From the Publisher
From
The Sixth Family, according to witness testimony:
BROOKLYN, MAY 5, 1981
"We were in the closet. We all had our weapons loaded. We sat
there and waited for the doorbell to ring," said Salvatore Vitale,
a slender New York mobster known as Good-Looking Sal. "We left the
door open a smidge to look out."
The ringing of the bell at the private social club's entrance
signaled the arrival of the first of the invited guests. Vito
Rizzuto crouched low, peeking out from his vantage point. Through
the swelling crowd and loud chatter from tough men all accustomed
to having their say, Vito kept his eyes on one man, Gerlando
Sciascia, a fellow Sicilian who was a long-time Rizzuto family
friend.
Breathing deeply beneath his mask, Vito watched for the secret
signal that would draw him from the closet, a signal that came when
Sciascia slowly ran the fingers of his lean, right hand through the
silver hair on the side of his head. That simple act of preening
brought mayhem to the social club and radically changed the balance
of power.
"Don't anybody move. This is a holdup," Vito said as he
confronted the roomful of powerful mobsters, his words muffled by a
woolen ski mask pulled down over his long, thin face. Despite those
words, this was not about robbery. Nothing would be taken but three
lives and the rights to an underworld throne.
From the Jacket
On May 5, 1981, three rebellious member of New
York''s Bonanno crime family were gunned down in a Brooklyn social
club. One of he gunmen was Vito Rizzuto, a man who would rise to
the top of the underworld in Canada and then expand across
continents to become a global superboss.
The Sixth Family reveals the hidden history of
the rise of the Rizzuto clan, the alliances it forged around the
world and the bloody events that led to charges against Vito
Rizzuto in the United States and Italy for racketeering and
corruption. As police in the United States, Italy and Canada
notions about the nature of authority within the Mafia were called
into question. Who was this so-called "John Gotti of Canada"? How
did he become one of the biggest names in global crime?
Picking up where the best-selling hardcover edition of The
Sixth Family left of, Lee Lamothe and Adrian Humphreys expand
the story to tell of Rizzuto''s aggressive but losing battle to
thwart American justice and present in-depth coverage of Rizzuto''s
New York trial. In the wake of Rizzuto''s extradition, police in
Quebec carried out Project Colisee, a sensational sweep of the
underworld that netted 80 suspected members of the Sixth Family''s
criminal and financial network in an effort to declaw the
Mafia.
Is Rizzuto''s near-perfect Mafia coming to an end? Or is the
underworld legend simply to powerful to fall?
"A Machiavellian mystery tour of the mob underworld. Essential
reading... for anyone concerned about the intrusion of traditional
organized crime into every facet of our society."
-The Globe and Mail
"With a reporter''s eye for details and a novelist''s gift for
storytelling, the two authors lay bare the Rizzuto family''s inner
workings and international connections."
-The Record (Kitchener)
About the Author
Adrian Humphreys covers organized crime for the
National Post and is the author of The Enforcer, the best-selling
biography of Johnny "Pops" Papalia, one of North America''s
longest-reigning Mafia bosses. He was the principal consultant for
History television''s popular series "Mob Stories" and has written
on crime for the Chicago Sun Times, Britain''s Daily Telegraph and
Reader''s Digest. he can be contacted at
humphreys@canada.com.
Lee Lamothe is the author of the bestseller
bloodlines: The Rise and Fall of the Mafia''s Royal Family; Global
Mafia: The New World Order of Organized Crime; Angels, Mobsters
& Narco-Terrorists; and The Last Thief, a novel about the
Russian Mafia. As a journalist and writer, he has covered organized
crime across North America, Europe, South America and Asia.
