https://reddit.com/link/n44dno/video/zb56lf1wdyw61/player
I'm currently re-reading Sixth Family, and I just finished Chapter 8, centred around Paolo Violi's visit to Italy in 1972. He had travelled to Calabria and Sicily to discuss his conflict with Nicolo Rizzuto, and Sixth Family postulates he may have even been trying to start his own parallel narcotics business. He met with Sicilian boss in Catania, Antonino Calderone, who later turned informant in the mid 80's. He had, uh, a lot to say about Violi and Calabrians in general:
>"he came to my office for half an hour, enough time for us to have a cup of coffee together, and for him to ask me if I knew any men of honour in Calabria [presumably to discuss aforementioned parallel narcotics operation]. He explained to me that he was a boss of a decina in Canada. Violi said his New York boss didn't want to hear anything, he just wanted dollars from his Decina, Violi could do as he pleased, but at the end of the year, Violi had to bring him [his boss] cash. Paolo Violi didn't make a great impression on me; He was a braggart, a big fat man, who didn't seem to have much upstairs. In any case, he was going to Calabria because he thought there were 'men of honour' there, things are different in America, in fact. American Men of Honour aren't just Sicilians, but even Calabrians and Neapolitans, it doesn't matter. The Calabrians would talk, talk, talk, all the time, not to others, of course, but among themselves. They would have endless arguments about their rules, especially in the presence of us, Sicilian Men of Honour, they felt uneasy because they knew that, in reality, they were inferior to the Cosa Nostra. We've always considered the Calabrians inferior. Garbage. Not to mention, the Neapolitans who we've never trusted much."
Calderone died in 2013, long enough to see the Sicilian Mafia fall apart and the Calabrians supplant them as the foremost Italian OC group. I wonder if he ever had a change of opinion. WHOSE GARBAGE NOW, OLD MAN? :P
But what is interesting to me here, though, is that it is clear neither Cotroni nor Violi had any serious ties back to Calabria, why else would Violi need to visit Catanian men of honour to make introductions? I know Violi's father was a leading ndranghisti in sinapoli, so why go to Calderone and settecasi to open doors for him?
