'Revenge can take a lifetime': No arrests or retaliation a month after Musitano slaying
Things have been quiet after mobster Angelo Musitano was gunned down, but what does that mean?
It's been over a month since infamous Hamilton mobster Angelo Musitano was gunned down outside his suburban Waterdown home — but since then, there's been no whiff of retribution, and no arrests from police.
But does silence mean nothing is happening? Or are things still bubbling under the surface in the world of organized crime?
Homicide Det. Sgt. Peter Thom says investigators are still working the case, but he won't delve into the details. "There's things we can't share, but that's the nature of the business," he said.
Some have speculated that Musitano's death was payback for his previous mob dealings, though by many accounts he had gone straight and turned to Christianity later on in life. His funeral, according to the Hamilton Spectator, was a small, private affair, bereft of the trappings of a massive mob funeral.
Revenge can take a lifetime, or more.- James Dubro, organized crime expert
Thom said he couldn't say if there's a worry that the Musitano family would retaliate over Angelo's death. "Obviously it's good that there hasn't been anything overt," he said. "But is it a waiting game? Who knows?"
Police have also reached out to the Musitano family, but they have so far "not requested police assistance," Thom said.
Organized crime expert James Dubro, who has written extensively about the Mafia in Ontario, says it's not surprising that there hasn't been any kind of big, public payback in the last few weeks.
"Retaliation can take years — decades or longer," Dubro said. "It depends on the opportunity, and having the people and resources to do it."
"It wouldn't happen fast. It would be very unusual if it did. Revenge can take a lifetime, or more."
So where does that leave police? Earlier this month, detectives released security camera video of a car that investigators say was used as a getaway vehicle after the brazen daytime shooting.
But there's been no word on a suspect, other than a police description that said he was a heavy-set man wearing a dark tuque, black jacket and beige pants, and was driving a dark-coloured four-door sedan.
Do police have any idea who he is, or if he's connected to an organized crime family? Thom won't say.
He would, however, say that since releasing video of the vehicle, police have had several businesses and homeowners come forward and offer up surveillance video of their own.
"We have hundreds of hours of video to watch, looking for potentially a two second clip," Thom said. "It's painstaking work."
Ted Davis is a retired Hamilton Police Service and RCMP intelligence officer, who once led the province's organized crime strategy and ran the Golden Horseshoe Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.
He told CBC News that working a case like this is "incredibly difficult at the best of times."
"Everything is measured in hours on a case like this," he said. "Each hour that goes by without a significant lead makes it more difficult."
Davis also said that the way Musitano was killed speaks to a kind of disrespect — seeing as he was shot and died in the driveway of his own home. The 39-year-old was killed at close range with his wife and three young children inside. Police called it "a very deliberate and targeted attack."
"Usually business is business and family is family," Davis said. "Doing it like this, that's just downright nasty."
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