Sammy Vecchio was found buried to the neck. Was the wealthy mob associate’s murder part of an Ontario biker war?
Salvatore (Sammy) Vecchio's badly beaten body was found half-buried in a swampy area on the banks of the Thames River near London, Ont., on a seldom-used, dead-end road a few kilometres north of Iona Station on Dec. 15, 1998.
People who might help explain the unsolved murder of millionaire bachelor Vecchio are either in prison, murdered or on the run.
The 35-year-old's head stuck out of the ground and had been repeatedly struck.
His body was found just a few kilometres from the ramshackle white farmhouse of long-time biker Wayne (Weiner) Kellestine, who's now in prison for murder in the deaths of eight members of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club.
Kellestine belonged to several outlaw biker clubs including the Outlaws, Loners, Annihilators and Bandidos before being sentenced to life in prison for the murders of eight of his fellow Bandidos on his property in April 2006.
The out-of-the-way site where Vecchio's body was found is also close to where the body of murder victim Sonya Nadine Mae Cywink was discovered on Aug. 30, 1994.
The site is also close to the cornfield where the body of murder victim David Kenneth O'Neil was found in January 1992 - in a shallow grave with multiple gunshots to his head.
O'Neil, 33, was sought by police on a first-degree murder warrant after Const. Scott Rossiter of the Ingersoll force was shot to death outside his detachment on Sept. 19, 1991, with his own revolver.
The murders of Cywink, O'Neil and Rossiter remain unsolved.
Veccho's black Mercedes S320 sedan was found in a parking garage at Terminal One at Pearson airport on Dec. 18, 1998, three days after the discovery of his body. He had planned to take a trip to Florida around the time he was beaten to death.
He was last seen on Dec. 13, 1998, the day he turned 35.
Vecchio liked to wear fine suits and drive a Ferrari and a Mercedes, but he was also a habitue of grungy strip clubs frequented by bikers.
He settled into the genteel, upscale Sir. Adam Beck condo complex at the northeast corner of Richmond and Sydenham streets in London, Ont., midway between the city's downtown and Western University campus.
His associates included Pat Musitano of the Hamilton mob.
Musitano was murdered on July 10, 2020, in Burlington while in his car, which was parked at a plaza on Plains Road East between King and Waterdown roads.
Vecchio was also close to Gaetano (The Casket Guy) Panepinto, of Toronto, who was shot to death in October 2000.
Panepinto's murder and that of Musitano also remain unsolved.
Vecchio studied auto mechanics at H.B. Beal secondary in London, Ont., and then moved into an apprentice mechanic program at a Ford dealership in the city.
He received $400,000 in an insurance settlement after an August 1989 car crash left him confined to a body cast and wheelchair for months.
He built himself up physically while investing in real estate. He also quietly bought into a porn website.
Some of his money went into loansharking, according to police, and his biker friends helped him ensure his debts didn't go overdue.
More publicly, he won the bidding for the bunker once designed to protect former prime minister John Diefenbaker and senior government officials.
The bunker - dubbed The Diefenbunker" - was designed to protect the politicians for up to three weeks during the Cold War scares of the early 1960s.
Located on a 225-hectare property near Perth in Eastern Ontario, the Diefenbunker cost Vecchio $140,000.
Vecchio said vaguely at the time that he had an agricultural purpose in mind for it. The bunker came with high maintenance costs. Hydro bills for the power to maintain the sump pump and keep the bunker dry were an estimated $1,000 monthly.
After purchasing the bunker in 1996, Vecchio declined to say if he was excited to win the bidding.
I'm a businessman," Vecchio told the media. I don't get excited."
Exactly what went wrong in the final days of Vecchio's life remains unclear, although London area bikers are often mentioned as possible suspects.
Things were particularly tense and unstable in the outlaw biker world around London, Ont., in 1998, the last year of Vecchio's life.
Some London-area bikers were jumping with both feet into online gambling.
The Hells Angels were preparing to come into Ontario en masse. Within two years, they would absorb most of Ontario's outlaw biker clubs.
They would establish a strong base in London, which is also a stronghold of the rival Outlaws Motorcycle Club.
All of this activity made things uncertain and violent in London's underworld.
On April 7, 1998, Jeffrey LaBrash, president of the London, Ont., Outlaws Motorcycle Club, and club member Jody Hart were shot dead in the parking lot of the Beef Baron strip club.
They were shot by brothers Paul and Duane Lewis, who were acquitted after arguing the shooting was in self-defence.
For his part, Vecchio was a physically strong man, which supported the theory that he was brought to Iona Station by more than one person. Police have never said if they believe he was murdered at the location where his body was found.
Throughout the years, the murder investigation has wound into investments in the Bahamas.
The Ontario Provincial Police announced in October 2009 that DNA could lead to Vecchio's killer or killers.
Then things went quiet again.
Vecchio didn't marry or have children, but he was loved. For a time, a woman who identified herself only as Sherry published messages in The London Free Press on the anniversaries of his death, like this from 2002:
You were someone I could talk to,
That no one can replace,
You were someone that I could laugh with,
Till tears rolled down my face,
You were someone I could turn to.
What more is there to say,
Except, I wish with all my heart,
That you were here today.
You will never be forgotten.
Love always,
Sherry
Vecchio's murder remains unsolved.
Peter Edwards is a Toronto-based reporter primarily covering crime for the Star. Reach him via email: pedwards@thestar.ca