Alex Constantine - November 5, 2012
Photo: Police investigators examine the crime scene where alleged mob boss Joseph Di Maulo was murdered in front of his home Nov. 5, 2012 in Blainville, Que. north of Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz /THE CANADIAN PRESS)
By Les Perreaux
The Globe and Mail, Nov. 05 2012
A prominent elder of Montreal’s Mafia scene was killed by gunfire in front of his home Sunday night in the first outbreak of major mob violence since Vito Rizzuto returned to the city.
Joe Di Maulo, who survived the purge of Calabrian mobsters when the Sicilian Rizzuto family took over Montreal in the early 1980s, was found with “no signs of life” in front of his home in the Montreal suburb of Blainville, according to the Sûreté du Québec provincial police.
Mr. Di Maulo, who was in his 70s, was discovered by his wife, according to several reports. In a Mafia world where symbolism matters, the killing at home and in front of family was a direct echo of the shooting death of the Sicilian clan’s patriarch, Nicolo Rizzuto, almost exactly two years ago. Mr. Rizzuto was shot by rifle through a window at his home while his wife looked on.
Mr. Rizzuto’s death, in turn, came 34 years after the final strike against several top members of the Calabrian family which then ruled Montreal. One of the leaders was shot at the table through a kitchen window.
Mr. Rizzuto’s son, Vito, was released from prison in the United States last month after serving five years for his role in a 1981 New York triple killing.
Since Vito Rizzuto’s imprisonment, his father, son and several of his closest associates died violently or disappeared in the power vacuum. He returned to Canada a month ago.
Mr. Di Maulo is the brother-in-law of mob player and accused murder Raynald Desjardins, who is fighting an order to appear before Quebec’s Charbonneau commission investigating corruption in public construction contracting.