MONTREAL - A small group of friends and family gathered in Montreal to pay their final respects to the made man who once led the Bonanno crime family in New York.
The funeral for Salvatore "Sal the Ironworker" Montagna was intimate, with about 70 people gathered at Our Lady of Pompei Church for an intimate ceremony.
Outside plainclothes police officers were on hand to document the mourners, as happens for any death among those with connections to the mob.
Montagna was shot and killed on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011 on Ile Vaudry just north of Montreal, chased from a house by gunmen, and pulled from the river by police.
It was a grim end to a man once called the Bambino Boss.
Montagna was born in Montreal in 1971, but was raised in Sicily before he moved to New York and started working in his family's metal working business.
The FBI contends he eventually took over the Bonanno family, and managed to have the non-US-citizen deported following his refusal to testify about illegal gambling.
Given a choice between Canada and Italy, Montagna returned to Montreal in 2009, and his return coincided with a series of murders within the Rizzuto crime family.
Montagna, 40, is survived by his wife and three daughters.
