Authors: Lee Lamothe
The Sixth Family (13 page)
While professing to be in search of a solution on Violi’s behalf, as early as February 1973, Settecasi was in fact meeting in Rome with two powerful members of the Caruana clan: the up-and-coming Alfonso Caruana and Giuseppe Cuffaro, a money launderer who had moved to Montreal and helped forge the Caruana-Cuntrera clan’s alliance with the Rizzutos. One of the issues discussed was Violi’s leadership in Montreal and his increasingly aggressive behavior toward the Sicilian faction.
Tomasso Buscetta, the once-powerful Sicilian mafioso (later a star government informant), said that Violi did not approve of the heroin ventures the Sixth Family was putting through Montreal. It is debatable, though, whether it was opposition to drugs on moral or principled grounds—as it is often presented in popular accounts—or just resentment over the wealth his rivals were accumulating from it. Evidence that Violi himself was involved in drugs comes not only from the extensive involvement of the Cotroni family in major drug-smuggling operations under Violi’s watch, but from evidence presented in an Italian court in 1979. Two U.S. drug investigators, working undercover in Italy as major narcotics buyers, had sought to purchase large quantities of cocaine and heroin from Saverio Mammoliti, a mafioso in Calabria. Mammoliti said any amount of cocaine was available, so long as he secured the consent of two other ’Ndrangheta bosses in neighboring territories; as for the heroin, he said he would have to contact Montreal and speak with “his friend Paolo Violi, a well-known Italo-American mafioso.”
Settecasi promised Violi he would travel to Montreal to examine the situation personally. Before arriving, however, he apparently traveled to Venezuela and Brazil, touching base with all of the branches of the expatriate Sicilian Mafia that were aligning with the Sixth Family.
In spite of Settecasi’s promise of a fair hearing for Violi, it is far more likely he was merely going through the motions of adjudication, satisfying the required protocol before Violi could, as a last resort, be eliminated. Settecasi’s true motive seemed to be a firming up of the Sicilian clans in Canada, the United States and South America, an action in direct opposition to Violi’s request.
But Violi’s trip to Italy was not the only flank to his diplomatic offensive against Nick. He was keenly aware of the importance of bringing both Agrigento and New York to his side if he wished to triumph over the Sixth Family. He also likely recognized the futility of expecting Settecasi to turn on one of his own.
Early in 1972, within months of his visit to Sicily and Calabria, Violi traveled to New York and met personally with the Bonanno boss, Natale Evola. During meetings in Brooklyn and Manhattan, Violi spoke openly and disparagingly of Nick’s inappropriate behavior. Like Settecasi, gangland disputes were not new to Evola, who had sat through his share of “sit-downs”—the face-to-face mediation sessions used to settle “beefs” between “wiseguys.” Like Settecasi, Evola was prepared to settle the Montreal dilemma, a beef he seemed to understand as a simple matter of listening to both sides, then making a pronouncement that all would accept. Evola nonetheless needed more time; he had become boss during a period of great uncertainty for the family and he told Violi he needed first to put New York affairs in order.
With the internal feud turned over to outside forces, Montreal became the focus of intense underworld attention and intrigue.
CHAPTER 9
MONTREAL, MAY 1972Agrigento’s Giuseppe Settecasi was the first to respond to Paolo Violi’s diplomatic entreaties, and he arrived in Montreal to aid in arbitration. Over several days in May 1972, Settecasi held high-level talks with Cotroni and Violi about their complaints. He brought with him a man well known in both Sicily and Montreal—Leonardo Caruana, a Sicilian-born mafioso who had come to Montreal from Agrigento in 1966 after the Italian courts issued a preventative custody order against him for Mafia association. Settecasi valued his input as a trusted man with deep and direct ties to Agrigento, who at the same time had an intimate familiarity with Montreal. Caruana’s presence was a distraction for Violi; he knew well the strong ties the Caruana family maintained with the Rizzutos. One thing Violi could count on was that anything he said to Settecasi in front of Caruana would soon be repeated to Nick Rizzuto. On May 11, 13 and 21, 1972, Violi, Settecasi and Caruana spoke at length. At the May 21 meeting, at Violi’s Reggio Bar, Cotroni joined them. Not long after, Settecasi and Caruana seem to have sought further counsel on the matter. As with many mob matters in Canada, that meant traveling west to Hamilton. The ostensible occasion for the Settecasi-Caruana visit was an important Mafia wedding of a Luppino daughter to the son of a Commisso, a powerful Calabrian ’Ndrangheta clan in Toronto. The visit did not go smoothly, however, as Caruana, who was in Canada illegally, was arrested at the City Motor Hotel in Hamilton and deported to Italy.
Far more meaningful meetings for Settecasi during his visits to Canada—and certainly the sessions were held in greater secrecy—were his discussions with several Sicilian Men of Honor: Guiseppe Bono, whose wedding would later be the focus of intense police attention; Giovanni Gambino, of the Sicilian Mafia clan that became known as the Cherry Hill Gambinos in New Jersey (not the same family of Gambinos that are one of the Five Families); and members of the Caruana-Cuntrera clan. That these people would emerge years later as some of the world’s most important drug traffickers suggests where their common interest lay.
These 1972 sessions in Montreal were not even known to have taken place until, some two decades later, an informant named Giuseppe Cuffaro was debriefed by Giovanni Falcone. Cuffaro, not the man of the same name who laundered money for Montreal mobsters, was arrested in 1988. He outlined for authorities the Sixth Family’s bridge between Montreal and Venezuela, the activities of the expatriate Mafia on the island of Aruba and links to the Colombian cartels that were in the process of offering a “license” to the Sicilians to market their cocaine in Europe. Cuffaro, who ended up in the U.S. witness protection program, said much of the planning for the emerging heroin routes was done in Montreal with Settecasi present.
With these meetings revealing Settecasi’s true objective, it was a surprise to no one when he offered no assistance to Violi.
By September 1972, Natale Evola had got his New York house in order sufficiently to send representatives north to listen to what Violi and Nick had to say about their quarrel. Evola chose Michael “Mikey Z” Zaffarano, a tall, heavy-set man, to kick off New York’s arbitration efforts. Zaffarano was a senior mobster with a long history of dealing with disputes and internal mob hostilities. He’d had a front-row seat in a similarly acrimonious split in New York in the 1960s, during the ouster of Joseph Bonanno. Zaffarano survived that period of instability and indeed thrived, becoming a major earner for the family when he led the mob into the pornography business, first dominating distribution of “stag” films and directing the nationwide chain of Pussycat Cinema adult theaters. When porn went mainstream, with such films as
Debbie Does Dallas
and
Deep Throat
, he made a killing. (It also later killed him: on Valentine’s Day, 1980, the FBI crashed into his New York office to arrest him on federal obscenity and racketeering charges; Zaffarano died of a heart attack, clutching a raunchy reel of film that agents believe he was trying to destroy.)
Debbie Does Dallas
and
Deep Throat
, he made a killing. (It also later killed him: on Valentine’s Day, 1980, the FBI crashed into his New York office to arrest him on federal obscenity and racketeering charges; Zaffarano died of a heart attack, clutching a raunchy reel of film that agents believe he was trying to destroy.)
Despite Zaffarano’s keen interest in pornography, Violi was more comfortable dealing with him than he was with Leonardo Caruana. Like Philip Rastelli, Zaffarano likely felt a modest personal debt to both Cotroni and Violi; the two Montrealers had gone to considerable trouble to hide Zaffarano’s brother-in-law, Joseph Asaro, when he was on the lam for 13 years from American police. Asaro, a Bonanno soldier and a second-generation mobster (his father worked under Al Capone, Chicago’s legendary mob boss), was hidden by Cotroni for years. He earned his keep by working in Cotroni-controlled nightclubs in Montreal. On June 21, 1966, his impressive run ended when police burst into a home in Repentigny, Quebec, and found Asaro sitting with Vic and Frank Cotroni. The location of the arrest was embarrassing for Vic Cotroni, as it was the home of his mistress. He offered police a $25,000 bribe to arrest him somewhere else to keep his presence secret from his wife. The offer was doubled when it was refused. Cotroni was then charged with bribery.
In Zaffarano, Violi felt he had regained the upper hand he’d lost when Settecasi chose Leonardo Caruana as his advisor. Zaffarano was but one of the New Yorkers weighing in on the matter. Over months, Nicolino Alfano, who was the Bonannos’
consigliere
, Nicholas “Nicky Glasses” Marangello, who would later become a Bonanno underboss, Nick Buttafuoco and Joseph Buccellato would each come to Montreal to try their hand at mediation. Violi used each meeting to press his two related requests—not only did he want Nick Rizzuto sanctioned for challenging his leadership, he wanted permission from New York to induct more members into the organization.
consigliere
, Nicholas “Nicky Glasses” Marangello, who would later become a Bonanno underboss, Nick Buttafuoco and Joseph Buccellato would each come to Montreal to try their hand at mediation. Violi used each meeting to press his two related requests—not only did he want Nick Rizzuto sanctioned for challenging his leadership, he wanted permission from New York to induct more members into the organization.
“Look, we need a couple [more]
picciotti
,” he told Zaffarano during an early visit, using the old Calabrian term for what the Americans called soldiers. It appears Violi wanted to bolster his ranks in the brewing feud with Nick. Violi was growing frustrated. As other conversations revealed, he thought the Rizzuto side was being unfairly inflated with new, mobbed-up immigrants from Sicily who did not seem overly concerned about their status with Violi.
picciotti
,” he told Zaffarano during an early visit, using the old Calabrian term for what the Americans called soldiers. It appears Violi wanted to bolster his ranks in the brewing feud with Nick. Violi was growing frustrated. As other conversations revealed, he thought the Rizzuto side was being unfairly inflated with new, mobbed-up immigrants from Sicily who did not seem overly concerned about their status with Violi.
“Paolo, we can’t do nothing for the time being. Make do with what you got for right now, later we’ll talk about it again,” was Zaffarano’s reply. Violi next moved on to his more immediate concern, his troubles with Nick.
“He goes from one thing to the other—here and there—and says nothing to nobody. He does things and nobody knows nothing,” Violi complained of his rival.
“If things are really like that, everyone’s safety, even ours …” came Zaffarano’s unfinished reply, likely accompanied by a concerned shrug. “So, if he’s pigheaded, he don’t wanna change, okay, when the others get here, Angelo and Nicolino, they’re going to talk to Vincent [Cotroni] and all of you and discuss all your problems. Say exactly what’s going on,” Zaffarano said, arranging yet another round of diplomacy. Violi was then told the best news he had heard yet in his efforts to bring the Rizzutos to heel: Zaffarano told him to tell the Rizzutos that New York was now on the case. He carefully outlined the message to be passed directly to Nick. Violi was to tell him: “We [Violi and Cotroni] got nothing more to do with you, go to New York. We got no time for you here. Go explain yourself to them.” Violi was ecstatic. It was a message he would deliver with relish and relief.
Not long after one of the meetings with the American visitors, Violi updated Cotroni on changes in the gangland landscape of New York. “Joe [Evola’s nickname], he’s the
capo
[boss], Mike [Rastelli’s Montreal nickname] is the
sotto capo
[underboss],” Violi said, using the more traditional forms of address that had long been anglicized by most other North American gangsters.
capo
[boss], Mike [Rastelli’s Montreal nickname] is the
sotto capo
[underboss],” Violi said, using the more traditional forms of address that had long been anglicized by most other North American gangsters.
“Who’s the counselor?” Cotroni asked.
“Don Nicolino,” said Violi, referring to Nicolino Alfano. “He don’t like it too much, ’cause he’s old and he’s gotta travel all over … Counselor’s a big job,” Violi said, recounting the chatter from the Americans. “He told me, when [Nick Rizzuto] comes [to New York], those guys would talk to him.” said Violi.
The New Yorkers had regaled Violi and Cotroni with tales from the streets of Brooklyn, and the Sicilian visitors had updated the Canadians on significant comings and goings among the island’s Men of Honor. These talks were conducted in utmost privacy and were to be held within the strictest bonds of secrecy. Unknowingly, however, it all went far beyond the ear of Paolo Violi. The Montreal meetings with the American and Sicilian mobsters had serious ramifications for the future of Violi, his organization and many of the men he had met during his diplomatic entreaties.
Unbeknownst to anyone but a tightly controlled group of investigators and top police brass, Montreal police had pulled off a considerable investigative coup. Robert Menard, an undercover Montreal police officer, had posed as a young electrician looking for an apartment to rent and managed to cut a deal with Violi to move into a room directly above the Reggio Bar. Once installed in his new home, Menard and his surveillance and technical team began to wire the downstairs bar for sound. Violi’s inner sanctum had been penetrated. With secret electronic bugs now picking up conversations inside, and their agent, Menard, maintaining his nerve-racking double life upstairs, Canadian police suddenly had a front-row seat watching the mob action not only in Canada but in New York and Sicily. For six years, Menard persevered in his daring charade, living among the violent mobsters. All of the whispered conversations, explosive outbursts and secret negotiations were being absorbed by Canadian investigators, who were forwarding the salient information to the FBI and Italian authorities. The tapes would soon come to wide, and embarrassing, attention in Canada.
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