How the unsolved Dundas St. murder of Natale Brigante ushered in Act 1 of a Canadian mob dynasty
A stranger struggled to make sense of the words Natale Brigante muttered as he lay bleeding on the wet pavement of Dundas Street West near Howard Park in the west end.
Not long after that, Brigante, 30, went silent.
He bled to death after he was shot twice in the groin.
He had rushed out onto the street in a rainstorm the night of Tuesday, May 24, 1955, after receiving a late-night phone call, according to Eugenio Rocco Scopelliti, 20, who lived at the same boarding house as Brigante.
I'm going to Dundas Street," Brigante said, according to Scopelliti, who also recently immigrated from Santo Stefano d'Aspromonte in Reggio Calabria, Italy.
Brigante had a bone-handled stiletto knife with him, which he carried in a sheath attached to his belt.
Later, neighbours heard a pop, pop, pop" sound through the noise of the storm.
The stiletto lay near his body.
It was a sad end to what had been a major success story for Brigante, who had $3,000 in his savings account, from his work as a house painter, and a fancy new model car even though he sent money back to Calabria to his family and his fiancee.
Brigante was to be best man at his brother's wedding the next Saturday in Niagara Falls. It was postponed to allow for the planning of his funeral there.
Within a day, Paolo Violi, 24, was arrested in Welland, where he was checked into the hospital under the name John Pinnochio." He had a slash wound by his ribs.
Police were tipped off he had fled there by his nervous girlfriend.
Violi told police, through an Italian-speaking officer, that he fell onto a knife while fishing in the Welland Canal.
I did it to myself," he said.
Violi had emigrated to Canada 3 years earlier from Sinopoli, Calabria, about a 40-minute drive from Brigante and Scopelliti's hometown. He claimed he didn't know Brigante - but Scopelliti said they'd once been friends.
Violi hadn't been known by Canadian police before Brigante was shot dead.
Police put a pillowcase over his head before escorting him into custody on manslaughter charges. The pillowcase was to preserve his identity for a police lineup, for witnesses who saw a man fleeing from the shooting site.
The sight of the large pillowcase on Violi's 130-lb body prompted a Toronto Telegram headline writer to write: He's in the bag."
Violi chose G. Arthur Martin for his lawyer.
Martin was already a legal legend. The self-effacing bachelor was the subject of a 1953 Maclean's magazine article headlined, His Clients Never Hang." He would eventually defend more than 60 accused killers, and none of them were ever convicted of murder.
Martin suggested Scopelliti was the real killer, slamming him in front of the jury as an unmitigated liar."
It took just two hours for Martin to win Violi his freedom.
It was the last time Violi would be called in front of a judge for a charge so severe, but he would soon become well known to police after he married into the Luppino family of Hamilton.
His new father-in-law, Giacomo Luppino, was considered by police to be a major leader of the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian Mafia, in Canada.
In the late 1960s, the RCMP hid recording devices amongst Luppino's tomato plants in the backyard of his cosy, detached brick home in Hamilton.
Those recordings captured Luppino talking about a variety of things - ranging from the exuberant playing style of Maple Leafs' forward Eddie Shack to Luppino's dismissive assessment of a man who he considered a coward.
I told him what kind of a half a man is he?" Luppino said in the tapes. If I have to do something in fear, I'll go and drown myself in the lake. I told him that if a man is weak and has to do things because of fear and these things are wrong, then it's better for him to kill himself.
I told him if they want, kill me. Because I say so. And if they should kill me, I'll always spit in their faces and tell them they are the dishonerate (the dishonoured)."
In the tapes, Violi sounded like a bit of a prude as he chatted with his new father-in-law. On one occasion, the RCMP bug captured him telling Luppino that he is going to warn a man in Toronto to stay away from a married woman who has three children," according to police summary of the conversations.
The secret recordings from Luppino's tomato plants were later used by the RCMP to help prove the existence of the 'Ndrangheta, or Calabrian Mafia, in Canada.
In one of the recorded talks, Luppino told his wife that he and their son Jimmy had recently met with Stefano Magaddino, an undertaker who was then head of the Buffalo mob, about Toronto mobster Paul Volpe.
Magaddino told Jimmy that if he went with or had dealings with Paul Volpe to be very careful, because he will cheat you or see that you are sent to jail. Magaddino also mentions that Volpe cheated him once," Luppino said.
Violi next moved on to Montreal. In 1975 - two decades after Brigante's death - a Quebec Crime Commission in 1975 identified him as a director of the Canadian arm of one of the largest criminal families in North America. Paolo Violi is 1,000 men," one heavily guarded witness told the inquiry.
Violi was arrested while dining at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto and flown to Montreal to testify at the inquiry. He was jailed a year for refusing to take the witness stand.
Paolo Violi's criminal organization was severely damaged when undercover police officer Robert (Shotgun) Menard rented out an apartment above his ice cream shop/ pool hall in the Saint-Leonard district of Montreal and secretly recorded conversations between 1970 and 1976.
Portions of those conversations were played at the Quebec Crime Commission to show connections between Italian and North American criminals.
Violi's power was never the same. He was shot to death while playing cards in his ice cream shop in 1978 during a war with the rival Rizzuto crime family.
Two of Paolo Violi's brothers were also slain in Montreal in the protracted war with the Rizzutos.
Violi's sons, Giuseppe and Domenico, were eight and 11 respectively when their father was murdered.
The survivors moved back to Hamilton, where they lived under the protection of their grandfather Luppino.
As they grew up, they were also targeted by police.
Domenico Violi was sentenced to eight years in prison in December 2018 after pleading guilty to selling drugs to a police agent inside the Bonanno crime family.
Giuseppe (Joe) Violi is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence for fentanyl and cocaine trafficking.
At the time of their arrests, the RCMP said Domenico and Joe Violi were well-established organized criminals with an international reach."
Violi's sons used corruption to hang on to power, according to a 2002 confidential Halton Regional Police intelligence report, which stated that Hamilton police officers helped the brothers avoid prosecution.
The report calls a long-standing Hamilton police officer a close, paid associate" of Violi.
The report's Introduction/ Synopsis," based on a confidential source, reads: Domenic VIOLI of Hamilton (son of Paolo Violi formerly of Montreal - deceased)" had a number of serving Police Officers providing intelligence and assistance avoid prosecution for crimes committed."
The report states that one Hamilton police officer is a close, paid associate of Domenic VIOLI of Hamilton . heir apparent to the LUPPINO Crime group of Burlington."
Hamilton and Halton police declined to comment on the contents of the report after it was obtained by the Star.
Domenic Violi was denied parole in April, as authorities warned he may be in danger of retaliatory violent occurrences" if he returns to Hamilton.
The 1955 slaying of Brigante was never solved but authorities at the time offered three theories for the shooting.
One was that Brigante was being extorted.
The second was that it was the culmination of tensions that had originated in Calabria.
The third theory was that it was a dispute involving a woman, which could explain why Brigante was shot in the groin.
Peter Edwards is a Toronto-based reporter primarily covering crime for the Star. Reach him via email: pedwards@thestar.ca