Mob Rule Inside the Canadian Mafia

Toronto: Macmillan of Canada A Division of Canada Publishing Corporation BOOK: Previous Owner Markings (2 Stamps on Front Free Endpaper: North York Seniors' Centre 1 Empress Avenue Willowdale, Ontario M2N 3T2 in Blue; NOT FOR RESALE in Red); Corners, Spine Bumped; Light Shelf Rub to Boards; Edges Lightly Soiled; Slight Yellowing Due to Age. DUST JACKET: Repaired; Lightly Creased; Heavily Chipped, Including 1.7 cm by 1 cm Portion Missing From Front, Lower Edge; Non-Sticky Tape Residue to Spine Portion; In Archival Quality Jacket Cover. DESIGN: Artplus/Brant Cowie. COVER PHOTO: Domenic Racco, courtesy Halton Regional Police. DESIGN: Brant Cowie. CONTENTS: Preface INTRODUCTION: Organized Crime and the Mafia: Myth and Reality CHAPTER ONE: The Old Walton Street Crowd: Paul Volpe's Early Years CHAPTER TWO: The Black Hand CHAPTER THREE: Initiation into the Mafia CHAPTER FOUR: Diamond in the Rough: The Early Years of Nathan Klegerman CHAPTER FIVE: The Haitian Interlude CHAPTER SIX: A Visit from "Mr. Palmer" CHAPTER SEVEN: "A Sinister Array of Characters" CHAPTER EIGHT: A Matter of Respect: A Day in the Life of Paul Volpe and "Operation Oblong" CHAPTER NINE: A New Organization: The Rise of the Siderno Mafia Family CHAPTER TEN: Paul Volpe, TV Star CHAPTER ELEVEN: Another New Organization: The Special Enforcement Unit CHAPTER TWELVE: The Day of the Condor: The Atlantic City Connection Exposed CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Commisso Crime Family: Canada's Murder Inc. CHAPTER FOURTEEN: The Gentleman Hit Man and a Killing in Connecticut CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Cecil Kirby, the Commissos, and the Police Go on the Great Fox Hunt CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Death on a Sunday Afternoon CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: The Fall-out: Life in New Jersey and Death on the Railway Tracks CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: The Mob in Transition ADDENDUM: A Profile of Two Canadian Mob Originals; Part I: Rocco Perri, Canada's "King of the Bootleggers"; Part II: Charles Yanover, Con Man Extraordinaire; Source List and Selected Bibliography; Index. SYNOPSIS: On Monday, November 14, 1983, the body of Paul Volpe was found in the trunk of his car in the parking lot at Toronto International Airport. He had been shot several times in the head at close range with a small-calibre weapon. The life and crimes of one of the most prominent mob bosses in Canada had come to an end. Paul Volpe's rise to power in the Canadian Mafia, from his youthful career as a delivery boy for his family's bootlegging business to his golden days in the mid 1970s as the head of a sophisticated, Toronto-based criminal organization, parallels the development of the Mafia as a force to be reckoned with in Canadian organized crime. His story reveals fascinating details about the inside workings of the Mafia in Canada--and its ties to Mafia groups in the United States and Italy. But, at the same time that Volpe was consolidating his position in the mid seventies, a new group was gaining prominence in North America. Mafia families from Calabria, altogether more ruthless than Volpe and his colleagues, were challenging the established Mafia powers. Mob Rule presents a shocking picture of the methods employed by this group--through the activities of one of their hired hit men, Cecil Kirby. The inevitable clash between the aggressive Calabrians and the older, more "conservative" Mafia represented by Paul Volpe did much to bring on the mob wars of the early 1980s (of which Paul Volpe was a victim) and presents a chilling picture of the future of organized crime in North America. In Mob Rule, James Dubro has presented a fascinating and hard-hitting look at the Mafia in Canada from the Black Hand extortions and the bootlegging of the early years of the century to the power struggles of the 1980s. - and - The story of the life and death of mobster Paul Volpe--his career, his organization, his rivals, and his loss of power--presents a fascinating and shocking look at the Mafia in Canada. Mob Rule reveals the inside story of: the set-up of Mafia groups in Ontario and their place in an international network; Volpe's secret land deals in Atlantic City and Toronto; the personalities and activities of Volpe's lieutenants, associates--and rivals; the rise of the ruthless Siderno Mafia groups; hit man Cecil Kirby's activities on behalf of the mob--including his 1981 contract to murder Volpe; the frightening change in the face of the Mafia in Ontario--a change signalled by Volpe's murder. In Mob Rule, writer, researcher, and producer James Dubro has drawn on his eleven years of investigative research into organized crime to present this, the first comprehensive look at the Canadian Mafia. James R. Dubro graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Boston University and received his M.A. from Columbia University. He studied and worked at Harvard as a research assistant to the dean, coming to Canada in 1970 to teach literature at the University of Toronto. After two years of teaching, he turned his research skills to the field of organized crime. He has now been investigating organized crime in North America for over eleven years, and was the Research Director and Associate Producer for the CBC's award-winning Connections series. He has produced numerous television documentaries, including one on the CIA and two on the KGB, as well as the exclusive 1983 interview with hit man Cecil Kirby for the CBC's the fifth estate. The author of many academic as well as popular articles (such as the July 1984 Toronto Life cover story, "Life Inside the Mob"), he is also the co-writer, with William Macadam, of the article on organized crime in the new Canadian Encyclopedia. Now a freelance investigative journalist and television producer, Mr. Dubro is based in Toronto.. Hard Cover. Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.