Since men first took up fists for dough, boxing and organized crime have partnered like a well-mixed cocktail.
As a byproduct, the sweet science graveyard is full of fighters who flew too close to the sun.
Sonny Liston, Jake LaMotta, Primo Carnera and countless low-rent pugs were all on the hook to the wiseguys.
Toss in Toronto’s own Eddie Melo, whose post-ring career featured a CV that included leg-breaker for the underworld.
And like Icarus, Melo flew too close to the sun.
On April 6, 2001, the 41-year-old former fighter was clipped in the parking lot of Amici Sport Cafe in Mississauga. His buddy Joao “Johnny” Pavao was also taken off the board. Pavao’s death sentence was because he had the temerity to witness the gangland settling of accounts.
The triggerman was a Montreal thug named Charles Gagne. His payday by his estimate was a cool $75,000. These days the going rate for a hit is a bag of blow and a Pepsi.
The puppet master in Melo’s murder has never been identified but the rubout was widely believed to have been ordered by the local ‘Ndrangheta commission.
Cops at the time said the roots of Melo’s bloody demise were a “historical conflict within the ‘Ndrangheta (in Ontario) and that the organization has had with other Italian criminalized groups (in Canada).”
Gagne and Melo’s names again emerged in media reports on Friday. The hitter’s bid to regain parole was torpedoed over dodgy crypto dealings, allegedly hanging with sex workers and using marijuana, all no-nos.
As per the Toronto Star, Gagne admitted to the hearing on Wednesday that, by gosh, yes, he has made some “bad choices.” As for the other stuff, the hitter appeared to suggest that denial is not just a river in Egypt.
He told the parole board: “I’m a work in progress. I have to work on my risk factors. Thirty years in prison kind of affected my mental health in a lot of ways.”
As for a return to criminal activities, Gagne said, “I’m done.”
But when it comes to murder, the survivors have very long memories indeed. Melo’s daughter Jessica for one.
She said of Gagne: “He will never be reformed. It’s not a matter of ‘if’ with him. It’s a matter of when.”
The closest cops ever came to nabbing the puppet master who ordered the hit on Melo was when GTA businessman Manuel Dasilva went on trial for the murder in 2005. He was acquitted.
The whys of the shocking 2001 double murder of Eddie Melo and Johnny Pavao have never been made clear, other than the luckless Pavao being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As for Melo, his fate was sealed the minute he started driving for Montreal mobster Frank Cotroni, a fight fan, when he visited the Toronto area. Mobsters love fighters and that’s been the case since the days of fight fixer Frankie Carbo.
They like having them around as muscle and show ponies. And a prizefighter adds a sweetener for delinquent gamblers to cough up.
Boxers are among the bravest people to walk the earth and Eddie Melo was among them. That courage is too often their downfall.
Eddie Melo’s family would no doubt concur.
@HunterTOSun