March 19, 1999
The hit on Gerlando Sciascia was a delicate job, one that required finesse and subterfuge. One false step and the results could mean war—a bloody battle between the Bonanno family and the powerful Rizzutos of Canada. If it did come down to war, the repercussions would be international; the Rizzutos were an influential link to the Sicilian Mafia. Bonanno boss Joe Massino was well aware of all this, but as far as he was concerned he had no other choice—Sciascia had to go.
For a long time, outsiders regarded the Rizzutos as simply an offshoot of the Bonannos. The Montreal family funnelled kilos of narcotics into the United States via Canada and also ran some very lucrative rackets in Quebec and Ontario, but other than that, the Rizzutos were just a branch of one of New York’s five families, not a power in their own right. That, however, was not the view held by Vito Rizzuto, who exercised significant authority in Montreal. As far as he was concerned the Rizzutos didn’t need to rely on the waning influence of the Bonannos. Tall, handsome, dapper and imposing, Rizzuto was a born leader and as such was beholden to no one, not even Joe Massino.
Gerlando Sciascia was the liaison between the two families. Residing in Montreal for a while, Sciascia (also known as George from Canada) was a caporegime with the Bonannos. With contacts in both families, George was the perfect bridge between the two separate worlds—at least that’s what Massino intended.
But there may have been a few things that hadn’t occurred to Massino. Born in Sicily, Sciascia came from the same village that the Rizzutos hailed from. In the clannish world of the Mafia, close ties are everything.
Sciascia’s true position became crystal clear when his second-in-command—Joseph LoPresti—was murdered. LoPresti was a Bonanno “made man”, and no doubt pretty adept at keeping Massino up to date on Sciascia’s comings and goings. LoPresti’s murder hadn’t been sanctioned by Massino and Sciascia’s excuse was that he had been removed because of drug use. The careful Massino thought otherwise and began to reconsider the Sciascia situation.
The end came on March 19, 1999. Supposedly heading for a meeting, George from Canada was murdered, and his body unceremoniously dumped in the middle of a road somewhere. The intent was to make the killing look like a drug deal gone wrong.
But Vito Rizzuto wasn’t buying it. His slick Machiavellian mind realized, or at least strongly suspected, what had really gone down that day in March. By the end of the 1990s the Rizzutos ceased funnelling money into the coffers of the Bonanno family; there would be no more tribute from Canada. The Montreal family had just solidified its formidable power.