SweetheartsFirst published in 1980, Sweethearts is an eye-opening account of the men who controlled Toronto's highrise apartment business during the building boom of the 1960s. The book tells the fascinating inside story of a thriving, profitable new industry and how organized crime moved in on it. It names names: the syndicate leaders, corrupt subcontractors, hitmen, couriers and extortionists. And it chronicles the violence--the burned cars, bombed buildings and shootings--that signalled the extent of mob involvement in the industry. Based on years of careful research in Canada and the U.S., Sweethearts is a meticulous analysis of a bloody time in the nation's development history. |
Contents
The Harbord Class of 33 | 3 |
Bubsey Squeaky Little Woody and the Weasel | 9 |
Lansky and Luciano | 17 |
The real estate boom 19501960 | 27 |
Dippers | 40 |
The mob and its money | 53 |
The Brandon Group campaign | 67 |
Zanini and Irvine | 75 |
Gus Simone organizer | 129 |
The concrete forming campaign | 137 |
The independent union | 150 |
The sale | 157 |
The shooting | 163 |
Labour empires | 181 |
No regrets | 191 |
Appendices | 197 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
apartment builders apartment developers Bahamas bank Batista began boss Brandon Group Bricklayers Bronfman Bronfman family Bruno Zanini Building Trades business agent Cadillac Cadillac Fairview Canada Canadian union cash casino Charles Irvine commercial concrete forming Consultants Ltd contract contractors DiLorenzo drywall Eddie Goodman finance firm Forming Council Frank Drea G.J. Simpson Construction gambling Grand Bahama Green Acres Harbord highrise highrise apartment hired Hoffa housing immigrant workers industry international union Irvine Irvine's Italian Jimmy Hoffa Jose Vedra Develop labour Lansky's later lathing loans Lucayan Lucayan Beach Luciano Management & Consultants Maron Properties Meyer Lansky million Miramichi officials Omega Investments Limited operation organized Phil Givens plastering police profits projects real estate refused residential unions Roberts Construction Romanelli Ruthbern-Maron Alma Simone's streets subcontractors Suson Enterprises syndicate Teamsters Three M Construction tion Toronto Volpe wages Wallace Groves Yonge St York Management Zotto