Just curious is it was from Lilo or Rastelli?

Seeing as how it happened in January 1978.

In a documnetary it is stated that the Rizzuto's asked the Bonanno's for permission to whack Violi.
Not really sure why they even had to ask. I knew the Rizzutos had the Bonannos as allies but, never thought they were under their control.

Another reason of this belief was, when Vito rejected Massino's offer of the soldier to capo bump.......Actually curious when this happened also?
Was he inducted after the 3 capo hit or was he offered a capo position after the hit?

Think galante ok the hit without clearing it with rusty But controni was always the capo. Think Massinos friend George from Canada.was the NYC conduit for the Montreal and took over as capo when Massimo came boss. But galante was in jail for.parole violations in 78 but he might have okd it before he went in

Montreal was historically under the singular control of the Bonanno family.

Cotroni, Violi and the Rizzuto's were all made members. Of the Bonanno family.

With the ascesion of the Rizzuto's to power with the killing of Violi, the Rizzuto's gradually started distancing themselves from the Bonanno's, culminating with their complete seperation post the murder of Gelando Sciascia in 1999 becoming a truly independant family in its own right.

And even before this it is most likely that only lip service at best was paid to NY under Rizzuto rule.

Speculation has occured surrounding Sal Montagna, that this was an attempt by the Bonanno's to regain control but this is baseless and highly unlikely. It is far more probable that Montagna, coupled with Reynald Desjardins made a power play for the family independent of NY command or influence.

According to some cops and OC researchers it was a power struggle between the Sicilians and Calabrians. The Sicilians won. I don't know how much influence the Bonannos could have had from NY. I'm sure Galante would have approved since he was Sicilian and had Montreal connections

It is speculated that Galante had given the ok after Nick Rizzuto visited him in New York. Galante was practically in control of the Bonanno family at the time while the official boss, Rusty Rastelli, was in prison. It's more likely it came from Galante rather than Rastelli as Rastelli was known to be friendly with Violi. Violi represented Montreal when Rastelli was voted as boss and Rastelli had named Violi acting capo when Cotroni was temporarily send to prison in the mid 1970s. Galante however used to be close to Cotroni, who was the godfather of one of Galante's sons. Others who were named as participants of the hit on Violi were Domenico Manno, Paolo Renda, Agostino CUN-Trera and Giuseppe LoPresti.

Rizzuto was offered to be officially named caporegime of the Montreal crew by Sal Vitale when the latter visited Montreal in 2001. Rizzuto in turn suggested his father as he was not interested in the job himself. Rizzuto was already defacto in charge of the Montreal crew, but if he was officially named capo he would have been obligated to make regular trips to New York and carry out other responsibilities. Ofcourse, another reason was the disdain Rizzuto had towards the Massino regime ever since the murder of his friend and paesano Gerlando Sciascia. Starting in the 2000s Montreal functioned as an independent organization and was perhaps still a Bonanno crew in name only. If Rizzuto had accepted the position of capo he would have reaffirmed their allegiance to the Bonanno family.

Yep I agree Sonny Black the murder of George from Canada set the split in motion. It was said they were splitting from them even before then as George showed more loyalty to the Rizzuto's than he did the Bonanno's and rightfully so being where he was from. Of course that cost him his life too.

I also think the Rizzuto's figured out the USA was nothing but trouble with the RICO laws and that is another reason they were splitting from New York and when they hit George it pretty much gave them their reason to snub New York. I don't think for one minute they are still under NY control and haven't been for a LONG time.

I agree with Sonny and others, had to be Galante.

does anybody have the link to the paolo violi, rizzuto crime family documentary that aired on national geographic

It was Nick Rizzuto with the backing of Carmine Galante. I heard they approached someone in Auburn NY. That is Buffalo territory, and the Monachino's were in charge of Auburn, it could have been Joe Monachino, but at the time I think he was only a soldier, but his uncle Pat had strong interest in Canada, mainly in Toronto. By the time they made the move on Violi, he was the last brother left, Joe and Vincenzo we're both dead, Gabe was dead, Charlie was dead, Frank was in prison along with Paolo, and Salvatore, and Gaetano fled Canada. A couple of others switched to the Buffalo crew in Canada. After the hit a few others joined Nick Rizzuto.

John Dickie's book 'Mafia Republic' has an account of a bugged meeting between Violi and a Sicilian mafioso where they disagreed (without rancour) about the rules of inductions into the Mafia. The Sicilian wanted a made guy in Sicily to be able to move to the USA and immediately assume made status, whereas Violi wanted there to be a five year wait between a 'zip' moving to the US/Canada and assuming made status there.

Dickie speculates that Violi's insistence on this cooling-off period lead to his death as putting this in place would have hindered the heroin trafficking of the Pizza Connection at that time.

I don't have the book to hand so I can't recall who the Sicilian that Violi met was. It's a great book btw.

Just found this Google preview of the book. The Sicilian was Guiseppe Cuffaro.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Rd8c...kie&f=false

So there is essentially nothing left of the Cotroni family today?

Vic was in jail at the time of the hit, once out he rebuild what he could, he had quantity rather quality. The Cotroni family was building, but was in the shadow of the Rizzuto family. Now once Frank Cotroni passed away in 2004, a few of the top guys started to plot against Vito as he was in the states due to Massino flipping. What remains of that family is fighting both Emanuel and Rocco of the Rizzuto family. There have been many sitdowns, Vito even made peace with other families before he died, but the Rizzuto are still weak from the loses they took. This war can be traced all the way back to 2006, it just didn't become open till Nick was killed and Paul went missing. The Cotroni family had the most to gain from the Rizzuto misfortunes. Don't trust Wikipedia. No one really knows how many Rizzuto and Cotroni have in made men, but Vitale and Vito had a meeting were Rizzuto had 20 made members. The Canadians had the Cotroni pegged at a dozen made men about 30 associates. In total before the war l, there were 40 to 50 made man belonging to different families in Montreal. The last casualty so far was a Cotroni family member, while a Rizzuto escaped a gunfight.

Thanks so much for that info. I had no idea about the Cotroni family in Montreal, or the nature of the current war that is going on. Twelve made members is about on par with some of the struggling families in the U.S., like Detroit and Cleveland. Way down , but not quite dead.

Violi always seemed kind of spineless for a mafioso to me. I mean, his consigliere (Sciarra) gets killed, his BROTHERS start dropping like flies, and he never once tries to retaliate. Coward...

There were 20 made members, among them Rizzutos, Cotronis and others, who offically belonged to the Bonanno family. They formed the Montreal crew, which in turn consisted of two factions of people loyal to the Rizzutos and those loyal to Cotroni. The Rizzuto faction was largely composed of Sicillians from Cattolica Eraclea while the Cotroni faction consisted of guys who hailed from other parts of Italy. Originally the Montreal crew consisted mainly of the Cotronis and their people. The two factions were formed after many Sicillians settled in Montreal in the 1960s and 70s. By 1975 the Sicillians in Montreal had eclipsed the Controni faction and that is when they made their move to take over the Montreal crew. The deciding factor in this was most likely the fact that by that time the Sicillians controlled the drug trade, which gave them a lot of influence within New York Mafia circles. By the 1990s the Montreal crew was again functioning as one enterprise, but it seems the two factions never completely disappeared. When Sal Montagna, ironically a Sicillian, settled in Montreal, people who used to be loyal to the Cotronis sided with him against the Rizzutos.

However, with the deaths of Joe Di Maulo and Moreno Gallo, both heavy hitters within the old Cotroni group, we can asume that this faction now no longer exists. Based on the new round table it seems that the Sicillian faction has taken over completely.

i think the murder of moreno gallo in mexico was planned by the caruana-cun trera's they ahve links all across latin america... they are probably also behind the recent murders in greater toronto...the biggest mistake of di maulo and company was the murder of agostino cun trera more than nick rizzuto sr and jr
liborio cun trera is the new boss of montreal i bet

Sonny_Black, the Cotroni were the powerhouse up in Montreal, you had sicilians led by Luigi Greco, and Neapoliteans led by Marco Forgione. Galante formed those groups up there into one crew, but Stefano Magaddino put those that he trusted into the Cotroni faction. Forgione faction stopped operating in the mid to late 1960's for whatever reason. By the start of the 1970s you had the Cotroni faction led by Vic who remained boss with Violi as Underboss of the family. Luigi was still head of the sicilians, but was relying more on Cun-trere and Rizzuto before retiring in the early 1970s. Renda did not enter the picture till after Paolo brother Frank was killed in 75'.
SB, even though Joe and Moreno are gone, I do not believe that the Cotroni faction is gone, maybe in name only and the switched ton a different name. They still have Pietro, Stefano, and a couple of others that go back all the way to the 1970s. Only time will tell.

didnt magaddino have a montreal operative named patrone or something like that as his eyes and ears up there ?

Patrone was with the Hamilton crew the entire time. Magaddino had operatives in the Cotroni faction, his biggest one was none other than Paolo Violi. When Stefano passed away, Violi still maintained contacts with Buffalo through the Hamilton crew, but restricted that familys activities any farther than Hamilton, and also put a target on his back by ticking off Utica. The sicilians were selling drugs in and around the city instead of sending those shipments to new york, Paolo didn't want that and ordered Greco to restrain his crew. After Frank was killed, Galante had a meeting with Violi since he wanted the drugs to be spread in Montreal. Paolo said no. This meeting was told by Galante when he went to San Jose to get Joe Cerrito support for being boss instead of Rustelli of the Bonannos. Carmine told the story in front of the Cerrito brothers, Figlia, Adragna, Vasselo, and a couple of others that I can not recall right now. Cerrito and Rustelli never liked each other. When Paolo still didn't do what Galante wanted, Carmine instructed Rizzuto and Renda to get the ball rolling if Carmine went to jail, so he would have an alibi. Violi was invited to a card game at a place he once owned and sold to Manno, that is were he was killed. The rest of Magaddino operatives went to the Hamilton crew. This was a time when Buffalo was in turmoil for the boss positions, and those that were loyal to Stefano felt safer with the Hamilton crew instead going into the states.

also remember that violi was the son in law of magaddinos hamilton capo, giacomo luppino.

Dam g.v dropped a history lesson. Why is galante reaching out to guys in San Jose for airport and also wasn't San Jose jimmy the weasel area. We're the hell is San Jose. Cali.

Yep Giacomo Luppino was Violi father in law. Galante had maintained a good relationship with San Jose as a drug pipeline. I was told the split was 60/40 in Cerritos favor. Carmine tried to get a few members from that family as ghost soldiers, since his zips were well known to other families in New york. Vasselo use to be the go between guy when the Bonannos represented San Jose on the commission. I heard Galante even offered Tony Ditri 20 grand to come back to the Bonanno family. San Jose was not the weasel territory. Lanza even kicked him out of SF, but Jimmy kept sneaking back into the city. Paolo Violi was not a coward or as weak. After his brother was killed, he had two sicilian heavy hitters disappear, and had a sicilian big time earner left bleeding to death on the street. Like I said in an earlier post, the Cotroni family became weak with members dieing off, killed, imprisoned, or defected, to were Nick Rizzuto sr, became boss of Montreal as Vic was in prison.