The Musitano crime family (), also known as Musitano 'ndrina, is a 'Ndrangheta organized crime family based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, while another branch of it is active in Platì in Southern Italy and Buccinasco and Bareggio in Northern Italy.
Founded by Angelo Musitano in Canada in the 1940s, the family was one of three centralized organized crime organizations in Hamilton, with the other two being the Luppino crime family and the Papalia crime family. Unlike the other two Hamilton families, the Musitanos did not form a strong alliance with the Buffalo crime family, staying closer to their 'Ndrangheta cell.
The Musitano 'ndrina, in contrast to its relevance in the Canadian underworld, held a much less prominent role in Italy, where it became more known to the authorities only during the 1980s, when it was affiliated with the 'ndrine Ruga and Aquilino, and led by Domenico Musitano, killed in 1986.
The killings of Johnny Papalia and his lieutenant Carmen Barillaro in 1997, ordered by brothers Angelo and Pat Musitano, had effectively wiped out the family's remaining leaders in Canada. One news report stated that the events of 1997 "decapitated the Papalia family." The brothers were arrested and sentenced in 2000 and then released in 2006. A power struggle within the Hamilton mafia had been the result of several attempts made on Pat's life in the 2010s; Angelo was killed in 2017 and, finally, Pat was killed in 2020.
Early history In 1937, Angelo Musitano, known as the "Beast of Delianova", fled illegally from Delianuova, Italy, to Canada, after killing his sister Rosa and injuring her lover in the belief that she had disgraced the family by becoming pregnant out of wedlock. Musitano went to France and then Canada, where he lived under the assumed name of Jim D'Augustino. In 1940, an Italian court convicted Angelo in absentia to 30 years in prison. On May 8, 1963, the Hamilton police received a request from Interpol for "Angelo Musitano, killer", believed to be living in Hamilton. Angelo was arrested on March 3, 1965, by Hamilton police at the home of his brother Pasquale. Angelo was then extradited to Italy to serve his sentence. He had two nephews, Anthony ("Tony") and Dominic Musitano, in Hamilton.
In 1978, Dominic Musitano, then owner of a Hamilton haulage company, Rocco Luppino, and Angelo Natale, president of the Ontario Haulers Association, were charged with conspiracy to commit extortion after police uncovered a protection racket on Ontario's independent trucking industry. After a five-year legal battle, they were acquitted in 1983. Dominic Musitano, described as "short, rotund and with grey-green pop eyes" was notorious for his rage issues and once shot and wounded a motorist for repeatedly honking his automobile horn at him.
"Bomb City" and the Racco murder Between 1978 and 1980, the Musitano family carried out a bombing campaign against businesses that refused to pay extortion money. The Musitano family employed the Wild Ones biker gang, led by Walter Stadnick, as subcontractors to build and plant the bombs. Hamilton police detective Ken Robertson, who investigated the bombings, stated: "It was quite a sophisticated operation". Anthony "Tony" Musitano met with Douglas Cummings of the Wild Ones at a cockfight organized by the biker gang, who agreed to build bombs for the Musitano family. The Wild Ones disbanded in 1979 after five of their members were killed by the Hamilton chapter of the Outlaws over the course of 1978 and 1979. The first business bombed was the Genuine Bakery owned by Gino Meranageli, with $10,000 in damages caused by an explosion on December 29, 1978. On May 3, 1979, La Favorita Bakery suffered $15,000 worth of damage after a hole was drilled though the roof, in which gasoline was poured and then ignited. On November 10, 1979, the Grand Prix Motors auto dealership was bombed. Bertulia D'Agostiono, who opened her automobile repair shop, Alba Collision, was visited by two members of the Musitano family who told her that it was in her best interest to sign over 50 percent of her business to them. When she refused, Alba Collision was burned down in a case of arson in September 1980, and in April 1981 D'Agostino's house was burned. Due to many businesses being bombed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hamilton became known as "Bomb City". Policeman John Gordon Harris recalled about the Musitanos in 2017: "You couldn't help but bump into them on James Street North. They were never rude because they didn't want any more attention than they were already getting". Robertson stated in 2017: "The Musitanos were infamous...And the cheese industry. They took over cheese shipments from Italy and the prices doubled. It was part of their operation".
On June 3, 1980, a bomb planted in La Favorita Bakery on Concession Street failed to explode due to faulty construction. Detectives were able to trace the dynamite used in the bomb through its serial number to the quarry where it was stolen. In October 1980, the Hamilton police charged Anthony Musitano, Douglas Cummings, Elizabeth Wala, and Leslie Lethbridge with the bombings. Cummings was the chief bombmaker and a former member of the Wild Ones, and assembled the bombs along with Lethbridge. Elizabeth Wala, Cummings's common-law wife, was recorded on a police wiretap as saying to him: "He won't be happy with that bakery. Because remember, we phoned him to get paid the next day ... We've been working for the Mafia. Everything that's been done is got to do with them... Those gang fights with the Mafia, all those places that have been blown up and all that, all it is just the Mafia dispute, eh, and all they're been doing is blowing each other up. They [the police] finally got rid of the fucking bikers. Now they got to worry about the Mafia. Don't get no rest in this city... Everybody's running around with bombs, it's true ... You know this is bomb city, right? This place has more bombings than any other city in the whole of Canada for the size of it, I'd say". The wiretap revealed to police that the bombers were working for the Musitano family and changed the focus of the investigation.
In January 1983, Tony Musitano was sentenced to life in prison (later reduced to 15 years on an appeal) for bombing a number of businesses in Hamilton, including the bakeries. Cummings, Wala and Lethbridge were also convicted in the same trial. Cummings was sentenced to imprisonment for life, while Lethbridge was sentenced to 18 years and Wala to 15 years. While in prison, Tony orchestrated the murder of Toronto mobster Domenic Racco of the Siderno Group, who violated their cocaine trade agreement by dealing behind Musitano's back, and also owed the Musitano family as much as $500,000. Racco was also arrested in February 1982 and charged in connection with a cocaine-trafficking conspiracy and was awaiting trial. At Millhaven Institution in Kingston, Tony Musitano befriended inmate Billy Rankin who was due to be released in December that year. Tony and Dominic's nephew, Giuseppe "Joey" Avignone, often visited Tony in prison to discuss details of the plot, conversations which were secretly recorded by police. Rankin was released on December 7, 1983, and given "the okay" by Dominic Musitano. On December 10, Racco got into a car in front of his Mississauga apartment with Rankin, Dominic Musitano and Peter Majeste, thinking it was to discuss potential drug trade, but was taken to a railway track and killed. In March 1984, Dominic and Tony Musitano, Avignone and Rankin were arrested. Dominic Musitano received six years for being an accessory after the fact to murder. Tony Musitano, already in prison on the bombing charges, was sentenced to 12 years concurrently, Avignone got five years and Rankin was sentenced to 12 years, all three pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder. Tony was granted full parole in 1990.
Journalist Jerry Langton called the Musitano family "more low-level crooks and thugs than [an] organized unit" who worked for the Papalia family. According to Mafia expert Antonio Nicaso: "They were not at the same level of Papalia. For many years, the Musitano family lived in the shadow of Papilia." The relationship between the Papalia family and the Musitanos was never friendly, as Johnny Papalia did not trust the bad-tempered and combative Dominic Musitano, who in turn disliked Papalia as the boss of a more powerful family. Dominic Musitano's two sons, Pasquale ("Pat" or "Fat Pat") and Angelo "Ang" Musitano, joined their father in organized crime. Pasquale was born in 1968 and became president of P&L Tire Recycling Inc. that his father purchased in 1983. By 1992, the Hamilton-Wentworth Police estimated that the family was earning $14 million per year through illegal gaming.
The Musitano brothers Pat Musitano was charged in 1992 after an attempted arson of the Collins Hotel in Dundas, Ontario, the home of eight individuals at the time. He was not convicted.
In 1992, Pat Musitano was found guilty of failing to make his Mount Hope tire dump conform to the Ontario fire code. According to documents obtained by the Toronto Star, "he and his father created a fire hazard with an illegal tire dump in Mount Hope and then tried [without success] to get $3 million to $5 million of tax dollars to clean it up". They were later handed a $1.8 million fine from the Ministry of the Environment for its cleanup of the site, a fine Pat dodged with a 1993 bankruptcy claim. The crime family was led by Dominic until his death on August 13, 1995, from a heart attack at the age of 57. Pat Musitano took over as boss of the family. In 1996, Pat along his brother-in-law, John Trigiani, were acquitted of insurance fraud with regard to the Collins Hotel arson attempt.
In 1997, Pat Musitano was in charge of a sports betting ring which brought in as much as $100,000 in bets per week; his cousin Joey Avignone also led a network for distributing illegal gambling machines in bars.
According to John Ross who was a Hamilton police sergeant, Pat Musitano was "a decidedly blue-collar mobster who loved cars, hung out in restaurants, wore dark sunglasses and dressed up in suits ... He was Tony Soprano before Tony Soprano was on television." The Musitano brothers' ideas about what a gangster should be like were considerably more influenced by how Mafiosi were portrayed in American films and television than by the traditions of Calabria or Sicily. Nicaso stated in 2010: "They were totally different in terms of character than Papalia; he always tried to keep a low profile—he was a very old-fashioned boss in that sense. They are the new face of organized crime—they liked to show off."
Papalia hit and arrests