Larry Lopresti and intergenerational gangster values

Lorenzo Lopresti's father Joe

     The year Larry Lopresti was born, an American sociologist naively concluded that the Mafia didn’t exist because the new generation didn’t care to take part in illegal activities.
   This was a hopeful assessment. However it was wrong. Many – not all – children of Mafioso take up the torch, even when everything suggests that it’s a bad idea.

Is that Lorenzo, third from right on the top row?

   Lorenzo Lopresti, aka Larry Lopresti, aka Enzo Lopresti was shot dead on his first floor concrete balcony in St. Laurent City on Monday October 26, at 8:20 p.m. He exited his apartment because, for health reasons, he didn't want to smoke inside.
   The 40-year-old Lopresti had reportedly sought to emulate his father, who was vital to the drug-pipeline that connected Montreal to the Gotti New York.
   The Zips, as the Sicilian Mafia ruling clique is known, was a lot more receptive to dealing drugs than their Calabrian predecessors. And of course dealing drugs comes with longer drug sentences, which means that more will snitch, which means more killing people you think might turn you in.
Larry Lopresti was a mere 21-year-old when his father’s body was brought to the city morgue. Big Joe Lopresti, 44, was found dead at this spot in the evening of April 29, 1992. He had recently been acquitted on heavy criminal charges as the prosecutor's case fell apart.
   Giusseppe Lopresti’s funeral was attended by many, including cheese magnate Lino Saputo, now one of Canada’s richest men. Lopresti had previously, allegedly introduced federal MP Alfonso Gagliano, who was then an accountant, as a soldier for the Bonano crew. Of course Gagliano denied it.
   One might think that the son of a slain gangster would steer clear of a world of crime but authorities indicate that he failed to do so and it cost him his life.
Lorenzo appeared determined to continue in crime even before his father was killed. He wrote in his graduation profile in the Father MacDonald Comprehensive Yearbook of 1989 that he wanted to emulate his father.
   It might have been understandable that a new immigrant, shut out from so many avenues to professional success, can turn to crime. But their children do not have that same excuse.
Larry Lopresti grew up on Rizzuto Row and his mother Giuseppina Sottile also had roots in the mob, as her mom was from the Mongiovi clan. Joe Loopresti told the FBI that one of his two kids, both sons, had some sort of bone cancer.
   Lopresti's activities maybe or may not have included running a bar. A person with the name Lorenzo Lopresti ran the Yacht Club in a strip mall, it might have been amongst the worst-run bars in the city. It was rarely open, had no operating fridge, people ignored the no-smoking ban, its waitress got hammered and so on. It was shut down October 12 by the RACJQ officials who noted that a certain Antonio Lopresti, possibly his brother, was also in the bar quite often. The year before, when it was called the Leger Bar, it also had its license suspended.
   Lopresti was likely killed for the same reason the other zips were iced, and nobody knows what that exact reason is right now. Speculation is rife and one clue is that he was very close to Federico Del Peschio, who was a close friend of Nick Rizzuto Sr. before being killed in 2010 at age 59.
   Without a complete genealogical chart, it’s hard to know if the various patronymic namesakes are related to those who of an earlier generation that had ties to the mob.
   But some names, such as his Larry Lopresti's mom's maiden name, Sottile seem to come up in court files. There was an Armand Sottile who recently had his bar license revoked at 6900 Park Avenue. It's unclear whether there is any family connection.
   One could spend countless hours trying to connect family ties onto new and old Mafia misdeeds.
Take Roberto Pannunzio, for example. He was busted for selling drugs in 2006 from the now-closed Nostalgia Bar on Sauve East where cocaine was hidden in the ceiling. Was he the son, nephew or other clansman of Roger Pannunzio, who was once accused in mid-70s of helping launder mafia money with Willie Obront?
   Just last week, Francesco Cotroni and Bruno Cotroni were sentenced to six months for running a 900-plant marijuana grow-op in La Tuque. The brothers, both grandsons of Violi-supporting Calabrian Frank Cotroni, who died a peaceful death four years ago, both have criminal records.
Once again, not all people with the same names as gangsters have gangster roots and even those who descend from gangsters do not always become gangsters. That cannot be stressed enough, one must never prejudge someone based on such wild guesses.
But once a generation of criminals has passed, society must do its all to make sure their children do not continue the legacy of crime.
   One would think that seeing your father killed would be sufficient disincentive for a guy like Larry Lopresti. It’s time for the authorities to use whatever means necessary to look in on criminal families and make absolutely certain that all measures are taken to avoid perpetuating those terrible values onto the next generation.