There is evidence of Mafia-style crime in Hamilton as far back as 1906, when extortion letters signed with a black handprint were sent to a grocer.

The Black Hand (Mano Nera in Italian) was not a criminal organization, but a brand of extortion used to target Italian immigrants in North America.

It wasn’t until a decade later when prohibition era gave rise to bootlegging that traditional organized crime began making real money here.

Hamilton’s Rocco Perri soon became the self-described “king of the bootleggers,” before his mysterious disappearance in 1944.

This early period of rum-running led to the rise of three powerful Italian organized crime families in Hamilton — the Luppinos, Papalias and Musitanos.

All are ’Ndrangheta (Calabrian Mafia), although they have worked with La Cosa Nostra (Sicilian Mafia) crime families in New York and Montreal, including representing the Buffalo crime family north of the border.

For a time, the three families peacefully coexisted. But peace never lasts long in the criminal underworld.

Over the decades there have been bombings, shootings and arsons that have touched all three families, including a recent resurgence of Mafia violence beginning in Hamilton with the 2017 murder of Angelo Musitano.

A notable distinction of the ’Ndrangheta is the fact that members of crime families are actual family members, as opposed to just being from the same region as is more common in La Cosa Nostra.

The tight family ties has made Calabrian Mafia traditionally harder for police to infiltrate, with perhaps the biggest exception being the recent RCMP-led, joint forces Project Otremens that saw a high-level turncoat become a paid police agent, bringing down Dom and Joey Violi.

There have been countless court cases on everything from murder, to extortion, to drug trafficking, to illegal gambling, all highlighting how the Mob makes money and what violence they are capable of. But the Mafia has also always been good at running a mix of illegal and legitimate businesses — a means to launder money, but also making it difficult for authorities to follow money trails.

Before the recent resurgence of violence, there were years of silence where the public could be forgiven for thinking the Mafia was gone or diminished. But that was never true.

When things are quiet that is usually a sign business is going well for traditional organized crime; there is a balance of power. But a disruption in the power, a vacuum left by a major player’s death or incarceration, or a power play, can lead to full-out Mob wars.

The Mafia never forgets. Vengeance is rarely swift or careless, but rather carefully planned.

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Here are the Mafia families and major players that have controlled, killed and been killed in Hamilton’s long history of traditional organized crime.

- Mob violence in 2019: Five active cases in hands of Hamilton police and courts