How Toronto’s ‘Discount Casket Guy’ crossed the ’Ndrangheta and fell out with notorious mob boss Vito Rizzuto
Not long before he turned 40, GTA mobster Gaetano (Guy) Panepinto found a job that seemed perfect: discount casket salesman.
His company, Casket Royale on St. Clair Avenue West, had the motto: Do not make an emotional loss a financial loss," and earned the nickname, The Discount Casket Guy."
Casket Royale's caskets included the George," a $295 fake wood model; the denim-covered, cowboy-themed Tucson" (a.k.a. the Bubba Box") for $1,550; and the Basilica, a steel model with an image of the Last Supper and a $2,325 tab. The top of the line was the Windsor," with plenty of bronze and a $4,900 price tag.
Casket Royale's owners boasted all of their prices were about half of what customers could expect they pay at a funeral home - and kids got their casket for free.
Less publicly, Panepinto was a GTA lieutenant for Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto, feeding him money through thefts, frauds, drug trafficking and illegal gambling.
One of Panepinto's partners at Casket Royale was Frank Natale Roda, a convicted extortionist and drug trafficker, as well as the target of a bungled mob contract killing.
Roda was missing his left hand after a powerful pipe bomb he was carrying accidentally detonated and exploded prematurely in 1991 in a St. Clair West and Caledonia Road-area laneway, behind a hair salon. For that, Roda was had been prohibited for life from possessing firearms, ammunition and explosives.
Now, with Casket Royale, Panepinto and Roda had grand plans to set up discount coffin outlets across the country, from New Brunswick to B.C.
That certainly impressed Pat Musitano, of Hamilton, who was also connected to Rizzuto, and who would be later convicted of organizing a gangland murder.
On Friday, Oct. 24, 1997, organized crime investigators intercepted a phone call from Musitano to Panepinto, when the Hamiltonian thanked him for his hospitality two days earlier in hosting a meeting in the GTA with Rizzuto.
It went well," Panepinto said. (Rizzuto's) really happy ... He gave us some suggestions."
Musitano said he would soon be in the discount casket business, too.
I was just at my lawyer's office this morning incorporating a numbered company so they can operate under Casket Royale Hamilton," Musitano said.
Panepinto offered Musitano help in setting up a casket showroom. His own casket showroom had been compared in the business press to having the cheery atmosphere of a car dealership.
Despite his enthusiasm for his new undertaking, Panepinto hadn't given up on his old, less-respectable business enterprises, including placing illegal gambling machines in coffee shops and bars.
That business was threatened when two Italian newcomers, 'Ndrangheta member Domenic (Mico) Napoli and his associate Antonio Oppedisano, started putting in their own gambling machines into York Region establishments.
They were backed by Napoli's close friend, Salvatore (Sam) Calautti, who ran a restaurant on Dufferin Street while moonlighting as a hit man for GTA 'Ndrangheta families.
Just 32, Napoli was well-connected to a 'Ndrangheta governing group called the Camera di Controlo, which wielded great underworld power through the GTA and Golden Horseshoe.
In June 1991, when he was just 23, Napoli had visited the GTA with hit man Riccardo Rumbo in the midst of a war between the Costa and Commisso 'Ndrangheta families.
Rumbo was later convicted of the fatal shooting of Giovanni Costa on June 16, 1991, near his home in Thornhill.
Police believed that Napoli also had worked as a hit man for Italian 'Ndrangheta boss Cosimo (the Quail) Commisso.
Napoli returned to Toronto a couple of years later. This time, he was briefly a roommate with Calautti, then settled in a penthouse condo on Eglinton Avenue West in Mississauga. He said he was a sales manager for a wholesale meat company and a partner in a North York Bar.
A police informer who was well-placed in York Region 'Ndrangheta circles told investigators that Panepinto bristled when Calautti, Napoli and Oppedisano started cutting in on his gambling machines.
Panepinto countered by sending someone from his crew into the bars and cafes, to force his machines in and the Ndrangheta machines out.
That crew member was anything but ordinary. He was an active thief and was a suspect in several unsolved murders.
They were going around taking (Sam Calautti's) machines, gambling machines out of certain bars," the informer told police. So Mico, who was Sam's right-hand man at the time, got p---ed off and, like, started threatening (the worker) and this and that."
Then things went very quiet in March 2000.
Napoli and Oppedisano were nowhere to be seen.
There were whispers that they were murdered and disposed of by Panepinto's crew member and others in his gang in the basement of the Casket Royale shop on St. Clair Avenue West.
The police informer described the reaction of Calautti, who was known for his short fuse.
So Sam knew that it was (Panepinto's crew member) that killed him," the informer said. Sam went to Gaetano (Panepinto) and said, You'd better give (him) up or you're gonna (expletive) get it, right.'
Gaetano said, I'm not giving him up,'" the informer continued.
Panepinto was a burly man, weighing a muscular 250 pounds, which he kept trim with regular workouts in his west-end gym.
He might be tough but he also knew that it wasn't safe to stay in the GTA until Calautti calmed down.
He hid out in Montreal, closer to his boss, Rizzuto.
But, around this time, Rizzuto received a visit from two 'Ndrangheta members from Italy investigating the disappearances of Napoli and Oppedisano.
They seemed to be on the right trail in solving - and avenging - the murders. The message to Rizzuto was clear: Panepinto was a dangerous liability.
The informer said that Calautti also wanted to speak with Rizzuto about the disappearances.
Then Sam arranged a meeting with Vito Rizzuto," the informer said. Rizzuto told Gaetano to give up (his crew member). And Gaetano said, I'm not giving (him up).'"
That was brave but dangerous. Rizzuto wanted results, not a debate.
Not long after that, Rizzuto reassured Panepinto that it was safe to return to the GTA.
Panepinto believed him.
Two weeks later, Panepinto was pulling out of his Sherwood Road home in Etobicoke in his maroon Cadillac.
It was shortly before 8 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2000, a Tuesday, and someone in a silver or grey van pulled alongside him at Laurel Avenue and Bloor Street West, just east of Highway 427.
A half-dozen bullets from the van hit Panepinto and the Cadillac rolled to a stop on the lawn of 3991 Bloor Street West.
Panepinto bled to death on his leather upholstery.
Rizzuto, the godfather who told him it was safe to return to the funeral, attended Panepinto's funeral at St. Clare's Catholic Church.
With him were Rizzuto's brother-in-law Paul Renda, underboss Frank Arcadi and senior member Rocco Sollecito, all from Montreal.
Panepinto's bright red Harley-Davidson motorcycle was brought to the church for his funeral, which was also attended by members of the Vagabonds, Para-dice Riders and Last Chance motorcycle clubs, who wore club colours.
The Rizzuto mourners soon had grave problems of their own. Arcadi pleaded guilty in 2008 to conspiracy to import and export drugs, committing a crime for the profit of a criminal organization and possession of the proceeds of crime and was sentenced to an 11-year prison term.
Renda vanished in May 2010 and was presumed murdered. Rizzuto died of cancer in December 2013 and Sollecito was murdered in 2016.
The investigation into Panepinto's murder resulted in 32 arrests against men from the Toronto area, Barrie, New Brunswick and New Jersey in September 2002.
Police seized some $10 million in drugs, along with fake passports, unstable dynamite, submachine guns and cash.
Among those charged with a variety of drug trafficking offences were Panepinto's former close friend, Constantin (Big Gus) Alevizos, 39, of Toronto.
Alevizos stood six-foot-six, weighed upwards of 450 pounds and had Big Kahauna" tattooed on his back. He had starred in football at Guelph University and played briefly with the Toronto Argonauts in the CFL.
Also arrested was Juan Ramon Fernandez (a.k.a. Joe Bravo, Johnny Bravo and James Shaddock) of Mississauga, a Spanish national who had been twice deported to Spain. He had been promoted to Panepinto's old spot as Rizzuto's GTA point man.
Alevizos was shot to death in a parking lot outside a Brampton halfway house after serving time for drug-trafficking convictions.
Fernandez and his associate, Fernando Pimental, formerly of Mississauga, were shot dead in Sicily in April 2013.
Musitano was murdered in the parking lot of a Burlington mall last July.
No one was ever arrested for Panepinto's murder.
The prime suspect was Calautti, who was shot to death in his BMW SUV on July 12, 2013 while leaving a Woodbridge stag.
The name of the investigation into Panepinto's death was a tip of the hat of sorts to the Discount Casket Guy: Project R.I.P." for Rest in Peace."