Francesco Del Balso Assasinated in Montreal

[SonnyBlackstein]

[PHOTOS] The leader of the Hells at the funeral of mafioso Francesco Del Balso
https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2023/ ... -del-balso

Wow.

This would put to bed the HA gave him up/switched sides.

Or does it?

Massino ordering a turnout at Sciascia f.

[AntComello]

I bet the HA showed up just to make it look like they weren’t involved. Historically it has been done. Wouldn’t surprise me here.

[aray22]

Here's a random question. Does the Italian population in Montreal speak Italian to each other or French? Or English?

[motorfab]

Here's a random question. Does the Italian population in Montreal speak Italian to each other or French? Or English?

Both I guess. French is the official language in Quebec but not everybody speak French in Montreal. I remember saw guys like Vito Rizzuto, Del Balso or Mucci speaking French.

The old timers like the Cotronis speak French that's for sure. Paolo Violi too but just some words

Just for the record, in Quebec the newspapers or TV shows speak in classic French, but for everyday conversations, Quebecers have their own dialect with a very different accent from the French. What makes the average Frenchman like me difficult to follow a talking

[SonnyBlackstein]

Here's a random question. Does the Italian population in Montreal speak Italian to each other or French? Or English?

Italian predominantly.

Canadian Italians are ITALIAN. Not at ALL like American Italians.
Many Montreal Italians can speak French for practical reasons but make no mistake, they are ITALIAN.

Think Cherry Hill Gambinos. 'American', but, NOT.

[CabriniGreen]

[PHOTOS] The leader of the Hells at the funeral of mafioso Francesco Del Balso
https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2023/ ... -del-balso

Wow.

This would put to bed the HA gave him up/switched sides.

Or does it?

Massino ordering a turnout at Sciascia f.

Depends on WHICH Hells we are talking about. Robert and Plouffe didn't attend the big rally. Are they on the outs with the rest of the Chapter? Did the OTHER Hells hit DelBalso, after the woman go hit and the press attention got crazy? To curb the police crackdown? Is that possible?

Which faction/component of the Bikers hit DelBalso? If they in fact did it.

When they say retaliation, is it Bikers vs Bikers? Or Bikers vs Mafia? What difference does it suddenly make to the Bikers who's in charge of the Italians? If it's an internal Italian thing, why are they suddenly sticking their noses in? Is it all for the Book? The street gang involvement is another angle to consider....

[Tonyd621]

Here's a random question. Does the Italian population in Montreal speak Italian to each other or French? Or English?

Italian predominantly.

Canadian Italians are ITALIAN. Not at ALL like American Italians.
Many Montreal Italians can speak French for practical reasons but make no mistake, they are ITALIAN.

Think Cherry Hill Gambinos. 'American', but, NOT.

English please

[OcSleeper]

[PHOTOS] The leader of the Hells at the funeral of mafioso Francesco Del Balso
https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2023/ ... -del-balso

Article was updated last night.

Full patch HA Martin Robert, Stephane Plouffe, Rob Barletta, and Stephane Orphanos (prospect) attended. Also in attendance was Kevin Rochebrun, the man believed to have been involved with Rizzuto's shooting.

JDM sources tell them the HA still deny involvement in Del Balso's murder and could even avenge it.

[Ciro_DiMarzio]

Here's a random question. Does the Italian population in Montreal speak Italian to each other or French? Or English?

I would say definitely english and italian. While a great majority of italians in Montreal will be able to speak conversational french, the language of the italian community if definitely english (younger generations) and italian (older). My wife has family from Montreal and they all speak fluent english and italian with different levels of french (however some dont speak any french at all).

Language in Montreal is funny but even more so in the italian community. When the italians were first immigrating to Montreal(1940s-1970s) the great majority chose to send their kids to english schools, which caused big political contention among the french population. For example if you went to english high school in the east side of Montreal (historically east montreal was french and west island was english) they were almost majority italian I've been told. Because of this a majority of 2-3rd generation italians speak english as a first language usually.

Based on those youtube recordings, Leo Rizzutto and his sons speak English and Italian fluent without much accents and most of the recorded conversations are almost 50/50 between the 2. I've never heard them speak french but they definitely do speak the language to some degree. Most Hells Angels in Quebec will speak ZERO english.

[Moscone65]

They younger generations speak english flunetly/as a first language but alot of them have a vary particular italian canadian accent. This accent is found to an extent in toronto too with the italians born here in their 40's and 50's. the italian canadian accent sounds almost like a stereotypical canadian accent, mixed with a tiny bit of great lake midwestern and a hint of an italian born accent. this accent is associated alot with "ginos"

[AntComello]

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[mr white]

Does the presence of Kevin Rochebrun at this funeral give support to the idea that Del Balso got hit by a Rizzuto shooter?

[LarryC]

Ridiculous how people show up at funerals knowing they’ll be photographed. Respect or not, it’s just plain dumb.
In Italy these public funerals are non existent so this doesn’t happen.

[stubbs]

My thinking at the moment is there’s a few potential scenarios that may have occurred:

* Option 1 - Del Balso was close with the bikers, and wanted to cement that relationship by removing Rizzuto and becoming boss of the Italians. It was revenge for his belief that Rizzuto was behind the attempted hit on him, but the larger motivation was to take over everything. He didn’t inform the bikers ahead of time of his plans, and assumed with Rizzuto out of the way the bikers would fall in line. In this scenario, he underestimates the bikers loyalty to the Rizzutos and they decide to take him out.

This one I would disagree for a couple reasons. On the other board, I said I couldn't see the Bikers getting involved in an internal Italian conflict, but I could see it over an economic asset, then like, the next day it came out they are feuding over sportsbook operations. When the Bikers were going at it, they asked the Italians not to take sides, and they obliged, even to thier own detriment..( Gervasi and the Rock Machine) I don't see the Bikers breaking that unwritten rule, and yet, this could be PRECISLY what's causing the split in the Hells at the moment.....


Edit: This next bit, I kinda echo what B has said... there is no position of " Godfather of Montreal" to ascend to... we gotta understand the structure...


I see two main "umbrellas" for what we consider "Mafia" in Montreal. The Bonnano branch/decina, which historically was dominated by Montreal based Calabrian gangsters with the central reference being the Cotroni family. It was like, home grown Italian OC, that was brought under the Bonnano banner. The Mafias main interest being managing the French Connection trade that had its primary entry point through Montreal.
There was ethnic succesion in the mafia controlled drug trade. And no, I don't mean from Calabrian to Sicilian. The language changed as far as who was controlling the trade from FRENCH to SICILIAN.
Thats when, and this is a controversial statement here, my opinion only, the Rizzutos became the central reference for ORGANIZED crime in Montreal, but it was the Caruana- Cuntreras who controlled the narcotics routes. But they wernt doing it for the Bonnano family, it was for the Sicilian Mafia. This I really feel is part of the disconnect. The Rizzutos kinda replaced the Cotronis, as the central reference for Montral OC, but they also still were kind of like proxies for the Caruana- Cuntreras and the Sicilian mafia.

See, killing Rizzuto isn't going to make you Caporegime. The people in NY have to MAKE YOU Caporegime. The organization has to do it. You can't become capo by a quantity of activity, "this much gambling territory", or " this much drug territory", or committing " this many murders".

Leo Rizzuto is more than a rackets boss. He's the leader of a constellation of familial ties that go back to Sicily. They descibe it in I think Mafia Inc...first few pages with the charts and all that. To me its like, concentric circles or some shit. The literal " INNER CIRCLE" is the family. The next " Circle", are Cattolica and Siculiana people from Agrigento, the next " Circle", are like, Montrealers, gangsters.
The family are the only ones qualified to occupy the "Executive Branch". This is how clans like the Inzerillos, Nuvolettas, Caruanas, basically all of Ndrangheta, how they operate. It's how I pegged Mannino, I started within the family clan and worked outwards.
DelBalso to me, has no relationship with NY to become capo, isn't family with the Rizzutos or the Caruanas, so he CANT really lead a network based on family when he's not family, nor is he from their neighborhoods in Sicily, there's no like, ancient foundation there he's connected to. He's not ONE OF THEM. Same for Pizzi and Barberio and whomever else......

I'm looking at Mario Sollecito, or Charlie Renda, or some up and comer we know nothing about with the right surname, a Manno, a Cammalerri, even a Sciascia.

* Option 2 - Del Balso told the bikers of his plans to take out Rizzuto ahead of time and was told to do what he had to do. However, the bikers in reality were playing it neutral and waiting to see who came out on top, in order to align themselves with the winning side. Once Rizzuto survived the attempted shooting, and once Gallo’s daughter in law gets killed, the bikers quickly realize the violence is spiraling and Del Balso is too much of a liability to. side with him.

This one I think is pretty close to spot on.... but I think there was/is a split in the Bikers as far as being at odds with the Italians.. again... the Italians stayed out of Hells Angels business/beef and the Italians seemingly abdicated any control of drug distribution in Montreal. Couldn't even get Bertolo or Scoppas territory back from the Hells. I'm sure part of the deal was the sportsbooks were the Italians domain, and they probably agreed not to cross each other's interest.... DelBalso seemed to be breaking that covenant. This to me looks to be a case of Martin Robert becoming a little too much like the Italians, a little too "Mafiosi".

* Option 3 - The bikers are initially 100% on Del Balso’s side in his plans to takeover. With Cazzetta out of the way, new HA leader Martin Robert wants to forge his own path with a new leader of the Italians. The bikers are now closer to Del Balso than Rizzuto and realize if they support Del Balso in his coup that he’ll be more loyal to them than Rizzuto ever was as he’d be indebted to them. However, once Rizzuto survives the hit and the woman gets killed, they shift their alliances as they realize Del Balso failed in plans and the heat is too strong on everyone.

Again, the split in the Hells might be over precisly supporting DelBalso in a coup attempt. The other Hells might have seen Robert and DelBalso as overstepping....

It should be noted that the bikers may have differing factions and loyalties, and they may not necessarily all want the same outcome.

Exactly.....

Great post CG! And I wasn’t trying to imply that Del Balso was having anything to do with the Bonannos or that he would be a capo. I doubt any of these guys give a fuck about the Bonannos.

Just that he was maybe making a move on Leo to takeover the Italians and to control the sportsbook. But, I doubt his plan was that well thought out and was likely just trying to hit back.

The Italians in Montreal are almost closer to a drug cartel than anything, in terms of structure. A bunch of different groups that come together to make deals, are far more fluid in structure, etc.

[stubbs]

I bet the HA showed up just to make it look like they weren’t involved. Historically it has been done. Wouldn’t surprise me here.

That’s what the article shared a few posts ago says:

However, sources tell us that the Hells claim to anyone who will listen that they have nothing to do with the assassination of the 53-year-old Laval resident and that they could even avenge him.

This version contrasts with the police thesis that the Hells and the Rizzuto clan agreed to eliminate Del Balso to avoid plunging the bikers and the Sicilian faction of the Italian mafia into a war to end.

The mafia sends messages about the deceased through where funerals are held, who shows up to the funeral, etc. Real old world shit. I assume the bikers have no such traditions so they can show up and pretend to everyone that they weren’t on the outs with the dead person.