COSIMO COMMISSO

Cosimo was the eldest of three brothers that were born in Siderno, Calabria, Italy. His father was murdered in Siderno in some sort of Mafia shoot out. Following this Cosimo's mother immigrated to Canada in 1961 when Cosimo was just 15 years old. Cosimo's father was very well acquainted with the old Siderno Godfather, now residing in Ontario, Michele Racco. It was this relationship that would serve the Commisso's well, especially Cosimo.

From the time Cosimo and his brother Remo were kids all they could talk about was avenging their father's murder. Remo was always calling relatives in Calabria and would sometimes travel to handle contracts. Like all Mafia families the Commisso's were heavily involved in a number of rackets, they held court at their club the Casa Commisso, a large banquet hall in Toronto.

Michele Racco allowed the Commisso family to grow, and indeed passed over to them many business opportunities. The Commisso's also kept up good relations with the clans in Calabria; this allowed the Commisso's the opportunities for joint ventures should the possibility ever arise. Cosimo was the boss of the clan and Remo was like the underboss. Remo was the dealmaker, always travelling around in order to seal business opportunities. In many ways Cosimo was typical Italian mob boss. He was overweight and spoke with a thick Calabrian accent. But he was never afraid to make the right decision whenever needed, an attribute vital for any Mafia leader. During the mid 70's, the Commisso's were getting heavily involved with the construction business, and union corruption. On top of this they were also into restaurant extortions, and if any were reluctant to pay up their new tough ex-biker enforcer, Cecil Kirby, would bomb them.

Cecil Kirby was brought into the Commisso clan as their new enforcer and always dealt with Cosimo. Kirby was promised many things, and lots of money. But time after time Kirby was let down by his new employer. Kirby handled many things for the Commisso`s, murder, bombings, shakedowns and plenty more. He came in very handy indeed; he rarely turned a job down, and more often than not successfully carried them out. Maybe it was because Kirby wasn't a native Calabrian that Cosimo constantly let him down with payments. However Kirby wasn't afraid of telling him so either, and this would set off a chain of events that would bring the Commisso clan crashing down. Between Cosimo and Kirby the two men began to feel the friction caused by the lack of payments by Cosimo. Also Kirby knew that because he wasn't Calabrian, he therefore knew that the Commisso`s wouldn't think twice about putting him away.

Fearing this Kirby went to the RCMP and began to offer snippets of information. It was late 1980, and Kirby was just getting started. For the next 18 months or so, Kirby wore wires and started tapping highly incriminating conversations. So much so that Kirby received enough information to avoid the murder of Paul Volpe, another mob boss in Toronto, who was currently at loggerheads with the Commisso`s.

By 1981 Cecil Kirby had gathered enough information to put the away the Commisso brothers away for a quite a while. Cosimo received 8 years for conspiracy to commit the murder of Paul Volpe and a further 2 years for assault. Remo also received 8 years for conspiracy to commit the murder of Paul Volpe. Michele Commisso the youngest of three brothers received 2 and half years for his part in the conspiracy.

In 1984, Cosimo and Remo received further sentencing. Cosimo was sentence another 8 years for a variety of crimes such as extortion, arson and assault. Remo was given another 8 and half years for similar crimes.