Joseph Raso, the Montreal nightclub killer who fled to Italy, never to be caught

 
 

Joseph Raso

Mike Giordano, 32, was working the door at a private after hours party on Peel Street across from Windsor Train Station on 10 September 1959. 

   It was 4 a.m. at the Bal Tabarin, which sat on the section of Peel then known as Windsor Street, when Norman Primrose, a 24-year-old part-time waiter, showed up with two pals and asked to be let in. 

   The Bal Tabarin was inside of the Hotel Montrealer and was next door to the Alberta Lounge, most notable for being the spot where Oscar Peterson performed his magic on the piano. 

   One of the two owners, Angelo Lanza, told Giordano to let Primrose enter. 

   Giordano (also spelled Geordano) was sitting with Lionel Deare, an accomplished boxer who occasionally fell afoul of the law and was a frequent presence in Montreal at the time.

   At 5 a.m. Joe Raso, another owner, entered the bar and went into his office. 

   At about 6 a.m. Raso left his office with a gun in hand. He proceeded to hit Deare on the head with the weapon and then did the same to another man at the same table.

Giordano in 1973

   Raso then pointed the small .25 calibre automatic pistol at Giordano and ordered him to move out of his way.  

    Raso then marched towards Primrose's table, shooting a bullet into the floor along the way. 

   "What's the matter Joe?" Primrose asked Raso. The two tussled briefly, a shot went off and Primrose was soon lying on the floor, very much dead.

   "Raso was in a very  bad mood and he had a couple of drinks before coming in," Giordano told a court hearing on 24 March 1960. 

   

    Raso fled to Ottawa where he car was found but he was not. He left Canada soon after, likely returning to Italy or the United States. He was never caught or tried, in spite of being held criminal responsible in absentia a few months later. 

   Authorities still hoped to nab Raso for many years, noting, in 1965, that he was sought by international police agencies and believed to be working in a Milan-area crime syndicate. 

    The bars along the strip were all demolished not long after, as Montreal widened Peel Street, while also demolishing Osborne, which is now part of Place du Canada in front of Chateau Champlain. 

   Giordano and Lanza continued on in nightclubs and the criminal milieu for the next decade at least, working with Nicolas Di Iorio in a variety of rackets. 

Angelo Lanza

   Deare also remained on the scene. He was probably best known for an incident in 1955 when he teamed up with fellow black-Montreal boxers Ronald "Buddy" Jones, Charlie Chase, George Desmond, William "Carfare" Bowman and Vincent McIntyre to ransack the All American Cafe (Dorch, north side just west of Peel) and another local nightclubs on orders of ill-fated mob boss Frank Pretula. 

**

    Five years earlier at the same Bal Tabarin nightclub, manager Roger Mollet, a processional wrestler from France, punched and knocked out a performer, objecting to him playing the accordion onstage.

    Accordionist Michel Sauro, 22, of 3215 Ontario testified against Mollet in court in July 1950, saying that he told Mollet that he had no right to cancel his contract, prompting Mollet to strike the KO blow. 

   Mollet was charged with assault. "Mollet punched me. The next thing I remembered was waking up in the bathroom when somebody was placing compresses on my forehead," Sauro told a courtroom.

**

    One other notable incident took place on the strip around the same time as the Primrose killing. 

  Just days prior to the shooting at the the Bal Tabarin, a grisly double shooting took place right next door at the Alberta Lounge at 1157 Peel (aka Windsor St) on Aug 30, 1959. 

   Larry Callaghan, 32, of 1862 Le Caron St. entered the Alberta Lounge and saw Harvey Muir, 35, of 1725 St. Antoine St. with waitress Rita Naguay, 33, of 2320 Beaconsfield Ave. 

     Callaghan, stricken with a jealous rage, pulled out a gun and shot Muir dead and then took aim at Naguay, hitting her in the neck. She survived. Calaghan then turned the gun to himself and shot himself in the head. He died in hospital a few days later. 

  ** 

  After the two shootings police announced a crack down on weapons, citing the two shootings as well as a pair of non-fatal shootings on the Lower Main and another shots-fired incident at Pal's Cafe at St. Lawrence and St. Catherine.

   A week later, on 17 September, 30 liquor police officers raided the Bal Tabarin and the Alberta Lounge, as well as a few other bars, seizing various items such as caskets of beer. 

Authorities make off with  beer from Windsor Street  in Sept 1959

   The buildings were demolished not long after. It remains unknown whether the mayhem at the bars played a role in the decision to raze the structures. 

      Amazingly, no photos seem to exist of the Alberta Lounge, Hotel Montrealer or Bal Tabarin or even anywhere of the the section of Peel.