History of the Rizzuto Crime Family by Jack Marino of Amici Journal
The Montreal Mob was started as a crew within the Bonanno crime family by crime boss Joseph Bonanno in 1952. The crew was headed by Vic Cotroni in the 1950s and by the 1960s the group evolved into an important branch of the Bonanno crime family. They once controlled most of southern Quebec and Ontario. In 1954 Nicolo Rizzuto moved to Montreal from Cattolica Eraclea, Sicily. He started working for Cotroni as a heroin dealer and mob associate. Nicolo profited handsomely from heroin dealing, illegal gambling, fraud and contract killings. Nicolo became disgusted with the leaders of the Cotroni crew, who were mostly of Calabrese descent. In 1969, he formed a meeting with Vic Cotroni and his right hand man Paolo Violi. Nicolo told them he was an associate for 14 years and wanted them to make him a made member of the American Mafia. They told him he couldn't be made at that time. In 1972 Rizzuto heard Violi had a murder contract on him and so he fled to Caracas, Venezuela, where he stayed with a Sicilian drug lord and childhood friend. In 1975 Rizzuto moved back to Montreal and started his own crew, after he heard Cotroni and Violi were doing a year in jail for lying in court about their mob membership. This gave Rizzuto the chance to overthrow the Cotroni crew.
The Rizzuto crime organization was created to respond and counter the Cotroni's continued pressure tactics against Sicilian crime figures in the area. The Sicilians were constantly bullied and harassed by Cotroni and his crew. In January 1978, Violi was shot to death by two Rizzuto gunmen outside a Montreal bar. In September 1978, Frank Borello, a Cotroni soldier was brutally murdered. In October 1980, Violi's brother Rocco was killed near his house by the Rizzuto's. They decided not to kill Vic Cotroni, over him being in really poor health at the time. Cotroni passed away in 1984. Nicolo Rizzuto was said to have made his peace with Cotroni in December 1980.
In May 1981, Rizzuto's son Vito was dispatched to New York to help out in the murders of the three capos opposed to Bonanno crime family boss, Philip Rastelli. The men killed were Alphonse Indelicato, Dominick Trinchera and Philip Giaccone. The capos were shot to death with shotguns and pistols. According to FBI agent Joseph Pistone, the murderers were Bonanno mobsters Dominick Napolitano, Joseph Massino, Salvatore Vitale, Joseph DeSimone, Nicholas Santora, Vito Rizzuto, Louis Giongetti, Santo Giordano and Gerlando Sciascia. Benjamin Ruggiero and John Cersani were lookouts, and were sent in after to clean up and dispose of the bodies. Vito was indicted on the murders of the three men in January 2003. Nicolo Rizzuto retired from the mafia a year later and made Vito the boss. On May 4, 2007, Vito pleaded guilty to being present at the triple murder. As part of a plea bargain agreement, he received a 10-year prison sentence to be followed by a three-year supervised release. Vito testified that he was involved in the affair, but had only yelled "It's a holdup" while the other mobsters did the shooting. Vito was also involved in the Mafia involvement in building a bridge that would connect the Italian mainland with Sicily. The Rizzuto crime organization did not become a crime family of La Cosa Nostra until the murder of Gerlando Sciascia in March 1999.
Vito Rizzuto will be released from prison next October. He still has important allies in Montreal, New York and Sicily, waiting for him to return. A few months ago, he said that it is very lonely in his dark cell in Florence, Colorado. Will Vito avenge the murders of his father and son? We will have to see what happens when he gets out of prison.
