Paolo Violi

Paolo Violi (Italian: [ˈpaːolo ˈvjɔːli; viˈɔːli]; 6 February 1931 – 22 January 1978) was an Italian-Canadian mobster and capodecina in the Cotroni crime family of Montreal. Violi was born in Sinopoli, Calabria, Italy, in 1931; his father Domenico was the boss of the Violi clan in his hometown. Violi immigrated to Southern Ontario in 1951. He married Grazia Luppino, the daughter of the boss of the Luppino crime family in Hamilton. He later moved to Montreal where he became associated with the Calabrese Cotroni crime family, which controlled much of organized crime in Montreal. In the late 1970s, boss Vincenzo Cotroni transferred the family's day-to-day activities to Violi, and a mob war soon broke out between the Calabrians and the Sicilian faction led by Nicolò Rizzuto. The war resulted in the murder of Violi on 22 January 1978, as well as his brothers, as the Sicilian Rizzuto crime family emerged as the preeminent crime family in Montreal by the early 1980s. After Violi's death, his widow and two sons, Domenico and Giuseppe moved to Hamilton; the Violi brothers became affiliated with the Luppino crime family, later known as the Luppino-Violi crime family.