Giacomo Luppino was an Italian-Canadian mobster who founded and led the Luppino family of Hamilton.
28 Facts About Giacomo Luppino
1.
2.
Giacomo Luppino was the prime suspect in two murders in Italy, though he was never charged in either case.
3.
Giacomo Luppino was said to carry a human ear in his wallet.
4.
The ear that Giacomo Luppino was believed to always have with him is said to have been from an incident when he severed an ear from a man in public to demonstrate his power.
5.
Giacomo Luppino had been seen meeting with powerful mob figures, including 'Ndrangheta member Rocco Zito and Siderno Group member Michele Racco.
6.
Giacomo Luppino had been friends with Domencio Violi, Paolo's father, in Italy, and he regarded Paolo almost like a son.
7.
Giacomo Luppino sponsored Paul Volpe into the Maggaddio family, and he was likewise close to Volpe, who represented his interests in Toronto.
8.
Giacomo Luppino had five sons who were involved in organized crime: Vincenzo, Natale, Rocco, Antonio and John Giacomo Luppino.
9.
Giacomo Luppino saw himself as upholding traditional Italian values against what he saw as the corrupting consumerism of North American society.
10.
Giacomo Luppino lived in a modest house on Ottawa Street South on the east end of Hamilton.
11.
Giacomo Luppino was often seen tending his garden during the summer as he preferred to grow his food.
12.
Giacomo Luppino's only known source of income was his veterans' pension from his service in the Regio Esercito in World War I, a sum of lire that amounted to the equivalent of CAD$175 per month.
13.
Giacomo Luppino greatly disapproved of the social changes of the 1960s and endlessly bemoaned that the younger generation of Italian-Canadians was materialistic, self-interested, and lacked respect for older men such as himself.
14.
The changes that Giacomo Luppino disapproved affected his own family as the police wiretaps revealed that Giacomo Luppino complained that his own sons did not show him the respect he felt he deserved and that one of his sons was in a common-law relationship with a woman.
15.
Giacomo Luppino cared more about ostentatious displays of his power than about wealth.
16.
In 1967, police began a five-year surveillance operation of Giacomo Luppino, which included wiretapping his Hamilton home.
17.
In 1966, when Magaddino planned to have Cotroni killed for his loyalty to Joe Bonanno, Giacomo Luppino persuaded him to abandon the murder plot.
18.
Giacomo Luppino was one of the few men whom Magaddino respected and would listen to.
19.
Giacomo Luppino persuaded Maggaddino that when Cotroni died, Violi would succeed him, and this way Montreal would be brought under control of the Maggaddino family, which was preferable to sparking a bloody mob war.
20.
Giacomo Luppino was very close to Violi, who he felt was the son that he wished he had as he believed that Violi upheld traditional values in a way that his sons did not.
21.
Giacomo Luppino used Elkind to take envelopes full of cash to Montreal to hand over to Violi.
22.
Giacomo Luppino said he would agree if he got a kiss on the cheek from my kids.
23.
Giacomo Luppino said he'll give me a six months break.
24.
At the funeral service, Giacomo Luppino was visibly distraught and cried at the service.
25.
Giacomo Luppino suffered from senility in his last years, which he spent at St Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton from 1983 onward.
26.
Giacomo Luppino's funeral was one of the grandest Mafia funerals seen in Canada with 150 cars taking part in the funeral procession.
27.
Giacomo Luppino's funeral was attended by Mafiosi from Ontario, Quebec, the United States and Italy.
28.
Giacomo Luppino is buried at Gate of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Burlington, Ontario.