Security for Mafia-fighting Italian magistrate Nicola Gratteri is so high that he couldn’t attend his own father’s funeral in the southern Italian province of Calabria. He only dreams of going to a restaurant or the beach or strolling down the street, eating an ice cream cone. His home in Reggio Calabria is a police station. Police once foiled a plot plant dynamite under a road he travelled, in armoured cars, with a cadre of body-guards. For the past quarter-century, the security has gotten tighter and tighter – in Italy and abroad – as he helps put more members of the Calabrian Mafia – or ‘Ndrangheta – behind bars.

So why is it that when Gratteri visited Toronto recently, the RCMP provided no security? That’s a question a lot of people – especially in Italy – are asking at the moment. I wonder how long it will be before the next top-level Italian crime-fighter comes for a visit.

 I know this isn’t a Bandido posting, but I feel it fits anyway. The Canadian Bandidos were slammed as organized crime, when they were often just a Keystone Kops version of bad guys. Gratteri is locking up real organized criminals, and somehow he’s deemed not worth a bodyguard while in Canada.

I’m looking forward to visiting The Village Bookshop in Bayfield on Saturday, October 23.  They’ve organized a reading of The Bandido Massacre in the  parlor of The Little Inn in Bayfield at 3 pm. Admission’s free. There’s something about being in a place where people genuinely care about books that makes you feel good about humanity.

Andre Watteel runs soup kitchens for the poor in Kitchener. He’s also a top Hells Angel and former top member of the Satan’s Choice. Watteel is considered a key player in the patchover that melded former members of provincial clubs into the international Hells Angels a decade ago. And soon, Watteel may also be a convict, after pleading guilty to cocaine trafficking charges in Hamilton.

It was nice to read in the Globe this weekend that The Bandido Massacre is still in the top 10 for Canadian true crime books. I’ll be sending one later today to a friend of Boxer Muscedere’s, who knew him when Boxer visited Italy shortly before his murder. I’ll be directing Boxer’s buddy to pay particular attention to page 352, in which one of the killers marvels at how Boxer went out of this world like a man.

A book that will soon be in the top 10 is Bad Seeds: The True Story of Toronto’s Galloway Boys Street Gang by my friend and Toronto Star colleague, Betsy Powell. I’ve already picked up a copy. Betsy’s smart, she can write and knows the justice system through and through: her dad Clay was Wayne Kellestine’s lawyer in the Bandido case.

A reader emails to tell me that he grew up with Jamie Flanz in Cote St. Luc, Quebec. “I remember his first day in public school in Grade 4 and I remember playing softball on his team in 1992,” his email states.

“I never considered Jamie to be a friend but he was a rare bird in that he could be friendly and well-liked by everyone in school, every clique knew and liked him,” he continues.

“To this day it blows my mind how a guy like this got involved with Bandidos. The only thing I remember biker about him was a leather hat back in the day and that he used to smoke weed on occasion at softball.”

I have to say I share his feelings. How a smart man, with a loving family, could get involved with the likes of Wayne (Weiner) Kellestine, is one of life’s mysteries. I suspect Flanz bonded with Boxer Muscedere, who was a good guy who had a blind spot for Kellestine’s insanity. Flanz and Boxer were both big on loyalty, which is usually a good thing. In Kellestine’s world, however, it was a fatal weakness.

I was happy to read that The Bandido Massacre is the 5th best selling true crime book in Canada, and the top one that was written here. I’m also a little stunned to read this, since it’s been out for more than half a year. Maybe the summer is biker season. Who knows? Why question good news?

Last week, I met Edward Winterhalder, former secretary-treasurer of the Bandidos worldwide and the author of numerous authoritative books on the club. He’s a really nice guy face-to-face. We were having breakfast and he saw a soldier at another booth. By reflex, he bought the service man breakfast. It wasn’t something for show, just something that he says is pretty common down there. Proud as I am to be Canadian, we could learn some things from Americans.

I don’t know Vancouver Sun reporter Kim Bolan but I have respected her work for some time. She did a great job of covering the hit on East End Vancouver Hells Angel Juel Ross Stanton this week. It was an excellent example of energy and knowledge combining in reporting.

Her city of Vancouver’s difficult to fathom, as they have a myriad of groups, but not nearly as strong of a Mafia presence as here in Ontario.

Former Ontario biker Ion (Johnny K-9) Croituro’s in custody in B.C. now. He’s mentioned in a story I have in today’s paper, in which former Hamilton Mafia hitman Ken Murdock talks about his former nasty trade. Murdock says that the Hamilton mob wanted him dead for enforcement work he was doing for another crime family.

I don’t imagine there’s any shortage of suspects in the Stanton murder. I also wouldn’t bet it will be solved until someone is picked up on other charges, and then cuts a deal. Or maybe it will remain a mystery.

Nothing in Murdock’s former business is carved in stone, but there are some standard practices here in Eastern Canada, Generally, the Mafia generally prefers guns while dynamite is more of an outlaw biker way of doing things.

We’ve probably all wondered what’s happened to a former home. Most of us don’t read about it in the news pages, like this Winnipeg resident.

There are no patches in the Bandido world for perfect attendance, and even if they existed Robert (Peterborough Bob) Pammett would definitely not have won one. He was absent the night of the massacre, and if he had attended, there likely would have been nine funerals instead of eight. As it was, he was the biker in the yellow leather vest at Boxer’s funeral. Since the massacre, goateed Bob has spent more time in jail than outside of it, after he was pinched selling cocaine to a police agent. He’s fighting now to keep his fortified home on the river from being seized by police as proceeds of crime. It’s not your typical biker digs, with a koi pond and almost life-sized statue of a Greek woman. He’s back in custody, since being scooped up at mid-afternoon on Saturday, July 24 in Peterborough, driving his canary-yellow pickup erratically down a city street, trying to keep up with nine buddies from the Outlaws. Word is the Outlaws have moved into Peterborough, although no one’s yet seen a Peterborough rocker on their backs. Interestingly, the “Canada” bottom rocker is gone, as their days as a national club are over. With about 50 members scattered across a half dozen clubs (Ottawa, South Simcoe, Toronto East, Toronto, St. Catharines, Sault Ste. Marie and London) in Ontario, they still have a presence, but that’s less than a third of the 170 or so full patch Hells Angels in Ontario. Even with members behind bars or on bail, on stipulations not to associate with other bikers, there are some 140 Angels on Ontario roadways. Thanks to my friend Julian Carsini for spotting some errors in the original version of this post.

For all the news about bikers and illegal drugs, it’s interesting that many of them turn to legal prescription ones to take the edge off of life. Boxer Muscedere’s Bandidos called them “groovies” and they were the sort of thing that’s legally prescribed and paid for by public health care. It’s enough to get the Rolling Stones’ “Mother’s Little Helper” playing in your brain.