I just read the 6th family and obviously he was a more speacial gangster than your local brooklyn button but if he was in the US would he have ascended that high.You cant compare canadian LE to American LE he basicly contolled Montreal like Luciano controlled NY back in the day.

He did have international connections in Italy colombia Venuzuela because of his father

I think it's a combination of both, he was certainly at the right place at the right time. But he had to be smart and ruthless to survive the instability of the Bonnanos in the 70s/80s and the current wars. Not only that, he's pretty much made the Montreal crew his own family of its own (they don't even kick up to NY anymore do they?). Perhaps him and his pop being Sicilian gave them an edge, they tend to deal more in international rackets and drug traffic than American LCN want to get mixed up in.

But he was lucky in the fact that he got involved in the New York family that was biggest into drugs in the 1970s and happened to be in the city that was the main gateway for the drugs. And he was lucky that the Bonnanos were weak enough that he have a lot a freedom to do what he wanted to in Montreal.

Also canada is soft on crime, no ricoesque law meaning you can impose your will and not be touched. He could strut around like gottu if he wanted to and never see the inside of a jail, had he been in the u.s. he would of gotten life in tje 80's so its a couple of three things that ads to hos success, location,brains and braun.

Luck was involved for sure but he also was able to keep himself pretty well insulated. As some have already said, the Rizzuto's were more like "international gangsters" which is why I find them so fascinating. I don't understand how they got away with half the stuff they did. It sounds like they had some major international political connections though, like with the Saudi leadership etc. I'm not sure what "The Sixth Family" is like, but you should read "Mafia Inc." It's a really good (very long) book about the Rizzuto crime family. I've heard people say it's better than "The Sixth Family" but I really don't know. It also includes the more recent events like Rizzuto Senior's murder, and the stuff with Sal Montagna from NY coming up to gain control in Montreal.

I think that hes lucky that the opposing group sort of fell apart before he got back.

One thing is for sure, hes clipping people left and right like a damn boss right now! (allegedly)

Vito's the fucking man up there

Luck plays into any gangsters rise honestly. Look at Luciano, didn't he survive an attack that got him the nickname Lucky? Gotti was lucky Dellacroce kept him alive, Persico surviving the Gallo's attempt on his life, the list goes on and on. Not every boss rose to the top without luck.

As others have said Vito's location has helped him. Until the GTA gets on the ball with crime like the U.S. has he will ALWAYS be strong like he is. I seriously doubt anybody other than Raynald has the balls to try and clip him anymore and Dejardins doesn't have the soldiers Vito does.

Then I think his smarts have kept him alive as well. One is not respected like he is truly by fear, many like him because they ALL make a killing with him in power and he is not one to just pop folks for no reason.

To me regardless he goes down as one of the smartest gangsters around. He will not be challenged anymore unless he goes back behind bars which I doubt he does as the U.S. has NOTHING on him now unless he screws up or there is a rat which I don't see either with Canada's weak laws.

Like this dude ,Wish i were more tied in on that....Looks like the old days. When we would run ,ha just kidding

Drugs = power and money and they move tons upon tons. It wouldn't surprise me if Vito had 10x's the money of any NY boss.

Remember he went to south America around X-mas, probably to see his personal vault full of dollars and gold..

What, I like about the Rizzuto family is no one has flipped like New York families. I guess it does have to do with the laid back laws and sentences these guys receive. I really think Vito is top notch and very good at what he does. All this mess will settle down soon enough with him back from prison and able to run things.

In Canada you serve like 10 years for murder 1, so do the math. They are super soft.

In America, a mafia guy get life for jwalking if it is in the commission of a RICO enterprise.

My personal thoughts on this is that he's a smart gangster. I've always maintained it would be interesting to see what he did when he got out of prison - whether he was going to retire or take back what was his. I think it's obvious what he chose. More importantly, it's how he's done it that makes it all the more impressive. The specific targets have been taken care of. No collateral damage. No flashy shows of power. Just one by one his enemies have been taken care of. So in my opinion, some of the U.S guys should take a page out of his book on how to run things smartly.

There are a handful of made guys around today that were gunna be able to look back at and admire 30 years from now, Vito Rizzuto is one of those people

Isn't their only 20 guys up in Canada?

I think there were 20 something guys up there that were made into the Bonnano Family, that dosent include people like Lorenzo Giordano or that Francesco guy just the old timer, a decent t amount of which got shot recently

Yea there might be that many made into the Bonanno's but I thought Vito was making people on his own now anyways? He is rolling deeper than 20..

Agreed

He also apparently made someone who isn't italian, which is totally ridiculous..

"I do what I wanttttt" - Vito Rizzuto in cartman's voice.

i doubt those sp*cs were ever made, the one that got whacked in sicily was purely muscle, and desjardins was a pretty big player but alot of his standing in the mafia came from who he married.

That's what Sal Vitale testified, i.e. there were 18-20 guys in Rizzuto's organization who were made members of the Bonanno family, including Vito and Nick Rizzuto.

Calling Joe Bravo purely muscle is absolutely ridiculous.

You are talking about Juan "Joe Bravo" Fernandez of course. This guy was more then muscle, was an asset to Vito, and a close trusted associate of his. He was also fiercely loyal and got things done from drug dealings, collections, and murder. Fernandez was a perfect guy to trust with an arraignment drug shipments from Latin countries and dealings from Toronto. I'm sure he was killed in Sicily on orders from Desjardins and the Calabrian faction in retaliation for Di Maulo's murder for the continuous control of Montreal.

A side note on Di Maulo and Desjardins, they were ungrateful, turncoat little shits and got what they deserve.

Ivy,


Do you remember the old Rizzuto crime family chart that I requested and Mukremin had made for me in 2011? It shows a lot more then 20 names. Actually, 62 names (Excluding Rizzuto's names)were on it, but how many were made members in the Rizzuto family? It has been awhile (since 2011), so how many are new associates and how many have left, do we know? I know 14 from that old chart have been killed. Who were the 20 made members of the Bonnano's?

Yes the 20 number is the made members of the Bonanno's. I have heard like others have said that Vitor anyon was making non-Italians and I believe it. He has proven time and time again he only plays by his own rules and could give a shit what NY thinks. If he only has 20 "made" (by his count not those like Vitale that has NO CLUE these days) men I'm not sitting here typing this.

This is the opposite from what I read around the time of the Bravo hit. It was opined that Vito ordered it as Bravo remained neutral during the war and didn't do enough to fight back for the Rizzuto faction.

Why was this Spanish guy in Sicily that's my question

He was meeting with sicilian mafia bosses regarding future business deals.

And what mike68 said is true.

Joe Bravo was deported from canada when he got outa jail so he had to go somewhere, and he was trying to set up a drug pipeline with the sicilians.

Not only Vitale. There are FBI documents from the 1960s that state there were 20 Bonanno made members in Montreal. Vito Rizzuto said to Sal Vitale in 2001 that there were 19, and that's because Sciascia was killed in 1999. Montagna might have inducted some new guys, otherwise there are now probably no more than a dozen left.