The report,
which we have now received through inter-library loan from the National Archives
and which, at the time raised prominent Page 1 headlines in the Vancouver Sun, is
rather disappointing upon reading.
We had been hopeful
that a report which generated such newspaper headlines as “Crime rings grow”
and “Fear, payoffs aid syndicates” would have named some names. We had hoped
that the RCMP report would have told the gathered provincial justice ministers and
attorneys general the names of at least some of the people involved with
organized crime -- especially in Ontario
and Quebec (the provinces which the report said harboured most of Canada’s organized
crime). We had wanted names. Alas there were no names. Or, at least, not in the
document which we have received; however it is likely that, given some of the
comments in the news stories of the time clearly referring to certain
individuals, during the private sessions of the conference names may have been mentioned. Probably libel
laws prevented their publication.
Some interesting
definitions occur in the report: Organized crime, for example, is described “as
a social organism within the social body, whose business is crime and (whose)
purpose or objects are criminal.”
Syndicated crime
was described as “[an association] of criminals which is so highly organized
that it has exclusive control of crime over a given area – in other words a
monopoly.”
It is
interesting to note that about six years earlier United States Attorney-General
Robert F Kennedy had the Bureau of Narcotics draw up an 800 page dossier (one
criminal per page) on organized crime in the United States. The Bureau,
however, did not confine its investigations to the USA. The dossier also covers
Canada and in its pages (all of which were published in 2007 under the title “Mafia”
by Harper Collins) appear 21 names of people (all men except for one Grace
Pine) who either lived in Canada or had business dealings there of a alleged criminal
nature. The names contained in the book are Antonio Rocco CAPONIGRO, Vincenzo
COTRONI, Guiseppe COTRONI, Earl CORALLUZO, Jean Baptiste CROCE, Antonio D’AGOSTINO,
Frank DIOGUARDI, Dante GASBARRINI, Salvatore GIGLIO, Ange Dominique LUCIANI,
Harold MELTZER, Pasquale MONACHINO, Saverio MONACHINO, Paul Damien MONDOLONI,
Peter PELLEGRINO, Grace PINE, Salvatore Peter RIZZO, Salvatore SALLI, Francois
SPIRITO, Antonio SYLVESTRO and Guiseppe VECCHIO. Note the preponderance of
Italian-sounding names.
Then refer back
to the RCMP report, which says:
...these groups [i.e. the individuals described as “an
association of criminals”] maintain a close working relationship and personal
ties with many of the USA based syndicates, and it is significant that many of
these USA groups have recently been labelled as “Mafia” by the US Senate Sub Committee
on Organized Crime. The Canadian groups also maintain connections with criminal
elements in Southern Italy and Sicily, which the Italian authorities call “Mafiosa”,
and with criminals in other urban areas of Canada where commercial development
and high population density offers potentially fertile breeding grounds for
development of lucrative crime.
The RCMP report noted
that organized crime had existed in Canada for many years, particularly in
narcotics trafficking, bootlegging and smuggling. It had begun in Montreal and
had, for a number of years starting in the early 1950s, been run by American
gangsters who, however, had been pressured out of Canada – according to the
report -- on a wave of public indignation, a combination of police work and efforts
by certain federal government departments. Our own research has shown us that
many individuals in drug trafficking organizations in Vancouver during the
1950s, 60s and 70s had connections to Montreal, which was the port of entry for
much of the heroin flowing into North America from Marseilles – the so-called “French
Connection”.
The RCMP Report
took a somewhat sociological approach and described organized crime as made of
three levels (“a fairly efficient and well organized administrative system”):
1. Directors
2. Administrators
(often called Lieutenants)
3. Labourers
(the common criminals)
In a comment
that seems perhaps particularly appropriate to Dr Robert Henry MacLauchlan who,
for the approximately eight years between his release from jail in Alberta and
his arrest on drug trafficking charges in late December 22, 1965, lived a quiet
and apparently respectable life, the RCMP Report notes that:
The leaders seldom conform to the usual concept of
the common criminal. Many pose and are accepted as members of the business
world, or as members of reputable
professional fields. Many have never been charged with a criminal offence. Some
possess only very minor criminal records, although they have led a persistent
life of crime for many years past.
Most
of the 21 people named four paragraphs above had their Canadian connection in
Montreal. It is thus worth noting then that, a little over five years later in
the Columbian of Monday, June 18, 1971, New Westminster Det. Sgt. Ray Thompson recounted
the details of the MacLauchlan Murder case. He stated that the police had managed
to pinpoint the route taken by the “executioner” from Montreal to Vancouver and
back to Montreal again. He said the route had involved flying from Montreal to Chicago,
then on to Detroit, Seattle and Victoria.
So,
it is entirely reasonable to assume that one or more of the 21 people named
above either knew the executioner or knew of him.
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