Investigators chase new lead
in decade-old mob slaying

A new lead under investigation by Peel Region police could
bring them a step closer to solving Peel Region Police's longest
unsolved murder - the gangland slaying of Toronto mobster Paul
Volpe.

Acting on a tip, homicide detectives travelled to an unknown
location in the United States last year to investigate what police
term "a substantial new lead'' into the 10-year-old murder.

Volpe's bullet-ridden body was found stuffed in the trunk of his
wife's leased BMW on Nov. 14, 1983 at Terminal 2 of Pearson
International Airport. It was a gangland-style hit and police say
the 55-year-old Volpe probably knew his attacker.

Police won't say what the new lead is, but admit it led to an
extensive six-week investigation that has kept the Volpe file open.

"I'd have to say it was one of the best leads we've had in quite
some time,'' homicide Detective-Sergeant Bill Whitlock said. "The
problem is getting to the people who have the information . . . that
has been very difficult to do.''

Although police say they generally receive at least one tip every
year on the Volpe killing, the new information piqued their
interest.

"We've been very active on his file this year,'' Whitlock said.
"We checked out a substantial new lead and we're still following it
up.

"We consider the lead to be a factual lead. It wasn't a dead- end
tip.''

Toronto Star reporter Peter Edwards and mob expert Antonio Nicaso

write in their 1993 book Deadly Silence that police informer Cecil Kirby

indicated the Montreal-based Commisso family had placed a $20,000 murder contract on Volpe in May of 1992.

The book draws on information from a bevy of informers among
Volpe's former associates in Philadelphia and Buffalo.

Edwards also writes Volpe was killed within half an hour of meeting
an associate at a Woodbrige restaurant to discuss his involvement in
securing $2.5 million for a planned gambling casino in Antigua.

The book adds that Volpe's body was discovered in a curled fetal
position with blood splattered about his neck.

Toronto Star / January 6, 1994