Vito Rizzuto (Italian: [ˈviːto ritˈtsuːto]; 21 February 1946 – 23 December 2013), also known as "Montreal's Teflon Don",[1] was an Italian-Canadian crime boss alleged to be the leader of the Sicilian Mafia in Canada.

[2] In 1954, on Vito's eighth birthday, he immigrated with his family to Canada, docking at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia before moving on to Montreal, Quebec.

[14] In the 1970s, his father Nicolo was an underling in the Sicilian faction, led by Luigi Greco until his death in 1972,[15][16] of the Calabrian Cotroni crime family.

[22] In October 1987, a ship off the coast of northeast Newfoundland and Labrador was seized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

Drug dealer Normand Dupuis was ready to testify against him for a reduced prison sentence, monetary compensation and a new identity.

[23] In the early 1990s, the RCMP secretly ran a phony currency exchange in Montreal as part of an elaborate sting operation, called Project Compote, ending with 46 arrests and a Rizzuto lawyer, Joseph Lagana, convicted for laundering $47 million.

"[24] Rizzuto worked closely with the Sicilian Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan – major illicit drug traffickers – that was led in Canada by Alfonso Caruana.

[25] In early 2004, Rizzuto was indicted by a Brooklyn federal grand jury in relation to racketeering conspiracy charges, including loansharking and murder, in connection with the 5 May 1981 gangland killings of three rival Bonanno crime family capos, Philip Giaccone, Dominick Trinchera and Alphonse Indelicato in New York City, made famous by the film Donnie Brasco.

[36][37] Reports suggested that upon his arrival in Canada,[38] Rizzuto met with representatives of the New York Mafia families, and laid low in Toronto for a while before moving back to Montreal.

Sources indicated that he had bought an armoured vehicle and was living in a well-guarded apartment, suggesting Rizzuto knew his life was in danger, yet wanted to send a message that he was back and would not be easy prey.

[47] Also in November 2012, Joe Di Maulo, an influential mobster and ally to the Cotroni family, was executed in the driveway of his home, north of Montreal — his funeral was lightly attended by mafia standards, a sign that he had fallen out of favour.

[48] Three days before Christmas 2012, a gunman entered the coffee shop of incarcerated Rizzuto rival Giuseppe De Vito, killing one man, Dominic Facchini, and critically wounding another.

In January 2013 Raynald Desjardins' brother-in-law, Gaétan Gosselin, was murdered in front of his home, as was Vincenzo Scuderi, an alleged associate of Giuseppe De Vito.

[52] Calautti was shot in the head and killed while sitting in his car in July 2013; he had been suspected in the unsolved murder of Rizzuto's father.

[59] Rizzuto's funeral was held at the Church of the Madonna della Difesa in Montreal's Little Italy on 30 December, attended by around 800 people.

It was later adapted into the television drama series Bad Blood, which debuted in fall 2017 with Anthony LaPaglia portraying Rizzuto.