Toronto/Windsor

[Tocco686]

Does anyone have a current chart for Toronto. Also I know Detroit LCN is big in Windsor but who are the real guys that control Windsor. I've heard Tony Pal has connects there, just wondering who they would be.

[Moscone65]

A chart for which Toronto group? Ndrangheta or sicilian?

[Tocco686]

I'm really not too informed on Canada LCN, from what I've read I heard Ndrangheta is the prominent group in Toronto. But I don't know if any of the info I read is legit. As for Windsor I know of the Detroit/Windsor connection from past but what I was wondering is who are the prominent guys who run the Windsor area, and what faction are they apart of.

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

I'm really not too informed on Canada LCN, from what I've read I heard Ndrangheta is the prominent group in Toronto. But I don't know if any of the info I read is legit. As for Windsor I know of the Detroit/Windsor connection from past but what I was wondering is who are the prominent guys who run the Windsor area, and what faction are they apart of.

Windsor was traditionally Detroit's
territory. No idea who would be
there now, if anyone.

[DoubleZ]

I’m resurrecting this thread because I think Windsor is very much an overlooked piece of the puzzle between Canadian and American OC.

Can any of the experts of Canadian OC, or those following the Montreal-Toronto-Hamilton-Buffalo saga closely comment on Windsor’s current status?

Geographically speaking sure, the Detroit LCN “controls” Windsor (whatever that means in Detroit’s weakened state), but they do not control the busiest and largest border crossing between the US’s largest trading partner. Another overlooked border crossing is the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, Michigan (about an hour north of Detroit).

I appreciate any insight fellas!

[antimafia]

I'll answer in more detail later -- not necessarily today -- but I want anyone reading my contributions in this thread and other threads to be aware I am hardly a Canadian expert on the subject of organized crime in my country.

Some points I'll elaborate upon eventually:

* A lot of cocaine that gets into Canada, but not all the cocaine, travels from the US through the Detroit-Windsor crossing point.

* Coke and other drugs can be imported through the Port of Windsor; however, I'm not sure whether the provenance of these other drugs is Detroit or elsewhere in the US. There was speculation just a number of years ago that the 'ndrangheta in Ontario was importing cocaine via the port -- no specific crime group in a Canadian city was mentioned, and the RCMP flatly denied this illegal activity was taking place.

* The Caesars Windsor casino, like many casinos, naturally attracts loansharks.

* The heyday of Italian crime groups or individual members operating in Windsor might have ended in the 1990s at some point. Some of the Italian crime groups worked together, e.g., the Caruana-Cuntrera family and the Siderno Group.

[antimafia]

This story broke several hours ago. Please note that the initialism "OPP" stands for Ontario Provincial Police.

Ambassador Bridge was entry point for 'near-pure' cocaine, say OPP

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news ... e-say-opp/

[antimafia]

^^^^
See the tweet at https://twitter.com/usconstoronto/statu ... 2109188097, as well as the accompanying photos. I've provided below a link to one of the photos.

[Antiliar]

I'm trying to find a thread that gives the history of the Mafia in Toronto. I'm not knowledgeable on OC in Toronto. The reason is that I found out that the earliest known Bonanno boss, Paolo Orlando, stepped down in 1909/1910 for Sebastiano DiGaetano to take over (and Nicolo Schiro in 1912) and moved to Toronto. I have no idea if he was involved in criminal activities there, but considering he was the boss of Tunis in North Africa before heading what is now the Bonanno Family, it's very possible.

[B.]

Settimo Accardi had ties to Toronto later on and he was in Tunis with his cousin Bonanno member Vincent Morsellino before coming to the US. He was from Vita next to Salemi where the Toronto Aguecis and Zizzo were from. Baldassare Accardi was a Toronto drug trafficker connected to them from Vita, maybe a relative of Settimo.

If Orlando was there makes you think it goes back further given we see Trapani and Tunis connections later.

[antimafia]

@Antiliar
On this version of TBHF, there is no thread about the history of Italian organized crime in Toronto. Nor was there such a thread in the old TBHF version.

The Ancestry site helped me determine whether the very few mentions (read: obituaries) I found of Orlando and his relatives in Canadian newspaper and magazine archives were of the right Orlandos.

The ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Toronto Star‎ (1894-2019) database has no results for the search terms Paolo Orlando, Paul Orlando, Orlando Paolo, Orlando Paul, Orlando Paulo, Orlando P, or P Orlando. There are a few other search terms I could try.

The ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail‎ (1844-2018) database only mentions Orlando's name in obituaries (either as "Paolo Orlando" or "Paul Orlando") for the following family members of his (but there doesn't seem to be an obituary for Orlando himself, unless I missed it): wife Elizabeth (birth name: Elisabetta Scorsone), older son Anthony, and son Lawrence. I would probably be able to find more obituaries for other members of the family tree in this database.

The Maclean's magazine archive (1905-2008) has no results for the search terms I mentioned above.

You probably already located the page found at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145 ... ul-orlando, which has the following details:

Name: Paul Orlando
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 22 Jan 1864 [my note: Ancestry also shows a DOB of 22 Feb 1864 in his Petition for Naturalization]
Birth Place: Camporeale, Città Metropolitana di Palermo, Sicilia, Italy
Death Date: 22 Jul 1947
Cemetery: Mount Hope Catholic Cemetery
Burial or Cremation Place: Toronto, Toronto Municipality, Ontario, Canada
Has Bio?: N
Spouse: Elizabeth Scorsone Orlando (1866-1956) (see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145 ... th-orlando)
Children:
Lawrence Orlando (1897-1947) (see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145 ... ce-orlando)
Anthony Orlando (1899-1958) (see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145 ... ny-orlando)

Seems that the Orlando family might have moved back and forth between Brooklyn and Toronto -- either that or Orlando didn't move to Toronto as early as was believed. Older son Anthony's WW I Registration Card indicates that as of September 12, 1918, he was employed as a baker by his father at 603 Flushing Av. in Brooklyn, which also seems to be the Orlando family's home address.

Son Lawrence's Province of Ontario Registration of Death indicates that he was a restaurant owner before retiring.

Photo of the gravestone for the Orlando-Scorsone clan:

[Antiliar]

@Antiliar
On this version of TBHF, there is no thread about the history of Italian organized crime in Toronto. Nor was there such a thread in the old TBHF version.

The Ancestry site helped me determine whether the very few mentions (read: obituaries) I found of Orlando and his relatives in Canadian newspaper and magazine archives were of the right Orlandos.

The ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Toronto Star‎ (1894-2019) database has no results for the search terms Paolo Orlando, Paul Orlando, Orlando Paolo, Orlando Paul, Orlando Paulo, Orlando P, or P Orlando. There are a few other search terms I could try.

The ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail‎ (1844-2018) database only mentions Orlando's name in obituaries (either as "Paolo Orlando" or "Paul Orlando") for the following family members of his (but there doesn't seem to be an obituary for Orlando himself, unless I missed it): wife Elizabeth (birth name: Elisabetta Scorsone), older son Anthony, and son Lawrence. I would probably be able to find more obituaries for other members of the family tree in this database.

The Maclean's magazine archive (1905-2008) has no results for the search terms I mentioned above.

You probably already located the page found at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145 ... ul-orlando, which has the following details:

Name: Paul Orlando
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 22 Jan 1864 [my note: Ancestry also shows a DOB of 22 Feb 1864 in his Petition for Naturalization]
Birth Place: Camporeale, Città Metropolitana di Palermo, Sicilia, Italy
Death Date: 22 Jul 1947
Cemetery: Mount Hope Catholic Cemetery
Burial or Cremation Place: Toronto, Toronto Municipality, Ontario, Canada
Has Bio?: N
Spouse: Elizabeth Scorsone Orlando (1866-1956) (see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145 ... th-orlando)
Children:
Lawrence Orlando (1897-1947) (see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145 ... ce-orlando)
Anthony Orlando (1899-1958) (see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145 ... ny-orlando)

Seems that the Orlando family might have moved back and forth between Brooklyn and Toronto -- either that or Orlando didn't move to Toronto as early as was believed. Older son Anthony's WW I Registration Card indicates that as of September 12, 1918, he was employed as a baker by his father at 603 Flushing Av. in Brooklyn, which also seems to be the Orlando family's home address.

Son Lawrence's Province of Ontario Registration of Death indicates that he was a restaurant owner before retiring.

Photo of the gravestone for the Orlando-Scorsone clan:

I appreciate all the work you put into your answer, but I'm really looking for a history of the Italian/Sicilian OC leaders in Toronto.

[Clark]

Hi Antiliar,

Orlando isn't mentioned in the book but, if you are looking for a good read that touches on some of the early history, The Whisky King by Trevor Cole is a great read. It is about Rocco Perri, so it covers the Prohibition period and mentions a lot of the prominent figures from that time. It is by no means a definitive work on early organized crime in Ontario, and it does focus more on those from Hamilton to Buffalo rather than Toronto, but it still might be of interest.

[motorfab]

Yes, and Rocco Perri worked in the 1910's for Joe Musolino, whose cousin of the same name is a famous early member of the 'ndrangheta in Santo Stefano in Aspromonte. Joe Musolino was arrested in 1909 along with a few others for a murder case, and the guy who gave the case to the police described Musolino as a leader of a criminal secret society, and he later became deported to Italy around 1911 (or he escaped I'm not sure). Antonio Papalia also worked for Perri if I remember correctly

I'm not sure there's ever been a Cosa Nostra family in Toronto, but the city has often served as a refuge for runaway criminals or has zips to do drug business.

Among the fugitive guys are Leonardo Cammalleri (Vito Rizzuto's father-in-law) & Leonardo Salvo who fled Cattolica Eraclea to escape prosecution for the murder of Mayor Giuseppe Spagnolo. Or more recently Michele Modica of Bagheria who had a feud with Pietro Scarcella

Among the Sicilians involved in drug trafficking are Benedetto Zizzo (whose brother was the boss of the Salemi cosca in the province of Trapani), Francesco Belliti, Giuseppe Indelicato, Michele Vinci or Alfonso Caruana, etc ...

But Toronto and Ontario in general are more with Calabrian mafiosi or gangsters with the Siderno Group established from the 50's (Mike Racco, Zito, Deleo, Triumbari and the others), the Musitanos in Hamilton (with Angelo who was on the run for having killed his sister ...), the Silvestro, Bordonaro, Sorbara, Carere or Scibetta families in Guelph & Burlington ... Or Domenico Violi or Giacomo Luppino who emigrated to Ontario in the 40's and 50's

I find Ontario difficult enough to bring together all the criminal groups. That's pretty basics info/names but like I said, except for the 'ndrangheta/Siderno group, not sure there was ever a full fledged borgata in Ontario (for the Ontario's experts, don't hit me if I'm wrong, I'm rather on Québec history)

[B.]

Not related to the original topic, but it's relevant to Toronto.

- Was talking to someone about Canada and came across this 2006 article where Michele Modica is referred to as a Bonanno member during his war with Pietro Scarcella: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ ... g-1.596434

- Modica was a made member in Palermo, so not sure if they had some reason to link him to the Bonannos (hard to believe they had intel confirming a transfer to the Bonannos) or if this was a straight up error. When Inzerillo went to Ontario I think they said he met with Modica. Also Scarcella has been linked to Vito Rizzuto, which would make him at least an ally of the Bonanno Montreal crew. Could the author have confused Modica with Scarcella when they ID'd him as a Bonanno member?

- Scarcella is from Castellammare (Bonanno ground zero) and there's a chart that's been posted where LE identified him as "Sicilian mafia" but we know he got his start under Paul Volpe who is believed to have been a Buffalo member. Going from memory, Mob Rule says Vito DeFilippo of the Bonannos "sponsored" Volpe but also says he was inducted with the Luppinos (Buffalo).

- The earliest known (?) Sicilian members in Hamilton are Calogero Bordonaro and Santo Scibetta, both from Racalmuto. Bordonaro was in Hamilton by 1920 and Magaddino refers to him being involved with the Buffalo Family in the 1920s and Bordonaro and Scibetta were definitely with Buffalo. Bordonaro's brother lived in Buffalo and he went there all the time based on border crossing records. Bordonaro was also connected to Nick Alfano of the Bonanno Family who was his paesan from Racalmuto.

- We see constant connections to the Bonanno Family in Ontario... Paolo Orlando, Salvatore Maranzano (a Buffalo member for a time according to Magaddino), Joe Bonanno was a Buffalo associate for a short period, etc. An early 1970s report also says the Bonanno Family had Canadian members in both Montreal and Ontario, info that's further reinforced by the 1964 tape where Magaddino and Paul Sciacca talk about Joe Bonanno inducting at least 7 members in Buffalo's Canadian territory (Ontario).

Not sure there is any coverage of the Canadian factions that isn't in some way confusing.