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, the daughter of the boss of the Luppino crime family in Hamilton. He later moved to Montreal where he became associated with the Calabrese Cotroni crime family, which controlled much of organized crime in Montreal. In the late 1970s, boss Vincenzo Cotroni transferred the family's day-to-day activities 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 known as the Luppino-Violi crime family.
Criminal career 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 On 24 May 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 testified at his trial that both he and Brigante were pimps and the dispute that led to the killing was about the control of a prostitute. However, it is believed that Brigante was murdered as part of a bloodfeud, with one policeman saying, "I'm sure [Violi] was told 'Take care of this problem for us'. Otherwise he never would have shot up [in status] the way he did."
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 family in Hamilton, but left for Montreal in 1963 on Luppino's orders to avoid clashes with another Hamilton mobster, Johnny Papalia. On 10 July 1965, Violi married Grazia Luppino, the daughter of Giacomo, in Hamilton with Vincenzo "Vic" Cotroni, boss of the Cotroni family, serving as the best man at the wedding. Cotroni served as the godfather to one of Violi's children with Papalia and Paul Volpe both serving as godfathers to the other children. Further expanding his reach was that the Commisso brothers married another of Luppino's daughters, thereby making an alliance with the Commisso 'ndrina.
In Quebec, Violi opened the Reggio Bar in Saint-Leonard in the mid-1960s, which he used as a base for extortion. Stefano Magaddino, the boss of the Buffalo family, saw Violi as his "beachhead" who would win Montreal for him from the rival Bonanno family. Violi was closely associated with Frank Cotroni and became known as "The Don of St. Leonard". In the 1960s and 1970s, Vic 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 the meat turned out to be tainted.Schneider, Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada, pp. 264
Violi saw himself as the future boss of the Cotroni family and in private he mocked Cotroni as a weak leader. Violi told Luppino in a phone conversation that the police listened into, "I already know that Cotroni is weak...I told him, Compare ["Godfather"], I am with you 100 percent, but only if you are sincere. Otherwise, I won't be 100 percent with you." In another wiretapped phone conversation with Luppino, Violi berated Bill Bonanno, the son of Joseph Bonanno, as he stated, "I told you that if I was to know that Bonanno was coming up again, I would tell him what a dishonest man he is. I would have gone myself and shown him what I thought of him...I would have told him, 'I'm not with you nor with him. I'm by myself. I don't want to have anything to do with anyone, because you're all a bunch of bastards'. The way things stand today that the abboccatoes [regions] will split and everyone will be on their own. I'm telling you that, in Montreal, we will be alone by ourselves." Violi's brash, cocky and arrogant approach and lack of respect for his elders did not make him friends in the underworld.
Underboss 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.Auger and Edwards The Encyclopedia of Canadian Organized Crime p.195.L'atentat, p. 65 Cotroni's role became more that of an adviser to the younger Calabrian.La Presse, 1er décembre 1973Idem, p. 63 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 Manning, George A, PH.D Financial Investigation and Forensic Accounting pg.214–215
In December 1970, his bar was bugged with wiretaps by Robert Ménard, an undercover police officer who used the alias Robert Wilson, who rented an apartment above Violi's Reggio Bar for several years. Ménard was supposed to go undercover for only three months, but instead served undercover for about five years. The evidence he acquired was later used in subsequent cases.
Ménard under his Wilson identity hardly spoke at all to Violi during his first two years as his tenant and was most surprised when Violi wanted to speak over a meal of pizza and wine. Ménard described Violi as a "better class of criminals" than the French-Canadian bank robbers who shot most of his leg. Ménard stated that Violi's eyes had "intelligence, but ruthlessness. Total ruthlessness. Paolo would kill, but he'd do it in a much more intelligent way...You want to know the difference? They [French-Canadian bank robbers] will kill you indiscriminately, for no reason, while Paolo would kill you if he had to for power and for position and for advantage. That's the difference...They'll [French-Canadian bank robbers] kill because they don't like you having a toothpick in your mouth. That's the difference here. Goddamn animals. Nothing else...Paolo will use killing as a means to an end, a method. If you kill someone that you're trying to gather money from–unless you want to use him as an example–what the hell's the use use of killing a source of revenue?...That's not businesslike. Real smart guys don't kill until it absolutely has to be done."
Ménard usually talked with Violi every Saturday morning over numerous cups of coffee. Ménard learned that he was a staunch federalist who detested Quebec separatism. Riots had erupted in September 1969 when the Saint-Leonard school board changed the language of instruction for Italian Canadian children from English to French. Several Italian Canadian school teachers who continued to teach in English received death threats, and Violi told Ménard that he provided bodyguards to the teachers. Ménard recalled, "God, he hated the PQ party! I think he hated them more than the cops. He just hated them! He thought they were destroying Canada...He was very nationalistic. He spoke English a lot."
Ménard recalled that Violi was the neighbourhood leader in Saint-Leonard as he recalled, "There was some fear. He was like the don. He was like the godfather. I can remember some old people going over and kissing his hand...I guess it was a mark of respect. He was always bowed to. I'm not saying it was grandiose. It was little things." Violi received a steady steam of visitors at the Reggio Bar, mostly from New York and Hamilton. Ménard stated, "There would always be some big cars from the States and there would always be somebody there. All the time. It was like a parade. It was like a doctor's office with patients. You know, he'd be receiving in the afternoons. A car from New York. A car from New Jersey. A car from Ontario. God, all kinds of big, huge cars. They'd be parked. The guys would come in. Sometimes he'd greet them at the door. And they'd be on their way after a bit." Violi played the role of a community leader within the Italian Canadian community in Montreal, serving as a banker, judge and community mediator. He was known for providing free ice cream to children at the Reggio Bar, and he would never permit anyone to swear in front of children. However, his apparent generosity was self-interested as any favour he provided such as a loan or resolving a business dispute came with the understanding that he was entitled to favours in return. Ménard discovered, much to his shock, that after the owner of a pizzeria saw him talking with Violi in the street, he had refused to charge him for the pizza he just ordered, saying that any friend of Violi's was entitled to permanent free pizza from his pizzeria.
In early July 1973, Violi paid an extended visit to Italy to see his first cousin and childhood friend, Domenico Barbino. Late on in the same month, John Paul Getty III, the so-called "golden hippie", was kidnapped. Getty was the grandson of the American oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty, who was the world's richest man at the time. Getty finally paid his grandson's ransom after his right ear was cut off and mailed to his parents with the warning that more body parts would be severed if the ransom was not paid. As Barbino was one of the kidnappers of Getty and he was constantly on the phone with his cousin in Montreal, it is believed that Violi was in some way involved in the kidnapping. After Getty finally paid the $17 million ransom for his grandson, Violi laundered the ransom money for Barbino via investments in Montreal.
On 10 July 1973, the Popeyes motorcycle gang killed Mario Ciambrone and Salvatore Sergi of the Cotroni family for selling them low quality heroin at a premium price. On 31 July 1973, Violi met with Frank Cotroni who called the Popeyes "crazy, crazy, crazy...They've killed something like ten guys already!" It was agreed that Frank should handle the bikers while Violi would handle Angelo Faquino, the intermediary drug dealer. On 2 September 1973, Faquino was killed while walking down the street.
Much to Violi's disgust, Frank spent too much time planning out an attack on the bikers as he was very concerned about the possibility of innocent by-standers being killed and never actually carried out the assignment. In a conversation recorded by a police wiretap, Violi was heard saying, "He [Frank] should have gone into the club, clients or no clients, lined everybody up against the wall and rat-a-tat-tat." On 14 September 1973, a Cotroni family piciotto, Toni Di Genova, was killed by the Popeyes, which led to calls within the family to "take care of the Frenchmen once and for all." At a meeting at the Windsor Hotel attended by Violi, Vic Cotorni and Joe DiMaulo, it was decided to end the war with the Popeyes, which was felt to be adverse for business. Even though it was Violi who decided to end the war, he continued to lash out at Frank Cotroni, who he felt should have massacred the Popeyes.