Frank Cotroni

Cotroni was born in Montreal in 1931. His oldest brother, Vincenzo, was 20 years older born in 1911 in Mammola, Calabria, Italy, and immigrated to Montreal in 1924 with his two sisters, Marguerita and Palmina, and his brother Giuseppe; his other brother Michel, was later born in Montreal like Frank.[2] Within Montreal, Cotroni was known to French-Canadians as Les Gros ("the Big Guy") and to Italo-Canadians as Il Cice (an Italian phrase for the soft center of a hard nut).[3]

Cotroni grew up in a house at the junction of Ontario and St. Timotheé streets in Le Plateau-Mont-Royal (now in Montreal), a poor neighbourhood that more affluent Italian immigrants avoided because of its high crime rate.[4] His father, Nicodemo, was a carpenter whose average weekly income was $35 dollars.[4] His older brother, Vincenzo, had become involved in organized crime in the late 1920s, and in the 1930s was involved in "baseball bat elections" where he served as "muscle" for the Quebec Liberal Party and the Union Nationale, beating up supporters of rival parties and stuffing ballot boxes.[1] As a result of Vincenzo's work in "baseball bat elections", the Cotroni family enjoyed the protection of Quebec politicians for decades afterwards. Between 1953 and 1957, New York mobster Carmine Galante lived in Montreal, and during his time in Canada, Galante forged an alliance between the Bonanno family of New York and the Cotroni family of Montreal that cemented the Controi family as the dominant organized crime group in Montreal.[1]

Royal Canadian Mounted Police chart of the Bonanno crime family's crew (decina) in Montreal

In the late 1960s, the Cotronis had violent feuds with French-Canadian mobster Richard Blass, with Cotroni associate Joe Di Maulo doing much of the enforcing.[5] On May 7, 1968, Blass and Robert Allard attempted an ambush of Frank outside his home; two of his bodyguards were killed, but Frank escaped.[6] Cotroni's principle illicit businesses were drug trafficking and labour racketeering while he also worked at various times as a restaurateur; boxing promoter; owner of strip clubs in both Montreal and Toronto; ceramic manufacturer; and the owner of a vending machine company.[3] Cotroni had links with known drug traffickers in New York, Cali, Lima, and Miami.[3] Cotroni also imported hashish from Lebanon, and was so well connected in that country that in 1975 the police discovered that he had called President Suleiman Frangieh several times.[7]    

In 1975, with connections to the Bonanno crime family of New York City, Frank Cotroni was convicted in the United States of smuggling $3 million worth of cocaine into New York City through Mexico and sentenced to 15 years in prison; he was paroled after four years on the condition he not return to the United States.[8] While in prison, Frank met fellow inmate French-Canadian Réal Simard, nephew of Armand Courville, a long-time associate of Vic Cotroni, Simard would become Frank's driver and eventual hitman upon their release in 1979. Frank considered Simard a nephew.[9] Another French-Canadian protegee of Cotroni's was Claude Faber, who had married his niece and who specialized in bringing unions under the control of the Cotroni family.[10] Faber, whom the media often described as Cotroni's right-hand man, was later convicted of cocaine trafficking and for the 1982 murder of Claude Ménard.[10]  

During the violent Mafia war with the Sicilian faction of the family led by Nicolo Rizzuto in Montreal, Paolo Violi (who was acting capo for Vic Cotroni) and his brothers were murdered along with others through the mid 1970s to the early 1980s until the war ceased and the Rizzuto crime family took over.[11][12][13] The Calabrian faction continued to operate with Frank as acting boss for his ill brother after the early 1980s. Frank first ordered Simard to kill Michel "Fatso" Marion in January 1980, who was ripping off his rackets. Simard killed Marion while he was eating breakfast at a diner, giving the coup de grâce on Frank's order.[14] In June 1981, Simard murdered Giuseppe Montegano, a low-level cocaine dealer in Montreal, at Frank's son Francesco's private club, as he was suspected of being a police informant and had hostilities with Francesco.[14] After a meeting with Michel Pozza had gone badly, Cotroni turned to Simard and said "Something has to be done about him", which the latter understood as an order to kill him.[15] Pozza came from Trento in northern Italy and in 1976 had become a money launderer and the consigliere to the Cotroni family, which was an unusual promotion for somebody not from southern Italy.[15] On September 27, 1982, Pozza had dinner with Cotroni and Simard with the former pressing him to cease his shifted allegiance to the Rizzuto family.[15] Midway through the dinner, Simard left early while Cotroni gave Pozza a handshake at the end, saying they would always be friends. Afterwards, Pozza went home where Simard was waiting for him, and shot him in the head on his driveway.[15]

In 1983, Cotroni was indicted by a Connecticut grand jury on one count of conspiring to traffic in heroin with five other men in New York City, and three counts of illegally transporting more than $5,000 from Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Montreal.[8] In July 1983, Frank sent Simard to Ontario where he met with Johnny Papalia in Hamilton on behalf of Frank.[16] Papalia, the most powerful Mafia boss in Hamilton, accepted Simard's presence in southern Ontario as the Cotroni family outranked the Papalia family; the crucial moment in the Papalia-Simard meeting occurred when the latter phoned Cotroni in Montreal and then handled the phone to Papalia where Cotroni confirmed that Simard represented him.[3] Frank seized the Ontario market with Simard bringing Quebec strippers to Toronto clubs, where he allowed Papalia to put his pinball machines in his clubs.[16] In late 1983, Roy McMurtry, the Ontario Attorney General, summoned all of the police chiefs in Ontario to a secret conference in Toronto, where the police chiefs in a joint memo to McMurtry stated: "By far our greatest concern must be the Cotroni family of Montreal...Needless to say, we consider [Frank] Cotroni our most serious threat".[3] Cotroni was reported to have stated that Toronto was just as lucrative a market as Montreal, but unlike Montreal, the police in Toronto were not as corrupt, making Toronto a more difficult market to operate.[3] 

In November 1983, Simard and associate Richard Clément killed Mario Héroux, but unknowingly only severely wounded Robert Hétu, in their Toronto hotel room after they conspired to kill Clément.[17] Hétu testified against Simard and Simard was arrested and convicted, until he became informant against Frank Cotroni and the family; this resulted in an eight-year sentence for manslaughter against Frank, Francesco and two associates in 1987 for the Montegano murder.[18][19][20] To replace Simard as his Toronto agent, Cotroni hired the boxer Eddie Melo.[21] On September 16, 1984, Vic Cotroni died of cancer, leaving Frank as boss. Cotroni lost his court fight against extradition in June 1989 and agreed to face the charges in Connecticut on the condition that he serve his time in Canada.[8]

In 1997, Cotroni was charged with conspiring to import 180 kilograms of cocaine into Canada; he was released from prison in 2002 after serving four years of a seven-year sentence.[8]

Controi, an avid boxing fan dominated the boxing industry in Quebec.[22] A Royal Commission under Justice Raymond Bernier of the Quebec Sports Safety Board examined boxing with the Bernier commission interviewing 105 people between July and October 1984.[22] The report, which was presented in March 1986, was so damning that much of the report was censored by the Quebec government, through parts of the censored portions were leaked to the journalist Michel Auger, the crime correspondent of Le Journal de Montreal, who had those portions published in his newspaper.[22] Bernier wrote: "If this happened in baseball or football or hockey, it would be a national scandal".[22] Bernier called Cotroni "the guiding spirit" of boxing in Montreal.[22] Bernier wrote that the Fighting Hilton Family of boxers were working for Cotroni and the boxing fights in Montreal were "probably" rigged.[22] The commission stated that Cotroni was treated like royalty whenever he attended a boxing match anywhere in Canada.[22]

The report stated that Cotroni was paying the bills of the boxer David Hilton Sr., including his rent, groceries, furniture and clothing.[22] Cotroni was described as the only man who could control the alcoholic Hilton Sr. and in turn controlled the careers of Hilton's four sons, all of whom were boxers.[23] One Montreal boxing promoter, Henri Spitzer, stated that "the father [Hilton Sr.] is always drunk and I need Cotroni's help to keep him in line".[23] The report also stated that Cotroni and his associates "have a percentage of certain boxers' revenues", stating that an agreement had been signed in November 1981 that the boxer Dave Hilton Jr. would share half of his earnings to Cotroni, to the sum of $100,000.[22] The Bernier commission accused Cotroni of exploiting the Hilton family, who were "victims of their youthful ignorance and their thirst for glory".[24] The report stated a contract signed between the Hiltons and the American boxing promoter Don King on January 31, 1985 was largely the work of Cotroni.[23] The lawyer for the Hiltons, Frank Shoofey, was mostly excluded from the talks, with the negotiations being conducted by the lawyers for Cotroni and King.[23] The report concluded: "The Hiltons have conceded all and received little in return. For example, the minimum purse for an eventual championship fight is a ridiculously low $150,000".[22] The report stated that the actual value of a championship fight for the Hilton brothers should have been closer to $500,000.[23]

A police wiretap showed that Cotroni had called Hilton Sr. from his jail where he was being held at time to tell him that the contract with King was "a good one".[23] Schoofey told The Globe & Mail that he was unhappy with the contract the Hiltons signed with King, saying: "I would have gotten a million-dollar guarantee for the boys, with big bonuses up front".[23] Shoofey, who testified against Cotroni for the Bernier Commission, was murdered in his Montreal office on October 15, 1985.[25] Hilton Sr. praised Cotroni, saying: "There were times when I needed money for rent. He was always there, with no questions asked. He helped a lot of amateur boxers and amateur teams".[23] Cotroni told the media at the time: "I'm not a gambler and I have never put a penny on the Hiltons. I just want the boys to have the money because you should see how they suffered when they were young. People know what I do for the poor people, not just the Hiltons".[25]

In the final two years of Frank's life, he released a cookbook, Cuisine des souvenirs et recettes (Kitchen of Memories and Recipes), published by a subsidiary of Quebecor Media. The cookbook included spaghetti and pizza recipes, but also features traditional Quebec dishes of beans and pork. In the foreword, Cotroni recalled childhood memories of home-cooked Italian meals and delicious dishes at local restaurants and cabarets. He said nothing of his alleged Mafia ties but hinted at his criminal past in the preface. "This book is not an autobiography even if some memories I have recalled touch on specific periods of my life," he said.[8] Frank Cotroni died of brain cancer on August 17, 2004.[26][27]

• Auger, Michel & Edwards, Peter The Encyclopedia of Canadian Organized Crime: From Captain Kidd to Mom Boucher, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2012, ISBN 0771030495.