| Vincenzo "Rent-A-Gun" De Santis |
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| Vincenzo De Santis, known as "Jimmy Rent-A-Gun," got his start in the 1960s, working as a soldier under then-lieutenant Paolo Violi and as a bartender at Violi's Reggio Bar. When Violi wanted soldiers Tony Vanelli and Moreno Gallo to plead guilty for the murder of Angelo Facchino, to avoid what he felt would be a lengthy and very public trial, he sent Jimmy Rent-A-Gun to pass the message. Both complied and pled guilty. Vanelli got four years and Gallo was sentenced to life. De Santis was among the mobsters the Quebec Police Commission's inquiry into organized crime (CECO) called before them in the 1970s. Wearing a flasy purple velvet suit and green and black shoes, he refused to testify because he claimed the commission "discriminates against the |
| Italians and we French Canadians." Judge Jean Dutil didn't buy it and sentenced De Santis to one year in prison for contempt. He was again in the news, this time with Paolo Cotroni, after the December 17, 1992 arson of the Oscar night club in Saint-Leonard. Cotroni's girlfriend had been fired and, on the night of the fire, De Santis was reportedly seen in the club unti; closing time, around 3:45 or 4:00am. Both De Santis and Cotroni swore that they had nothing to do with the incident and were noth charged. One of the Montreal Mafia's most colorful and interesting charactes, De Santis has since avoided both law enforcement and the media and remains one of the Cotronis most trusted associates. He is among several mobsters, including Reynald Desjardins, that has once claimed to be an employee of Expotronique, a Saint-Leonard company owned by Frank Cotroni's oldest son Nicodemo. |