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Authors: Lee Lamothe
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was a mess from the start, reaching “violent and bizarre extremes,” a judge noted. The jury had not even been selected when Salvatore Panico, one of Galante’s co-accused, started shouting abuse. Panico would later climb into the jury box and walk from one end to the other, pushing the jurors in the front row and screaming angry slurs at them and the judge. Anthony Mirra, who decades later would be killed by his own kin for unwittingly introducing an FBI agent into the Bonanno organization, was also charged. He took the stand in his own defence and, under a testy cross-examination, picked up his witness chair and hurled it at the prosecutor who was grilling him. It narrowly missed the prosecutor and shattered against the jury box. Some of the defendants sat through the remainder of the trial shackled and gagged; 11 were later convicted of contempt of court.
“More abhorrent conduct in a federal court and before a federal judge would be difficult to conceive,” the appeal court judges noted. The gangsters’ disruptive efforts were in vain. Galante was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
While Galante had other things on his mind, what most concerned Vic Cotroni was that the removal of Galante from the streets stripped the Montreal boss of his conduit into New York.
MONTREAL, 1960s
Against the backdrop of international underworld intrigue, the city of Montreal continued to grow and to bleed as the newly reorganized Mafia tightened its stranglehold. An emerging presence in the milieu was a man who shared Joe Bonanno’s belief in the power of Sicilian stock: Nick Rizzuto.
Considered a soldier in what police were then calling the “Montreal Bonanno Faction,” Nick had quickly become something of a lightning rod, attracting around him a tough, tight crew of transplanted Sicilian gangsters. Nick was a good earner, a contributor who was ambitious and strong, respectful and aggressive—depending on what the circumstances required. Within the Sicilian wing, led by Luigi Greco, Nick carried himself a noticeable cut above the rabble, drawing on his connections to his father-in-law, Antonio Manno, and his network of Agrigento clans to further his criminal interests. In these early years, Nick formed his Mafia organization in Montreal with support from his extended family, such as Calogero Renda, his uncle who had arrived in America in 1925 alongside Nick’s father, and Domenico Manno, Nick’s brother-in-law. The Sixth Family was starting to make its mark.
As Nick’s criminal organization grew, so, too, did his personal family. At the time of the Palermo meetings, Vito Rizzuto, Nick’s only son, had not yet turned 11, his daughter, Maria, was a year younger. The Rizzuto children were growing up in Montreal’s Villeray district and in Saint-Léonard, two largely Italian neighborhoods. Vito was plodding his way through school in Montreal and would eventually complete Grade 9 at St. Pius X High School, an English-language Catholic school. He was also being tutored in what would become his true calling. Young Vito was immersed in outlaw culture from the day he was born and, as he grew, he assimilated the accepted and expected behavior of his family. Everywhere Vito looked, on both sides of the family, he encountered outlaw role models (just as his own children would a generation later). Vito was carefully groomed in the old ways, while having in his grasp all the latitude and promise of the changing times.
At every turn, he was taught the importance of staying close to his kin.
CHAPTER 6
BOUCHERVILLE, QUEBEC, MAY 16, 1968
The fire alarm sounded a little after 1 a.m. at the Centre d’Achat Place-la-Seigneurie, a small shopping mall in Boucherville, a suburb of Montreal on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River.
The clamor roused members of the town’s fire department, who quickly arrived in force; 23 firefighters would respond that night, hauling out the six hoses they would need to attack the flames that
“More abhorrent conduct in a federal court and before a federal judge would be difficult to conceive,” the appeal court judges noted. The gangsters’ disruptive efforts were in vain. Galante was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
While Galante had other things on his mind, what most concerned Vic Cotroni was that the removal of Galante from the streets stripped the Montreal boss of his conduit into New York.
MONTREAL, 1960s
Against the backdrop of international underworld intrigue, the city of Montreal continued to grow and to bleed as the newly reorganized Mafia tightened its stranglehold. An emerging presence in the milieu was a man who shared Joe Bonanno’s belief in the power of Sicilian stock: Nick Rizzuto.
Considered a soldier in what police were then calling the “Montreal Bonanno Faction,” Nick had quickly become something of a lightning rod, attracting around him a tough, tight crew of transplanted Sicilian gangsters. Nick was a good earner, a contributor who was ambitious and strong, respectful and aggressive—depending on what the circumstances required. Within the Sicilian wing, led by Luigi Greco, Nick carried himself a noticeable cut above the rabble, drawing on his connections to his father-in-law, Antonio Manno, and his network of Agrigento clans to further his criminal interests. In these early years, Nick formed his Mafia organization in Montreal with support from his extended family, such as Calogero Renda, his uncle who had arrived in America in 1925 alongside Nick’s father, and Domenico Manno, Nick’s brother-in-law. The Sixth Family was starting to make its mark.
As Nick’s criminal organization grew, so, too, did his personal family. At the time of the Palermo meetings, Vito Rizzuto, Nick’s only son, had not yet turned 11, his daughter, Maria, was a year younger. The Rizzuto children were growing up in Montreal’s Villeray district and in Saint-Léonard, two largely Italian neighborhoods. Vito was plodding his way through school in Montreal and would eventually complete Grade 9 at St. Pius X High School, an English-language Catholic school. He was also being tutored in what would become his true calling. Young Vito was immersed in outlaw culture from the day he was born and, as he grew, he assimilated the accepted and expected behavior of his family. Everywhere Vito looked, on both sides of the family, he encountered outlaw role models (just as his own children would a generation later). Vito was carefully groomed in the old ways, while having in his grasp all the latitude and promise of the changing times.
At every turn, he was taught the importance of staying close to his kin.
CHAPTER 6
BOUCHERVILLE, QUEBEC, MAY 16, 1968
The fire alarm sounded a little after 1 a.m. at the Centre d’Achat Place-la-Seigneurie, a small shopping mall in Boucherville, a suburb of Montreal on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River.
The clamor roused members of the town’s fire department, who quickly arrived in force; 23 firefighters would respond that night, hauling out the six hoses they would need to attack the flames that
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