The 1970's would be the beginning of a new era in the Canadian underworld and Montreal would be at the center of this change. The Montreal crime family's operations and expansion continued into the 1970's. Under a new American benefactor, the Montreal mafia flourished, examples of their expansion and growth of underworld influence can be seen in the fact that Montreal mafia leaders, Boss Vic "the Egg" Cotroni, lieutenants Frank "The Big Guy" Cotroni and Paolo Violi, along with future high level Montreal mafia associate, Claude Faber were seen meeting in Acapulco, Mexico with Jewish Mob leader, American mafia associate and money man, Meyer "The Brain" Lansky in 1970. Even as underworld power and influence continued to grow for the Montreal mafia leaders and members, while operations flourished and profited, animosities and tensions within the Montreal mafia would go from warm to hot as the Sicilian faction's leadership changed hands and a successor to the Montreal crime family's leadership was crowned! On December 3, 1972, Luigi Greco, Montreal's longtime Sicilian mafia Boss and Underboss of the Montreal crime family was seriously burnt and injured in a freak fire at Gina's Pizzeria owned by Greco and located to the South of Saint-Leonard. Greco and his brother, Antonio had been renovating the pizzeria and that winter day Greco chose to use a mop dipped in kerosene to remove accumulated grime and filth from a tile floor, the flash fire was brief, but devastating! Greco died from his burns 4 days later in the Sacre-Coeur Hospital, the Montreal crime Boss was sent of in a grand and traditional mafia funeral! The loss of Luigi Greco was devastating to his family, friends and associates, Nick Rizzuto among them, but it was an opportunity that would facilitate the rise of Nick Rizzuto the position of Sicilian mafia leader in Montreal.
In the roughly 2 decades that Nick Rizzuto had operated in Montreal he had become a rising Canadian mafia star, powerful, influential, connected and successful, while the Rizzuto crime family and it's closest associates helped facilitate opening Montreal to the Sicilian mafia's drug traffickers, he was easily a mafiosi who could be seen as the successor to Luigi Greco and quite possibly Vic Cotroni, but it would not be. The placement of Montreal mafia Bosses, Vic Cotroni and Luigi Greco as the number one and number two mafiosi in Montreal by the Bonanno crime family leadership in 1958 maintained a strong alliance and working relationship between the Calabrian and Sicilian mafia factions in Montreal for roughly 2 decades and it would have been expected by Montreal crime family members in 1972 that Boss Vic Cotroni would wish to maintain that alliance and the status quo. But Cotroni made it quite clear he had no wish to bring the Sicilian Nick Rizzuto closer to him or establish a close working relationship with the Sicilian mafia leader as Cotroni chose his protege, Calabrian Paolo Violi as the new Underboss of the Montreal crime family after Luigi Greco's death.
Nick Rizzuto may have become the recognized leader of the Sicilian faction of the Montreal crime family, but as an added insult Vic Cotroni officially assigned all of Greco's former criminal assets to Paolo Violi including the men in Greco's crew, his rackets and all outstanding debts owed to Greco were put on record under Violi. Nick Rizzuto was a traditional mafiosi who lived the mafia lifestyle and followed it's rules and policies, but the obvious and blatant insult heaped upon him and the total disregard of his Rizzutos mafia stature, underworld influence and connections by Vic Cotroni was the final straw! Rizzuto had hidden many things from the Calabrian leaders such as profits from heroin operations, but one thing Nick did not hide was his lack of respect and ill feelings for Paolo Violi and from now on they would be made even more obvious through Rizzuto's actions! For years Vic Cotroni was heard saying Nick Rizzuto was a "Lone Wolf", a mafiosi who was more interested in interested in his private affairs involving his close Sicilian kin and associates rather than contributing to the crime family. As Violi settled into his new position of power as Underboss of the Montreal crime family rivalries and animosities between the Calabrian and Sicilian leaderships grew to a point where outside mediators and arbitrators were needed to alleviate tensions. Even before the death of Sicilian faction Boss, Luigi Greco, Vic Cotroni and Paolo Violi had "gone on record" with the Bonanno leadership, their benefactors in New York regarding Nick Rizzuto's activities and behavior. The Calabrian Bosses complained that Nick Rizzuto showed no respect to the Montreal crime family leaders as Rizzuto was frequently by passing the chain of authority, he acted on his own initiative without seeking permission from the crime family administration, even on important matters as the patience and reason of Boss Vic Cotroni was running short.
The truth was that the rivalries and animosities between the top members of Montreal's Calabrian and Sicilian mafia factions had grown from conflict into outright hate and the growing conflict and ill feelings were not merely because of any blatant disrespect, insult or lack of promotion on Vic Cotroni's part in regards to Nick Rizzuto, the issues involving Montreal's top mafiosi went much deeper than just mafia respect, traditions and mentality, at stake was all that plus a whole lot more! Due to the 1962 American indictment of Luigi Greco on charges regarding his involvement in the mafia's international heroin network the Sicilian faction needed a new point man regarding their heroin operations being that Greco could no longer travel freely and was under intense law enforcement surveillance and with Pep Cotroni, the Calabrian's top narcotics Lt. in prison doing prison time throughout the 1960's, Nick Rizzuto was the mafiosi with the clout and connections to takeover for Luigi Greco as the Sicilian's heroin operations overseer and become the Montreal mafia's top narcotics man! The whole Montreal narcotics market and the Canadian branch of the American-Sicilian mafia narcotics network was at a stake and up for grabs, the amount of underworld respect, power, influence and wealth that could be obtained by controlling the flow of narcotics in Montreal was immense and with it, who ever was the man who eventually controlled the Montreal mafia's narcotics operations which were vital to the American and Sicilian mafia overall narcotics operations would be in a position to be the top mafiosi not only in Montreal, but in Canada.
In the roughly 2 decades that Nick Rizzuto had operated in Montreal he had become a rising Canadian mafia star, powerful, influential, connected and successful, while the Rizzuto crime family and it's closest associates helped facilitate opening Montreal to the Sicilian mafia's drug traffickers, he was easily a mafiosi who could be seen as the successor to Luigi Greco and quite possibly Vic Cotroni, but it would not be. The placement of Montreal mafia Bosses, Vic Cotroni and Luigi Greco as the number one and number two mafiosi in Montreal by the Bonanno crime family leadership in 1958 maintained a strong alliance and working relationship between the Calabrian and Sicilian mafia factions in Montreal for roughly 2 decades and it would have been expected by Montreal crime family members in 1972 that Boss Vic Cotroni would wish to maintain that alliance and the status quo. But Cotroni made it quite clear he had no wish to bring the Sicilian Nick Rizzuto closer to him or establish a close working relationship with the Sicilian mafia leader as Cotroni chose his protege, Calabrian Paolo Violi as the new Underboss of the Montreal crime family after Luigi Greco's death.
Nick Rizzuto may have become the recognized leader of the Sicilian faction of the Montreal crime family, but as an added insult Vic Cotroni officially assigned all of Greco's former criminal assets to Paolo Violi including the men in Greco's crew, his rackets and all outstanding debts owed to Greco were put on record under Violi. Nick Rizzuto was a traditional mafiosi who lived the mafia lifestyle and followed it's rules and policies, but the obvious and blatant insult heaped upon him and the total disregard of his Rizzutos mafia stature, underworld influence and connections by Vic Cotroni was the final straw! Rizzuto had hidden many things from the Calabrian leaders such as profits from heroin operations, but one thing Nick did not hide was his lack of respect and ill feelings for Paolo Violi and from now on they would be made even more obvious through Rizzuto's actions! For years Vic Cotroni was heard saying Nick Rizzuto was a "Lone Wolf", a mafiosi who was more interested in interested in his private affairs involving his close Sicilian kin and associates rather than contributing to the crime family. As Violi settled into his new position of power as Underboss of the Montreal crime family rivalries and animosities between the Calabrian and Sicilian leaderships grew to a point where outside mediators and arbitrators were needed to alleviate tensions. Even before the death of Sicilian faction Boss, Luigi Greco, Vic Cotroni and Paolo Violi had "gone on record" with the Bonanno leadership, their benefactors in New York regarding Nick Rizzuto's activities and behavior. The Calabrian Bosses complained that Nick Rizzuto showed no respect to the Montreal crime family leaders as Rizzuto was frequently by passing the chain of authority, he acted on his own initiative without seeking permission from the crime family administration, even on important matters as the patience and reason of Boss Vic Cotroni was running short.
The truth was that the rivalries and animosities between the top members of Montreal's Calabrian and Sicilian mafia factions had grown from conflict into outright hate and the growing conflict and ill feelings were not merely because of any blatant disrespect, insult or lack of promotion on Vic Cotroni's part in regards to Nick Rizzuto, the issues involving Montreal's top mafiosi went much deeper than just mafia respect, traditions and mentality, at stake was all that plus a whole lot more! Due to the 1962 American indictment of Luigi Greco on charges regarding his involvement in the mafia's international heroin network the Sicilian faction needed a new point man regarding their heroin operations being that Greco could no longer travel freely and was under intense law enforcement surveillance and with Pep Cotroni, the Calabrian's top narcotics Lt. in prison doing prison time throughout the 1960's, Nick Rizzuto was the mafiosi with the clout and connections to takeover for Luigi Greco as the Sicilian's heroin operations overseer and become the Montreal mafia's top narcotics man! The whole Montreal narcotics market and the Canadian branch of the American-Sicilian mafia narcotics network was at a stake and up for grabs, the amount of underworld respect, power, influence and wealth that could be obtained by controlling the flow of narcotics in Montreal was immense and with it, who ever was the man who eventually controlled the Montreal mafia's narcotics operations which were vital to the American and Sicilian mafia overall narcotics operations would be in a position to be the top mafiosi not only in Montreal, but in Canada.
MONTREAL CRIME FAMILY
Part 9: NEW DECADE, NEW PROBLEMS
Author: Little Joe Shots
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