The third chapter looks interesting.
3. North of the Border (1918-1921)
A Calabrian criminal network in Canada dominates early Prohibition Era rackets.
Wartime Prohibition, the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act ban alcohol sales and open black market opportunities. Buffalo becomes a major conduit for illegal liquor.
The 1918 murder of James Celona of Hamilton, Ontario, is the first of many regional gangland killings during the Prohibition Era. Rocco Perri is the primary beneficiary of Celona’s death. He takes over a Calabrian bootlegging operation in Hamilton and becomes the equal of regional gang bosses, the Scaroni brothers and Joseph Sirianni. The 1922 murders of Domenic and Salvatore Scaroni leave Perri in control of the Calabrian bootlegging network in Ontario.
Angelo Palmeri becomes a leader in the Niagara Falls underworld and a link between the Calabrian and Sicilian criminal societies of the region.
Authorities believe the murders of Salvatore Russo and Frank Ulizzi are related to bootlegging. Evidence shows Russo and Ulizzi involvement in a regional burglary ring. A bootleggers quarrel with the Vaccaro brothers takes the life of Giuseppe DiCarlo friend Crocevera and results in charges against Joseph DiCarlo.
Calabrian and Sicilian bootlegging operations catch the attention of Prohibition agents.
It appears Perri was involved in bootlegging into Falls and Buffalo but was able to keep Buffalo/Falls out of Hamilton/Toronto until Magaddino arrived and took over for Palmeri and rose in power after DiCarlo Sr.’s death. He then had Perri’s friend Tony Papalia kill Perri’s wife.
The underworld violence of the period spread north across the border and reached the home of Rocco Perri, boss of the Calabrian bootlegging network in Ontario. On August 13, 1930, Rocco Perri and his wife Bessie went to visit a relative. They returned to their home in Hamilton at eleven-thirty-five that evening. Bessie was driving their car. She parked the car in their garage, and the Perris stepped out. Bessie took just a few steps when shotgun blasts erupted from inside the garage. Rocco Perri jumped into a back alley and spotted a neighbor who was out walking his dog. The two men cautiously returned to the garage. There they found Bessie dead in a pool of blood. Rocco collapsed, crying in grief over the loss of his wife and rackets partner.[ 1209] The authorities were aware that. in her husband’s bootlegging enterprises. Some considered her the financial brains of the illicit business. The investigation of Bessie’s killing was built upon the assumption that gunmen deliberately targeted her. The police were able to assemble a long list of Bessie’s enemies. She was not well liked and had a reputation for greed. One of the suspects was Tony Papalia, a friend and fellow countryman of Perri who had become a supporter of western New York boss Stefano Magaddino.[ 1210] However, the police could not build a convincing murder case against Papalia or anyone else on their list of suspects.[ 1211] In the Ontario underworld, Bessie’s murder was viewed as a message: Stefano Magaddino’s western New York Mafia, which had been the junior partner of the Calabrians for years, was ready to take control of the region.
Looks like Buffalo has had a long history of working with Calabrians across the border—going back to nearly the beginning of mafia history in the area.