Eddie Melo
Eddie Melo | |
---|---|
Born | Eduardo Manuel de Melo 31 July 1960 Professional boxer, gangster |
Allegiance | Cotroni crime family Siderno Group |
Boxing career | |
Other names | "Hurricane" |
Statistics | |
Weight(s) | Middleweight |
Stance | Orthodox |
Boxing record | |
Wins | 32 |
Losses | 9 |
Draws | 2 |
Eduardo Manuel de Melo (31 July 1960 – 6 April 2001), nicknamed "Eddie the Hurricane", was a Portuguese-born Canadian
Boxer
Melo was born in
Melo dropped out of high school in Grade 9 and with a forged birth certificate moved to Verdun, Quebec where he worked as a boxer.[1] As an amateur boxer, Melo won 93 matches while losing only four.[3] Melo made his debut as a professional boxer in Montreal on 7 March 1978 at the age of 17. Melo's boxing style gave him the nickname of "The Hurricane".[1] Spider Jones said of Melo: "Eddie Melo filled the Montreal Forum at 18 years old. His explosive power punching style made him on one of Canada’s most exciting fighters of our time".[3] Melo won his first 12 matches in a row in 1978 and 1979, with the majority being by knock-out.[3] In 1979, Melo became the Canadian middleweight boxing champion.[3] He rapidly became a favorite of boxing fans in Montreal.[3] Over the course of his first 18 months as a professional boxer, Melo earned $150,000, making him the best paid boxer in Canada.[4] The journalist James Kernaghan described the young Melo: "He was fast, a terrific puncher and he could take a punch. Growing into a light heavyweight (175 pounds) he was still mowing them down. Of any Canadian boxer of the past 50 years, the guy who looked like a young Anthony Quinn had world champion written all over him."[4]
On 31 October 1978, Melo first fought Fernand Marcotte at the Verdun auditorium in a match that lasted ten rounds and ended with him winning by split decision.[3] In their second match, Marcotte won by majority decision.[3] The final match in the famous rivalry ended in a draw.[3] The fights between Melo and Marcotte were regarded as some of the best boxing matches in Montreal.[3] In 1981, Melo finally became old enough to box in Ontario.[3]
One of Melo's fans was the gangster Frank Cotroni of the Cotroni family of Montreal.[5] Melo came to enjoy a friendship with Cotroni, whom he called "my number one fan".[5] Kernaghan wrote that Melo appeared to have been depressed after losing a title match for the Canadian light heavyweight championship in Montreal on 11 March 1980 to Gary Summerhayes, which caused him to draw closer to Cotroni.[4] In 1980, Melo was convicted of stabbing a bouncer with a pocket knife during a bar brawl, for which he served 90 days in prison.[2] Melo was to be convicted 8 more times over the course of the rest of his life on charges of extortion or illegal weapons possession.[4] In the early 1980s, Melo's boxing career went into decline with him losing a match by knock-out to the journeyman Ralph Hollett in Toronto in January 1981, an upset that badly damaged his career.[3] Later in 1981, Melo was convicted of uttering death threats.[6] The Cotroni-controlled Local 75 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union fought with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union for the right to represent airport-strip workers at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.[6] A bartender at the Pearson Airport bar complained to the police that Melo had pulled a loaded handgun to his head and asked him: "You don't want anything to happen to your baby or your wife, do you?"[6] Melo denied the allegation to the police and then added that he never used a gun when threatening people as he clenched his fists and said: "I have my own weapons-these two".[6]
On 4 May 1982, Melo had a much publicized match against Jimmie Gradson at the
Melo had married a former Miss Montreal Alouette cheerleader.[5] He used his boxing wealth to buy a Lincoln Continental automobile, a house in Toronto and some $20,000 worth of jewelry.[5] It was felt that Melo suffered from poor management as his managers kept pushing for him "too hard, too fast" while he began to show signs of brain damage caused by his boxing.[7] One of Melo's friends, the gangster, outlaw biker and fellow boxer Bernie "the Frog" Guindon thought it was wrong for Melo's managers to have him fight the top professional boxers while he was still a teenager, saying: "He was young and they didn't just care. They threw him in with the top fighters".[8] Guindon felt that Melo who had won the middleweight Canadian boxing championship at the age of 19 would have benefitted if he been able to mature more as a boxer before being booked to fight the top boxers.[8]
The hitman
Starting in October 1984, a Royal Commission under Justice
Gangster
Melo at the time of his retirement went to work as an organizer for the Cotroni-controlled Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union and then in the vending machine business.[5] Melo was known for his aggressive style both in and outside of the ring, with many finding his temper to be quite ungovernable.[5] Melo's real job was as the agent for the Cotroni family in Toronto, bringing in strippers and video game machines from Montreal to various Toronto bars.[5] The previous Cotroni family representative for Toronto, the hitman Réal Simard, had turned Crown's evidence, thus requiring a replacement. Johnny Papalia, the boss of the Papalia family, came to detest Melo, once telling Cotroni: "Put a leash on Melo or I'll kill him".[5] A policeman told a reporter from The Toronto Sun newspaper about Melo: "He was muscle but not a freelancer. He would look after Cotroni's problems."[4]
In 1989, at a pool hall on College Street, Melo assaulted a Mafiosi after words had been exchanged, which led to a murder plot against him, with a hitman being hired to kill him.[12] The hitman turned informer, and the police faked the murder of Melo with a photograph being taken of a crash test dummy designed to look like Melo being shot up and covered in fake blood.[13] The hitman showed the photographs of the crash test dummy and was paid for the supposed murder, leading to those who had paid him being charged with conspiracy to commit murder.[13] In April 1989, Melo's first marriage ended in divorce, with his ex-wife, Sine, moving to Vancouver with their two daughters.[5] In 1990, the charges against Melo for conspiracy to commit extortion were dismissed in the famous Askov decision when a judge ruled that Melo's constitutional right to a speedy trial had been violated as the Crown had failed to start a trial against him 34 months after Melo was charged.[2]
In 1991, a Mafiosi and the owner of Toronto's Casket Royale funeral home, Gaetano "Guy" Panepinto, had one of his business partners, Natale Roda, tried to assassinate the man behind the plot against Melo.[14] Roda was carrying a bomb with the aim of avenging Melo, but the bomb exploded prematurely, costing him much of his arm.[14] Panepinto was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.[14] It is believed that Panepinto had been hired by Cotroni. Later in 1991, Melo was convicted of assault after he used his boxing skills to beat up a man during a brawl at a stag party, for which he served 90 days in prison.[2]
In the early 1990s, Melo was often photographed eating in a Yorkville restaurant with a visiting Vancouver-area Hells Angel who worked as a loanshark.[15] In 1993, a police report listed Melo as a member of the Siderno Group.[16] The Hells Angel whom Melo met was Lloyd "Louie" Robinson, the half-brother of the Angels Vancouver East End chapter president, John Bryce (the two men have the same mother).[17] The police believe that Bryce was just a frontman and that Robinson was the real president of the East End chapter.[18] Melo served as the principle contact between the East End chapter of the Hells Angels with the Cotroni family of Montreal and the Commisso 'ndrina of Toronto, creating a cross-Canada alliance.[19] Robinson often visited Toronto, and whenever he was in Toronto, he met Melo at Yorkville restaurants such as Remy's and the Pilot.[19] Melo and Robinson were often photographed by RCMP surveillance teams talking with the three Commisso brothers, namely Rocco Remo, Cosimo and Michele.[19] Likewise, Melo would frequently visit Vancouver and during his visits to the West Coast, he was always a guest of honor at the Angels' East End chapter clubhouse.[19] One of Robinson's interests was in having French-Canadian strippers from Quebec work in strip-clubs in the Lower Mainland. Robinsons' company, That's Entertainment Inc, was one of the three largest strippers' agencies in the Lower Mainland.[19] That's Entertainment was owned by 399413 Alberta Ltd, whose reports in 1993 and 1994 listed Ken Lelek and Robinson as the two directors.[19] Likewise, Robinson was a pioneer in Internet pornography as the company, Starnet Computer Communications, which was owned by That's Entertainment, had the world's first live-feed Internet strip show in May 1995, and was the first internet company to have its own secure credit card interface.[20]
In early 1994, Melo decided to resume his boxing career, hiring the Israeli-Canadian businessman Harold Arviv as his manager.
Before Melo could resume boxing, later in 1994 it was discovered that he had never taken Canadian citizenship, thus leading for the government to order him deported to Portugal.[16] Melo fought against the deportation order, arguing: "My parents brought me here for a better life. I did everything in Canada. Had two daughters and now a baby. And I have to add I got in a lot of trouble here, too".[16] In an immigration hearing, Melo admitted that one of his close friends was Joe Diardo, a "leg and arm man" who had thirty convictions going back to 1958 for arson, for passing counterfeit money, robbery, and possession of illegal guns.[16] Melo described Cotroni as one of his best friends and admitted that Volpato was the godfather to one his daughters.[16] Melo also admitted to being a godfather to one of Arviv's daughters.[16] Melo was asked why he should be allowed to stay in Canada given his association with known criminals such as Cotroni, Arviv, and Volpato, leading for him to reply: "All I know is that they've been OK with me. They've never asked me to do any criminal activity or get into trouble. They've only been supportive in whatever it was that I had to do".[16] Melo's friendship with Arviv ended in a bitter dispute over money.[21]
Melo remained a celebrity in Toronto, attending the
Melo served as a mentor to a fellow Portuguese-Canadian gangster Johnny Raposo.[25] Raposo was so close to Melo that he was known as his "clone" or as "little Eddie" as Raposo took to dressing, speaking and having the same mannerisms as Melo.[26] Melo was considered to be a "legend" in the "Little Portugal" neighborhood on College Street and Raposo idolized him.[25] Raposo followed Melo's advice as he accepted Melo's aphorisms such as "a jealous man is a dangerous man", "the phone is just for ordering pizza", and "a hungry man is a dangerous man", as advice to live by.[26] Melo also advised Raposo to never answer the door on Halloween, saying that Halloween was a dangerous holiday for gangsters as it was dark in on 31 October and that there were too many people wearing masks on All Hallows Eve, making it all too easy for a hitman to don a mask and strike on Halloween.[27] Melo came to prefer mortgage fraud and stock market fraud in his last years while his protégé Raposo became one of the biggest cocaine dealers in Toronto, buying from the Sinaloa Cartel of Mexico.[27]
Murder
On Friday 6 April 2001, Melo planned to go out with his wife Rhonda to attend a concert by
Melo's daughter, Jessica, who was studying criminology at Simon Fraser University at the time of his murder told the media: "He was the most amazing father, friend, confidante, supporter, everything. I couldn't have asked for a better person to be my father...I was with him for nineteen years. I went everywhere with him".[24]
Gagné was promised to be paid $75,000 for killing Melo. I his testimony during the DaSilva trial, Gagné claims to not have been paid the amount promised to him. Gagné was a career criminal from Montreal who was on parole for armed robbery when he took the contract on Melo's life.[24] On 30 September 2003, Gagné pledged guilty to second-degree murder after striking up a "sweetheart deal" and a promise of financial security by the Crown Attorney Steve Sheriff and the Crowns star witness Fernando Ribeiro. Gagné was sentenced to life in prison, being eligible for parole after 12 years in exchange for testifying against his employer. A deal that the Crown and his witness Ribeiro contrived. The Melo family had been forewarned by the detectives NOT to trust Ribeiro. Gagné received funds in his canteen from Ribeiro along with his wife Maria. In total Gagné has received $80 000.00. In 2016 Gagné married and Ribeiro also provided the wedding rings and an envelope containing an undisclosed amount of money. [24] The police believe that Melo's murder was linked to a "historical conflict within the 'Ndrangheta (in Ontario) and that the organization has had with other Italian criminalized groups (in Canada)."[29] In 2005, a Toronto businessman, Manuel Dasilva, went on trial with the Crown alleging that he hired Gagné to kill Melo.[29] The trial ended with Dasilva acquitted.[29] Gagné has often applied for parole, but the fact he committed two murders while on parole for armed robbery has made his applications controversial. Melo's daughters along with other family members are vehemently opposed to his release on parole, arguing that the fact he killed while on parole in 2001 makes him undeserving of freedom again.[30] On 18 February 2022, Gagné was denied full parole, but was granted limited release.[31]
Books
- Auger, Michel; Edwards, Peter (2004). The Encyclopedia of Canadian Organized Crime: From Captain Kidd to Mom Boucher. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 0771030495.
- Cédilot, André; Noël, André (2012). Mafia Inc.: The Long, Bloody Reign of Canada's Sicilian Clan. Toronto: Vintage Canada. ISBN 9780307360410.
- Edwards, Peter (1990). Blood Brothers: How Canada's Most Powerful Mafia Family Runs Its Business. Toronto: Key Porter Books. ISBN 155013213X.
- Edwards, Peter (2017). Hard Road: Bernie Guindon and the Reign of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club. Toronto: Random House. ISBN 978-0345816108.
- Edwards, Peter; Nájera, Luis (2021). The Wolfpack The Millennial Mobsters Who Brought Chaos and the Cartels to the Canadian Underworl. Toronto: Random House of Canada. ISBN 9780735275409.
- Schneider, Stephen (2009). Iced The Story of Organized Crime in Canada. Toronto: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780470835005.
- Sher, Julian; Marsden, William (2003). The Road To Hell How the Biker Gangs Are Conquering Canada. Toronto: Alfred Knopf. ISBN 0-676-97598-4.
External links
References
- ^ a b c d Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 140.
- ^ a b c d e Mitchell, Robert (2 October 2005). "Eddie Melo aware of risk". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Tate, Gary (16 April 2021). "Canadian Ring Legend Eddie Melo Fondly Remembered". Boxing News 24/7. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Kernaghan, James (7 April 2001). "Golden Boy Meets Gory End". The London Free Press. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 141.
- ^ a b c d Edwards 1990, p. 152.
- ^ Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 140-141.
- ^ a b Edwards 2017, p. 124.
- ^ a b c d Schneider 2009, p. 529.
- ^ a b c d Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 31.
- ^ a b c d Edwards 1990, p. 159.
- ^ Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 141-142.
- ^ a b Humphreys, Adrian (9 October 2017). "Man at centre of bizarre underworld plots for years loses fight against Toronto police". The National Post. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ a b c Cédilot & Noël 2012, p. 278.
- ^ Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 142.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 143.
- ^ Sher & Marsden 2003, p. 307-308.
- ^ Sher & Marsden 2003, p. 307.
- ^ a b c d e f Sher & Marsden 2003, p. 308.
- ^ Sher & Marsden 2003, p. 308-309.
- ^ a b c Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 11.
- ^ Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 10.
- ^ Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 143-144.
- ^ a b c d e f g Auger & Edwards 2004, p. 144.
- ^ a b Edwards & Nájera 2021, p. 26.
- ^ a b Edwards & Nájera 2021, p. 27.
- ^ a b c Edwards & Nájera 2021, p. 28.
- ^ "Melo family members arrested after melee with police". CBC. 9 April 2001.
- ^ a b c Cherry, Paul (20 December 2019). "Hitman who killed Mafia enforcer Eddie Melo denied a release". The Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- ^ Edwards, Peter (18 June 2018). "Father's Day is 'brutal' for family of murdered boxer as killer gets day passes". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
- ^ "Convicted GTA hit man denied full parole, granted limited release". thestar.com. February 18, 2022.