22 Facts About Michele Racco

Michele Racco, known as "Mike the Baker", was an Italian-Canadian gangster, regarded as the founder of the Siderno Group.

Michele Racco joined the 'Ndrangheta as an young man and was already considered to be a senior leader when he immigrated to Canada in 1952.

Michele Racco first settled in Port Arthur and moved to Toronto in 1953.

Michele Racco opened a bakery on St Clair Avenue West, which became the beginning of a chain of bakeries, coffee shops and ice cream parlours owned by him.

Michele Racco maintained close contacts with the Luppino crime family in Hamilton, Ontario and with the Cotroni crime family in Montreal.

Salvatore Triumbari and Filippo Vendemini were co-founders until Michele Racco sanctioned their murders in 1967 and 1969 respectively, due to disputes.

Michele Racco had been urged to start the Canadian operation by Antonio Macri, the undisputed boss of Siderno until he was killed in January 1975.

Michele Racco had a criminal conviction in his native Italy, but was never convicted of any crime in Canada.

The police initially thought he was being targeted by rival gangsters, but concluded that Michele Racco was burning down his own bakeries to collect the insurance money as it became apparent that the arsonists were entering his bakeries with suspicious ease.

The closest thing he came to being charged was an incident where the Toronto police found $25,000 in counterfeit money in one of his bakeries, but were unable to lay charges as the police had no evidence that Michele Racco knew of the counterfeit money in his bakery, which he insisted had been brought into the store by a dishonest employee.

On March 20,1971, during a wire-tapped phone call, Michele Racco was heard discussing the "youth of honors" who would be allowed to join "the Honored Society".

The initiation ceremony was raided by the police and Michele Racco was warned not to attend the meeting.

Michele Racco was greatly worried about his drug addict son, Domenic Michele Racco, who was considered to be reckless and violent.

On July 19,1971, Domenic Michele Racco shot three men in a Toronto shopping mall following an argument over a cigarette; he was sentenced to 10 years in jail for attempted murder and was released on parole in 1978.

Michele Racco called a meeting to discuss ways to help his son beat the charges, and invited Johnny Papalia of Hamilton to attend the meeting.

The journalist Adrien Humphreys wrote: "That Mike Michele Racco, the pre-eminent immigrant Italian criminal, invited Canadian-born Johnny to this important family meeting was a mark of great respect".

McMurtry stated that Michele Racco was a stereotypical gangster straight out of a Hollywood film in every respect, saying he gave off a strong sense of malevolent power.

Michele Racco ordered the three murders, namely of Triumbari in 1967 and Vendemini in 1969.

Papalia took this request seriously, but he found that Domenic Michele Racco was a hothead incapable of taking advice.

Papalia complained with disgust that Domenic Michele Racco, when eating dinner with him at Rooney's restaurant in Toronto, would rush off to snort cocaine in the restroom as he had no self-control when it came to cocaine.

Michele Racco had one of the largest Mafia funerals ever in Toronto that was attended by 200 people.

Domenic Michele Racco did not last long as a boss, and was murdered on December 10,1983 on the order of the Musitano crime family in Hamilton for violating cocaine trade agreements.