Perri ended up in coffin --
but only to escape Canada
Retired surgeon says patient told him about driving truck over border with casket

By Paul Legall
The Hamilton Spectator

A new book on Hamilton mobster Rocco Perri adds more mystery to his death. The fate of Hamilton mobster Rocco Perri has become the subject of a whole new round of speculation, rumour and intrigue 60 years after his mysterious disappearance from the Steel City. In the past month, two Hamiltonians -- a retired doctor and an acquaintance of Perri's -- have come forward with fresh information about the baffling case. One of the most intriguing stories is that Perri escaped to the United States after one of his associates drove him across the border in a sealed coffin. Some years later, he's supposed to have returned to Hamilton -- where rival gangsters were plotting to kill him -- disguised as a woman.
Until a few weeks ago, it was commonly accepted the legendary gangster was assassinated in a mob hit in 1944, cast in cement boots and dumped in Burlington Bay. The story was so ingrained in this city's psyche, any suggestion to the contrary would have been considered heresy. But in his soon-to-be released book about Perri, author and mob expert Antonio Nicaso claims Perri was spirited across the border into the United States in 1944 and probably lived at least 10 years after his presumed death.
Nicaso says he also has found proof Perri returned to Canada in 1948 and had a secret meeting with his common-law wife in Beamsville. The book Perri: The Story of Canada's Most Notorious Bootlegger is due for release shortly before Christmas. After reading a story about the new book, the retired doctor and the Perri acquaintance contacted The Spectator to relate their own stories. The doctor -- an orthopedic surgeon -- said he distinctly remembered treating an elderly patient almost 40 years ago who claimed he knew Rocco Perri and had spirited him across the border in a "coffin."
The doctor had an office across from St. Joseph's Hospital when the 82-year-old patient popped in one day complaining of a "disc protrusion in his back." During the course of several visits, the doctor said, the patient -- whose name he couldn't recall -- started opening up about his background. "I learned from a respected teacher that you shouldn't only know the kind of pain the patient has, but also what kind of patient has the pain," said the doctor, who is now in his 80s and asked not to be identified by name. "He was reserved at first. But he started talking more once he got to know me. He told me that years before he had driven a water truck delivering water to residences in Hamilton. In his off hours, he said he got to know Rocco Perri and drove truck for him," he added. "He went on to relate he had spirited Rocco across the Canadian border in an open truck (not the water truck). Rocco was concealed in one casket and his cash was in another casket." The doctor -- who practised medicine for about 40 years -- said he didn't challenge the patient's story or grill him about how he got past inspectors at the border. "He would have concocted some believable story. I never specifically asked. There were other patients in the waiting room. But just before he left, he turned to me and said, 'you know, he came back to Hamilton a couple of times -- disguised as a woman,'" the elderly doctor recalled. Asked whether he believed the patient's story, he replied: "He was entirely believable. It was so natural. It didn't sound like he had rehearsed it."
Andy Varady, 72, didn't know anything about the coffin story. But he has no doubt Perri's life would have been in danger and he could have concocted some clever ruse to sneak out of the city. Just six years earlier, he was awakened one night by a loud explosion that rocked the family home on Hughson Street North and spewed car parts in every direction. Somebody had planted explosives in Perri's car while he was visiting an associate across the street and the blast was set off when he turned on the ignition. The vehicle flew up and struck a power line before crashing down in a ball of flames with Perri still behind the wheel. Miraculously, he escaped with minor clothes burns.
Varady had met Perri a few years earlier while the gangster was visiting Perri's cousin and criminal associate, Joe Romeo, who lived next door on Hughson Street North. He said the generous mobster, who had a weakness for kids, gave him and his friends a two- or five-dollar bill to buy some treats at Mrs. Friend's corner store down the street. He never felt awed or intimidated by the legendary bootlegger, who had amassed a fortune during prohibition. "He was just somebody who came around the neighbourhood," he recalls. Perri was forced to leave Hamilton for about three years during the war, while he was incarcerated at an internment camp in northern Ontario.
When he returned in 1943, mobsters from Buffalo had moved into this turf and were plotting to murder him when he vanished in April of 1944. His cousin Mike Serge told police two days later that he had gone to a drug store to buy medication for a headache and never returned. Rumours about his body being dumped in the bay started shortly after and have become the stuff of local legends. Varady said he asked Romeo in the late '40s whether the stories were true. Romeo had participated in Perri's criminal enterprises and was as close to him as anybody in Hamilton. "I didn't think he had been rubbed out. He told me he went to Mexico," Varady said during a recent interview in his Hamilton Mountain apartment. While researching his book in Italy, Canada and the United States, Nicaso said he learned Perri went to live with relatives in Massena, N.Y., after he was spirited out of Canada.
Nicaso also obtained an FBI document prepared by director J. Edgar Hoover that had Perri move to a small village in Mexico where he resumed his criminal activities. Nicaso had also heard the story that a Hamilton water truck driver had spirited Perri across the border in a coffin. He didn't include it in his book because it came from a single source in the United States and he couldn't be sure it was accurate. "I was aware of this rumour," Nicaso said, "now you have a good reliable source the story is true." He hopes his book will scare up more information about Perri's disappearance, including the identity of the man who helped him across the border.

Nov. 22, 2004