Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

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antimafia
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Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by antimafia »

In this new topic I've started I'll post interesting tidbits from each chapter of the book, as well as the occasional story about the book such as the article to which I've linked below. I will only be cross-posting articles to Gangster BB, not my "summaries" of the chapters.

Please let me know whether you're prevented from viewing this article because you live outside Canada.

« Il a traqué Vito Rizzuto »

https://www.lereflet.qc.ca/il-a-traque-vito-rizzuto/
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by Clark »

Really looking forward to this. Thanks antimafia!
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by SILENT PARTNERZ »

antimafia wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 8:17 pm In this new topic I've started I'll post interesting tidbits from each chapter of the book, as well as the occasional story about the book such as the article to which I've linked below. I will only be cross-posting articles to Gangster BB, not my "summaries" of the chapters.

Please let me know whether you're prevented from viewing this article because you live outside Canada.

« Il a traqué Vito Rizzuto »

https://www.lereflet.qc.ca/il-a-traque-vito-rizzuto/
The translation and access to the article worked well.
Thanks and i look forward to reading all that you post,
as always!
'three can keep a secret, if two are dead'
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by antimafia »

When I contribute posts in this thread, I will try to be clear--if and when necessary--as to whether I am literally translating or I am offering an interpretation in my translation. In the latter case, I will sometimes interject my opinion by noting it in between square brackets, i.e., "[" and "]."

If part of my sentence states something along the lines of Renaud wrote, Renaud writes, or Renaud has written, please be aware that what follows is my translation, as 99.99% of what Renaud has written in his book is in French.

The first chapter of the book is titled Le sommet, and I am fairly certain this title was used because of what Renaud wrote early on in the chapter: At the beginning of the 2000s, the Rizzutos had reached the summit in terms of their power.

In my next one or two posts, I want to provide a translation of a couple of pages, which appear near the beginning of chapter 1, about what transpired when Salvatore Vitale made two trips to Montreal, not one, to offer Vito Rizzuto the captaincy of the Montreal crew. I feel these pages require a translation of every sentence--I will probably not do this in future posts about other parts of the book, as such translation is very time consuming.
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by Lupara »

Looking forward to it, thanks for taking the time!
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by johnny_scootch »

antimafia wrote: Wed Dec 19, 2018 10:19 am When I contribute posts in this thread, I will try to be clear--if and when necessary--as to whether I am literally translating or I am offering an interpretation in my translation. In the latter case, I will sometimes interject my opinion by noting it in between square brackets, i.e., "[" and "]."

If part of my sentence states something along the lines of Renaud wrote, Renaud writes, or Renaud has written, please be aware that what follows is my translation, as 99.99% of what Renaud has written in his book is in French.

The first chapter of the book is titled Le sommet, and I am fairly certain this title was used because of what Renaud wrote early on in the chapter: At the beginning of the 2000s, the Rizzutos had reached the summit in terms of their power.

In my next one or two posts, I want to provide a translation of a couple of pages, which appear near the beginning of chapter 1, about what transpired when Salvatore Vitale made two trips to Montreal, not one, to offer Vito Rizzuto the captaincy of the Montreal crew. I feel these pages require a translation of every sentence--I will probably not do this in future posts about other parts of the book, as such translation is very time consuming.

Your effort is greatly appreciated.
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by CabriniGreen »

Translate from: Corsican
On March 18, 1999, a passer-by walking down a deserted street in the Bronx, New York, saw a body fall from a moving vehicle and immediately alert police officers. Sent to the scene, the officers find that the victim is a man coldly shot three times in the head. It's as if the perpetrators wanted to make a drug deal look bad, but New York investigators were not fooled.

The victim, Gerlando Sciascia, 65, was one of Joe Bonanno's most influential lieutenants, the largest of the five Mafia families in New York. Sciascia was born in Cattolica Eraclea, a small village in Sicily where so many members of the Montreal mafia came to the world. In 1955, at the age of about 20, he had emigrated to Montreal, where he lived for three years before settling in the United States, in the Big Apple. Nicknamed "George of Canada" because of his brief stay in Montreal and because there was always family and went there often, Sciascia was very close to Vito Rizzuto. He would have, according to old bloodhounds who still have this knowledge, helped the Rizzuto, who came from the same Sicilian village as him, to overthrow the dominant Calabrian clan of Violi and to take power in the Quebec metropolis at the turn of the 1980s. Sciascia , who was heavily involved in heroin trafficking between the United States and Canada, then developed drug operations with the Rizzuto that allowed the two Mafia clans in Canada and the United States to make a fortune. During the 1990s, he was the link between the Bonanno and Rizzuto clans, the latter always answering his American counterpart despite some excuses for emancipation and signs of protest, sometimes encouraged by Sciascia himself.

But all good things having an end, Sciascia began to become too powerful to the taste of the leader of the Bonanno clan, Joseph Massino. The vase overflowed when the Sicilian insisted Massino that one of his men be eliminated. This step - one too many - has turned against Sciascia. "George has to leave," Massino said laconically to his brother-in-law and right-hand man, Salvatore Vitale, during a wedding in early 1999.

The plan was to summon Sciascia to an appointment to solve a problem with the individual he wanted to see disappear. On March 18, he and another man meet at "George of Canada" in a Manhattan restaurant. The two men then invite him to go to another place in a vehicle to discuss. Once in the Bronx, Sciascia receives three bullets in the head before a passer-by sees his body fall on the road.

After the crime, Massino feigns anger and astonishment. He circulated the false assumption of the drug deal gone awry and forced all the lieutenants and soldiers of his organization to investigate to find the possible perpetrators of the crime and attend the funeral in New York. During these, the Rizzuto family leaders do not move and send a representative. Massino suspects that the Sicilians in Montreal are angry with him and suspect him of having ordered the murder. He sent his brother-in-law, Salvatore Vitale, and another henchman to Montreal to reassure the Rizzuto and claim his innocence. Massino absolutely does not want the Montreal mafiosi to believe that the order to kill Sciascia could have come from him, lest a conflict erupts between the two families. There will be no conflict, but something irreparable broke on March 18, 1999.
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by CabriniGreen »

(Rest of the first couple pages of chap. 1)


In the following weeks, the plane of Salvatore Vitale and his companion landed at Dorval Airport, now Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau. Vitale's mission is to convince and take the pulse of the bosses of the Montreal mafia, including Vito Rizzuto, whom he knows and respects. The two men share a terrible secret that has not yet come to light and that will have impacts for both clans in the years to come. When the two men leave the airport, two vehicles are waiting for them. New York visitors are surprised and worried about having to ride each separately in a car. They are not armed and several Montreal mafiosi are present, including Giuseppe Di Maulo, will later tell Vitale. Di Maulo invites Vitale to take a seat in his vehicle. The complexion of Joseph Massino's brother-in-law becomes livid. "They will bring me, they will kill me and they will bury me here, somewhere. I have no chance, I'm dead, "he thinks, swallowing his saliva.

But the car ride continues and Vitale relaxes little by little. Di Maulo makes him go sightseeing. It passes and stops in front of some buildings of Little Italy, Saint-Leonard and elsewhere in Montreal proudly announcing that they belong to them. He finally brings the visitor to a large room not far from the Consenza bar, headquarters of the Mafia Street Jarry, now missing.

Inside, about twenty "men of honor" of the Montreal mafia receive him and his flying companion, who is already there. Vito Rizzuto is here, his father, Nicolo, too. The men present have a drink and expect a lot from Vitale's visit. They believe that the latter will announce to them the name of the successor of Gerlando Sciascia. But they will be disappointed. Massino did not send Vitale to Montreal for this reason, but to try to rebuild the relationship between the two clans at a time when clouds are looming on the horizon. Vitale and his companion then return to New York. When reporting to his brother-in-law, Vitale told him that he had noticed that "the guys from Montreal" were disappointed that no one had been named to succeed "George of Canada". Massino may have had to step into the door at that moment, because when he sends his right arm back to Montreal, six months later, the tone has changed. Vital enters the same room, where are more or less the same men of honor as the first time. This time, he has an official approach to do and he moves away from a few steps with Vito Rizzuto.

- I have orders from Joe. He wants to name you officially at the head of the Montreal cell, Vitale announces him without hiding a certain pride.

Calmly, Vito Rizzuto looks at his interlocutor in the eyes and answers:

- No, I do not want it. Out of respect for my father, you give him this title, not me.

Vitale acquiesces and confirms Nicolo Rizzuto, then 75 years old, in the position of godfather of the Montreal cell of the Bonanno clan. But when Salvatore Vitale returns to Massino, he is perplexed. Later, he will tell Lorie McDougall, who visited him in New York, that it was only because of the protocol that the Montreal mafiosi agreed to receive him and that he had the impression that they laughed at him. For Vitale, the Rizzuto were already doing what they wanted. They no longer needed to ask permission in New York and they were now independent
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by CabriniGreen »

Figured I'd save you a little trouble antimafia....
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by CabriniGreen »

I'll wait before posting more....
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by CabriniGreen »

I gotta point out, there is already a little bias showing here...." Bonnanos, biggest in NY"..?
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by handy »

Was one of those meetings were they had left an empty chair for George?
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by baldo »

Thanks for posting, Cabrini. Looking forward to more from u guys!
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by Lupara »

So it seems Nicolo Rizzuto really became capo of the Montreal crew.

Interesting how Renaud now also suggest they became independent yet in his previous book he states that Montagna regurarly traveled between Montreal and New York in the years that followed, with Domenic Cicale adding he did in order to collect tribute.

So even though they were basically acting independent they officially continued as a Bonanno crew.

Nothing especially new here except the confirmation that Nick Rizzuto indeed became capo of the Montreal crew, something Andrian Humphreys and Lee Lamothe ignored in their book. They made it seem as if there was no successor installed as capo.
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Re: Daniel Renaud's 2018 book on Vito Rizzuto

Post by antimafia »

CabriniGreen wrote: Thu Dec 20, 2018 1:07 am Figured I'd save you a little trouble antimafia....
I had already started translating, but it was taking a long time because I was relying on a translation utility and translation sites only when I was having trouble conveying in English what was written in French.

I appreciate your posting--thank you. Those two pages alone give rise to so many questions, and it remains to be seen whether we''ll start new discussions here or in older threads about the relationship between the New York Bonanno Family and the Montreal Mafia.
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