Vincenzo Cotroni

Vincenzo "Vic" Cotroni, born Vincenzo Cotrone in 1911 in Mammola, Calabria, Italy, made his mark as a prominent figure in organized crime in Canada. Immigrating to Montreal in 1924, he initially pursued a career as a professional wrestler, adopting the ring name "Vic Vincent." However, his life took a different turn as he became embroiled in the criminal underworld, accumulating a record of minor offenses and engaging in bootlegging alongside local mobster Armand Courville.

By the age of twenty, Cotroni's life was already marked by controversy when he faced a charge of rape in 1928. The charge was ultimately dropped after the alleged victim, Maria Bresciano, agreed to marry him, leading to the birth of their child, Rosina. Despite these early challenges, Cotroni maintained a relatively low profile throughout his criminal career.

In 1974, Cotroni's involvement in organized crime caught the attention of authorities, resulting in a subpoena to testify before a Quebec government commission inquiry. He was subsequently jailed for one year for contempt. The following year, he and his capodecina, Paolo Violi, along with mobster Johnny Papalia, were convicted of extortion, receiving sentences of six years, which Cotroni successfully appealed down to just six months.

As the 1970s progressed, Cotroni began to cede control of the Cotroni crime family to Violi and other associates, including his brother Frank Cotroni, Nicolas DiIorio, and Luigi Greco. This shift in power led to a violent struggle between the Calabrian faction and the Sicilian Rizzuto crime family, which ultimately emerged as the dominant force in Montreal's organized crime scene by the early 1980s. Cotroni's life came to an end on September 16, 1984, when he succumbed to cancer.