Mob wars: Hamilton’s criminal underworld is ‘wide open’
The death of Pasquale Musitano, gunned down in a Burlington parking lot on Friday, may mark the end of Hamilton's Musitano crime family.
But that doesn't necessarily mean an end to ongoing violence and it certainly doesn't mean the end of traditional organized crime in Hamilton.
The Mob wars of the last three years have seen multiple murders in Hamilton's most notorious crime families, while other mobsters have gone to prison. With the death of the 53-year-old Mob boss - known as Pat - on Friday, it begs the question: Who is left to seize control?
Hamilton is so wide open," said Stephen Metelsky, a criminology professor at Mohawk College who spent 21 years with Halton police, including specializing in organized crime.
While it's impossible to predict the future, it would be naive to think Musitano's death will be the end of violence, he said.
I hear people saying this is the end of the violence? But I think, no, it's going to get more volatile than ever," he added.
This includes whispers of another family - the Iavarones - rising in power and questions about whether out-of-town power, such as Toronto-area mobsters, have set their sights on Hamilton's territory.
Musitano was shot in a parking lot at 484 Plains Rd. E., a plaza at King Road in Burlington, around 1 p.m. on July 10. He was pronounced dead at the scene, lying next to his armoured GMC Yukon Denali.
His longtime bodyguard and friend, John Clary, 77, was also shot in the melee, The Hamilton Spectator confirmed. Also with them was 59-year-old Giuseppe (Pino) Avignone, Musitano's cousin who grew up in the Musitano household and was like a brother to Pat and his siblings.
Police were looking for a lone male suspect who fled the scene in a four-door grey sedan that is a newer model - similar to an Infiniti Q50 - with a sunroof. It's believed to have damage to the driver's side from a collision as he fled.
If this targeted murder follows the pattern of other recent hits, the shooter is likely a hired gun, someone who is not a Mob member, but an expendable, lower-level criminal. The car used was likely stolen and was dumped soon after the murder.
Taking out a made" man - an official member of Italian organized crime - such as Pat Musitano, is not something done on a whim. It is backed by higher powers and involves planning.
Musitano's death came more than a year after he survived another attempt on his life, when he was shot four times, including in the head, in the parking lot outside his lawyer's office in Mississauga.
For years, Pat Musitano could often be found sitting on the front porch of his former St. Clair Boulevard home, near Gage Park in east Hamilton, even after the death of his little brother, Angelo, in 2017 and his own house being shot up weeks later. After surviving the shooting on April 25, 2019, he moved out of his home and was more cautious. In August 2019, the St. Clair home was put on the market and, according to property records, it sold in March 2020.
Now the question is whether he has any supporters left, and whether even low-level players or family remain targets of whoever orchestrated taking out the Musitano family.
It's not uncommon in traditional organized crime to take out all the men in a family, just to make sure no one can rise up to retaliate, Metelsky said.
Pat and Angelo have another brother, but he's never been seen as a major player. Then there are the men who were with Pat when he was killed, including Avignone, who was like a brother to the Musitanos. Pat and his wife never had children.
There is also no guarantee that whoever is vying to fill the void in Hamilton will do so peacefully.
Of all the players in the recent violence, the biggest questions remain about the Iavarone family. Sources have told The Hamilton Spectator that they were once small-time Musitano associates in the 90s.
But, somewhere along the line, allegiances switched.
Sources say the family is led by Tony Iavarone. His younger brother, Albert, was gunned down in the doorway of his Ancaster home in September 2018. The murder mirrored that of Angelo Musitano the year before - both were the little brothers of more powerful men. Was Albert's murder retaliation for Angelo's? It's a possibility police have considered.
There is reference to Tony Iavarone being a made man" - the act of being made an official Mafia member - in wiretap evidence in a multi-jurisdictional investigation. But details are sparse.
Could the Iavarones be rising in power as the traditional Hamilton Mob families fall?
If so, are they backed by bigger powerhouses in Toronto or New York?
The families
The Musitanos are one of three traditional Mob families that vied for control in Hamilton for decades, along with the Papalias and the Luppino-Violis. All three families were mafia from Calabria, Italy - 'Ndrangheta - and for a time coexisted.
The Papalias were led by perhaps the most notorious mobster of them all - Johnny (Pops) Papalia. He was killed in May 1997 by hitman Ken Murdock, who told police the Musitanos ordered the hit.
Pat and his baby-faced, 21-year-old brother, Angelo, were charged with the murder, but struck a deal, pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Papalia's lieutenant, Carmen Barillaro, in July 1997. They were sentenced to 10 years and served two-thirds of that time in prison.
After Johnny Pops' murder, the remaining Papalia family seemingly walked away, leaving the Musitanos and the Luppino-Violis.
The murder was backed by Vito Rizzuto, the Sicilian (La Cosa Nostra) Mob boss in Montreal. But by the time the brothers got out of prison, Rizzuto's power was waning, first when he was extradited to the United States on murder charges and then with his death in 2013.
When the young Musitano brothers sided with Rizzuto, it was also a betrayal of the Luppino-Violi family. Montreal Mob boss Paolo Violi was killed in a war with Rizzuto in 1978. His widow, Grazia - born into the Hamilton Luppino Mob family - moved her sons, Domenico and Giuseppe, back to Hamilton where they rose to power.
With Rizzuto's death the Musitanos were seen to lose protection. But there is likely more to the ongoing Mob violence than this.
For Hamilton police, the Musitanos were seen often as the loudest" of the families. While some operated under the radar, the Musitanos were tied to bombings, arsons, beatings and homicides that made them a more frequent target.
Retired Hamilton police sargeant Mike Csoke described them as bullies" and said during his time as an officer - including walking the beat on James Street North where the Musitanos ran the Gathering Spot - he was bothered by the fear the mobsters caused.
He recalls going out of his way to give parking and traffic tickets to Musitanos and associates. It started with Pat's father, Dominic Musitano, who controlled the family business until his sudden death from a heart attack at 57 in 1995 at his Colbourne Street home. This is when Pat inherited control of the family business.
Dominic had an auto business on Gertrude Avenue where Csoke started writing tickets for customers' cars parked illegally. Then he started going by the Musitano home on Colborne and would ticket the mobster's Cadillac parked facing the wrong way on the road. At one point Dominic Musitano called the police station to complain about Csoke harassing him.
This continued as Pat and Angelo rose up to power. Csoke recalls stopping Pat in a traffic stop - Pat was friendly, getting out of the car to show Csoke building plans for one of his businesses. When Csoke stopped Angelo and gave him a ticket for having two ownership papers, the junior Musitano brother was furious. Csoke said he also had plenty of run-ins with Avignone while the Musitano brothers were in prison.
Csoke, who also worked in drugs overseeing an organized crime investigation, as a tactical officer and the fugitive apprehension unit during his 30-year career, also questions what more violence could be on the horizon.
Usually the tendency is to take out the whole family," he said.
The murders
The recent Mob violence in Hamilton began with the murder of Angelo Musitano shot outside his Waterdown home on May 2, 2017.
It came after about two decades of relative silence from the traditional organized crime underworld in Hamilton.
Jabril Abdalla, of Hamilton, is charged with first-degree murder.
He is also charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder in a hit-gone-wrong in Vaughn where 28-year-old Mila Barberi - an innocent victim - was mistakenly killed.
Abdalla is accused of being a party to the offences, but not the shooter. Two others are wanted, Michael Cudmore, also of Hamilton, and Daniel Tomassetti, of Ancaster. Both men fled to Mexico, where Cudmore - the alleged gunman - has been reported missing and is feared dead.
The next Hamilton murder happened on Sept. 30, 2018, with the shooting death of Albert Iavarone as he walked into his Ancaster home.
On Jan. 30, 2019, Cece Luppino - the 43-year-old son of mobster Rocco Luppino - was shot in the doorway of his Mountain Brow home. He is not believed to have been a made man," but investigators have questioned whether his murder was meant to send a message to more powerful family members.
Then there was the murder of Giorgio Barresi, a 42-year-old realtor and father shot in the driveway of his Stoney Creek home around 10:45 p.m. on March 2. Like the other murders the killer waited for Barresi to come home.
But the motive is even less clear. Barresi was known to be an associate of the Musitanos 20 years ago, but he faced no charges in recent years and was not on the radar of police.
The Luppino-Violi family
With the Papalia and Musitano families decimated, the only remaining original Hamilton Mob family is the Luppino-Violis.
The Luppinos were led by Giacomo Luppino, a founding member of the Camera di Controllo (the ruling body for the 'Ndrangheta) in Canada. In the 1960s, he became the Ontario representative for the Buffalo crime family, under the leadership of Stefano Magaddino.
His daughter married bootlegger Paolo Violi, who became a top Mob figure in Montreal before his murder. After Giacomo's death in 1987, his son Vincenzo (Jimmy) took over. Jimmy's death in 2013, left his two brothers - Rocco and Natale (Nat) Luppino - the senior dons in the family.
Both brothers are quiet but have been targets of recent violence, including the murder of Rocco's son, Cece, and Nat being targeted in a home invasion on April 19, 2018. Four people from Montreal were charged with attempted murder, but they struck a deal and two men pleaded guilty to lesser offences. Nat Luppino's nephew, Giuseppe Capobianco, was stabbed during the encounter.
The most prominent members of the family are Domenico (Dom) and Giuseppe (Joey) Violi, the sons Paolo Violi and Giacomo Luppino's daughter, Grazia. Both brothers are in prison, serving eight- and 16-year sentences, respectively, on drug charges.
For a mobster, there is no shame in doing your time quietly. But in this RCMP-led case, dubbed Project Otremens, it's how the brothers ended up in jail that is significant. A former mobster turned on the family, becoming an undercover agent who set the brothers up with undercover cops and recorded conversations for years.
The man was even made" in a Hamilton hotel room, while police cameras recorded everything. During one of the conversations recorded, Dom boasts about being made underboss of the Buffalo Mafia by boss Joseph Todaro Jr. That's the second-highest position in the United States-based Mafia - a position that has never been held by a Canadian before.
If his boasting is true, that would make Dom Violi the most powerful Mob boss here. But allowing a rat" into your midst usually has consequences. Does this change Violi's position? Who are the Luppino-Violi family's allies? Does any of this play a role in the recent violence?
There is no crystal ball," former police officer Metelsky said.
But the common denominator is going to be additional violence."
Nicole O'Reilly is a Hamilton-based reporter covering crime and justice for The Spectator. Reach her via email: noreilly@thespec.com