According to multiple turncoats (Vitale + Cicale, just to name a couple) NY still got a yearly tribute from Montreal and just the fact that Montagna could create a civil war proved that he had some REAL power.
On March 18, 1999, the bullet-ridden body of Gerlando Sciascia was tossed from a truck into a Bronx street.
Sciascia was known in New York as “George from Canada,” a nickname noting his position as the Montreal mob’s man in New York’s Bonanno Family, one of the famed Five Mafia Families of New York.
Sciascia’s murder, at the time, was a mystery, and police scrutinized his wake and funeral as dozens of ranking mafiosi paid respects to the Montreal gangster.
Renda was among the mourners, according to testimony from Salvatore “Good-Looking Sal” Vitale, who was the Bonanno Family’s underboss at the time (but who since became a government witness.)
He described Renda as a “goodfellow in our family.” He was also a relative of Sciascia’s.
The significance of the murder, however, as would later be revealed, was that it was secretly ordered by Bonanno boss Joseph “Big Joey” Massino, who asked his inner circle to never let Rizzuto know as he did not want to alienate the powerful clan of mobsters in Montreal.
The murder severed Rizzuto’s link to New York. He largely turned his back on the American gangsters from then on. The regular flow of “tribute” money from Canada to New York also ended.“He was very hurt by what happened to George,” Vitale said of Rizzuto.
