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When a single bullet from a sniper’s rifle punched through two layers of glass in the rear patio doors of his Montreal mansion, striking Nicolò Rizzuto in the neck as he sat at his kitchen table with his wife and daughter nearby, killing him instantly, it was a hugely symbolic assassination.

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And although the Mafia is an organization of such tradition that all cataclysmic events — such as Wednesday’s sniper attack on the 86-year-old godfather — are scrutinized for hidden meaning, the stunning similarities between this attack and the historical murder that brought Mr. Rizzuto to power are impossible to ignore.

Especially given how rare sniper attacks are within the traditional Italian Mafia.

In fact, each of the four murders that have recently cut the Rizzuto family to its core, are so remarkably like each of their antecedents that ushered the family to the throne, that police investigators are now pulling out their old files in their search for answers.