Murder of a Mob boss: ‘There is no statute of limitations on revenge’

The project team was on high alert after the murder of Hamilton Mob boss Johnny “Pops” Papalia. Additional listening devices were secreted in strategic locations where investigators felt important Mob conversations were taking place — in mobsters homes, even vehicles.

Keys to Mob-owned Cadillacs were being copied, enabling investigators — with judicial authority — to create a ruse allowing technicians to install hidden microphones and return the vehicles unnoticed in Hamilton and Toronto.

“Who do we have to keep an eye on? And where is this going to go next?” Paul Staats, a retired Hamilton staff sergeant, recalled wondering. The unknown questions ran rampant on the project team, which was dubbed “Expiate.”

The RCMP and FBI had joined project Expiate after the brazen murder of Papalia, who was shot in broad daylight mere steps from his Railway Street offices. The once-powerful mafia boss from Hamilton had been unceremoniously killed by the up-and-coming Musitano crime family, who were looking to take control of Hamilton’s underworld.

Project Expiate was formed to solve the Papalia homicide during what was viewed as an impending Mob turf war — with Hamilton at the epicentre.

You might be interested in

• Dec 31, 1969
• Comments

• Dec 31, 1969
• Comments

“We had intelligence information, but we needed tangible evidence now,” recalled Farr, in reference to building a case to solve Papalia’s murder, while working diligently to prevent further bloodshed.

However, Papalia’s murder led to an unpredictable, tumultuous atmosphere in Hamilton’s underworld. Investigators feared another homicide would be imminent, given the high-profile murder of Papalia — the once revered and feared Mob boss who had lived up to his moniker as “The Enforcer.”

The underboss of the Papalia crime family, Carmen Barillaro, had received a “duty to warn” by Expiate investigators at his Niagara Falls home shortly after the murder of Papalia. The legal obligation to inform Barillaro involved two investigators tracking him down in person to relay there was credible information that his life was in danger.

Project Expiate had Barillaro under heavy surveillance — an intelligence technique the team did not have a duty to notify the underboss about.

After Papalia’s murder, surreptitious cameras picked up the steady stream of Buffalo mobsters seen congregating with Pat Musitano and his crime family near the Gathering Spot — the Musitano-owned restaurant that doubled as their social club.

“I remember at the time things were heating up in Hamilton,” said Staats, in reference to the Mob activities in the Steel City and the unknown potential for further violence. It led to a tense atmosphere in Hamilton’s underworld and on project Expiate.

On July 23, 1997, the covert team had concluded their surveillance of Barillaro at 7 p.m. after putting him “to bed” — intelligence slang for observing a target of surveillance return home to a location presumably affording a sense of security from possible violence. In retrospect, there was no safe place for Barillaro to hide.

One hour after the surveillance of Barillaro had concluded, Angelo Musitano and Kenneth Murdock — the triggerman in Papalia’s murder — sat outside Barillaro’s Corwin Avenue home in Niagara Falls, confident Papalia’s underboss was home alone. Murdock’s “contract work” at the behest of the Musitanos — slang for murder — wasn’t finished yet.

Murdock was instructed by Pat to “deliver a message” to Carmen before he shot him, relaying it was the Musitanos who ordered the murder. This information was relayed to Expiate investigators later by Murdock himself — after he had become a co-operating witness against Pat and Angelo Musitano.

However, on that fateful evening, Angelo Musitano had accompanied Murdock, their hired gun, to ensure Barillaro was killed and permanently out of the way.

When Murdock knocked on the front door of the Corwin Avenue home, nestled in a quiet suburb of Niagara Falls, Barillaro was the one who answered. Murdock, gripping a loaded handgun secreted in his coat pocket, removed it and shot Barillaro twice at point-blank range, killing the underboss after the second bullet struck him in the head.

“We knew we had a problem when that occurred,” said Staats. “We had suspects, but not enough evidence to make arrests.”

After Barillaro’s murder, the focus shifted to the Musitano brothers.

“We had confidential sources that nodded towards the Musitanos, telling us to look at them,” said Staats. “Regarding Kenny Murdock, information came up that he was associated with the (Musitano) brothers.”

Murdock was placed under surveillance as the “wiretapped lines” picked up the bravado of the Musitanos and their infatuation with Mob movies.

“They loved watching ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Goodfellas.’ Angelo always tried to sound like Joe Pesci and John Gotti too,” Farr recalled when the younger of the Musitano brothers was overheard impersonating the infamous dialogue from actor Joe Pesci in Goodfellas. Pat was rarely overheard “on the wires though,” recalled Farr.

“Pat Musitano was the brains. He was always much more careful than Angelo as to when he would speak. Pat was more guarded, more decisive. He was the one making the decisions for the crime family,” said Farr.

However, in September of 1997, and without warning, Pat Musitano suddenly disappeared.

“The team thought Pat had either got whacked or he was inducted as a made man in Buffalo,” recalled Farr.

A few days later, the wiretapped line at Pat Musitano’s home picked up a coded message during a conversation his wife Linda was having.

“The eagle has landed,” she said. It meant Pat had returned to Hamilton.

On Oct. 23, 1997, surveillance was on Pat Musitano and Giuseppe “Pino” Avignone as they drove to an Italian restaurant in Woodbridge. Two surveillance officers, posing as a couple, discreetly went inside and sat nearby as they observed the two mobsters meeting with Montreal boss Vito Rizzuto and his Toronto representatives.

“These are our friends from Hamilton,” Gaetano Panepinto, Vito’s right-hand man, said to Rizzuto as the men all shook hands, Farr recalled. The mafia verbiage was indicative of the two Hamiltonians being “made men” — given the specific vernacular uttered — an introduction carefully crafted and steeped in Mob tradition.

Project Expiate had been privy to a significant underworld meeting — one that signified the rise of the Musitano crime family to the top of the hierarchy in the Hamilton Mob, solidified with the backing and support from the Rizzuto crime family. With John Papalia out of the way, Pat Musitano was elevated to the top spot in southern Ontario’s underworld.

However, Pat’s reign as Hamilton’s new mob boss would be short-lived.

Expiate investigators arrested Murdock for some unrelated crimes. The hitman flipped on the Musitano brothers when the heat was turned up.

“It’s well known Murdock was only paid with cocaine,” said Staats. Murdock was now co-operating against the brothers.

Once project Expiate had Murdock “wearing a government jersey,” arrests were imminent in Hamilton.

Farr and his partner parked outside Pat’s St. Clair Boulevard home and called him.

“Hi Pat, it’s Dan. I’ll be right there,” Farr said as he abruptly hung up after confirming Pat was home — and trying to catch him off guard.

Moments later, Farr placed Pat Musitano under arrest in his foyer.

Yet, when investigators played Kenneth Murdock’s recorded confession for Pat — that revealed the hitman describing the Musitanos being the orchestrators of the murderous plot — the rotund mob boss went “completely stone cold.” He sat silent and adhered to the “code of Omerta” — the mafia’s oath of silence. Pat never said a word. Angelo followed suit and kept his mouth closed also.

“They earned a lot of respect from Montreal (Rizzuto) for that,” said Farr.

In February of 2000, the Musitanos accepted a plea bargain and received a 10-year term for conspiracy to commit murder in the Barillaro case — not the Papalia homicide. The plea bargain involved taking the murder of Johnny “Pops” off the indictment. Farr is still perplexed by the decision — albeit a legal one Farr wasn’t privy to.

“Holy shit, this was a major conspiracy,” said Farr. “Montreal, Buffalo and Hamilton. They all wanted to get rid of Papalia — the mountain — and Barillaro. The murders were sanctioned by Buffalo and Montreal. If the evidence (from project Windfall and Expiate) was studied from the wires, the surveillance and the meetings, I believe we had enough to pursue the whole thing as one big conspiracy to commit murder. There were a lot of people never charged that should have been.”

The Rizzuto crime family were seeking new drug importation routes into Canada after the New York to Montreal routes were drawing attention from authorities on both sides of the border, Farr recalled.

Hamilton, a city steeped in mafia history and strategically located with its proximity to Toronto and Buffalo, afforded a new opportunity for the Rizzutos to pursue. An opportunity that would not have come to fruition if Johnny “Pops” Papalia were still the Mob boss of Hamilton. The Rizzuto crime family from Montreal viewed the young, naive Hamilton Musitano brothers as that new opportunity, investigators confirmed.

The Musitano brothers were subsequently released from prison in 2007.

When Vito Rizzuto died from cancer in December of 2013, the veil of protection Montreal provided for the Musitanos dissipated — as the violence levied against the brothers escalated in Hamilton.

On May 2, 2017, Angelo was shot to death in his Waterdown driveway.

On July 10, 2020, Pat was gunned down in broad daylight in a Burlington parking lot — eerily reminiscent of the events surrounding Papalia’s murder.

“The mafia uses messages and symbolism when someone is killed,” said Antonio Nicaso, a professor and expert on organized crime. “It’s an important part of Mob culture.”

Many believe the Musitanos signed their own death warrants the day Papalia was killed. Investigators and experts agreed.

The Calabrian-based Musitanos had partnered with the Sicilian-based Rizzutos to shift the power of balance in Hamilton by killing Papalia. The Rizzuto crime family were behind the murders of Paolo Violi and his two brothers, Rocco and Francesco, during the tumultuous violence in Montreal’s underworld of the late 1970s when the Rizzuto’s took control of the Montreal mafia.

Paolo Violi’s two sons, Giuseppe “Joey” and Domenico “Dom,” are members of what is viewed as Hamilton’s current and only traditional organized crime group left in Hamilton — aptly referred to as the Violi-Luppino crime family.

Could the partnering of the Musitanos with the Rizzutos in the 1990s — a Montreal crime family responsible for the murders of Joey and Dom’s father and two uncles in the 1970s — have provided a motive to eliminate the Musitano brothers in Hamilton after powerful boss Vito Rizzuto died?

Presently, there are more questions than answers surrounding the status of Hamilton’s underworld, with future chapters yet to be written. One thing is certain. Memories of prior events never fade in the underworld and Mob patience is a virtue.

“There is no statute of limitations on revenge,” added Nicaso, referencing the violence levied against the Musitano brothers. “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

Stephen Metelsky is a criminal psychology professor at Mohawk College, an author and retired detective. Follow him on X @StephenMetelsky