Bosses
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Rocco Pirri
(1920s-1944) |
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Rocco Perri got his criminal carreer started when he became involved in Black Hand extortion in Hamilton's Little Italy. Like many Canadian gangsters, Perri was never an advocate of violence. Rocco thought violence hurt business. Perri first chance to become a major power started when Prohibition started in the United states. Rocco soon started moving huge amounts of liquor in the U.S. Rocco was soon called "king of the bootleggers" and "Canada's Al Capone". Perri is considered the the Canadian Gangster who put Canadian crime world on the map. After making a huge fortune, Rocco soon started including gambling and protection rackets as part of his Underworld Empire. He soon became the boss of the Hamilton Underworld. When Prohibition ended in 1933, Rocco lost his main source of income and much of his power. The U.S. Families made many attempts to bring the Canadians under their controll but Rocco was able to hold on to his Family until his death in 1944. |
Johnny "Pops" Papalia
(1940s-1997) |
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After the death of Rocco Perri, there was no dominant gangster who took control of Hamilton. Johnny "Pops" Papalia was the first to take advantage. "Pops" was a "made" member of the Buffalo LCN and came from a father who was a bootlegger. John soon followed. He soon started taking over the rackets of Hamilton and other parts of Southern Ontario for the Buffalo Family. John had great relationships with the the Montreal Family, which was under the controll of the Bonnano Family. Some of these men included Vic Controni and Carmine Galante. These men helped Johnny rise to the top of the Hamilton Underworld. During the late 50s, Papalia used his connections to get involved in the heroin trade. "Paps" also started muscling in on the gambling rackets. But Papalia was soon arrested and convicted for heroin smuggling and was sentanced to ten years. During his absence, Paul Volpe, boss of the Toronto area, started taking over the rackets of John Papalia. When "Paps" got out he was very angry. In 1983 Paul Volpe was murdered and left in the trunk of a car at Toronto airport. Papalia was suspected to be behind the murder along with his connections in Montreal. In May of 1997 Johnny "Paps" Papalia was gunned down. It is unknown who was behind it. His right hand man Carmen Barillaro became the boss of the Hamilton area.
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Carmen Barillaro
(1997) |
| Carmen Barillaro was the right hand man of Johnny Papalia. After "Paps" was gunned down, it was suspected he would take over Buffalos operation in Hamilton and Southern Ontario. But he didn't last long. He was killed on August 12, 1997, just a few months after the death of "Paps. It is unsure who has been ordering the killings but many people think the Barillaro and Papalia killings were an indication that the Canadian gangsters are asserting their independance from the weakened Buffalo Family but others think the Buffalo Family had them killed because they were becoming a little to independent from the Buffalo Family. It is not known who has taken Carmen Barillaro's place.
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Toronto Gangsters
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Paul Volpe
(1960s-1984) |
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Paul Volpe was never a boss or even a capo, he was just a lowly soldier in the Buffalo Family. Many people thought Volpe was boss of the Toronto area, that is a complete myth. Volpe was a Buffalo soldier who operated out of Toronto. Volpe became well-know when he was suckered twice by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He was secretly filmed and tape recorded in two different "expose" series on Canadian criminals called "Connections". When the filming was made public, people thought Volpe was boss of Toronto. He was so dumb, that he fell for a "naive" ruse by the reporter who secretly recorded Volpe while they were just talking. A few years later, he was suckered by the same people. This time they used a former hood and took lots of film and recordings of Volpe. He was the laughing stock of the Canadian Underworld. When John Papalia got sent away to prison, Volpe began to blossom. He started taking over John Papalia's rackets. He became involved in gambling operations in Haiti with major Bonanno gangsters, got into Ontario's building industry and by the 1980s was investing in real state, especially in Alantic City, New Jersey. But Volpe thought he was so powerful, that he could ignore the new boss of Buffalo, Joseph Todaro. It caught up with him in 1983 when Volpe was murdered and left in a trunk of a car at a Toronto airport. No one has been charged in his killing, but many people believe that John Papalia did it on the orders of Todaro. After the death of Volpe, Papalia became Buffalo's main man in Ontario. There was also some talk that the Commisso brothers of Toronto, who were members of 'nDrangheta, ordered it. |
