La Presse Edition of January 23, 2018,

MILENA DI MAULO
LIFE AFTER THE MAFIA
NATHALIE PETROWSKI

Is there life after the mafia? A normal life means without mountains of brown notes that accumulate on the tables, without lines of coke that go on forever, without jewelry and furs offered at will, without drivers and limousines, without hotels five stars, without filet mignon and Dom Pérignon, but also without police raids at home, without arrests, trials or prison sentences, and without relatives who fall under the bullets of enemy fire?

Is a normal life possible when we are the daughter of the late Joe Di Maulo, shot in front of his home in 2013, the niece of Raynald Desjardins, currently in prison, the goddaughter of the late Frank Cotroni and the ex-wife of his son , Frankie? According to Milena Di Maulo, who launches these days mafiosi girl and woman , a book about her life written by criminologist Maria Mourani, it seems that yes. On one condition: cut all existing links with his old family.

I met Milena Di Maulo yesterday afternoon in the middle of a day where she chained interviews after TVA and Paul Arcand had given her an hour of television Sunday night on the program Secret Conversation.

During the brief moment that I spent yesterday with this 51-year-old brunette who has the same cajoling smile as her father, she told me everything and her opposite. That she had cut the bridges with the mafia milieu, its restaurants and nightclubs, 12 years ago. But she had kept the money from her father's inheritance and her two children, aged 20 and 22, proudly bore the name Di Maulo Cotroni. Why proudly? "Because they had a great grandfather who brought them to the restaurant and spent hours talking to them and taking an interest in them," says Milena.

Yet this great grandfather, in this case Joseph Di Maulo, whom she affectionately defends in an interview, is described in the book as an inadequate, irresponsible father, a monster of selfishness and greed, ready to betray his own daughter out of greed. For his 15 years, this father has offered his "princess" a Jaguar. She did not have a driver's license? Never mind, Dad paid a girl to fraudulently pass Milena's driver's license instead. When her darling daughter wanted to drop out of school at age 16, Dad did nothing to restrain her. Instead of calling her to order, he gave her $ 500 in spending money for the evening and let her hang out at all the cabarets he ran.


"My father loved me, but his love, he gave it in money. Still, if he and my mother had encouraged me to continue my studies, I would be a cardiovascular surgeon today, "she says with self-esteem who is not afraid of heights or comparisons.

The fact remains that the father was too busy running his clubs and scheming shady business, and the mother, too taken by alcohol and drugs to worry about the schooling of young Milena. Result: from the age of 16, she has landed to live a life of sex, drugs and disco, worthy of Scarface , the classic of Brian de Palma on a baron of drugs in Miami who goes crazy and drowns in the white powder he sells.

"Me too, I put a nose to the sight of all in the restaurants of Miami. I did not care, I was flying, frozen, constantly on the party and surrounded people who said to themselves my friends and who were not. Did I care where the money came from? Let's say that I was playing the ostrich. "

- Milena Di Maulo

From this period, which was finally rather sinister when the Mafia's daughter was on the run without anyone coming to her aid, she would say with almost dreamy eyes: "Being my father's daughter opened so many doors to me everywhere. In planes, hotels, restaurants. I lived the glamorous life of a Hollywood star. "

A glamorous life, really? What glamor can there be to enjoy dirty money, done on the back of prostitution, drug trafficking, corruption, and won most often in violence and blood? In this regard, we feel that Milena Di Maulo continues to play a little ostrich, still dazzled by the pomp she has experienced.

She repeats what she said to Paul Arcand on the program Secret Conversation about her marriage, which she said was the biggest wedding ever in Quebec and Canada. The biggest, really? I remind her of the weddings of Celine Dion, Justin Trudeau and Mulroney. It persists: "Me, my marriage was nothing short of nothing. It was 100% glamorous, elegant and classy. People have talked about it everywhere. We had rented the whole island of La Saulaie. The centerpieces were immense montages of fruits. It was a seven-course meal. People had the choice between two meals, all for a thousand people! Even though at first my father was against my marriage to Frankie, he put the package to impress me, but also to please Frank Cotroni, my father-in-law. "

Life was good for Mafia's daughter and wife, yet she could not get rid of a dull anger. This anger throbbed in her since childhood and the moment she realized that her father, her hero, lied to him with impunity. This anger finally broke out when, out of pure greed, Joe Di Maulo destroyed Joisse Milena, the thriving vinaigrette business his daughter had managed to ride without him.

When Milena Di Maulo was forced to declare bankruptcy because of her father's shenanigans, she stopped talking to him and even let him into her house. It was a breaking point and a turning point. Their relationship was never the same until the death of the mafiosi, shot in front of his home in 2013. His daughter then went into therapy to heal the anger that inhabited. The therapy was prolonged with Maria Mourani and her 56 hours of interview with Milena in preparation for the book.

Today, Milena says she is a liberated woman of immense weight, who cherishes her children and loves to wander through nature without her mafia girl's high heels. She has been dating for a few years a man who has nothing to do with the mafia.

She believes that her book is a bomb, but at the same time, she says she does not fear for her life. The light that exposes it for a few days seems to make him happy. However, she agrees that once the spotlight is turned off, she could disappear and start her life elsewhere, where no one knows Joe Di Maulo's daughter.

Milena Di Maulo - Mafiosi girl and woman

Maria Mourani