One of the most widely acclaimed and most popular films of all time remains Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. The film portrays the inner workings of the high profile New York city fictional crime family, the Corleones. The family is originally headed by Vito, whose poor health and eventual death coincide with the rise of his son Michael, who takes over the family as a far more ruthless, unforgiving but also successful boss. Towards the end of the film, audiences witness one of the most famous murder montages in movie history, as all the heads of the other four New York crime families and other high profile mobsters are killed with the approval of the new Godfather, Michael. The violence and symbolism of these murders may be dismissed by many as “Hollywood influence”, but the history of the Mafia has validated this montage not only in famous mob dominated cities such as New York and Chicago, but also in a city that is familiar to most of us.
It was 1954 when Nicolo Rizzuto immigrated to Montreal, Quebec from Sicily. Nicolo, commonly referred to as Nick by friends, family and the media, was no stranger to organized crime when he arrived in the country. His father, ironically named Vito, moved to New York City in the 1920s. He became associated with the New York mafia and was killed in 1933 by rival gangsters. His son wasted no time in following his father’s footsteps upon immigrating to Montreal. He quickly became associated with the Cotroni crime family. The Cotroni family was headed by Vic Cotroni, who died of cancer in 1984. However, Vic remained largely shielded by the Violi brothers, who acted as capos (the high-ranking “head of soldiers”) for the regime. The Cotroni family and most if its members were of Calabrian descent.
The Cotronis were widely acknowledged to have full control of Montreal’s lucrative drug trade. Their close association with the powerful Bonnano crime family of New York City (the FBI considerd the Cotronis to be a branch of the much larger Bonnano family) allowed for easy access to narcotics that could be distributed throughout the city. However, Nicolo Rizzuto would soon challenge the seemingly unmovable Cotroni family and its underboss, Paolo Violi. His close ties to the Cotroni family angered members of the Calabrian mafia, who resented not only Rizzuto’s Sicilian heritage but also his secrecy and uncontrollable nature.
Knowing this, Nicolo Rizzuto built up his own Sicilian crew in Montreal mainly through ties with the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan and other known Sicilian gangsters. The Cuntrera-Caruana clan, like Rizzuto, originated in Sicily before members began emigrating first to Canada and then to the United States and Venezuela. The Cuntrera-Caruana clan played a large role in global drug trafficking and money laundering for many Sicilian mob families. With likely help from the Cuntrera-Caruana clan, Nicolo Rizzuto travelled to Columbia and Venezuela to build relationships with drug cartels to ensure a steady narcotics supply to Montreal. With his own source of drugs and a built up clan, tensions began to rise between the Cotroni family and the Rizzutos, with a war akin to that seen in the Godfather soon to break out.
These tensions finally broke out into war on Valentine’s Day of 1976, when Cotroni consigliere (adviser to the boss) and money man, Pietro Sciara, was shot and killed outside of a Montreal theatre. To further add to the irony, he had just finished watching the Godfather Part II with his wife. Sciara’s dead body was left on the street. The war escalated with a further victory for the Rizzutos in February of 1977, with the murder of Francesco, brother to Paolo Violi’s brother. Francesco was considered the muscleman of the family. His body was further mutilated by shotgun wounds in a murder that was not only violent but bold, having occurred in a Violi-owned business. The next murder occured in January of 1978, with underboss Paolo Violi being killed with a close range shotgun wound to the head at his his own cafe. The Rizzuto family’s position as controller of the Montreal underworld was cemented for the foreseeable future in October of 1980 with the murder of Rocco Violi, who was shot and killed by a sniper while sitting at his own kitchen table. With this, all three Violi brothers were buried side by side at the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery at the top of Mont Royal. They were left to look over the city that was once theirs, now ruled by their despised rival, the Sicilian Nicolo Rizzuto. Rizzuto turned the Montreal based family into Canada’s most successful and longest reigning crime family, with his family’s dealings recently implicating many high profile construction bosses and politicians in Quebec’s recent bid rigging investigations.
However, as stated by Mario Puzo in his novel The Godfather, from which the films were based, ‘revenge is a dish that is best served cold’. On December 28th, 2009, Nick Rizzuto Jr., Nicolo’s eldest son and a family street boss, was shot and killed and like Pietro Sciara, was left to be found on the Montreal streetside. The violence against the Rizzuto family was escalated on May 20, 2010, with the disappearance of Paolo Renda, son-in-law of Nicolo. Evidence shows that Renda, widely believed to be the Rizzuto consigliere and money man, was stopped by a vehicle with flashing lights on his way home from a golf game. Police found his empty vehicle on the side of the road, with the doors wide open, after his worried wife informed police that he was late returning home. He has not been seen since. Just over a month later, Augusta Contrera, believed to be acting boss of the Rizzuto family, was killed just outside of his own food distribution business. The method of execution: a close range shotgun wound to the head, a death filled with symbolic similarity to that of Paolo Violi. On November 10th, 2010, 86 year old Nicolo Rizzoto sat down at his own kitchen table for dinner, much like Rocco Violi did on a fall evening in 1980. His meal ended much like Rocco’s did: Nicolo was shot in the head by a sniper believed to have been hiding behind his Montreal mansion.
It has been 32 years since the Calabrean Cotroni family controlled the Montreal underworld. However, with the symbolic murders of all of the leading Rizzuto mobsters, except for son Vito who is about to be returned to Canada after serving 10 years in an American prison, the Montreal underworld remains wide open for a Calabrean takeover. Speculation swirls over who will take over and to what degree they will be able to escape increased prosecution. However, it may not be long before the Violi brothers look over a city that is once again under Calabrean control.
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