Sal” VITALE
Frank “Curly” LINO
Frank COPPA
“Goldie” LEISENHEIMER
“Shellackhead” CANTARELLA
UNDER SEIGE
VITO RIZZUTO leans in close to listen to one of his lawyers, Jean Salois, after a court appearancein Montreal on February 6, 2004, following his arrest on U.S. charges that he was a gunman in the Brooklyn purge of three rival Mafia captains. After spending 16 nights in jail, Vito looked tired and weary from the ordeal, but it was far from over. He and his team of lawyers fought hard for more than two years to remain in Canada, taking his case to the SupremeCourt of Canada—but to no avail. As soon as the Supreme Court declined to hear his case, Vito was removed from his cell and placed on board a waiting airplane. That afternoon he appeared for the first time in a Brooklyn court, where he pleaded not guilty and was whisked to a crowded detention center, where he again waited while his lawyers worked.
INNER SANCTUM: Many members of the Sixth Family apparently felt safe behind the closed doors of their semi-private Montreal headquarters, the Club Social Consenza. Little did they know that police were secretly watching and listening, such as (top) when Paolo Renda, Nick Rizzuto, Frank Arcadi, Rocco Sollecito and a visitor allegedly divided up money; and (below) when Nick allegedly stuffed money down his socks.
PROJECT COLISÉE
THE RCMP HAILED their efforts in 2006 against the Sixth Family as “one of the most importantpolice operations in the history of Canada” that challenged “the pinnacles of organized crime.” The four-year, joint operation led to charges of gangsterism, drug trafficking, illegal gambling, attempted murder, extortion, the corruption of public servants and the possession of illegal guns. Police say they also tracked the cross-border movement of drugs and money, including those pictured above. Code named Project Colisée, French for “Colosseum,” the famous ampitheatre of Ancient Rome, the operation was hugely expensive.
POLICE ACTION came swift for men Canadian police allege were among the top bosses of the Rizzuto organization. While Vito was fighting charges in the United States, his father, Nicolò (top left), brother-in-law, Paolo Renda (top right), Frank Arcadi (bottom left) and Rocco Sollecito(bottom right) were arrested in Project Colisée. They were awaiting trial in Montreal as 2007 came to a close.
A NEW YORK MINUTE
PLEAS OF POVERTY from Vito (second from right) as he was sentenced for his role in the gangland massacre of the three captains drew the ire of U.S. Judge Nicholas Garaufis (far left) in May 2007. Vito said he was broke and unable to pay a fine to accompany his 10 years of prison. Federal prosecutor Greg Andres (second from left, arms behind back) said the claim was absurd. “Like everyone in the mob, his relatives hold all the assets,” he said in court. The judge agreed and ordered him to pay the maximum fine allowed under law: $250,000. In this courtroom sketch, Vito stands between his two U.S. lawyers, John Mitchell on his left and David Schoen on his right. It could well be Vito’s last public appearance before his release, scheduled for October 6, 2012.
