Free The Sixth Family by Lee Lamothe

the insurance policy, was found to be more culpable than Vito, who was seen as having been brought into the scheme merely to help out Renda. A dutiful member of the Sixth Family, Renda did not protest that view. On January 29, 1972, Vito was sentenced to two years in prison for the arson and conspiracy charge and nine months on each of the other counts, to be served concurrently. Renda was handed four years for arson and conspiracy and 18 months on each additional charge, also to be served concurrently. For Renda, it was his first—and only—criminal conviction. Vito, however, had one previous—tiny—stain on his record, a conviction for disturbing the peace in the summer of 1965 when he was the tender age of 19. He had been fined $25 and spent eight days in jail.

    It was a decidedly inauspicious start for the future head of the Sixth Family.

    By the time young Vito was playing with matches, his father, Nick, had built a formidable criminal coterie in Montreal. He had a loyal core that, although officially pledged to protect and contribute to the Bonanno organization, maintained a distinct loyalty to their own flesh and blood. Along with marriage vows and blood ties, the growth of the Rizzuto clan into the organization that is the Sixth Family can most suitably be described in business terms, in that they doggedly adhered to a winning strategy of carefully selected mergers and acquisitions. As with most aggressive corporations, what they sought first was a mutually agreeable assimilation of a smaller corporate entity that allowed for profit for all parties. If that failed, a hostile takeover was almost inevitable.

    The first significant merger in Canada for the Rizzutos came in the 1960s when Nick forged a bond with the Caruana-Cuntrera family, a clan from the Sicilian town of Siculiana, just a winding 10-mile drive from Cattolica Eraclea. For decades, back in the Mafia triangle of Agrigento, the clans had been friendly, interrelated, and occasionally comrades-in-arms. When Nick’s father first arrived in the New World in 1925, he arrived with two men from Cattolica Eraclea and three men from Siculiana; most, if not all, of the men were related in some way. One, Vincenzo Marino, was married to a Caruana, and another, Giuseppe Sciortino, was related to Calogero Renda, who in turn was related to Nick. In Canada, these bonds were strengthened. Fusing the Rizzutos with the Caruana-Cuntreras was a strategic alliance of immense value to both parties, who were keenly interested in the same sorts of commodities. The merger gave Nick a significant boost, increasing his international presence and his access to drugs and money-laundering services. The Caruana and Cuntrera families, who formed a single criminal organization, also had considerable influence within the Sicilian faction in Montreal. On the flip side, having the Rizzutos as partners offered the Caruanas a form of physical protection and a far more robust presence on the streets of Montreal as they concentrated on matters abroad. While the Caruanas boosted the Rizzutos’ contacts in Europe and South America, the Rizzutos gave the Caruanas direct contact with New York.

    “When the Caruanas and Cuntreras moved to Montreal in the mid- 1960s, they became affiliated with Nicolò Rizzuto and his son Vito Rizzuto. They began to work together in drug trafficking activities,” an FBI report says.

    The internal structure of the Sixth Family—by itself—was starting to mimic the vast transatlantic structure that had taken more than two dozen mafiosi from two countries four days of heated discussions at the Grand Hôtel et des Palmes to achieve. Next came another merger and acquisition of a distinctly non-hostile nature.

MONTREAL AND TORONTO, NOVEMBER 1966

    Late in the day on November 28, 1966, two Montreal police constables asked three men who were sitting in a car parked on a side street to slowly get out of their vehicle. The officers’ concern was palpable, as the