Paul Volpe

[antimafia]

Peter Edwards's article about Paul Volpe's 1983 murder, which Peel Regional Police considers to be the oldest unsolved homicide to ever occur in Mississauga (city immediately west of Toronto), was published online this past Sunday, April 18.

Link:

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/0 ... s-bmw.html

In case you hit a paywall, use either of these links:

https://pressreader.com/article/281612423232798

https://outline.com/Upe7M9

------------------------

I plan to post again in this thread in the near future.

[antimafia]

In two recent threads I've referenced an article about Paul Volpe's murder. Below is the link to my Evernote item:

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... c0396f2f95

The story by Adrian Humphreys was published on November 14, 2003.

Depending on what device you use to read the item, you may have to scroll right to see any text that can't immediately be seen in the right margin.

[antimafia]

Per my promise in the recent post I made at viewtopic.php?f=29&t=9839&p=247920#p247920.

Farther below is my Evernote link to an archived version of Rob Lamberti's July 10, 2010 article in the Toronto Sun, as the original article is no longer found online in the websites of the newspaper's parent company. Back when the article came out, I saved the original to a laptop as a PDF but I thought it better to use now an archive.org link to clip the article to my Evernote account. There are several archive.org links for that article -- here's one in case you want to view the article there: https://web.archive.org/web/20100713120 ... 73136.html. The article was also made available at http://www.fivefamiliesnyc.com/2011/03/ ... r-old.html on March 9, 2011.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... 1b94708c1d

The pregnant sentence/paragraph in Lamberti's article: "Volpe, who was not a 'made man,' answered to the Arm, the Stefano Magaddino crime family of Buffalo, Sandelli says." I have asked the author for clarifications but I will not be quoting from my correspondence with him.

A number of us have previously seen the relevant-to-the-time FBI memo found at https://documents.theblackvault.com/doc ... 576140.pdf. IIRC, the last 6 pages of this 7-page PDF are also found on the Mary Ferrell site and on archive.org.

There are also larger files available online about Paul Volpe in particular. The file to which I've linked below is 673 pp.; the file size is 37 MB.

https://documents2.theblackvault.com/do ... e-fbi1.pdf

In this thread I plan to share some relevant Mary Ferrell pages via Evernote, screenshots of pages from the two PDFs noted above, and pages from the digital version of James Dubro's Mob rule (the ebook is handy to quote from, and my doing so will save any of you from having to look stuff up in your hard copy or from having to buy the book). I'll see what Dubro is willing to share with me and what he'll allow me to share here. I'll ask him why, in his book, he even seemed to hedge his opinion about which American LCN Family inducted Volpe, even after writing that Volpe was sworn in the year 1961, sponsored by particular individuals, and so on. I predict that Dubro will probably say that he received bad law-enforcement intel about Paul Volpe's having been inducted in 1961 -- and if there's anyone who warns against using bad intel in mafia research, it would be Dubro.

[NickleCity]

The pregnant sentence/paragraph in Lamberti's article: "Volpe, who was not a 'made man,' answered to the Arm, the Stefano Magaddino crime family of Buffalo, Sandelli says." I have asked the author for clarifications but I will not be quoting from my correspondence with him.

Ron Fino has indicated Volpe was made in the Magaddino family. Perhaps the reason Sandelli believed he was not could be related to the following information Fino has conveyed in his book. Fino writes:

Back in 1969, when my father was given the reins of the empire, he, for whatever reason, decided that the Capos under him should be given more power and the power of the boss become more of an overseer with less authority. This gave Dan Sansanese Sr. and Roy Carlisi more power than my father had. He allowed Toronto, Ontario (which had been under Magaddino control since the 1950s) and Paul Volpe to exercise its own authority and not have to pay any tribute. The same held true in Rochester under Frank Valenti. When he was ousted in 1972, Rochester did not relinquish what had been given to them. Animosity broke out and even the Commission rulings could not bring Rochester back into the fold. Shooting started and soon both factions were subjected to disloyalty.

If Volpe was under his “own authority” and didn’t “have to pay any tribute,” it could very well look as if he wasn’t made.

[antimafia]

Heads up: There is a serious error on the Amazon Canada site re: the ebook download of Mob rule — unfortunately, after one purchases the ebook, the download will be of Dubro’s Mob mistress instead.

The “preview” of Mob rule on the Kobo Canada site is correct in terms of content, but I can’t guarantee the download of the purchased copy will have the correct content.

[antimafia]

^^^^
On the Amazon Canada page, I self-reported the technical issue with the Mob rule download.

I then contacted customer service via the Amazon US site -- the technical error should be resolved within 12 to 24 hrs.

[B.]

You've likely seen it, but this is a great document on the general association of the Volpe brothers with Buffalo affiliates:
https://documents.theblackvault.com/doc ... 576140.pdf

Interestingly one of the brothers was born in Madison, Illinois, which borders St. Louis.

Here is where Magaddino discusses Paul Volpe with Dominick Romeo:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... lPageId=47

[antimafia]

James Dubro wrote in Mob rule (pp. 49, 50) that Paul Volpe was inducted in 1961:

Finally, in 1961, after many years of making all the right moves and connections, Volpe was really "in". Sponsored by Charlie and Harold Bordonaro and by Giacomo and Jimmy Luppino, Paul was formally initiated into the Mafia in a ceremony in Hamilton. He burned a piece of paper (said to represent the Virgin Mary) and pledged allegiance and a vow of silence (omertà). This was two years before New York City mafioso Joseph Valachi gave his famous testimony and described his own initiation ceremony into what he called "la Cosa Nostra" (literally, "our own thing"). The two ceremonies, Volpe's and Valachi's, were remarkably similar, though they were in two different cities and at different times.

From this point on Volpe concentrated on putting together the best mob he could in the Toronto area, and for the next three years he shuttled between Toronto and Hamilton, consulting the Bordonaros and Luppinos as well as other mob bosses in the area. The trips to New York City ceased. The help of the Luppinos, the Bordonaros, and Vito De Filippo was useful in overcoming the initial resistance to his criminal thrust, but it required a lot more than public-relations work on Volpe's part to establish a beach-head and create his own crime family, for by the time of his formal initation into the Mafia, the mob scene in southern Ontario was a minefied of rivalries and discord.

In the "Buffalo/Ontario Mob Acitivity" [sic} thread, B. wrote the following more than 4 years back, several days after Adrian Humphreys reported from Domenico Violi's trial that wiretaps revealed Violi said he was underboss of the Buffalo Family:

[snip]
I recently re-read James Dubro's Mob Rule for the second time and the timing was pretty perfect with this info coming out. It is a great book and one of the best resources on the mafia in Ontario, but it is also dated and some of their understanding is limited or quite a bit off. For example, Dubro talks about the Luppinos sponsoring Paul Volpe at his induction, but later goes on to say the FBI was wrong in listing Volpe as a member of the Magaddino family. He never says what organization Paul Volpe was formally affiliated with if not the Magaddinos, and like other Canadian journalists even today, seem to have a very generalized idea of what a mafia family actually is.

I realized that B. and I are not the only ones who have wrongly assumed that sponsorship of Volpe, as described in Dubro's book, means that Calogero Bordonaro and son Ignazio (aka Harold), as well as Giacomo Luppino and son Vincenzo ("Jimmy"), were present at such a ceremony. For the time period -- and arguably before and after -- an induction ceremony for an Ontario-based proposed or eventual member seems to be inconsistent for the Buffalo Family. (I'm thinking of the simple manner in which Stefano Magaddino, having travelled to Toronto in 1955, asked Toronto loan shark Roy Pasquale to join the Buffalo Family -- Pasquale said no -- and how Vito Agueci described being asked by Fred Randaccio to join the Family in July 1960 at a racetrack in Fort Erie, Ontario, with Magaddino later accepting Agueci into the family.) And who at this 1961 ceremony for Volpe would have described the details, for example, about the burning saint card?

The page to which I've linked below to my Evernote item is from a file on the Mary Ferrell site -- I marked up the page within Evernote. It is not possible to conclude from this page alone that Pasquale Natarelli and Fred Randaccio were discussing making Volpe and Joe Di Carlo -- the latter is listed in the Others section of the "Buffalo Chart info 1960" thread found at search.php?keywords=DiCarlo&t=2548&sf=msgonly. If Di Carlo was definitely made in 1960, then the page from the Mary Ferrell file merely indicates that Volpe's and Di Carlo's names came up in conversation while Natarelli and Randaccio were discussing two guys proposed for membership.

(source link: https://www.maryferrell.org/archive/doc ... _5_300.png)

[antimafia]

You've likely seen it, but this is a great document on the general association of the Volpe brothers with Buffalo affiliates:
https://documents.theblackvault.com/doc ... 576140.pdf

Interestingly one of the brothers was born in Madison, Illinois, which borders St. Louis.

Here is where Magaddino discusses Paul Volpe with Dominick Romeo:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... lPageId=47

Yup, the Black Vault file you linked to is the same Black Vault file to which I linked a couple of posts back.

The father of the Volpe brothers, Vito, did shuttle his wife and older children (maybe just the oldest son; I'd have to check the travel records) back and forth between Canada and the US because of being down on his luck.

I think you've previously pointed out that after reviewing when Magaddino is cited as saying "Calabrese" in transcripts, he sometimes used the word as a term of derogation. Important to know this, because every mobwatcher under the sun has gotten wrong the ancestry of Paul Volpe's parents at one time or another.

[B.]

I realized that B. and I are not the only ones who have wrongly assumed that sponsorship of Volpe, as described in Dubro's book, means that Calogero Bordonaro and son Ignazio (aka Harold), as well as Giacomo Luppino and son Vincenzo ("Jimmy"), were present at such a ceremony. For the time period -- and arguably before and after -- an induction ceremony for an Ontario-based proposed or eventual member seems to be inconsistent for the Buffalo Family. And who at this 1961 ceremony for Volpe would have described the details, for example, about the burning saint card?

Do you mean the induction ceremony is unlikely because of the traditional rites? There was the 1960s Buffalo source who thought the traditional ceremony had gone away many years earlier but not sure how definitive that is or who the source was. I do agree the info about Volpe's ceremony seems suspect as it would mean one of the book's sources was either present for Volpe's induction or otherwise told the specifics.

The reference to the Bordonaros and Luppinos sponsoring Volpe implies they were at the induction, as members sometimes have two sponsors but never four and it's said in context with the initiation. It at least means Volpe joined the Buffalo Family given the Sicilian Bordonaros and Calabrian Luppinos were with that Family. If the info about Volpe's induction was incorrect or from an unreliable source though that does open up other possibilities.

Like we've talked about before, the relationship to DeFilippo and the Bonanno Family's controversial induction of unidentified Ontario members is interesting with Volpe in mind. It was DeFilippo's captain Joe Notaro who apparently went to Canada and performed inductions without Buffalo/Commission approval.

Yup, the Black Vault file you linked to is the same Black Vault file to which I linked a couple of posts back.

Sorry about that. I overlooked it.

[antimafia]

^^^^
I'm trying to square two pieces of information for now: 1. how Ron Sandelli, who incidentally could tell us whether Peter Scarcella was ever made, could state that Paul Volpe was never made, and 2. how James Dubro came upon significant details of a 1961 induction for Paul Volpe. Sandelli and Dubro are two people whose knowledge I enormously respect.

I don't know what sources Dubro used to write what he did about the induction ceremony. Whatever one may think of the errors or inaccuracies in his now-old book(s) such as Mob rule, which has a relatively short bibliography, he really did try to use any and all sources for what he wrote in his books and in the occasional article he penned (especially for Hamilton Magazine).

In the book excerpt I posted, I made sure to include the last sentence of the first paragraph -- without that sentence, the reader's inclination would be that Dubro was merely describing what happened at Volpe's ceremony or any American LCN member's' induction by using Valachi's description. But Dubro is clearly saying that Volpe's ceremony took place in a manner very much like Valachi's far-older induction.

Charlie Bordonaro was either 69 or 70 years old at the time of this 1961 ceremony for Volpe. Son Harold was between 32 and 34 at the time -- he was either the same age as Volpe or 1 year younger, as I have only an estimated YOB for Harold: either 1927 or 1928. (Gravestone for Bordonaro, the father: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... 6784e1ca69.)

Paul Volpe had 6 brothers (and 1 sister: Laura) -- Patrick Volpe is the brother who often gets forgotten. So I'm wondering whether the Buffalo Family and Bonanno Family were ever at loggerheads about a claim to Volpe and several or all of his brothers -- did Joe Bonanno steal or "illegally" transfer all 7 of these brothers from the Buffalo Family? If Paul's brother John Albert Volpe was a Buffalo Family member, John would have been the only US-based Volpe who was part of Buffalo, given his deportation from Canada.

[CornerBoy]

wasn't he the fag from Canada?

[antimafia]

^^^^
If you’re asking about Boston-born Irish-American James Dubro, the answer is yes. He’s been openly gay since his teens.

If you’re asking about Paul Volpe’s own admission to the criminals in his coterie that when he was young and broke he had a dalliance with a male actor of some note, then I don’t quite know how to answer your question about Volpe’s sexual orientation. Volpe would eventually marry former model Lisa Dalholt. When he was in his late teens and early 20s in Toronto, he hung out a lot with guys his own age such as John Papalia (driving in from Hamilton) and Roy Pasquale. Volpe’s mother at the time used to sell illicit liquor out of her home.

Although not mentioned in Dubro’s book, the celebrity rumoured to have paid for sex with Volpe is Roddy McDowall. Should you now no longer be able to watch any Planet of the Apes film that has the Cornelius character in it, then my work here is done.

In all seriousness, we have to wonder whether Volpe’s frank admissions when he was younger, insofar as he made them, had consequences for his aspirations to become a made man or for his perhaps being bumped down to the associate rank.

[Hired_Goonz]

I just wonder what the circumstances were that lead him to admit it. Were they sitting around watching The Poseidon Adventure or something and he turns to the guys and says "hey, I fucked that guy".

[B.]

I posted this four years back and you (Antimafia) wondered if the redacted Bonanno representative in Toronto was Paul Volpe:



It's a first name and "Paul" would fit. It doesn't explicitly name the redacted guy as a Bonanno member but it's implied given he's "managing" their Toronto interests and answered to Rastelli (not yet the boss but identified as the Canada liaison by the same source). The redacted Montreal brothers are likely the Cotronis.

- I lean toward Volpe being a Buffalo member if he was made given he and his brothers were close with the Aguecis, Papalias, Bordonaros, and Luppinos, and of course my opinion was heavily informed by Mob Rule's reference to Paul's sponsorship by some of them. It's good to question these things, especially in Canada, given outside appearances don't always reflect formalities.

- Volpe was also linked to Buffalo captain Pasquale Natarelli on the US side who was arrested in Canada for a 1960s extortion attempt w/ the Volpes, the victim being ex-Kansas City resident Richard Angle who had moved to Buffalo and was trying to engage in Canadian business. Eugene Volpe testified in that case that his brother Paul had been close to Natarelli for many years but that Eugene had only known Natarelli for 2.5 years. Eugene said he once picked up gambling equipment from Natarelli in Buffalo before taking it to one of the Haiti casinos. He said two other unidentified Buffalo residents were partners in the casino with Natarelli and the Volpes.

- Natarelli was recorded discussing Canada with Peter Magaddino and noted that "we" (Buffalo?) had collected money from someone through Frank Papalia in order to pay Paul Volpe.

- There was also a 1963 meeting of "leading" Toronto and Hamilton mafiosi reported by the FBI that resulted in Paul Volpe being sent to visit NYC. The only other confirmed attendee was Harry Bordonaro.

--

Here's an FBI report from 1967 where they identify Volpe as a member of the Buffalo Family, note that they don't say "suspected" like the typical lists we see:



- The Volpes' parents were both born in Monteleone di Puglia in Foggia which is close to the Apulia-Campania border. The FBI investigated a possible relation to Carmine Galante as Galante's brother-in-law was a Louis Volpe and both he and Paul Volpe were related to the name Russo. They weren't able to subtantiate a relation.

- Interestingly the FBI interviewed Philly member Long John Martorano about the Volpe murder in 1984 while he was in prison. Doesn't seem to have provided any direct insight.

- The FBI received info from a Cooperating Witness in 1992 who linked three redacted individuals to Volpe's murder in addition to a number of Buffalo murders. He said one of these men was involved in the Buffalo murders of Billy Sciolino and Frank D'Angelo; another was linked to the murders of John Fiorino, Joseph Sanfratello, and Charles Gerace; while the third was linked to the murders of D'Angelo, John Cammilleri, Sanfratello, Gerace, and Cirioco. The CW could have been Buffalo member John Sacco based on the timing of the cooperation.

- In 1992 the FBI also interviewed a redacted Philadelphia CW (very likely Phil Leonetti) about the Volpe murder. He was aware of the connections between Ontario and Philly as well as Paul Volpe's involvement but didn't know anything about the murder. It's not stated explicitly but he seemed to link Volpe and these Ontario connections to the Buffalo Family as he elaborated on what he knew about Buffalo's hierarchy in context with the questions.