THE BLACK HAND FORUM

The book doesn't go into as much detail about the funeral-home visitation as Peter Edwards did when he gave an in-person talk in the month following Fiorda's murder. You might recall our exchange at viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4122&p=188685&hili ... do#p188685.

So either Edwards later found out that it was not a senior 'ndrangheta member who had the security footage pulled or a decision was made not to mention this fact about the requestor, a decision perhaps made the authors -- most likely Peter -- but maybe by the publisher.

Incidentally, the book does not mention any rift between the Commissos and the Caruana-Cuntrera group in the GTA; rather, the book repeats what Edwards and Nicaso wrote in Business or Blood about the cozy, amicable relationship in the GTA between the 'ndrangheta and some Sicilian crime groups. In addition, in The Wolfpack, chapter 8 (titled "Greed") provides the following new details about the 50th-anniversary celebration of Paolo Cuntrera and wife Antonina Caruana in 2011 (but, interestingly, does not mention Paolo Cuntrera) and about Martino Caputo:

* Caputo was living in Niagara-on-the-Lake when he was doing business with Nick Nero. Caputo was not a member of the Wolfpack, but Nero was. The book states that Caputo "was among the crème de la crème of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Mafia world who attended a February 11, 2011, fiftieth wedding anniversary at a Vaughan banquet hall for an elderly couple connected to the Cuntrera-Caruana crime family."

* Other attendees were underworld guests from Venezuela and Italy. (The book also mentions guests came from Toronto and Montreal, but we already knew that.) Recall that in Business or Blood, the book's authors wrote that among the 300 attendees were representatives from Hamilton, York Region, and Ottawa (all in Ontario); representatives from Montreal and Sherbrooke (both in Quebec); several members from the Commisso crime group; and hitman Sam Calautti (who is also mentioned in the new book as being a guest).

In one of my next posts about the book, I'm going to mention Peter Scarcella's in-prison mentoring of Nick Nero, as well as the theory that Scarcella wanted to work for Nero, based upon the former's request upon coming up for parole that he be transferred to a halfway house in the St. Catharines (Ontario) area.