Rocco Perri
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Rocco Perri (December 27, 1887 - April 23, 1944 ?) born in Plati, Calabria of southern Italy. Organized crime figure in Ontario, Canada. He was one of the most prominent Calabrian mafiosi boss in Canadian history and the common-law husband of Besha Starkman (a.k.a. Bessie Perri).
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Rocco Perri was involved in organized crime in Canada during the inter war years. Through the 1920s, Perri became the leading figure in organzed crime in Southern Ontario. Perri's reputation and influence established Hamilton rather than Toronto as the "mob capital of Ontario." Throughout the 1920s, Perri was under constant surveillance by the police, and his activities were widely known. He specialized in exporting liquor from old Canadian distileries, such as Seagram's and Gooderham's to the United States, and, in effect, helped these companies to obtain a large share of the American market--a share which they were able to retain after Prohibition was lifted. Not limiting himself to the bootlegging business, Perri diversified into gambling, extortion and prostitution. Starkman remained the business "brains" of the operation, and it was she who specialized in laundering the profits from their various enterprises before his disappearance.
When the government of Canada cut off all funding to the Welland Canal project Perri was unemployed. After working for a while in a bakery, Perri moved to Hamilton to take position as a salesman for the Superior Macaroni Company. Life in Hamilton during the years of the First World War was not very pleasant. Although the economy was strong as a result wartime demand for steel and textiles, conditions for labourers were abysmal, In particular, non-British immigrants faced widespread hostility and racism. Perri and Starkman, who sought a better life for themselves, found the opportunity they needed when, on 16 September 1916, the Ontario Temperance Act came into effect. Although the Act did not completely prohibit the sale and consumption of alcohol in the province, it placed severe restrictions on its sale and distribution. Perri and Starkman entered the bootlegging business immediately, and using Starkman's business acumen and Perri's connections, established a profitable liquor distribution business.
In the following years, three developments ensured Perri's bootleg operations would continue to profit: the first of these was the declaration of Prohibition in Canada on 23 December 1917 by the Borden government. Using the powers of the War Measures Act, Borden declared that the recent federal election had given his coalition government a mandate to prosecute the war, and that the sale of liquor in Canada was inconsistent with that goal; in April 1918, it became illegal to transport alcohol in Canada; in 1920, the ratification of the Eigteenth Amendment to the United States' Constitution prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol in the United States. Perri began expanding his operation to the Niagara frontier and the Buffalo area.
Urban legend has it that Rocco Perri was seen for the last time in Hamilton, Ontario on 23 April 1944. His body has never been found. Speculation has it he was murdered, possibly by being put in a barrel filled with cement and dumped into the Burlington Bay. As one RCMP concluded in a 1954 interview, "We won't find his body until the Bay dries up."
Although he was the most significant mob figure in Canadian history, few people outside the Hamilton area have heard of Rocco Perri, as he has been overshadowed by his American counterparts. As Al Capone said when asked if he knew Rocco Perri, "I don't even know what street Canada is on." [1]
- Besha Starkman, (1889-1930), Perri's common-law wife. ("the Brains")
- Charles William Bell, (1876-1938), Playwright, Politician and Perri's Lawyer.
- ^ Bailey, Thomas Melville (1992). Dictionary of Hamilton Biography (Vol III, 1925-1939). W.L. Griffin Ltd.
- "King of the Mob: Rocco Perri and the women who ran his rackets" by James Dubro & Robin F. Rowland (Toronto)-1987.
- Rocco Perri Scrapbook (Hamilton Herald Newspaper articles) 12 April 1927, 14, 16, 18 August 1930
- Hamilton Public Library clippings, Hamilton, Famous and Fascinating, Thomas Melville Bailey and Charles Ambrose Carter.
