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Dec 31,2006 - Jan7,2006 |
The twisted code of silence
Part 4 - Murder, extortion and drug dealing exemplified organized crime in Toronto
By Antonio Nicaso
Originally Published: 2001-06-24
Toronto — "Omertà", the Mafia code of silence, was not a widespread attitude. Most of the time, Italians either in Italy or in Italian communities around the world would keep their mouths shut not as part of a conspiracy of silence but rather because they were afraid. This had little to do with a supposed connection with the Mafia. But not everybody can understand this climate of fear that can be found in every corner of the world. In Canada, for instance, no serious effort was made to analyze it and police officers and judges alike dismissed it only as "immigrant stuff".
A case in point occurred during the first part of this century, and it involved an early crime boss known as Joe Musolino (a cousin of the famous Calabrian bandit). He controlled the Toronto waterfront and was behind a successful extortion racket directed at his fellow Italian immigrants.
At the time, he was believed to be responsible for many unsolved murders. Years later, after Musolino was arrested and following dozens of anonymous telephone calls to the police, it was discovered that some of these murders had been dismissed by investigators as being mere accidents. It seems that nobody took the pain to search for the evidence. But a greater problem was the lack of evidence until Frank Griro, an Italian immigrant — fed up with having to pay protection for his business — killed one of Musolino’s extortionists in 1911. He was arrested, tried and in the end charges against him were dismissed. He was the only person to point at Musolino's gang, while his fellow countrymen hid in fear behind anonymity.
"Musolino is the head of the ‘Picciotteria’ [a forerunner of the current ‘ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia]," Griro told the courts. "He tried to involve me, proposed that I enter his organization, but I always refused."
The man managed to avoid jail time, but not to convince the judge about the existence of a criminal organization. "Immigrant stuff," judges and lawyers would say. Nothing became known of the consequences of his courageous testimony, and all trace of the exasperated businessman who shot and killed one of Musolino's extortionists has been lost. Perhaps he began a new life somewhere else, far away from Toronto.
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