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Giacomo Luppino

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Giacomo Luppino (1900–19 March 1987) was an Italian-Canadian gangster who founded and led the Luppino family of Hamilton.

Criminal

Luppino was born in 1900 in the village of Oppido Mamertina, in Calabria.[1] Luppino was involved in the 'Ndrangheta from an early age and was the prime suspect in two murders in Italy.[2] Luppino carried around a human ear in his wallet.[2] The human ear that Luppino was believed to always have with him is said to have been from an incident when he severed an ear from a man in public to demonstrate his power.[2] Luppino immigrated to Canada in 1955 and settled in Hamilton.[3]

Boss of Hamilton

Along with Santo Scibetta, Luppino was one of the main Canadian lieutenants of Stefano Magaddino, the boss of the Magaddino family of Buffalo and represented his interests in southern Ontario.[1] What the media called the Luppino family was in fact only a decina (arm) of the Magaddino family.[1] When Sicbetta died, Luppino became the sole boss.[1] In 1962, when Paolo Violi-a favorite of Luppino's-proved unable to get along with Johnny Papalia, Luppino arranged for him to go to Montreal, where he became the underboss of the Cotroni family.[4] Luppino had been friends with Domencio Violi, the father of Paolo, in Italy, and he regarded Paolo as almost like a son.[5] The name Cotroni family was a misnomer as in fact the Cotroni family was only a decina of the Bonanno family of New York.[5] Violi's status as the underboss was extended as a way to ultimately to add southern Quebec to southern Ontario under the control of the Maggaddino family.[6] For his part, the Calabrian Vic Cotroni was already having difficulties with the Sicilian faction of the Cotroni family led by Lugi Greco and Nicolo Rizzuto, and he saw making his fellow Calabrian Violi as underboss a way to keep the Sicilian faction in check.[5] In 1965, Luppino's daughter Grazia married Violi, and Luppino was very close to Violi, a man he greatly liked and admired.[1] The wedding brought together the elite of the Canadian Mafia being attended by Vincenzo Cotroni and Lugi Greco of Montreal, Johnny Papalia of Hamilton, Paul Volpe of Toronto, and Joe Gentile of Vancouver.[4] Luppino sponsored Paul Volpe into the Maggaddio family, and he was likewise close to Volpe, who represented his interests in Toronto.[1]

The journalist Jerry Langton described Luppino's relationship with the Papalia family: "He ruled Hamilton's 'Ndrangheta for years before Papalia's star began to rise, but he too answered to Magaddino, the power in the region. When Papalia was powerful enough to take over Hamilton, Luppino gracefully backed into a subordinate role".[7] Luppino saw himself as upholding traditional Italian values against what he saw as the corrupting consumerism of North American society.[8] In a phone conversation with Magaddino, Luppino told him in Italian: "I, Don Stefano, do things for my own dignity".[8] Luppino lived in a modest house on Ottawa Street South on the east end of Hamilton.[9] He was often seen tending his garden during the summer as he preferred to grow his food..[9] His only known source of income was his veterans' pension from his service in the Regio Esercito in World War I, a sum of lire that amounted to the equivalent of CAD$175 per month.[9] Luppino greatly disapproved of the social changes of the 1960s and endlessly bemoaned that the younger generation of Italian-Canadians were materialistic, self-interested, and lacked respect for older men such as himself.[9] The changes that Luppino disapproved affected his own family as the police wiretaps revealed that Luppino complained that his own sons did not show him the respect he felt he deserved and that one of his sons was in a common-law relationship with a woman.[9] Luppino allowed his son to visit him, but never his girlfriend as he stated that any woman who engaged in premarital sex was not allowed in his house.[9]

Luppino's main sources of income were loan-sharking, extortion and the construction business.[2] Luppino cared more about ostentatious displays of his power than about wealth.[2] One Hamilton policeman told the media: "Power and prestige, that's what it's all about. Really, that's what the man's about. The key to the whole thing is prestige. The way he can lay fear on people just because he is there. He'd rather have someone call him Mr. Luppino than give him $10,000".[2] In one wiretapped phone call, Luppino stated: "It is the same as saying there is a company at Hamilton, at Toronto and there is a head of each. Toronto represents the centre and Hamilton the commanding point. In Oakville, there are two, but all these abboccatos [regions] are represented by one. In other words, we have to play the way I say".[10] In 1966, when Magaddino planned to have Cotroni killed for his loyalty to Joe Bonanno, Luppino persuaded him to abandon the murder plot.[11] Luppino was one of the few men whom Magaddino respected and would listen to.[11] Luppino persuaded Maggaddino that when Cotroni died, Violi would succeed him, and this way Montreal would be brought under control of the Maggaddino family, which was preferrable to sparking a bloody mob war.[11]

Luppino was very close to Violi, who he felt was the son that he wished he had as he believed that Violi upheld traditional values in a way that his sons did not.[9] Both Luppino and Violi found the way that Mafiosi were portrayed in Hollywood films to be unintentionally hilarious and both men were ardent fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team.[9] Violi in a wiretapped phone call stated: "You know what my uncle Michelino told me...he said he gets great satisfaction in talking with me because I know and talk to him in the same way as if we were in our own town but the rest, he said they do it the American way...it appears that here in America things can only be fixed with money".[12] In one wiretapped phone call to Violi, Luppino told him that he had threatened to kill a man who had beaten a woman as he said: "I told him what kind of half man he is. If I have to do something in fear I'll go and drown myself in the lake."[2] In another wiretapped phone call, Luppino told Violi that he wished his English was better so that he could set up his own business because "people here are much easier to cheat than in Italy".[2]

When Cotroni started to suffer from prostate cancer in the early 1970s, Violi became the de facto boss of the Cotroni family, which in turn increased Luppino's power.[13] The ganster and police informer Marvin Elkind was in debt to Luppino after his release from prison in 1970.[13] Luppino used Elkind to take envelopes full of cash to Montreal to hand over to Violi.[13] Elkind said of Luppino: "I really liked Old Man Giacomo. He was a tremendous man. I used his weakness to my advantage and that was children. He loved children. Family was very important to him. I went there on Sunday and I had one daughter hold one hand and the other other daughter in the other and Giacomo was there raking the lawn and working in his garden. There was the big boss of the mob, out raking the leaves in his yard, wearing an old grey sweater and a felt hat. And Mrs. Luppino came out with cookies for the kids. I said all I needed was three months when I didn't have to make payments and then I could sort it all out. Luppino said he would agree if he got a kiss on the cheek from my kids. My two little girls go up and they each gave him a kiss on the cheek, one of the girls on each side. He said he'll give me a six months break. I'd asked for three, but he said he'd give me six months, three for each kiss".[14]

Following the example set by the Musitano family, Luppino started to employ outlaw biker gangs as subcontractors.[15] A report in the Hamilton Spectator in October 1980 stated that: "A group headed by Giaccomo Luppino of Ottawa Street South, the closest thing Canada has to a Hollywood-style 'Godfather' has established a pipeline with the bikers for contract work...The bikers are being played for suckers in the incidents, taking all of the heat and very little of the profit. Paid by the mob anywhere from $400 to $1,000 an assignment, the bikers have placed bombs or incendiary devices at extortion targets. The extortionists, meanwhile, reap greater rewards from $25,000 in cash to complete takeovers of businesses worth more than $100,000".[15]

Death

Luppino suffered from senility in his last years, which he spent at St Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton from 1983 onward.[16] Luppino died on 19 March 1987 and his funeral was one of the grandest Mafia funerals seen in Canada with 150 cars taking part in the funeral procession.[16] Luppino's funeral was attended by Mafiosi from Ontario, Quebec, the northeastern United States and Italy.[17]

Books

  • Auger, Michel; Edwards, Peter (2004). The Encyclopedia of Canadian Organized Crime: From Captain Kidd to Mom Boucher. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 0771030495.
  • Cédilot, André; Noël, André (2010). Mafia Inc.: The Long, Bloody Reign of Canada's Sicilian Clan. Toronto: Vintage Canada. ISBN 9780307360410.
  • Edwards, Peter (1990). Blood Brothers: How Canada's Most Powerful Mafia Family Runs Its Business. Toronto: Key Porter Books. ISBN 155013213X.
  • Langton, Jerry (2015). Cold War How Organized Crime Works in Canad and Why It's About to Get More Violent. Toronto: HarperColllins. ISBN 978-1-4434-3255-9.
  • Humphreys, Adrian (2011). The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob. Toronto: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0470964514.
  • Schneider, Stephen (2009). Iced The Story of Organized Crime in Canada. Toronto: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780470835005.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 130.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Edwards 1990, p. 54.
  3. ^ "Obituary: Luppino, Immacolata "Concetta" (nee Sorenti)". The Hamilton Spectator. June 15, 2018. Archived from the original on July 19, 2019. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
  4. ^ a b Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 252.
  5. ^ a b c Cédilot & Noël 2010, p. 79.
  6. ^ Cédilot & Noël 2010, p. 79-80.
  7. ^ Langton 2015, p. 64-65.
  8. ^ a b Edwards 1990, p. 52.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Edwards 1990, p. 53.
  10. ^ Edwards 1990, p. 54-55.
  11. ^ a b c Edwards 1990, p. 51.
  12. ^ Edwards 1990, p. 53-54.
  13. ^ a b c Humphreys 2011, p. 110.
  14. ^ Humphreys 2011, p. 111.
  15. ^ a b Schneider 2009, p. 335.
  16. ^ a b Schneider 2009, p. 340.
  17. ^ Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 131.
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