Gaetano Panepinto

[B.]

Canadian mafia associate Gaetano Panepinto, murdered in year 2000, lived in Toronto where he owned a casket business.

The Magaddino Funeral Home of Niagara Falls was originally owned by Alfred Panepinto who was murdered in 1937. Born in the 1930s, but now deceased, was future Buffalo member Donald Panepinto.

Do we have confirmation that Gaetano Panepinto was a Toronto-based Bonanno associate? As with most investigation and research into Canadian mafia activities, our understanding of the relationships is an outsider view. We know Panepinto did business with and was apparently close to the Montreal Bonanno crew, but I'm wondering if that's the complete picture.

In the nearly 20 years since Gaetano Panepinto's murder, it has become clear that the Buffalo family still has official representation in Ontario and in the past several years has made an attempt to fortify this Canadian faction. Toronto Buffalo members have also maintained relationships with Bonanno members from Montreal in recent years and it is nothing new for the Toronto Buffalo element to interact with the Montreal Bonanno crew.

It's an odd coincidence that Gaetano Panepinto lived in Buffalo territory, shared an uncommon last name with members/associates of the Buffalo mafia, and was in a funeral-related business like one of them. I don't know if there's a relation and maybe there is something substantial indicating Panepinto was a Bonanno associate, but has there been any speculation that Panepinto was a Buffalo associate?

[maxiestern11]

Too many coincidences

[Laurentian]

Here are some articles among so many on Panepinto.

Cut-rate coffin maker killed in drive-by 'hit'
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/na ... le1042716/

Mobster's slaying linked to revenge of underworld
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/na ... e18426673/

[Laurentian]

At the Panepinto's funeral, the Rizzuto family's was remarkable. Vito Rizzuto, Paolo Renda, Calogero Renda, Francesco Arcadi were all there.

Panepinto, it was said, enjoyed a place of priviledge among the Rizzuto clan, at the time of his death, and it was said that Vito was hurt by it.

[Laurentian]

Here is another one.

Man at centre of bizarre underworld plots for years loses fight against Toronto police

https://nationalpost.com/news/man-at-ce ... nto-police

[Laurentian]

At the Panepinto's funeral, the Rizzuto family's was remarkable. Vito Rizzuto, Paolo Renda, Calogero Renda, Francesco Arcadi were all there.

Panepinto, it was said, enjoyed a place of priviledge among the Rizzuto clan, at the time of his death, and it was said that Vito was hurt by it.

Correction : Rocco Sollecito and Joe Renda attended as well.

[NickleCity]

Canadian mafia associate Gaetano Panepinto, murdered in year 2000, lived in Toronto where he owned a casket business.

The Magaddino Funeral Home of Niagara Falls was originally owned by Alfred Panepinto who was murdered in 1937. Born in the 1930s, but now deceased, was future Buffalo member Donald Panepinto.

Do we have confirmation that Gaetano Panepinto was a Toronto-based Bonanno associate? As with most investigation and research into Canadian mafia activities, our understanding of the relationships is an outsider view. We know Panepinto did business with and was apparently close to the Montreal Bonanno crew, but I'm wondering if that's the complete picture.

In the nearly 20 years since Gaetano Panepinto's murder, it has become clear that the Buffalo family still has official representation in Ontario and in the past several years has made an attempt to fortify this Canadian faction. Toronto Buffalo members have also maintained relationships with Bonanno members from Montreal in recent years and it is nothing new for the Toronto Buffalo element to interact with the Montreal Bonanno crew.

It's an odd coincidence that Gaetano Panepinto lived in Buffalo territory, shared an uncommon last name with members/associates of the Buffalo mafia, and was in a funeral-related business like one of them. I don't know if there's a relation and maybe there is something substantial indicating Panepinto was a Bonanno associate, but has there been any speculation that Panepinto was a Buffalo associate?

Don’t know if I mentioned this on here before, but FBI intelligence alleges that Donald was the consigliere for the Todaros.

D5AB14B1-CF44-482A-B25C-92A6CCA11E48.jpeg

His daughter did marry Joey Todaro III

[B.]

Is that from an FBI / government chart or was it made by someone online?

I don't know if Alfred Panepinto was a made member in Buffalo, but he was a business partner of member Paolo Palmieri and involved with the Magaddino crowd. An FBI source claimed Panepinto was killed at a wedding in Buffalo by soldier Salvatore Lagattuta.

Maybe it's a common surname in Ontario and Buffalo due to immigration patterns, but it's not one I've come across beyond these three names. Does anyone have info on the Italian origins of the three Panepintos?

[NickleCity]

Is that from an FBI / government chart or was it made by someone online?

I don't know if Alfred Panepinto was a made member in Buffalo, but he was a business partner of member Paolo Palmieri and involved with the Magaddino crowd. An FBI source claimed Panepinto was killed at a wedding in Buffalo by soldier Salvatore Lagattuta.

Maybe it's a common surname in Ontario and Buffalo due to immigration patterns, but it's not one I've come across beyond these three names. Does anyone have info on the Italian origins of the three Panepintos?

Picture is from Paul Manning on Twitter. Her writes:

@MobBuffalo Just found a load of @fbi Buffalo #mafia files @hamiltonpolce gave me back in 2005.

Interesting!

Here is the link: https://twitter.com/mobinfiltrator/stat ... 47394?s=21

[NickleCity]

Correction: he writes... oops

[B.]

Thanks for the info.

- Alfred Panepinto's father came from Valledolmo, Sicily. These Panepintos lived in Batavia for many years and Alfred ended up living in Niagara Falls.

- Donald Panepinto was born and raised in Niagara Falls. His family looks to have come from Valledolmo as well. No direct (i.e. grandfather/father/son, uncle, first cousin) relation to Alfred, but there could easily be a blood connection with older generations of Panepintos. Relatives of both Alfred and Donald were in western NY by the turn of the century.

- Valledolmo and other close towns in the Caltanissetta region represented an important faction in the early Buffalo family, so no surprise these two may be from there.

- Looks like most Panepintos who immigrated to western NY came from Valledolmo, Serradifalco, or Vallelunga and many of them entered the US via Ontario.

- Despite the above, the surname Panepinto appears to be most common in Casteltermini, Agrigento. If the Toronto Panepinto's family is from that area, it could partially explain his closeness to the Montreal Bonanno crew's Agrigento faction.

[antimafia]

Guy Panepinto's parents are Vincenzo and Rosalia. I've never tried to trace the parents' ancestry; I don't know Rosalia's maiden name. The surname Panepinto is fairly prevalent in Agrigento, but I suspect there haven't been many North American mobsters bearing that last name. Panepinto's wife's maiden name is Czaplinski.

When Timothy Appleby of the Globe and Mail wrote about Guy's death three days after the fact (DOD: Oct. 3, 2000), Appleby wrote that Panepinto's "links stretched from Sicily to Montreal and Hamilton, and probably far beyond."

Before Panepinto became well known via the media for running a Toronto-based discount-coffin business, which Appleby wrote was reportedly owned by Vito Rizzuto, Panepinto was known for running Rhino's Gym, also in Toronto, out of which high-volume drug dealing occurred. Many bikers worked out at Rhino's, as Guy hung out with bikers a lot. When Juan Ramon Fernandez, aka Joe Bravo, was sent by Rizzuto from Montreal to operate in Toronto, Bravo reported to Panepinto. Bravo frequently visited Rhino's Gym, where he would have encountered Constantin “Big Gus” Alevizos, who was murdered in 2008, and we may recall that one theory about Alevizos's murder is payback for having stolen after Panepinto's murder a large bag full of cash that belonged to the Rizzutos. Panepinto had contact with Pat Musitano in April 1997 -- some six months before the two of them met with Rizzuto in Ontario -- which was one month before John Papalia was murdered at the end of May of that year.

Apart from Panepinto having ties to Bonannos in the Montreal Mafia and their associates, he had ties to other Sicilian mafiosi. When Giacinto Arcuri was waiting many years for his trial in relation to the charge he had murdered Buffalo Family member Enio Mora, who was close to Papalia, police believed Panepinto was an accomplice to the murder. Some 27 months after Panepinto was killed, he was in the news again when a liquor licence was controversially granted to a nightclub north of Toronto that was believed to have Hells Angels-and-mafia involvement, with loans for the club coming from an Ontario numbered company whose president was a Giuseppe Cuntrera, as drawings/plans for the club had been found in the murdered Panepinto's car. Recall, as well, that Project R.I.P., the large investigation that began after Panepinto was killed, (the name was a nod to Panepinto's line of business), eventually gave rise to Project Colisée.

Back in September 1991, when Panepinto was charged with eight other men in a bungled bomb plot, one of those charged was a 34-year-old Rosario Cammalleri. This Cammalleri is possibly a first cousin to Vito Rizzuto's wife, as Ross would have turned 34 in May of that year.

[NickleCity]

234513B3-4BCE-45BF-835F-637674EDCCCF.jpeg

Again from Paul Manning.

[NickleCity]

^^^^
Manning wrote the following to James Dubro in a thread about Pat Musitano.

James, love to know what was discussed at this luncheon. Six months after Johnny Pops got clipped and a couple of months after Barillaro. And people still think those homicides weren’t sanctioned?

Here is link to tweet: https://twitter.com/mobinfiltrator/stat ... 26432?s=21

[antimafia]

How Toronto’s ‘Discount Casket Guy’ crossed the ’Ndrangheta and fell out with notorious mob boss Vito Rizzuto

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/0 ... zzuto.html

Link in case you hit a paywall:

https://outline.com/SnBvqq