Paul Volpe

[Newyorkempire]

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.

Recent article detailing Todaro meeting with the street boss?

[NickleCity]

It was in the recent Todaro article that Herbeck and Michel did. Not recent that he met with street boss, but the article was recent

[Moscone65]

I believe volpe’s family was foggiese from puglia, around there

[NickleCity]

I believe volpe’s family was foggiese from puglia, around there

Thanks Moscone

[B.]

The specific comune is Monteleone di Puglia.

Amato referred to Buffalo/Magaddino as a "Sicilian Cosa Nostra Family" to differentiate it from the 'ndrangheta, as obviously Buffalo is part of the Sicilian-rooted mafia but that shouldn't be confused with the Sicilian mafia itself. This sort of differentiation was common in areas like Youngstown, Philadelphia, and Baltimore where the local Family, crews, or groups of affiliates used the terms Sicilian and Calabrian to differentiate ethnic factions. I recall something similar recently in one of the Canadian cases where a a witness referred to the Sicilians but it wasn't evident if he meant Sicilian mafia or was just differentiating Cosa Nostra members/associates from the 'ndrangheta.

[antimafia]

If anyone visits http://www.theblackhand.club/forum/view ... &start=210, you’ll see some of the branches of the Volpe family tree.

If my Evernote links in that older post no longer work, please let me know — I’d be glad to generate new ones.

[B.]

Here's the reference to the Philly CW (Leonetti) who was asked about Volpe in 1992:



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I forgot to mention earlier when the RCMP tried to interview Long John Martorano about Volpe in 1984 (he refused to cooperate) the New Jersey State Police gave the RCMP documentation that showed Volpe owned real estate with Martorano. Other partners in Atlantic City real estate properties with Volpe were a redacted associate and a redacted "LCN member" originally from Toronto:



So the FBI believed both Volpe and another man (short name) were "LCN" members from Toronto who partnered together in AC. Any guesses? It could fit VOLPE and refer to his brother but not sure as it doesn't indicate a relation.

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And here's a couple excerpts from what the Buffalo CW (possibly Sacco) said about the Volpe murder also in 1992:




Unfortunately there's no other identifying info to help narrow down who this suspect is beyond his alleged participation in those murders.

[B.]

1965 report where the Volpes are said to be the "ruling force" in Toronto under the "direct control" of Buffalo. Also says their stature is equivalent to Randaccio though he was the Family underboss so it's an imperfect comparison in terms of rank. A wiretap revealed that Buffalo capodecina Natarelli reprimanded the Volpes "harshly" for the way they were "running Toronto", referring to their critics as "we".



A subsequent section, possibly from the same wiretap, talks about how Natarelli and the Volpes were attempting to extort $100k from a mining company involved with a casino in the Bahamas. That makes for at least four times where Natarelli was directly supervising/directing/involved in underworld activity with the Volpes in the 1960s.

[antimafia]

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.

In the excerpt below from Lee Lamothe and Antonio Nicaso's Angels, Mobsters and Narco-Terrorists (p. 54) is the detail I alluded to in my earlier post about Papalia's formal rank as a mere soldier, but you'll see I forgot that the authors mentioned Volpe as having the same soldier rank that Papalia had. The bolding and italics of the word "capos" below appear in the original.

The American LCN had Canadian connections with several criminal organizations, primarily to the Luppino and Papalia groups in Hamilton; the Zito group in Toronto; and the Cotroni-Violi organization of Montreal.^17 Representation of the Buffalo LCN—the Joe Todaro family took over after the death of Stefano Magaddino—alternated between Paul Volpe and John Papalia. Both men were reported to be soldiers in the Buffalo LCN. Within Canada they were considered, in the media and public imagination, to be capos, although in reality they were likely low-ranking soldiers. Both were later murdered in gangland fashion.
_________________

Almost all Canadian organized-crime writers who have had their work published -- at least the ones I know of -- have described Volpe as a made member of the Buffalo Family. I've bookmarked some pages in my various hard copies of these authors' books and, if I find the time, will type exactly what the writers say about Volpe's formal rank or "informal" role (e.g., "Mafia boss," "senior Mafia boss,"or "senior role.").

For me, the wiretaps on Giacomo Luppino in the 1960s that were reported on in the media only in the early 1980s lend the best available support, given the lack of published actual transcripts, for Luppino being a capodecina in the Magaddino Family. But the wiretaps also reveal, for me at least, that he was also the leader of an 'ndrina who did not abandon his involvement in 'ndrangheta affairs in Ontario and as far afield as Australia. I'll provide more details later by linking to some newspaper clippings. I will say for now that it is apparent that when Luppino opined about the depiction of an American LCN induction while watching a program on his home TV with John Papalia, Luppino commented that there are no such inductions in Italy -- so if he was an 'ndranghetista because it was his birthright, then he was probably saying there were no such induction rites in his hometown of Castellace di Oppido Mamertina. Incidentally, this lack of an induction into the 'ndrangheta is the case in many other comuni in Calabria where the 'ndrangheta is present. Alternatively, a weaker explanation in my opinion is that he could have been talking about how he, son Vincenzo, Papalia, and other Ontario-based members were inducted into the Buffalo Family, i.e., without an oath, a burning saint card, and so on.

If Giacomo and Vincenzo, along with Calogero Bordonaro and son Ignazio, were present at not only Volpe's reported 1961 induction but also other inductions for Ontario-based members, the induction ceremony would at first have been unusual for the Luppinos but easy to learn and, in Giacomo's case, even conduct.

As to the question B. asked about whether Jimmy Luppino and Paul Volpe's daily visits were because the two men were close friends/associates, part of the answer might lie in the 2 Evernote-linked pages (link is below) from Police Undercover: The True Story of the Biker, the Mafia & the Mountie by Mark G. Murphy, the retired RCMP officer who handled both former Satan's Choice biker Cecil Kirby and Paul Volpe -- both of these outlaws saved each other's life. I would go with Murphy's account about the near-daily meetings between Luppino and Volpe, although Kirby's account in Mafia assassin (aka Mafia enforcer) was not far off; however, other information in the latter book is straight out incorrect.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s229/sh/ ... ff547fe019

[B.]

Thanks for pointing out the link. This is an excellent thread you started.

The Jimmy Luppino excerpt doesn't indicate anything about rank to me, only that they were close friends/associates until a falling out (organizational or otherwise). Contrast that with the documented interactions between Pasquale Natarelli in Buffalo and the Volpes: he supervised two separate extortion attempts, partnered with them in a Haitian casino / supplied equipment, helped resolve a Papalia-related debt, and directly criticized their conduct in Toronto on behalf of the Buffalo Family all in the span of several years.

Why would a US-based captain have this relationship with the Volpes rather than someone in Canada? If they weren't in Natarelli's decina and he was just representing the Buffalo leadership it opens the question of who they did report to and why their superior wasn't involved/present in any of this. I wouldn't be surprised if select Canadians were remote affiliates of a Buffalo-based crew and the evidence opens the possibility that Volpe reported to Natarelli in the first half of the 1960s even though it's not an obvious arrangement from the outside.

What you said about the public's' tendency to call all of these guys "capos" plays into what Angelo/CC has said about Toledo, Ohio, where a Detroit member there is sometimes mislabeled a captain because he was the top authority. A made member in most mafia Families isn't a grunt but a representative in his own right and sometimes these guys are an operational "boss", especially if he's in an area with few members. People want to give these guys ranking titles because it fits better with their reputation and makes for a better story but it comes from a misunderstanding of what a made member actually is. It's someone who officially represents the organization and there's no ceiling on what they can do so long as they have the Family's blessing.

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If the short redacted Toronto "LCN member" who partnered with Paul Volpe in AC isn't one of the other Volpe brothers, Rocco Zito could fit but his name might be slightly too short. Hard to gauge redactions though. He was an 'ndranghetista but Giacomo Luppino likely wasn't the only one in Ontario with dual membership.

[antimafia]

^^^^
Paul Volpe’s relationship with the Commissos was particularly bad. Tomorrow I’ll be able to find the book or article that states Volpe had a natural antipathy toward ‘ndrangheta members, which is only partially true. Although Siderno Group capocrimine Mike Racco was grateful to Volpe for finding a good criminal lawyer for Racco’s son Domenic when Domenic got into some serious trouble, Mike Racco and Volpe apparently also rubbed each other the wrong way most of the time. Volpe essentially rubbed everyone the wrong way.

After Volpe was eventually killed in 1983, his multicultural group essentially faded, although John Papalia did absorb some individuals from this group who acquiesced. Interestingly, Calabria-born Eugenio Scopelliti took over Volpe’s gambling rackets in Toronto. I’ve seen a police record of Scopelliti‘s criminal contacts, and it includes Buffalo Family members such as Enio Mora and ‘ndrangheta members in Rocco Zito’s group, including Zito himself and some of Zito’s brothers. Mora and Zito were particularly close. The retired Ron Sandelli has evidence that Mora, in addition to Peter Scarcella, helped lure Volpe to his killers. Peter Edwards and Antonio Nicaso presented a theory in their 1993 book that Papalia was the triggerman in Volpe’s killing — shortly after the publication of the book, Papalia didn’t deny the allegation when Nicaso asked him about it.

I do believe what John Pennisi said about the boundary New York-based ‘ndrangheta members and American LCN members maintain, albeit a respectful one and one not so impermeable that they can’t meet under the right conditions. But the history of mafia group interaction in Ontario and Quebec has been quite the opposite. Any ‘ndranghetista in the US and Canada has to get permission from the casa madre in Calabria to be inducted into the American LCN. Not sure whether the exact same strict permission is required to be on record with an American LCN Family.

One Canadian organized-crime writer was coy with me when we were discussing what mafia affiliation Giacomo Luppino’s nephews Domenico and Giuseppe Violi (sons of Paolo) had in the late 1980s. The writer asked, “But wouldn’t they be sharing their criminal proceeds with their grandfather [Domenico Violi, the patriarch] in Parma, Ohio?”

[B.]

Dual membership is documented throughout the historic United States too. More another time, but there's precedent for it in various US Families apart from Buffalo and Canada. By being made into the mafia, the 'ndranghetisti in Canada would be more like licensed representatives rather than true subordinates.

A+ info on some of these figures I'm less familiar with. Some of those 'ndranghetisti who took over Volpe's interests could have been Cosa Nostra members though there seems to be more of a tendency to induct the leaders / top members. We saw the Sicilian mafia do that when they inducted Camorristi in the 1970s and though Nick Gentile said they brought Camorristi into the Pittsburgh Family in the late 1910s he also said there were 500 of them but then said there were "only" 70 Pittsburgh Family members circa 1932. Even if 500 as an exaggerated number, the size of the mafia Family tells us only select Pittsburgh Camorristi were made into Cosa Nostra rather than absorbing the entire group. I'd bet that was the case in Canada.

LCNBios' write-up on Cosmo Sandalo reads to me like he was an 'ndranghetista who was on record with the Gambino Family as a respected associate before being made in the 70s or 80s. He was a compaesano of the Luppinos and the post says Canadians were going to attend a Sandalo-related event in CT. Back to Volpe, you've mentioned before that Paul's brother John Volpe lived in CT. He operated in Gambino circles there and the FBI linked him and Paul to future Gambino CT captain Frank Piccolo but didn't name any specific interactions. One of John Volpe's closest associates was named Vito Massaria, not sure who he is. There was a Tony Volpe too who lived in Hartford and joined the Genovese but it's a common name.

Coincidence if nothing else that both the Luppinos and Volpes had close ties to CT.

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Hoping NickleCity sees the post about the 90s Buffalo CW that said the same killer was involved in the Sciolino, D'Angelo, and Volpe murders. If suspects in those murders are publicly known maybe it can be narrowed down who the CW was referring to.

[antimafia]

One Canadian organized-crime writer was coy with me when we were discussing what mafia affiliation Giacomo Luppino’s nephews Domenico and Giuseppe Violi (sons of Paolo)

Luppino’s *grandsons

[NickleCity]

And here's a couple excerpts from what the Buffalo CW (possibly Sacco) said about the Volpe murder also in 1992:




Unfortunately there's no other identifying info to help narrow down who this suspect is beyond his alleged participation in those murders.

B. Sacco did give info on several murders: Sciolino, Reingold Cammilleri, and Novino. However, if this information on Volpe was given in 1992 it couldn't have come from Saccco. He died December 10, 1990. See: https://buffalonews.com/news/sacco-is-d ... 8a808.html

I don't know if this helps but Sacco did indicate Leonard Falzone was involved with the Sciolino hit. See: https://buffalonews.com/news/sacco-gave ... c2ea5.html

Another article indicates witnesses saw 3 men leave what was believed to be the get-away car and John Catanzaro was put in a line up but not identified. See: https://buffalonews.com/news/world-drug ... d160e.html What is interesting is John's wife is a Sciolino. See:https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bu ... id=4658641.

Philip La Rosa was another informant. He admitted to his involvement is assisting in the arrangements for the D'Angleo murder, providing transportation for a high ranking mobster during the planning of this homicide, and purchased the mask that were used. https://buffalonews.com/news/informant- ... f4fd1.html
If I remember correctly both the Sciolino and D'Angelo murders involved three masked men.

[NickleCity]

^^^
Faust Novino was a protected government witness in the spring '93 perjury trial for Vincent "Jimmy" Sicurella. Would his name fit the redacted area?

I am positive he is attempted murder in 1976 referenced in the FBI document you posted. In that perjury trial Novino identifies 4 of his would be assailants: Joe Todaro, Jr, Leonard Falzone, John Sacco, and Frank Billiteri. The Govt. contend that Sicurella was there as well. See: https://buffalonews.com/news/novino-des ... 4e709.html