Paolo Violi

Paolo Violi (; 6 February 1931 – 22 January 1978) was an Italian-Canadian mobster and ''capodecina'' in the Cotroni crime family of Montreal.

Violi was born in Sinopoli, Calabria, Italy, in 1931; his father Domenico was the boss of the Violi clan in his hometown. Violi immigrated to Southern Ontario in 1951. He married Grazia Luppino, daughter of the boss of the Luppino crime family in Hamilton. He later moved to Montreal where he became associated with in the Calabrese compatriot Cotroni crime family, which had most of the control in Montreal. In the late 1970s, boss Vincenzo Cotroni transferred the day-to-day activities of the family to Violi, and a mob war soon broke out between the Calabrians and the Sicilian faction led by Nicolò Rizzuto. The war resulted in the murder of Violi on 22 January 1978, as well as his brothers, as the Sicilian Rizzuto crime family emerged as the preeminent crime family in Montreal by the early 1980s. After Violi's death, his widow and two sons, Domenico and Giuseppe moved to Hamilton; the Violi brothers became affiliated with the Luppino crime family, later also becoming known as the Luppino-Violi crime family.

Early career

Violi was born in Sinopoli, Calabria on 6 February 1931.Schneider, ''Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada'', pp. 258 He was born into the mob; his father Domenico Violi was the head of the 'Ndrangheta Violi clan in Sinopoli. Violi later immigrated to Southern Ontario in 1951.Schneider, ''Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada'', pp. 259 In 1955, he fatally shot Natale Brigante in Toronto, sustaining a stab wound from Brigante. He was charged with manslaughter in a Welland court, but was acquitted claiming it was self-defense, showing the stab wound as evidence. Violi gained Canadian citizenship in 1956 and by the early 1960s was running illegally manufactured liquor from Ontario to Quebec. He became associated with Giacomo Luppino, boss of the Luppino crime family in Hamilton, but left for Montreal in 1963 on Luppino's orders to avoid clashes with other Hamilton mobster, Johnny Papalia.

In Quebec, Violi opened the Reggio Bar in Saint-Leonard in the mid 1960s, which he used as a base for extortion. He developed connections with the Cotroni crime family, while maintaining ties with the Luppino family; he married Giacomo Luppino's daughter, Grazia in 1965. In the 1960s and 1970s, boss Vincenzo Cotroni used associate William "Obie" Obront to supervise a bookmaking network in the Ottawa-Hull area that handled around $50,000 in bets per day, with 25 percent going to Violi.Schneider, ''Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada'', pp. 262 Obie also served as Cotroni's chief banker and financial adviser, responsible for laundering money. For Montreal's Expo 67, Obront also helped the Cotronis land the meat and vending machine supply contract—most of which was tainted meat.Schneider, ''Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada'', pp. 264

In December 1970, his bar was bugged with wiretaps by Robert Menard, an undercover police officer who rented the space above Violi's bar for several years, which were later used in subsequent cases.

In 1974, Violi and Cotroni were overheard on a police wiretap threatening to kill Hamilton mobster Johnny Papalia and demanding $150,000 after he used their names in a $300,000 extortion plot without notifying or cutting them in on the score. The three were convicted of extortion in 1975 and sentenced to six years in prison. Violi and Cotroni appealed and got their sentences reduced to six months, but Papalia's appeal was rejected.Schneider, ''Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada'', pp. 326 The following year, Violi was arrested to stand before the Quebec government's ''Commission d'enquête sur le crime organisé'' (CECO) inquiry into organized crime; he was sent to jail for one year for contempt.

Mob war and death

In the early 1970s, Cotroni transferred the day-to-day activities of the family to his Calabrian compatriot Violi, a ''capodecina'' together with Nicolas Di Iorio, Frank Cotroni and Luigi Greco. Cotroni's role became more that of an adviser to the younger Calabrian. Greco led the Sicilian faction of the family until his death in 1972.Lamothe, Lee. Humphreys, Adrian. ''The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto''
pg.27–29
/ref>Manning, George A, PH.D ''Financial Investigation and Forensic Accounting'
pg.214–215
/ref>

As tension then grew into a power struggle between the Calabrian and Sicilian factions of the family, a mob war began in 1973. During a time of power struggle between the Sicilian and Calabrian factions of the Cotroni crime family, Violi complained about the independent modus operandi of his Sicilian 'underlings', Nicolò Rizzuto in particular. "He is going from one side to the other, here and there, and he says nothing to nobody, he is doing business and nobody knows anything," Violi said about Rizzuto. Violi asked for more 'soldiers' from his Bonanno bosses, clearly preparing for war, and Violi's boss at the time, Vic Cotroni remarked: "Me, I'm ''capodecina''. I got the right to expel." Violi requested permission from the New York bosses to kill Rizzuto, but the request was turned down. In 1977, Rizzuto and Violi met face-to-face in the home of a Montreal resident for a last-ditch effort to resolve their differences, according to a police report. But the peace talks failed, and most of the Rizzuto family fled to Venezuela.

This led to a power struggle mob war in Montreal which began with the murder of Violi's ''consigliere'' Pietro Sciara on Valentine's Day in 1976; Sciara's body was left in the street after seeing an Italian- dubbed version of ''The Godfather Part II'' with his wife. Just under a year later, on 8 February 1977, Francesco Violi, the younger brother of Paolo, the family enforcer, was murdered by several shotgun wounds. Shortly after Violi was released from the brief jail sentence with relation to the CECO inquiry, he sold his bar to brothers Vincenzo and Giuseppe Randisi; the name was changed to Bar Jean-Talon. Just under a year after Francesco Violi’s murder, on 22 January 1978, Paolo Violi was shot in the head at close range with a lupara in the Bar Jean-Talon after being invited to play cards by Vincenzo Randisi. Violi's funeral was five days later at Church of the Madonna della Difesa, and was buried at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery in Montreal.

Aftermath

Although Nicolò Rizzuto was in Venezuela at the time of Violi's murder, his brother-in-law Domenico Manno was believed to play a major role in the murder under Rizzuto's orders. Manno received a seven-year sentence after pleading guilty to conspiring to kill Violi. Rizzuto confidant Agostino Cuntrera was also prosecuted, receiving a five-year sentence in relation to Violi's murder. The war ended on 17 October 1980, when Rocco Violi, the last of Violi's brothers, was seated, for a family meal, at his kitchen table in his Montreal home when a single bullet from a sniper's rifle struck him dead.A Mafia hit loaded with symbolism
National Post, November 12, 2010 Cotroni died of cancer on 16 September 1984.Schneider, ''Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada'', pp. 280 By the mid 1980s, the Rizzuto crime family emerged as Montreal's pre-eminent crime family after the turf war.

After Paolo Violi's death, his widow and two sons, Domenico (Dom) and Giuseppe (Joe) moved to Hamilton, Ontario, an area controlled by the Buffalo crime family and 'Ndrangheta families.Both Domenico (Dom) Father of three and his brother Giuseppe (Joe) Father of one serving time for drug related charges in 2018. A 2002 Halton Police report suggested the Violi brothers were affiliated with the Luppino-Violi crime family in Hamilton started by their grandfather Giacomo Luppino. Domenico Violi subsequently became the underboss of the Buffalo crime family in 2017; the first Canadian to hold the second-highest position in the American Mafia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Violi, Paolo
1931 births
1978 deaths
1978 murders in Canada
20th-century Canadian criminals
Canadian male criminals
Canadian gangsters of Italian descent
Italian gangsters
Murdered Canadian gangsters
Murdered Mafiosi
Italian emigrants to Canada
Criminals from Montreal
Cotroni crime family
People from the Province of Reggio Calabria
Organized crime in Montreal
Italian people murdered abroad
People acquitted of manslaughter
Naturalized citizens of Canada
Burials at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery
Deaths by firearm in Quebec
People murdered by Canadian organized crime
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1978 in Quebec
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