and on the scoppa book after finishing the tiny barely 250 pg. book i was pissed. i thought for sure it would be full of revelations about a long timeline in crime by a high level mafia operator. it wasn't exactly that. parts were articles long discussed on this forum and pulled directly from the archives of the authors or there quebec press colleagues. many on here have read posted and dissected them ad nauseam...i guess for the unacquainted on the subject they may have been useful but for a longtime researcher and mafia buff absolutely pointless. another pointless subject the bowel afflictions of mr.scoppa who cares.
however it did shed some light on the cutthroat world that is the mafia in MTL. if we are to believe scoppas confessions about a laundry list of murders committed in the melieu many did not happen because of long seething vendettas or a media driven narrative about the sicilian vs. calabrian nonsense. the majority of these murders were simply over money and territory.
for those who have not or will not read the book feel free to ask some questions. there can be many on a wide range of topics. i went back over and pulled some notes as frustratingly there was no index. ask on spoiler alert......the scoppa bros didnt make it.
I hear you on the books format. But you gotta listen to what the authors said about Scoppa. He had ill intentions of using these guys like a weapon, like almost like his own personal propaganda machine. He was a lot like Greg Scarpa to me. They published what could be independently verified by MULTIPLE SOURCES. Then published the sources. Honestly, it reminded me of the boards, where no one takes what you say seriously unless you provide a Law Enforcement file and 2 or 3 articles. They had to do it like this I think, if they publish everything Scoppa wanted, he would have probably been pinning murders on people and who knows what. He woulda got them sued for sure.
And like you, I was also surprised how much beef was over money and territory. Just street shit. And I was VERY shocked at how many Italians actually directly ran street distribution. I couldnt believe they formed a " Co- Op" with the Hells Angels. And there WERE surprises. Valiquette being one of the biggest.
I was surprised at Vito owing money. Mostly because I assumed Vito controlled the sports gambling. I was NOT surprised when Scoppa insinuated that Alfonso Caruana pulled Vitos strings, or at least, greatly influenced him. And that HE was really the rich one. Arcadi started the War, then fled at the 1st sign of danger. The Rizzutos inertia after 1st the Renda, then Nick Jr. hits was startling. The Renda hit is the REAL mystery to me..... I was shocked at how scared they were of Ducarme Joseph, how dependent on Whooley Sollecito was, and on how VICIOUS Sollecito was.
One of the most interesting revelations was that Montreal has, and if I'm incorrect, feel free to let me know, but Montreal has ONE SPORTSBOOK, with " Investors". And Montreal no longer controls the Platinum book.
I'm trying to understand when that happened, and how?
