Paul Volpe

[antimafia]

By the end of a 2 hr. text exchange with Dubro today, I remained firm in my conclusion -- he and I disagree on whether I reached the right one -- that based on what he told me, Paul Volpe did *not* undergo a mafia induction in 1961. IMHO, any one of you would have reached the same conclusion, but I think I’m humble enough to acknowledge Dubro could very well be right about an induction having taken place.

I thanked him for patiently answering my questions and I promised him I would not publicly or privately share his answers nor any part of our conversation. My word is my bond.

As someone who has been a personal witness to some nasty spats between various Canadian organized-crime writers (book authors, crime reporters, and investigative journalists) -- spats that have even happened between the co-authors of a book -- I, as a recreational but avid mobwatcher, do not want to emulate the negative behaviours of these writers, all of whom I admire in varying degrees. I still treasure Dubro’s books and, even more so, my friendship with him that has developed over the years.

I still plan to contribute research in this thread that will present both sides of the argument about Paul Volpe’s status within the underworld. But not tonight -- I’m still in a bit of a daze.

[antimafia]

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".

From my forthcoming screenplay, with Hired_Goonz as the film’s producer:

The movie “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972) plays on the screen as Paul Volpe and his motley crew huddle around the TV.

Paul Volpe: Hey, I fucked that guy.

Tony Iati (pointing to a handsome character on the screen): You fucked that guy?

PV: No, you moron. That’s Shelley Winters. I had sex with Cornelius -- he’s to her right.

[B.]

"Iced" says Jimmy Luppino and Harry Bordonaro sponsored Volpe into the Buffalo Family and indicates it was before Papalia went to prison in 1962. Is this sourced from "Mob Rule", which adds Luppino and Bordonaro's fathers as co-sponsors, or did he have access to the same primary source? There are many examples of a proposed member having two sponsors as far back as the 1940s so the "Iced" description fits better with mafia guidelines than the four sponsors mentioned in "Mob Rule". "Iced" doesn't mention a ceremony at all, though, which you'd think he would include if he was sourcing it from "Mob Rule" or an identical source who described a ceremony.

There's little doubt on my end that Volpe ultimately became a Buffalo member sometime in the 1960s, however or whenever it was actually handled. The 1967 excerpt I posted stands out because the FBI straight up called him a Buffalo member and they're usually careful about suspected vs. confirmed. Some of the tellings of Volpe's story though almost make it out like he was formally "on record" with Vito DeFilippo earlier on but I've never seen an inside account of their formal relationship -- I wouldn't rule out that he did officially start out with the Bonannos in some capacity and interestingly that 1961 initiation could coincide with the period the Notaro crew inducted Bonanno members in Ontario.

[antimafia]

^^^^
The endnotes and bibliography for the book — both editions — had always been made available online by the publisher. Below are my Evernote links to PDFs of the back matter, just in case the publisher’s links to the PDFs are no longer available or operational.

The book’s author, Canadian academic Stephen Schneider, has frequently cited James Dubro’s works, including those in which Dubro is a co-author.

You’ll see below that Schneider did indeed cite Mob rule for the sentence in question — the range 10045 – 10049 helps the reader match the citation with the digital location of the copy in the ebook.

Endnotes:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... cbbcbf5b0c

10045 – 10049
Sometime during the late 1950s and early 1960s ... ingratiated himself with Luppino and the Bordonaro families. James Dubro. 1986. Mob Rule: Inside the Canadian Mafia. Toronto: Totem Books, pp. 47-49.

Bibliography:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... 6ad1b1a52c

Dubro, James. 1986. Mob Rule: Inside the Canadian Mafia. Toronto: Totem Books.

Dubro, James. 1989. Mob Mistress. Toronto: MacMillan of Canada.

Dubro, James. 1992. Dragons of Crime: Inside the Asian Underworld. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.

Dubro, James and Robert Roy. 1985. “Mountain of Skulls.” Hamilton This Month. May.

Dubro, James and Robert Roy. 1985. “City of Dons, Part II: The Hamilton mob today. ‘Pops’ Papalia, local families and the Racco hit.” pp. 15-24, 45-50 in Hamilton This Month. June.

Dubro, James and Robin Rowland. 1987. King of the Mob. Toronto: Penguin.

Dubro, James and Robin Rowland. 1991. Undercover: Cases of the RCMP’s Most Secretive Operative. Toronto: Octopus Publishing Group. Dunbabin, Thomas.

[B.]

Thanks for finding that. So he just worded it a bit differently.

[antimafia]

^^^^
No worries.

Stephen Schneider must have the most extensive collection of anyone alive of newspaper clippings, physical and digital, relating to Canadian organized crime — especially Italian OC in Canada. His book library is probably equally extensive.

But, yeah, with such deep databases, he was forced to paraphrase quite a lot in his own books, which catalogue people and events The books he co-wrote with Margaret Beare show more original research.

[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.

Update: The issue on the Amazon Canada page has still *not* been resolved.

[antimafia]

^^^^
The endnotes and bibliography for the book — both editions — had always been made available online by the publisher. Below are my Evernote links to PDFs of the back matter, just in case the publisher’s links to the PDFs are no longer available or operational.

[snip]

Endnotes:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... cbbcbf5b0c

[snip]

Bibliography:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... 6ad1b1a52c

[snip]

The publisher's links, below, are still working.

http://www.blindsidemedia.net/iced/end_notes.pdf (200 pp.)

http://www.blindsidemedia.net/iced/Bibliography.pdf (69 pp.)

[antimafia]

"Iced" says Jimmy Luppino and Harry Bordonaro sponsored Volpe into the Buffalo Family and indicates it was before Papalia went to prison in 1962. Is this sourced from "Mob Rule", which adds Luppino and Bordonaro's fathers as co-sponsors, or did he have access to the same primary source? There are many examples of a proposed member having two sponsors as far back as the 1940s so the "Iced" description fits better with mafia guidelines than the four sponsors mentioned in "Mob Rule". "Iced" doesn't mention a ceremony at all, though, which you'd think he would include if he was sourcing it from "Mob Rule" or an identical source who described a ceremony.

There's little doubt on my end that Volpe ultimately became a Buffalo member sometime in the 1960s, however or whenever it was actually handled. The 1967 excerpt I posted stands out because the FBI straight up called him a Buffalo member and they're usually careful about suspected vs. confirmed. Some of the tellings of Volpe's story though almost make it out like he was formally "on record" with Vito DeFilippo earlier on but I've never seen an inside account of their formal relationship -- I wouldn't rule out that he did officially start out with the Bonannos in some capacity and interestingly that 1961 initiation could coincide with the period the Notaro crew inducted Bonanno members in Ontario.

I completely forgot about the discrepant accounts regarding how many sponsors (attendees?) vouched for Paul Volpe. Which means I forgot to ask Dubro about this issue during my text exchange with him. In my hard copy of Mob mistress (1988), which was published three years after Mob rule, Dubro writes that Volpe "had a base through his connection with Jimmy Luppino and Harold Bordonaro, Charlie's son, but he was moving too fast without enough enforcers and hitmen." The discrepancy is not explained in Stephen Schneider's book, which might have also used Dubro's Mob mistress as a source for the mention of Volpe's induction.

See the Iced excerpt below that mentions Volpe was "[s]ponsored by Jimmy and Harold Bordonaro...." Without betraying Dubro's confidence, I will say that the source used as the basis for revealing four sponsors in Mob rule then might have somehow revealed that there were just two sponsors. Either that or Schneider came up with more defintitive and constrasting information but that somehow isn't sourced.



Full quote:

Sometime during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Volpe was able to use his New York mafia connections, as well as his friendship with Jimmy Luppino, to become a member of the Magaddino Family. Sponsored by Jimmy and Harold Bordonaro, and initiated in Hamilton, Volpe became one of Magaddino’s Toronto representatives during the 1960s, which helped to fill the void left by John Papalia’s imprisonment in 1962. While he had already made an enemy of Papalia by operating in Hamilton, Volpe wisely ingratiated himself with Luppino and the Bordonaro families. His mafia links first came to public attention in 1963 when Buffalo police named him and his brother Albert as two of the twenty Canadian members of the Magaddino crime syndicate. By this time, Paul was active in loansharking, gambling, and fraud in Toronto but, due to his new-found public infamy and the resulting police attention, he and Vito de Filippo fled North America and began running a casino in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. With investments from mafia families in Buffalo, New York, and Montreal, the two were able to turn the casino into a moderate success. Homesick for Toronto, however, Volpe returned to Canada in 1965 and, three years later, he had completely divested himself of his Haitian adventure.

https://a.co/cjt07R0 and
https://a.co/9HC0zqp

From Mob rule, p.68:

Of course Paul Volpe was associated with and allied to the Buffalo crime family, though he never really was a member of the Magaddino family in any formal sense. Neither were the others (Albert Volpe, Gasbarrini, and Papalia), tough their association made good copy for the papers and the radio and television news.

[antimafia]

From the testimony provided by York Regional Police's Det. Mike Amato (Retired) at the Charbonneau Commission inquiry in Montreal on Sept. 20, 2012:





If you want to see the PDF of the full transcript (126 pp.), go to my Evernote link here:

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... 6232d3daf5

[B.]

The language of the the Mob Rule quote is strange: "never really was" a Buffalo member. If he wasn't with them he'd just say "never" but the use of "really" indicates he's saying it more figuratively. My take is sort of the opposite, that they were very much with Buffalo in a formal sense but it could be argued being in Ontario they were operationally more independent and varied in their associations. However it's clear Volpe did work closely with Buffalo-based leaders as there are three instances where he was involved with Natarelli (Haiti casino, Papalia-connected debt, & extortion) just from the little we know.

Metelsky thought Musitano traveled to Buffalo for his induction in the late 90s but these authors say Volpe was made in Hamilton. This goes back to questions about Dubro's primary source but he was specific in saying it took place in Hamilton rather than Toronto or Buffalo.

[antimafia]

At my Evernote link below, see the search results I captured from the book co-authored by former outlaw biker Cecil Kirby and writer Thomas C. Renner. I have a copy of the book in print -- I actually have several copies, and the book has had different titles at times -- and I can type from it when I have more energy.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... bf857ef1fe

Over the years, this information had always led me to believe that because Jimmy Luppino had dutifully visited Volpe every day for, I think, a period of about 2 years,* this was an indication of hierarchy and perhaps even rank. Apart from this recent debate here about whether Paul Volpe was ever made, there has always been older debate about whether Volpe was ever a captain in the Buffalo Family. If Jimmy Luppino indeed sponsored Volpe's initiation into the Buffalo Family in 1961 or later in the 1960s, then Luppino was at the very least -- and probably just -- a soldier at the time of Volpe's induction. Were he and Volpe both soldiers before the Commissos ('ndrangheta) started plotting in 1981 to kill Volpe? Was Luppino a soldier reporting to another soldier? reporting to his capo? Was Luppino an associate reporting to his soldier?

Given the documentation provided on the forum has shown that John Papalia might not have ever risen to the rank of captain in the Buffalo Family, even in the early 1990s -- and Lee Lamothe and Antonio Nicaso emphasize Papalia's soldier rank in Angels, Mobsters and Narco-Terrorists (2005) -- how do we make sense of Jimmy Luppino's daily drives to visit Volpe?

*IIRC, the 2-year period is mentioned in retired RCMP officer Mark Murphy's 1998 book, Police Undercover: The True Story of the Biker, the Mafia & the Mountie. I'll have to go through my hard copy of the book to verify.

[B.]

Couldn't Volpe and Jimmy Luppino just have been close friends/associates which would explain the visits? Or was there some kind of intel indicating Luppino outranked him post-1961?

There's the 1964 Magaddino tape where he says the Buffalo Family has "Ruffino in Toronto" who was "in control there". Doesn't necessarily mean he was the capodecina but if they had multiple members there it's probable. Someone thought this was a Giuseppe Ruffino who died in 1961 but the Magaddino conversation is later so it can't be one who died that early unless he was referring to an event in the past.

The Magaddino tapes unfortunately don't give much indication of who might have been a captain in Hamilton at any point. One of the Racalmutesi probably held it earlier on depending on how long they had a captain there, then there is the book that says Giacomo Luppino was a captain. Volpe's relationship to Natarelli also makes me wonder if he was technically assigned to him even though it'd be impractical. Rocco Luppino as a modern captain indicates they typically had one there.

[CornerBoy]

Where are the Magaddino Tapes?

Also, Antimafia- if you gave your word that your convo w this guy werernt for public consumption and you just disseminated the details, does that mean you broke your word? this is private form but you socialized it nonetheless. maybe im confused. anyway great stuff from you as always even though i don't really understand the ccandadian mob landscape

[NickleCity]

I've had a hard time wrapping my mind around the counter narrative that Volpe was not a made member of the Buffalo family so I attempted to outline the argument. Here it is:



Let me know if I've missed or misrepresented anything.

Putting it like this helped my get passed my presuppositions that made it hard for me to see how this counter-narrative could be possible. I have to admit I can see how the case could be made now.

I guess I've glossed over the term "Volpe Family" and considered that term much like LE characterization of the "Luppino Family " or the "Papalia Family." In the past I assumed it was a Canadian way of looking at these Buffalo crews. The double affilation argument put forth by Dr. Sergi has helped me understand they are both parts of (or at least some of their members are part of) Ndrangheta families and members of Buffalo LCN crews. A key difference here is that Volpe as an LCN not and not an Ndrangheta family. (This may have already been discussed but was Volpe's family of Sicilian heritage?)

That being said, I still have a hard time accepting this position. Here is what I'm having a hard time with:

1. This theory put a lot of weight on Sandelli's perspective. Given I don't know much about Sandelli, I'm not sure this much weight is warranted. Althought a member of LE he is an outsider trying to understand, like the rest of us.
2. I'm not sure Dubro's conflicting statements add that much weight to Sandelli's statement and this argument.
3. I am not sure how much we should read into the accounts of Volpe's induction ceremony. It seems to me that LE ceremonies are often done differently based on what is going on at the time. In other words although the mafia loves its traditions, it will gloss them over for what is advantageous at the time.
4. B. has identified the FBI outright calling Volpe a member of the Buffalo crime family. Here I have to acknowledge that although use this FBI statement as sort of a trump card, I've diminished and continue to diminish the outright FBI statement about the Buffalo mob being dead. I acknowledge LE can be wrong. They are outsiders too.
5. In 1963 Buffalo LE indicates Volpe is a Buffalo member. (Again LE can be wrong.)
6. Ron Fino indicates Volpe was a Buffalo member. For me this has the greatest weight in forming opinion on the matter. Here is why:

1. In my opinion Ron has track record of being right even when others believed him to be wrong. For example Ron has always indicated that the Buffalo family is alive. (Yes, I'm aware of the 1 BN article that states otherwise... I think Dan Herbeck may have got his lines crossed because there are several examples form nearly the same time where Ron indicates the family is active. (I've highlighted hat in the GBB forum.) Additionally, Ron indicated that Todaro Sr. had a Front/Street Boss insulating him and recent news article indicates Todaro Jr. meeting with Street Boss at La Nova even though he was careful not to do that.
2. Although not a member source I'd consider him a high ranking associate who had access to a good amount of details regarding the buffalo family business as he ran 210.
3. Fino indicates that in 1969 his father allowed Buffalo captains to operate semi-independently and extended the same to Volpe even allowing him to not pay tribute. Since this happened in 1969 this may or may not have led to Sandelli considering Volpe to independent from Buffalo but answering to them. I do make some assumptions with this point that may or many not be accurate. I assume Fino got this information from his Dad who is an acting boss and should know who all the members of the family are. This being said I acknowledge there are those on this forum who believe Fino to say what he wants to make money from his book. Even more one can sometimes sense a negative tone in against those he believe treated his father poorly in what Ron writes and could stilt his understanding of some things.