Nicolo Rizzuto (; February 18, 1924 – November 10, 2010) was an Italian-Canadian crime boss and founder of the Rizzuto crime family, the Sicilian Mafia organization based in Montreal, Quebec.
Rizzuto was born in Cattolica Eraclea, Sicily, Italy, in 1924, and immigrated to Montreal in 1954 with his wife, son and daughter. He married into the mob through his wife Libertina Manno's family, beginning as an associate in the Sicilian faction of the Calabrian Cotroni crime family, which had most of the control in Montreal. In the late 1970s, a mob war broke out between the Sicilian and Calabrian factions, which resulted in the deaths of Paolo Violi, the acting capo of the Cotroni family, and his brothers. Although Rizzuto was not charged with any of these murders, he was linked to them as the events allowed the Rizzuto family to emerge as the preeminent crime family in Montreal by the early 1980s.
Rizzuto was incarcerated twice, once in 1988 on drug charges where he served five years in a Venezuelan prison, and the other in 2006 where he served two years in jail of a tax evasion charge. His son Vito later followed him into the mob, and in 2007 was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder as well as racketeering, serving a prison sentence until 2012. During this time, a power struggle within the Rizzuto family ensued; his grandson Nicolo Jr. was killed in 2009, followed by Rizzuto himself by a sniper rifle while in his home on November 10, 2010.
Early life and family
Nicolo Rizzuto was born in Cattolica Eraclea, in the province of Agrigento, Sicily, Italy, on February 18, 1924. In January 1925, his father Vito Rizzuto Sr. illegally immigrated to the United States with his brother-in-law Calogero Renda, while Vito's wife Maria Renda stayed with Nicolo in Sicily. On August 12, 1933, Vito was murdered in Patterson, New York, forcing Nicolo to grow up with a stepfather after his mother remarried to Liborio Milioto.
On March 20, 1945, Rizzuto married Libertina Manno, the daughter of Antonio Manno, a local Mafia leader in their hometown. On February 21, 1946, he would father a son, Vito, who would later follow him into the mob. On February 21, 1954, along with his wife, son and daughter, Rizzuto immigrated to Canada by ship and docked at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, before moving on to Montreal, Quebec. He was soon able to form his own crew with help from several other Sicilian relatives and associates living in Montreal. Antonio Manno would later immigrate to Montreal as well in September 1964.
Rizzuto had ties to organized crime in Canada, the United States, Venezuela and Italy. He began his Mafia career in Canada as an associate of the Cotroni crime family, which controlled much of Montreal's drug trade in the 1970s while answering to the Bonanno crime family of New York City. He was, however, more closely linked to the Mafia in the old country, in particular the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan, who came from the same region in Sicily as Rizzuto.
Rizzuto had two grandsons by his son Vito and his wife Giovanna Cammalleri, Leonardo Rizzuto and Nicolo "Nick" Rizzuto Jr., and a granddaughter, Maria Rizzuto. On December 28, 2009, Nick Rizzuto Jr. was shot and killed near his car in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a borough in Montreal. Paolo Renda, Nicolo's son-in-law, disappeared on May 20, 2010, and is presumed to have been kidnapped. On December 23, 2013, Vito died from complications of lung cancer at a Montreal hospital, after he had been released on October 5, 2012, after serving over five years in prison for murder and racketeering charges.
Mob war
In the 1970s, Rizzuto was an underling in the Sicilian faction, led by Luigi Greco until his death in 1972, of the Calabrian Cotroni family. Paolo Violi, the abrasive and opinionated underboss of the Cotroni family disliked the family' status as a decina of the Bonnano family, and favored having the Cotroni family break away to form its own family. The Sicilian faction led by Greco was very loyal to the Bonnano family and were against Violi's plans to break away. Rizzuto, who was one of the biggest "earners" in the Cotroni family owning to his involvement in the drug business, especially disliked Violi. Violi specialized in the extortion of businesses in the Little Italy district of Montreal, and earned much less than Rizzuto. Rizzuto was enraged when Cotroni appointed Violi as his successor, whom the journalist Jerry Langton noted was "another Calabrian, and an ill-mannered and disrespectful one at that".