Antonio Papalia was a
bootlegger with early
Picciotteria values, who immigrated to Canada from
Delianuova, Calabria, Italy, in 1912, through
New York City before moving on to
Montreal, Quebec, then New Brunswick in the coal mines, before finally settling on Railway Street in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1917. Antonio, born in 1894, was thought to have immigrated straight to Canada in 1900, however U.S. immigration records were found in 2004 confirming his origin. Antonio became associated with Calabrian compatriot and notorious bootlegger
Rocco Perri, and later
Guelph mobster Tony Sylvestro, working as a bootlegger who operated
speakeasies. However, Papalia was suspected in playing a role in the murder of Perri's wife
Bessie Starkman in 1930. Antonio's wife Maria Rosa Italiano had a first cousin, Nazzareno "Ned" Italiano, who worked as a heroin dealer for Perri and Starkman. Between May and June 1929, an undercover
Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer,
Frank Zaneth, was able to penetrate into the Perri-Starkman group by posing as a drug dealer from Montreal. In Toronto and Hamilton, Zaneth purchased considerable amounts of cocaine, heroin and morphine from members of the Perri-Starkman group. On 27 September 1929, Nazzareno Italiano was convicted of trafficking heroin on the basis of the evidence collected by Zaneth and rejected a plea bargain offer from the Crown to testify against his employers Perri and Starkman in exchange for a lighter sentence. The refusal of Perri and Starkman to financially support the Italiano family despite the way he observed
Omertà caused much resentment and Antonio was described at the time as being angry with Starkman, who he felt was greedy. Starkman was shot dead with a shotgun on the night of 13 August 1930. Antonio is believed to have been involved in Starkman's murder as her killers fled in an automobile stolen from the garage where Antonio worked. It is also believed that Antonio and his son
Johnny Papalia, along with
Stefano Magaddino of the
Buffalo crime family played a role in Perri's disappearance in 1944 after Perri left members of his Mafia crew "slighted", though both cases remain unsolved. The authorities imposed conditions upon his release such as he stay out of Hamilton and regularly check in with the police. In the 1950s, loan sharking and extortion became important parts of the family's operation. In 1955, with assistance from Sylvestro, Papalia started opening charter gambling clubs in Hamilton and Toronto. Sylvestro's son-in-law Dante "Daniel" Gasbarrini, Papalia's brothers Frank, Rocco and Dominic, half-brothers Joseph and Angelo, brother-in-law Tony Pugliese, and associates Red LeBarre, Freddie Gabourie, Frank Marchildon and Jackie Weaver, all worked in running Papalia's clubs. After police raids, Papalia started working with James McDermott and Vincent Feeley in several clubs throughout southern Ontario. The principal enforcer for the family was the boxer
Howard Chard, whose scarred face made "the perfect image of frightfulness". By the late 1950s, Johnny Papalia was a made man in the Buffalo family, and boss of the Papalia family Ontario faction. By the early 1960s, he earned his reputation from the
French Connection, a smuggling operation that supplied over 80 percent of America's
heroin market between the 1960s and 1970s—developing strong connections with the Buffalo family. By that time, he was considered to be the "most organized crime figure" in Ontario. However, at the trial, the defence questioned the validity of the wiretap evidence. In late 1981 and early 1982, the trial was halted, and a second trial the following year saw them
acquitted. In October 1990, 11 years after the police raids, the charges were withdrawn after the Crown Attorney disallowed the recorded wiretap evidence. In 1983–1984, Papalia made plans to take over much of downtown Hamilton in a colossal real estate scam which he described as his "retirement fund", which stood to make him hundreds of millions of dollars. The scheme was foiled in a police operation overseen by
Al Robinson which sent the police informer
Marvin Elkind to meet Papalia on 20 July 1983. Elkind discovered that Papalia along with professional conman Howard Halfpenny had created an investment company, Python Investments, along with a bogus numbered company, as part of their plan. Robinson was able to expose the real estate scam to the media, but Elkind did not record enough incriminating statements for the police to lay charges against Papalia. In the 1990s, Papalia lieutenant
Enio "Pegleg" Mora borrowed $7.2 million from Montreal mob boss
Vito Rizzuto, and gave the bulk of the money to Papalia to open an upscale restaurant and nightclub in Toronto. After the
Rizzuto crime family were not re-paid, in September 1996, Mora was shot in the head four times at a
Vaughan farm; Giacinto Arcuri was arrested and charged with Mora's murder, but was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Johnny Papalia was shot dead on May 31, 1997, at the age of 73, in the parking lot outside his
vending machine business, Galaxy Vending, on 20 Railway Street in Hamilton, by
hitman Kenneth Murdock, who claimed to be acting on the orders of Angelo and Pat Musitano of the
Musitano crime family, who owed $250,000 to Papalia. After the hit, Murdock also killed Johnny's right-hand man
Carmen Barillaro two months later. In November 1998, Murdock pleaded guilty to three counts of second degree murder, was sentenced to life imprisonment, and named Pat and Angelo as the men who had ordered the murders; he was released on parole after serving 13 years. After Johnny's death, the family's influence in Canada declined significantly. "When Johnny left, all the power left with him. You may be in during the glory with the boss, but when the boss goes, you disappear with him", according to Joe Fotia, a retired
OPP Detective Staff Sergeant. Reflecting the new power structure,
Gerald "Skinny" Ward of
Welland, who had long served as the Papalia's family drug distributor and smuggler in the
Niagara Peninsula area, went over to the
Hells Angels after Johnny's murder. His brother Frank, who would have been the heir to the operation, decided not to retaliate; instead, he retired and lived inconspicuously. He died of natural causes in April 2014, at the age of 83. ==Notes==