The Saputos deny the connection.
Here's what I found in the book:
Sensing an all-out war was near, Bonanno decided to drop out of sight for a while and travel. In his autobiography, he tells of how a businessman, John DiBella, persuaded him to partner in the Grande Cheese Company of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. “The cheese plant had been the source of contention between rival groups in Chicago,” he wrote. “These people played rough, and fighting broke out.” DiBella had sought and obtained Bonanno’s protection. Bonanno continues”
“When my business associate John DiBella of the Grande Cheese Co. found out about my upcoming travels, he asked me to make Montreal my first stop. Mr. DiBella had a close friend from his hometown in Sicily, Joseph Saputo, who was also in the cheese business. Because of immigration quotas, Mr. Saputo and his family hadn’t been able to enter the United States. As the next best thing, Mr. Saputo immigrated to Montreal, Canada, where he established the Saputo Cheese Co. He was now looking for investors to expand operations.
Fay (Bonanno’s wife) and I went to Canada, expecting to be there but a short time.
At the cheese plant, Mr. Saputo and I agreed to a deal. Mr. Saputo signed a letter of intent, stating that once I made payment, I would own twenty per cent of the business.”
---There follows an explanation of how notorious Bonanno had become in the U.S. ---
“Canadian immigration officers, understandably curious as to what he was doing in the country and what business he had in Montreal, decided to ask him a few questions. Bonanno went to meet them at the appointed hour and place.
“I repeated my intentions of investing in a Canadian business for the purpose of expanding a cheese plant and hiring people. I was helping Canada reduce unemployment. To back up my statement, I brought the letter of intent signed by Joseph Saputo.”
Instead of being granted the permanent resident status he had applied for, the Genovese family boss was arrested on the spot. Canadian immigration argued that he had neglected to mention that he had a criminal record in the United States:a Brooklyn garment factory that he co-owned had been charged with violating minimum-wage statutes. Bonanno continues:
“I didn’t want to be deported. If Canada deported me as a persona non grata, I would lose my rights to invest in the Saputo Cheese Co. Also, now that it was obvious the United States was behind my predicament, I knew that once I was deported back to the United States, the FBI would be waiting for me. “
Bonanno was immediately incarcerated at Bordeaux Prison in Montreal. It was his first time behind bars.
--- and some more stuff of little interest, then this quote from Bonanno’s autobiography:
“For its part, Canada would release me from prison and wouldn’t deport me. However, once released from prison, I had to leave Canada voluntarily and return to the United States.”
--more background stuff and then the book continues:
Giuseppe (Joseph) Saputo was born in 1905 in Montelepre, a town some thirty kilometers from Castellemmarre del Golfo, birthplace of Joe Bonanno. The Saputo family has always mainained that they were unaware of Bonanno’s Mafia involvement and were only acquainted with his business partner John DiBella of the Grande Cheese Company. Their denials continue to this day.
---more stuff of little interest and then a quote from Le Devoir, a Montreal newspaper, from a trial in Montreal:
During his lengthy testimony, Mr. Cotroni admitted that he knew, in some cases intimately, several individuals publicly named by various commissions of inquiry and police forces, including the FBI and the RCMP, as members of La Cosa Nostra. He explained that in 1966, at the home of a friend, Giuseppe Saputo – owners of the Saputo and Figli Ltd. cheese plant in Saint-Michel – he had met with a group of New Yorkers.”
That group comprised Salvatore (Bill) Bonanno and his associates: Vito De Filippo and his son Patrick, Peter Magaddino, Peter Notaro and Carlo Simari.
And later the book continues to say police surveillance followed five of the people from the meeting and then:
The quintet headed for a pay phone. Couture (the cop) saw Cotroni, Violi, Giuseppe Saputo and Joe Bonanno speak on the phone in turn. The officer asked for backup; there were too many cars to follow. He was told to stick with Saputo who then drove to his company’s head office in Saint-Michael. “In the parking lot there were two vehicles whose licence plates indicated they were registered to Magaddino and Notaro,” Couture later recalled in an interview.
That evening, after they arrested Salvatore Bonanno and his six companions, the police questioned them intensively. They asked what Bonnano was doing in Montreal. He replied that he was there to look after his father’s interests in the Saputo cheese company.”
Bonnano and his party, except for Luigi Greco, were detained for two days before being taken to the airport and deported to the United States.
The book then goes into a treacherous gun-fight between Bonanno and DiGregorio factions. A footnote at the end of the chapter says:
The car driven by Salvatore Bonanno on Nov. 28, 1966, belonged to Giuseppi Monticello, Giuseppi Saputo’s son-in-law. Around the same time, Monticello was sponsoring his brother’s immigration to Canada. Later, when a Canadian immigration officer asked him why he had lent his car to Bonanno, he answered, “Because he has a stake in the Saputo company.”
The book is Mafia Inc, written by André Cédilot and André Noel and translated by Michael Gilson, published by Random House Canada, and just released in English.
