MURDER OF A MOB BOSS: ‘We’re going to move mountains together’
The conspiracy behind the killing of Johnny Papalia
“We’re going to move mountains together,” said Gaetano Panepinto in a gravelly voice over the wiretapped phone. On the other end was Pat Musitano, as investigators from a police operation dubbed project “Windfall” listened in.
The Mob-coded conversation appeared nonchalant on the surface between the new boss of the Musitano family and Panepinto — the top man in Toronto representing the Rizzuto crime family from Montreal. The nefarious undertone in the innocence of that conversation would have significant ramifications later. The “moving of a mountain” meant killing someone in the underworld.
“Panepinto was the voice for Mob boss Vito Rizzuto,” said Dan Farr, a retired Halton staff sergeant who worked on Windfall. “Pat Musitano and Gaetano Panepinto spoke regularly.”
It was 1996. The joint forces operation into the Musitano family was underway. The team consisted of investigators from the OPP, Hamilton, Halton and Niagara police agencies.
Mob investigators from that era are shedding new light on the Hamilton mafia, revealing layers of untold underworld conflict in Hamilton that was fraught with conspiracy and murder in the 1990s. A tumultuous battle for power and control, with the ripple effects of Mob violence and the jockeying for control continuing to this day in the streets of the Steel City.
The height of the Calabrian mafia in Hamilton was the mid-1990s. There were three coexisting crime families — the Musitanos, Papalias and VioliLuppino’s, while Rizzuto’s reigned supreme in Quebec.
“At that time the Papalias turned over the bulk of their gaming operations to the Musitanos. They made a lot of money on illegal gambling,” said Farr. “It was the gaming that funded all the Musitanos’ other operations.”
Those other operations specifically involved importing cocaine into Hamilton. Windfall was assembled to investigate the Musitanos illegal gaming operations and how the proceeds funded their drug business.
Pat, then 27, had been elevated to the top position in the crime family he was raised in when his father, Dominic, died from a heart attack on Aug. 13, 1995.
Johnny Papalia, 71 at the time, and a “made man” in the Mob — had a powerful grip in southern Ontario’s mafia for decades.
A “made member” is a mafiosi who has been inducted into a criminal organization as a fullfledged member in a ritualistic ceremony when they pledge loyalty to their crime family as the picture of a saint burns in the palms of their hands — representative of how they too will burn if they betray their new family.
“To become a made man is very significant,” said Antonio Nicaso, an expert on organized crime, professor and author of more than 40 books. “The induction ritual marks a passage. It’s like a rebirth into a new life — the Mob life.” Papalia’s loyalties were tied directly to the Buffalo mafia.
During project Windfall, there were surreptitious cameras installed around James Street North aimed at the Gathering Spot, a Musitano-owned restaurant that doubled as their social club. The surveillance captured the activities of mobsters from Buffalo conversing with Pat Musitano and other trusted members in his crime family.
“There was a noticeable increase in New York licence plates around the Gathering Spot,” recalled Mike Csoke, a retired Hamilton sergeant. “The Musitanos had another social club nearby. I’d never seen so many New York plates. I knew they were connected to Buffalo and had to be up to something.”
One of the “wires” picked up the audible sound of an empty gun being “dry fired” in the basement of a mobster’s home in Hamilton. There was a palpable buzz in Hamilton’s underworld, recalled Farr. Investigators sensed the eruption of Mob violence would only be imminent.
“The centre of the Musitanos’ operations was the Gathering Spot. They’d be doing their ‘walk and talks’ around the north side of James Street. The Musitanos were in constant contact with the Todaro crime family in Buffalo and the Rizzuto clan from Montreal,” said Farr. The new-found presence of other powerful Canadian and American Mob families in Hamilton was viewed as highly significant.
Several key underworld meetings also occurred in Niagara Falls, Ont.
April 26, 1997. At 11:48 p.m., Pat Musitano was observed by surveillance as he casually strolled into the smoke-filled Niagara casino on Falls Avenue near Clifton Hill. He wore a longsleeved V-neck sweater, his hair perfectly coiffed.
The newly crowned boss was about to make a big gamble — one much bigger than any wager being placed that evening. Pat was there to meet with top echelon mobsters representing Buffalo and Montreal.
Pat was observed in the centre of several mobsters, as they congregated between nearby slot machines. A left hand from one of the mafiosi was seen on Pat’s back — a gesture that suggested Pat was the star of the show. He was.
Thirty-five days after this meeting in Niagara Falls, project Windfall would be blindsided by the murder of Hamilton mobster Johnny Papalia.
On May 30, 1997, Project Windfall was temporarily shut down for two days while the wiretap warrants were being renewed for a judge to approve in an Ontario Court of Justice.
On May 31, 1997, at 1:27 p.m., an urgent call was dispatched.
“I got the call there had been a shooting,” said Michael Donaldson, a retired Hamilton sergeant who responded to the call. “When I got there the victim was laying dead in the parking lot near Railway Street. Initially, we didn’t know who it was.”
Moments earlier, Kenneth Murdock had approached Papalia’s Railway Street address — a location he “held court” with many in Hamilton’s underworld.
Papalia knew of Murdock’s rough-and-tumble reputation in the Steel City, and his ties to underworld mobsters and outlaw bikers. Murdock’s street savviness and penchant for violence were admirable attributes Papalia could relate to. Murdock was a stand-up guy in Hamilton’s underworld — which meant he could be trusted, as Papalia did that day.
As the two men “walked and talked” — mere steps from Papalia’s Railway Street headquarters, Murdock pulled out a .38-calibre revolver and fired one bullet to the back of Papalia’s head. It was a fatal shot. Murdock had killed the aging mafia don at the behest of the Musitano crime family. The upand-coming Musitanos wanted to gain control over the city of Hamilton. For that to occur a mountain had to be moved — meaning Papalia had to be murdered.
When Donaldson arrived at the scene, Hamilton investigators had little information to work with.
“We didn’t have any information about the shooter. My thought was this is a massive crime scene,” said Donaldson, in reference to the spacious park off Railway Street where a suspect may have fled. “By the time I arrived it was a homicide.”
Informant information would later point to Murdock being the trigger man that fateful day.
After Papalia’s murder, word of who had just been shot spread like wildfire through Hamilton.
“Minutes later, calls for a disturbance on James Street North were coming in,” confirmed Donaldson. “There are bars and café’s in the area known to be frequented by underworld figures. Word is getting around and people are realizing something big happened and something else is going to happen.”
Windfall went into high gear. There was legitimate concern something else was going to happen — primarily the safety of Papalia’s second-in-command — Carmen Barillaro, his Niagara Falls-based underboss.
Mob conversations “over the wires” heated up. It captured the chaos and panic in southern Ontario’s tumultuous underworld.
“We knew after Johnny’s murder that Carmen Barillaro was in trouble,” said Farr.
When a boss is killed in the mafia, history suggests the second in command — the underboss — will be killed to avoid any possibility of retaliation.
The relevance and urgency surrounding Papalia’s murder and an imminent turf war drew the attention of the RCMP. Windfall morphed into project “Expiate” with the Mounties on board.
The priority of project Expiate was a “duty to warn” Barillaro his life was in imminent danger. There was an immediate sense of urgency the team had to contact Barillaro before the Mob could get to him. They feared their duty to warn him may arrive too late.