Frank Cotroni wasn't even a force in his later years, especially after his last release from prison. I also wouldn't jump to conclusions and assume the Cotroni group has all of a sudden regrouped, and become a force within the Montreal Mafia like old times. If there is some newly consolidated Cotroni group, I'd place it in the same group as the typical factions. Meaning it's group comprised of other Italian Canadian & French Canadian criminals moreso than Cotronis themselves. In other words, I simply don't believe there is anything at this point to go on that leads to them suddenly being a standalone faction.

Frank Cotroni wasn't even a force in his later years, especially after his last release from prison. I also wouldn't jump to conclusions and assume the Cotroni group has all of a sudden regrouped, and become a force within the Montreal Mafia like old times. If there is some newly consolidated Cotroni group, I'd place it in the same group as the typical factions. Meaning it's group comprised of other Italian Canadian & French Canadian criminals moreso than Cotronis themselves. In other words, I simply don't believe there is anything at this point to go on that leads to them suddenly being a standalone faction.

Despite the power shift, Frank Cotroni appeared to maintain
considerable influence in Montreal's underworld.
In July 2002, he was still described in police
intelligence reports as "an important person in the Montreal
Italian Mafia and in Canada."

I believe Nicodemo is Frank's oldest son, who is technically the family's patriarch. I'm not sure, but I vaguegly remember reading somewhere that Francisco was out of the game. Perhaps this Michel is now representing the group since he was named along with Domenico Violi as attending that meeting.

I think, if true, a clash between the Rizzutos and Cotronis had to happen at some point. I'd say it was even inevitable given the history.

Yeah, I read that article (I rarely miss any) but I forgot about it stating that it had transitioned to Sollecito. It seems to me that Rocco Sollecito's murder could rather be linked to Giordano than Gallo, but who knows. Gallo had a small army of his own I believe. I still wonder where Mucci stood in all of this. Based on tapes of the Consenza club it looked like that Mucci was with Gallo back then. But based on information from Renaud, Mucci had supposedly distanced himself from Gallo during the take-over attempt because he chose to be neutral. Do you happen to have more information of Mucci's relationship with Gallo? I know that Mucci was in charge of a crew who where distributing coke, but I think that he was Gallo's second-in-command. Also, I ignored your advice and read your post in its entirety. ;) 

Sorry for only getting around to answering you now.

On September 26, 2012, Éric Vecchio, a police officer with the SPVM, where his title is lieutenant-détective, testified before the Charbonneau Commission inquiry (the CEIC). The transcript of his testimony will be found at

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.ceic.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/Fichiers_client/fichiers/Transcriptions/2012-09/Transcription_audience_CEIC_2012-09-26.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwisnrCSjO3QAhUBw2MKHTm3A88QFggaMAA&usg=AFQjCNFg4WCbpeWWMyieIR6D0wRYsq9Xqw&sig2=lQO1HKjyxaZI9qd5OGI6NA

or at

https://www.ceic.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/Fi...2012-09-26.pdf.

At least one of these links should work.

Below is an excerpt from the transcript.

Q. Et également à l'instar de monsieur Moreno Gallo il faisait partie, il est calabrais?

R. Lui aussi il est calabrais, très proche de monsieur Di Maulo et très proche aussi avec le départ de monsieur Rizzuto, il y a toujours été dans l'entourage, là, des peut-être supposés prétendants au titre. Monsieur Mucci pendant un bout de temps a été, les rumeurs courait que c'est lui qui allait devenir la tête du réseau, la tête de l'organisation, ce qui était assez, tant qu'à moi assez farfelu, là.

Q. [419] Pour?

Parce que monsieur Mucci n'a jamais, n'a jamais occupé des, des postes clés dans le crime organisé italien à Montréal. Il a toujours été considéré comme un subalterne et non pas une tête dirigeante.
Donc son lien avec monsieur Di Maulo le laisse...

Donc monsieur Mucci a toujours été un peu dans l'ombre de monsieur Di Maulo. Donc le, le titre était plus ou moins farfelu.

In '00 period before he died in '04, which are the "later years" I'm referring to, Cotroni wasn't much of a factor in the Montreal underworld, this is at least according to The Northern Connection & Peter Edwards. Not saying it's facts, but there's no reason to assume Edwards wouldn't have an idea. A law enforcement officer from the time is quoted as saying "he's slowed down quite a bit. The organization is in tatters, if you want to call it an organization." This officer is unnamed however, and I don't know which organization he's referring to, most likely the Cotroni group itself, meaning the direct group whom was under Cotroni & his brother themselves. He definitely stayed in contact with various undesirables though, I won't deny that, which was his reason for going back to prison in '02 on a parole violation, meeting with a man who went on to meet with old Cotroni associates. I believe he even released a cookbook during this period, I wonder how guys would've felt about that. It's not exactly writing a memoir but who knows.

Chapter 28 of the aforementioned book details the murder of Franks son Paul in '98. There's another quote by another unnamed member of law enforcement, granted, but the rumors were to them that the killers did a sort of risk assessment before they killed the kid and they supposedly determined "They (Frank's Crime Family?) didn't have the clout in place..."; Meaning the "old Cotroni group" of Frank's didn't have the clout to avenge the death of his own son. These were supposedly bikers, as rumors were he was selling diluted cocaine to biker gangs. Again, rumors, but again Edwards was also a reporter for these groups specifically, and this specific book is usually referenced when sometimes the Cotroni's come up in other places. But hey, he could be wrong, I don't suspect him to be right about everything.


As far as the current status of the immediate group, I think Frank's son Francesco is still around, he served time for murder before, and if he isn't in prison I can see him being the representation for the "Cotroni group", I guess in the same way Leonardo would be for the "Rizzuto group", so I could be wrong about they're current place within the Montreal milieu.

In '00 period before he died in '04, which are the "later years" I'm referring to, Cotroni wasn't much of a factor in the Montreal underworld, this is at least according to The Northern Connection & Peter Edwards. Not saying it's facts, but there's no reason to assume Edwards wouldn't have an idea. A law enforcement officer from the time is quoted as saying "he's slowed down quite a bit. The organization is in tatters, if you want to call it an organization." This officer is unnamed however, and I don't know which organization he's referring to, most likely the Cotroni group itself, meaning the direct group whom was under Cotroni & his brother themselves. He definitely stayed in contact with various undesirables though, I won't deny that, which was his reason for going back to prison in '02 on a parole violation, meeting with a man who went on to meet with old Cotroni associates. I believe he even released a cookbook during this period, I wonder how guys would've felt about that. It's not exactly writing a memoir but who knows.

Chapter 28 of the aforementioned book details the murder of Franks son Paul in '98. There's another quote by another unnamed member of law enforcement, granted, but the rumors were to them that the killers did a sort of risk assessment before they killed the kid and they supposedly determined "They (Frank's Crime Family?) didn't have the clout in place..."; Meaning the "old Cotroni group" of Frank's didn't have the clout to avenge the death of his own son. These were supposedly bikers, as rumors were he was selling diluted cocaine to biker gangs. Again, rumors, but again Edwards was also a reporter for these groups specifically, and this specific book is usually referenced when sometimes the Cotroni's come up in other places. But hey, he could be wrong, I don't suspect him to be right about everything.


As far as the current status of the immediate group, I think Frank's son Francesco is still around, he served time for murder before, and if he isn't in prison I can see him being the representation for the "Cotroni group", I guess in the same way Leonardo would be for the "Rizzuto group", so I could be wrong about they're current place within the Montreal milieu.

The risk assessment turn out to be wrong, the person that ordered the killing of Paul Cotroni, Johnny Plescio one of the founders of the Rock Machine was killed about two weeks later and his brother Tony Plescio was killed one year later. Johnny Plescio didn't like the fact the Paul& Frank Cotroni Jr. were doing business with HA.

For what its worth, a very knowlegeable poster on another forum had stumbled upon an FBI file that stated that Gerlando Sciascia was believed (by the Bonanno admin) to have ordered the murder of Cotroni's son and was killed himself as a result of it. I'm not sure, but I believe this was apparantly said by Massino himself.

Gerard Gallant, Rock Machine hitman on orders from Plescio, confessed to having killed Paul Cotroni.
The Massino angle seems strange to me ,if you can get Massino's testimony on this matter I would be interested to know the connection.

As Leonardo Rizzuto was involved in a fight with a member of Rock Machine, I believe this member was killed afterwards but I could be wrong.

For what its worth, a very knowlegeable poster on another forum had stumbled upon an FBI file that stated that Gerlando Sciascia was believed (by the Bonanno admin) to have ordered the murder of Cotroni's son and was killed himself as a result of it. I'm not sure, but I believe this was apparantly said by Massino himself.

Yes, almost certain he was killed. I think he even tried to go on the run once he found out who Leonardo was as I don't think he would have done it had he known.



That would jive with the story that Vitale might have testified to that they tried to make up a story on Sciascia. I mean it's not exact word for word but makes sense that they would spread the rumor to not think Massino was behind the hit or at least give them a reason to do it.

I didn't say he was beaten by a Rock Machine member, I overlooked it and Sinatra is the one that said Rock Machine. I just simply missed it when replying.