Rocco Perri (; born Rocco Perre; December 30, 1887 – disappeared April 23, 1944) was an Italian-born

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally tho ...

figure in Hamilton,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. He was one of the most prominent Prohibition-era crime figures in Canada, and was sometimes referred to as "King of the Bootleggers" and "Canada's Al Capone". Born in the Italian town of Platì in Calabria, Perri immigrated to the United States, and later to Canada, in 1908. In the early 1910s, he started work in construction and in a bakery. Perri and his common-law wife,

Bessie Starkman Bessie Starkman (born Besha Starkman; June 21, 1890 – August 13, 1930) was an organized crime figure in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in the early 20th century. She and her common-law husband, Italian-born Rocco Perri, established a business i ...

, began a business in bootlegging when the sale and distribution of alcohol was prohibited in both

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. Starkman dealt mainly with the finances of the business. In 1928, Perri was charged with perjury after a Royal Commission testimony, and served five months of a six month prison sentence. In 1930, Starkman was ambushed in her garage and killed; no one was charged with her murder. In 1940, Perri was arrested and sent to

internment Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can sim ...

Camp Petawawa Garrison Petawawa is located in Petawawa, Ontario. It is operated as an army base by the Canadian Army. Garrison facts The Garrison is located in the Ottawa Valley in Renfrew County, northwest of Ottawa along the western bank of the Otta ...

as part of the Italian Canadian internment; he was released three years later. Perri disappeared in Hamilton on April 23, 1944, when he went for a walk; his body was never found, and this caused speculation surrounding his purported death.

Early and family life

Rocco Perri was born in Platì, Calabria,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, on December 30, 1887, and immigrated to the United States in 1903, then to Canada in 1908. In 1912, Perri met

, a Polish Jew who had immigrated to Canada circa 1900, while he lived as a boarder in her family home in The Ward,

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

, with her husband Harry Toben and their two children. Shortly after, Perri began an affair with Starkman, and when he got a job working on the Welland Canal in 1913, she left her husband and children to move in with Perri in

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2016, it has an area of , 136,803 residents, and a metropolitan population of 406,074. It lies in Southern Ontario ...

and begin a common-law relationship. When the Canadian government cut funding to the Welland Canal project due to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Perri became unemployed. After working in a bakery, he was hired as a salesman for the Superior Macaroni Company. However, Perri and Starkman found a better means of income when the '' Ontario Temperance Act'' came into effect on September 16, 1916, as it restricted the sale and distribution of alcohol. The couple began bootlegging; using Starkman's business acumen and Perri's connections, they established a profitable enterprise. By this time the two lived in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of ...

, and by 1920, moved into a larger home at 166 Bay Street South. In 1918, Perri began an affair with Sarah Olive Routledge, with whom he had two daughters; Autumn (born in 1919), and Catherine (born in 1921). After Autumn was born, Perri had refused to marry Routledge, but he did maintain a home for her in St. Catharines and paid child support. Their affair resumed in 1920. Perri's job as a

macaroni Macaroni (, Italian: maccheroni) is dry pasta shaped like narrow tubes.Oxford DictionaryMacaroni/ref> Made with durum wheat, macaroni is commonly cut in short lengths; curved macaroni may be referred to as elbow macaroni. Some home machines ...

salesman required travel across Ontario; he also used those trips to arrange the sale of

liquor Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or hard ...

. Starkman, busy running the finances for their organization, did not question Perri's outings. In February 1922, Routledge was falsely told by Perri's lawyer that he was already married to Starkman. Despondent, Routledge committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

by jumping from her lawyer's seventh-story office window of the

Bank of Hamilton The Bank of Hamilton was established in 1872 by local businessmen in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada under the leadership of Donald McInnes, the bank's first President. Like the other Canadian chartered banks, it issued its own paper money. ...

; her parents took custody of their children. In the 1930s, Perri asked to see his daughters on weekends, although their grandmother would always accompany them for fear that he would take them. Starkman was the head of operations and the duo's negotiator and dealmaker, until August 13, 1930, when she was ambushed at around 11:15 p.m. as she got out of Perri's car in the garage of the couple's home. Perri ran down the street after the assailants before retreating back to Starkman, who had been killed with two shotgun blasts. Police found two double-barreled shotguns and the getaway car without fingerprints. The investigation eventually resulted in no criminal charges being brought despite a $5,000 reward offered by Perri. However, it was thought that Calabrian compatriot Antonio Papalia, leader of the Papalia crime family and father of

Johnny Papalia John Joseph Papalia (; March 18, 1924 – May 31, 1997), also known as Johnny Pops Papalia or "The Enforcer", was an Italian-Canadian crime boss of the Papalia crime family based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The Papalia crime family is one of ...

, played a role in the murder. On August 17, about 20,000 people lined the street for the funeral cortege of hundreds of vehicles; Perri fainted at the gravesite. Starkman's headstone in Hamilton's Ohev Zedek Cemetery, commissioned by Perri, referred to her as "Bessie Starkman – Perri", but the "Perri" part was later removed by persons unknown. Part of Starkman's estate went to Perri, and the rest to her children. By 1933, Perri was living with another woman, Annie Newman, who helped him to improve his criminal enterprise. The couple profited from enterprises such as bootlegging and drug trafficking. "Annie was just as corrupt and business-like as Bessie," according to one source. In 1943, Newman was imprisoned for smuggling gold.

Criminal operations

Perri and Starkman survived financially in the few years after 1915 from his income as a macaroni salesman and the grocery store on Hess Street. After the ''Ontario Temperance Act'' was passed in 1916, making the sale of alcohol illegal, the couple started selling shots of Canadian whisky on the side. Their bootlegging was done on a small scale, with their kitchen as the centre of operations. Bootlegging became a larger and more profitable enterprise when Prohibition was declared in Canada nationwide on April 1, 1918, and the Eighteenth Amendment that prohibited sale of alcohol in the United States in 1920. Through the 1920s, Perri became the leading figure in

in Southern Ontario and was under constant surveillance by police. The government allowed for numerous exceptions, allowing various breweries and distilleries to remain open for the export market. Perri specialized in exporting liquor from old Canadian distilleries, such as Seagram and Gooderham and Worts, to the U.S., and helped these companies obtain a large share of the American market — a share they kept after Prohibition ended in Ontario in 1927, and the United States in 1933. He has also been linked as a distributor of Canadian whisky to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

's Frank Costello and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

's Al Capone, yet when Capone was asked if he knew Perri, he said "Why, I don't even know which street Canada is on." Other sources, however, claim that Capone had certainly visited Canada, where he maintained some hideaways, but the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

states that there is no "evidence that he ever set foot on Canadian soil." Perri also sold trainloads of liquor into Chicago and

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

through Niagara Falls and Windsor, Ontario. During Prohibition, "The authorities were quite happy to turn a blind eye to bootlegging, and also to take payoffs ... and Rocco had all the important police in Hamilton ... on his payroll" according to author Trevor Cole. On May 10, 1922, the boss of the Scaroni crime family, Domenic Scaroni, was killed after being invited to a meeting of organized crime figures in Niagara Falls. His brother Joe Scaroni was killed on September 4, after being driven to a bakery by Perri associates John Trott and Antonio Deconza. Perri was linked to the murders, though no evidence was found. With the Scaroni brothers eliminated, Perri formed an allegiance with the Serianni crime family to keep the Ontario market out of the hands of the Magaddino crime family in Buffalo,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Perri soon diversified into

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

and

prostitution Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

. He and Starkman were also reported to have taken part in the narcotics trade as early as 1922, when the

(RCMP) suspected Perri of "dealing in narcotics on a large scale." On November 19, 1924, in an exclusive interview with the ''

Toronto Daily Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', he stated, "My men do not carry guns ... If I find that they do, I get rid of them. It is not necessary. I provide them with high-powered cars. That is enough. If they cannot run away from the police it is their fault. But guns make trouble. My men do not use them." He also did not view himself as a criminal, believing that that Prohibition was "a law that people did not want". Perri typically shipped his illegal alcohol into the U.S. overland, but also owned a boat for crossing Lake Ontario. He had a limited business relationship with bootlegger Ben Kerr, who also owned a home on Bay Street. Kerr was described by the some as "King of the Lake Ontario rum-runners" (smugglers who typically used boats). Kerr was operating within Perri's territory, but the latter required Kerr to smuggle raw American alcohol into Ontario, and may also have allowed Kerr to sell alcohol in a certain part of

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a U.S. state, state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the List of U.S. ...

in return for the payment of a commission. These ventures enabled Kerr to expand his operations and to remain a solid customer of distilleries such as Gooderham & Worts and Corby's. Kerr and his boat ''Pollywog'' disappeared in February 1929; weeks later, his body and some wreckage from his boat were found on the shore of Lake Ontario near Colborne. Based on his research, author C.W. Hunt theorized that Perri was likely responsible for Kerr's death, perhaps using his own, more effectively-armoured boat, the ''Uncas''. Hunt conceded that there were two other possible causes: "misadventure" (a marine accident) as stated by the coroner, or an act by the Staud brothers with their well armed/armoured boat. One report estimates that in the mid-1920s, Perri and Starkman were generating C$1 million per year through criminal endeavours and had a hundred employees. In that era, Perri was a "big spender" and the couple lived an opulent lifestyle. Nonetheless, Perri paid only $13.30 in income tax based on employment as a macaroni salesman and his "export/mailorder" business in 1926; Starkman, who claimed to be supporting him, paid $96.43. At about that time, some reports indicated that she had between $500,000 and one million in deposits at various banks. That same year, Perri faced criminal charges in the death of 17 people who died after drinking illegal liquor, but was acquitted of the charges. GooderhamAndWorts1800s

In 1927, Perri was compelled to testify at the Royal Commission on Customs and Excise inquiry, focusing on bootlegging and smuggling, and also at a hearing on tax evasion charges against Gooderham and Worts. Later that year, at the Gooderham and Worts tax evasion hearing, Perri admitted to buying whisky from the distiller from 1924 to 1927. Gooderham and Worts was convicted of tax evasion in 1928 and ordered to pay a fine of $439,744. Perri and Starkman were charged with perjury after their Royal Commission testimony, but in a

plea bargain A plea bargain (also plea agreement or plea deal) is an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or '' nolo contendere.'' This may mean that the defendan ...

, the charges were dropped against Starkman; Perri served five months of a six-month sentence and was released on September 27, 1928. On August 2, 1930, Perri and Mike Serge were charged with illegal possession of 10 gallons of liquor, but nine days later, both men were acquitted. Starkman was murdered on August 13, 1930. Between 1937 and 1939, Perri owned a brewery on Fleet Street in Toronto. In 1938, two attempts were made to kill Perri: on March 20, his veranda was destroyed by dynamite that had been placed underneath it, and on November 23, a bomb under his car detonated. Perri was not injured in either attempt. In 1940, Perri and his brother Mike were arrested and sent to

as part of the Italian Canadian internment, as potentially dangerous enemy aliens with alleged connections to Benito Mussolini's fascist regime; he was released on October 17, 1943. During this internment, Perri served some time with Antonio Papalia, who was released two years before Perri. Papalia then began to expand his enterprise with his son Johnny, who had some relationship with the Buffalo crime family.

Disappearance and aftermath

Rocco Perri was last seen alive in Hamilton on April 23, 1944, at the home of a cousin, Joe Serge, on Murray Street West. According to a '' Maclean's'' magazine report from June 15 of that year, Perri was then "working as a doorman in a Toronto theatre". Before lunch, he complained of a headache and went for a walk to clear his head but never returned. Perri's body has never been found, though it is speculated he was murdered by being fitted with cement shoes and thrown into Burlington Bay—a practice known colloquially as the ''

lupara bianca ''Lupara bianca'' (; "white '' lupara''") is a journalistic term for a Mafia murder done in such a way that the victim's body is never found. Typical ways to carry out a lupara bianca include burying a victim in the open countryside or in remote ...

''. It is believed Antonio and Johnny Papalia, along with

Stefano Magaddino Stefano "The Undertaker" Magaddino (; October 10, 1891 – July 19, 1974) was an Italian-born crime boss of the Buffalo crime family in western New York. His underworld influence stretched from Ohio to Southern Ontario and as far east as Montreal ...

of Buffalo, played a role in Perri's disappearance to gain better control of the Canadian alcohol market. The

concluded in 1954 that they "won't find his body until the Bay dries up". After Perri's disappearance, three of his former lieutenants, in addition to Papalia and Giacomo Luppino, began answering to Magaddino in Buffalo: Tony Sylvestro, Calogero Bordonaro and Santo Scibetta, known as the "three dons".Schneider, 200
p.285-286
In 1992, evidence into Perri's disappearance was uncovered by

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of ...

expert Antonio Nicaso. A letter shared with him by Perri's cousin in Italy, dated June 10, 1949, and translated from Italian, read, "Dear cousin, With this letter, I will tell you I am in good health. Let them know I'm fine if you've heard the news." It is signed Rocco Perri. Perri's cousin also claims that the gangster died in 1953 in Massena, New York. In 2018, Perri's relatives from Hamilton and Australia, during an attempt to collect on the late mobster's estate, claimed that he had lived in Massena under the name Giuseppe Portolesi before dying of

natural causes In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distinct ...

in 1953. The group's Andrew Monterosso said that he had made a good living through legal ventures such as the ownership of properties in the U.S. and in Mexico. In 1998, a

will and testament A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's ( testator) wishes as to how their property (estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person ( executor) is to manage the property until its final distributi ...

from 1930 surfaced; it was purported to be that of Perri, but there is doubt that he was ever

declared dead A presumption of death occurs when a person is thought to be dead by a group of people despite the absence of direct proof of the person's death, such as the finding of remains (e.g., a corpse or skeleton) attributable to that person. Such a pr ...

. A CBC News report in 2012 stated that "there's no death certificate out there for Rocco Perri". The group attempting to access the mobster's estate said in 2018 that there was no Social Insurance Number or death certificate, and that the Canada Revenue Agency had transferred the funds from Perri's estate to Italy in 2008.

In popular culture

In July 2014, the first performance of a one-woman play about Starkman's life, ''Bootlegger's Wife'', was staged at Theatre Aquarius in

. The creator and star was Victoria Murdoch; while the Perri character does not appear, "voiceovers" provide his comments. The play was staged again in mid-March 2019 and at intervals between those dates.

Early and family life

Criminal operations

Disappearance and aftermath

In popular culture

See also

References

Further reading