My Mafia Hyperfixation
A Quick Note on Learning to Live with ADHD
Now that I know that I have ADHD, I'm trying to see if I can manage my hyperfixations in such a way as to maximize the amount of content-in-context before the interest gives way to another. This can quickly turn into a fool's errand, as I chase threads that, while interesting, don't contribute to the broader picture. Instead of chasing down every thread, however, I'm trying to be intentional not only about the amount of content, but also how it fits into its broader surroundings.
An example is in order:
I've been fascinated with the mafia for a couple of months now, specifically Montreal Italian organized crime. I just finished the book Mafia, Inc, which chronicled the rise and fall of the Rizzutos, sometimes said to be The Sixth Family, through to the death of the patriarch Nicolò (pictured above) in 2010, even as the supposed Godfather, Vito, sat in an American prison cell. But there are so many threads in the story left to pull!
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You can read my review of Mafia, Inc HERE
A Man of Honor - Joseph Bonanno
The Rizzutos were technically members of the Bonanno crime family from New York City. Knowing that Joseph Bonanno's autobiography led to significant arrests in the New York underworld, ostracizing him from the Family for good, I started to read it. Halfway in, it’s a fascinating if not frustrating book, if only because the author never quite gives us the full goods, continually dancing around them. Speaking throughout the book in lofty terms, with specific focus on the values of Tradition and Family, The Boss often equivocates. Take this paragraph as an example:
… Costello hoped to obtain the full backing of the Commission in censuring Lucchese. Such a censure carried a great deal of weight in my world. It could possibly give Lucchese’s enemies a signal to move against him. Anything might happen, even the ultimate solution. In a sense, the Commission was being asked to decide Lucchese’s fate. (emphasis added)
The Last Godfather - Simon Crittle
While reading Mafia Inc, I learned that Vito Rizzuto was ultimately fingered as the shooter in the 1981 Brooklyn slayings of three dissident Bonanno capos not by one, but by two major turncoats - pentito in Italian. While the first hurt - it was number two man Salvatore “Good Looking” Vitale - the second hurt worse, as Joe Massino, the Father of the Bonanno crime family secretly turned state’s evidence while in prison, in exchange for avoiding the death penalty for another murder he had committed, that of George from Canada. Of course, the Mafia code of silence, known as omertà, is never broken without consequence, and the defection of Massino essentially brought to an end the Bonanno family’s business in New York, chronicled in a book appropriately titled The Last Godfatherhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/79032.The_Last_Godfather.
Business or Blood - Peter Edwards & Antonio Nicaso
All of this, however, is leading me further astray from Montreal and its role in Canadian organized crime. Picking up where Mafia, Inc left off, the book Business or Blood chronicles the bloodbath in Montreal that resulted after Vito Rizzuto’s imprisonment in the United States, as factions within the Rizzuto clan look to consolidate power, all while being challenged by Calabrian mobsters based out of Toronto. When Rizzuto returned to Montreal after his release in 2012, there was another hit parade, as the Godfather himself looked to settle scores. Since his death in 2013, supposedly from pneumonia while suffering lung cancer, there have been further reprisals, most recently in tit-for-tat shootings, both in 2023, that left Vito’s remaining son Leonardo injured in a drive by shooting and longtime Rizzuto enforcer Francesco Del Balso dead.
‘Ndrangheta - Anna Sergi & Anita Lavorgna
Another thread that I have started to pull concerns the difference between Sicilian organized crime - Cosa Nostra or, informally, the mafia - whose best examples are found in the legends of New York and Chicago, and Calabian (Italy’s toe) organized crime. By digging in to Anna Sergi and Anita Lavorgna’s book, I’ve learned that while the ‘Ndrangheta is organized very differently than Cosa Nostra, maintaining extremely close ties to their homeland, it has an arguably longer global reach than their Sicilian brothers, controlling much of the European drug trade.
The ‘Ndrangheta is notable for having a major cell in Ontario, based out of the Toronto suburbs of Vaughn and Woodbridge. After making some major arrests in 2019, the charges against all nine accused were stayed after it was discovered that investigators had illegally listened in on phone calls between the accused and their lawyers, violating solicitor-client privilege. These local machinations are so fascinating that I’m even working on a ‘Ndrangheta-themed edition of the Dinner Table Digest.
There are even more interesting threads to pull - the Biker War of the 1990s that saw Montreal’s Hell’s Angels beat Sherbrooke’s Rock Machine in open warfare, the role of the Rizzuto crime family in a corrupt generaton of Quebec politics, the York Regional Police’s bungling of the 2019 ‘Ndrangheta arrests, or, further afield, the relationship beeteen the Italian mafia in Ontario and Quebec with other ethnic gangs in Canada, especially as it pertains to drug smuggling. For now, however, the four books above will keep me busy for a while.