Respect

A mourner salutes police and media as he arrives at the visitation for slain Montreal Mafia boss Nicolo Rizzuto Sr

I know you all enjoy a good mobster funeral. Here’s one in Montreal, scheduled for today.

A regular attendee of Mob and other funerals in a landmark Little Italy church issued a fearless prediction on the eve of Monday’s 11 a.m. service for Nicolo Rizzuto Sr.

“It’ll be full,” Tony Romano, 81, said confidently Sunday afternoon of the anticipated turnout for the Montreal Mafia patriarch at the Notre Dame de la Defense (Madonna della Difesa, or Our Lady of Protection Church).

“I was at Frank Cotroni’s (funeral) here. I was at the grandson’s. And I’ll be at this one,” said Romano, who professed a to-each-his-own attitude to the Mafioso lifestyle.

At least one thing will be different from last Jan. 2.

When the funeral mass for Nicolo Rizzuto Jr., the 42-year-old grandson, was held at the same church after he’d been eliminated in a gangland-style hit in Notre Dame de Grâce, granddad Nicolo Rizzuto Sr. attended as a mourner.

But it will be the body of the 86-year-old – gunned down in his Cartierville kitchen at suppertime last Wednesday by a single high-powered bullet – in the casket this time around.

The church … has as one of its features a well-known fresco that includes former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini astride a horse

Full story here.

The window through which the fatal bullet was fired. Retired RCMP organized crime analyst Pierre de Champlain said when members of the Mafia want to kill a leader, it’s usually done in public. [Source]

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