There’s a term in Italian—staffetta—that translates roughly to “passing the baton.” It is natural to wonder if Vito had made plans to pass the baton to another or others in his group before his death. Even if he wasn’t dying of cancer, he must have contemplated the possibility of his own murder.
Revenge was an all-consuming and sacred pursuit in the final year of his life. A short list of his next murder victims is believed to have included a long-time member of a street gang, a developer and an Ontario mobster with a long history of drug problems. Vito’s death meant the new leadership of his group had the choice of picking up the baton and continuing the slaughter or moving on to rebuild after the damage done by Project Colisée and the Charbonneau Commission. Or would they choose a Canadian compromise, killing a few of his enemies as a nod to the old guard in the family and then turning to business?
Police surveillance officers were startled in early 2014 to see Vito’s last consigliere Rocco Sollecito making the rounds with a fresh face in the milieu. This man has a clean criminal record but enjoyed a tight, affectionate tie to Vito. Sollecito seemed bent on introducing him to everyone who was anyone in his world. As he made the rounds with Sollecito, the man carried himself with the utmost seriousness, as one might expect from the new boss of a major crime family.
The quick decision not to hold an autopsy on Vito’s body means the cause of his death will be forever a mystery. If Vito did indeed die of cancer, it was an odd strain of the disease as in recent weeks he looked as though he had put on a little weight and seemed full of energy. If he was murdered, it was likely poison dropped in a glass from a smiling well-wisher. If Ponytail De Vito could be poisoned in maximum-security Donnacona penitentiary, then Vito could be drugged in a bustling public nightspot. Perhaps the killer even liked Vito, but chose business over blood. Perhaps the new boss already knows the answer to this riddle.
There were good reasons to fear Vito’s revenge, even months after his death. In April 2014, Carmine Verduci of the Toronto ’Ndrangheta was shot dead in mid-afternoon outside a café in Vaughan. Verduci had been host of the camera di controllo meeting in his yellow brick home in Woodbridge on October 7, 2009, while Vito was in prison and his family was under siege in Montreal. “To me it’s a huge message,” a police officer specializing in organized crime said. “It’s not over just because Vito’s dead.… Certain people have to die before business gets done.” On the evening of August 2, 2014, the body of gang leader Ducarme Joseph was found in the middle of a St. Michel district street. Someone had pumped multiple gunshots into the prime suspect in the murder of Vito’s son, Nick Jr.
As this book goes to press, a half-dozen other men on Vito’s hit list have not yet been murdered. They do not need this book to know they are fortunate to be alive.