Middleweight Contender Gangster Hurricane Eddie Melo and the Canadian Mafia
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
The late Canadian middleweight and light heavyweight contender and veteran gangster Eduardo Manuel Deus “Eddie The Hurricane” Melo was born in Portugal, and raised in Toronto, Canada. Fighting between 1978 and 1986, Melo’s career record was 32-9-2 with 27 knockouts.
A ninth grade high school dropout whose father worked in construction, Melo forged his birth certificate and became an amateur boxer, winning 93 bouts and losing only four. Melo went pro on March 7, 1978, at the age of 17, with a first round knockout victory over Joe Mainfils in Montreal, Quebec. Melo fought Canadian Middleweight champion Fernand Marcotte four times, winning once, losing twice, and drawing once. Eddie peaked at age 20, was a favorite of boxing fans in Montreal, but eventually began to decline due the effects of brain damage. Melo won the Canadian light heavyweight title in 1980 by knocking out Gary Summerhays in the eleventh round.
Melo’s problems with the law came after his boxing career ended, and he was convicted nine different times on charges relating to weapons. Melo drove a Lincoln Continental, had 20 thousand dollars worth of flashy jewelry, and married a former Miss Montreal Alouette cheerleader. One of Melo’s fans was the gangster Frank Controni of the Controni family in Montreal. Melo came to enjoy a friendship with Cotroni, whom he called “my number one fan”. The hitman Réal Simard served as the Toronto representative of the Cotroni family starting in July 1983.] Cotroni would visit Toronto about once every month to see Simard, and during those visits Melo would serve as his personal chauffeur and bodyguard.]
A police check-up of Melo revealed Melo was working as an organizer for Local 75 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees’ Union, a corrupt union expelled in 1981 from the Federation des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Quebec under the grounds the union was controlled by Cotroni, and the union represented the interests of management instead of the workers in its care. In October 1984, a Royal Commission under Justice Raymond Bernier of the Quebec Sports Safety Board examined the subject of Mafia influence within boxing. Between October 1984 and July 1985, the Bernier Commission interviewed 105 people, and in its report presented March 1986, concluded the boxing industry in Quebec had evolved to become systemically corrupt under the influence and control of Cotroni, an area boxing fan. Bernier wrote Cotroni was the guiding spirit of boxing in Montreal. The report listed Melo as one of the boxer athletes associated with Cotroni.
Wikipedia tells much of the road leading to Melo’s final story. Melo retired from boxing in 1986, and went to work as an organizer for the Cotroni-controlled Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, then in the vending machine business. Melo was known for his aggressive gangster thug personality style both in and outside of the ring, with many finding his temper to be quite uncontrollable. Melo’s job was supervisor for the Cotroni family in Toronto, bringing in strippers and video machines from Montreal to various Toronto bars. The previous Cotroni family representative for Toronto, the hitman Réal Simard, had turned Crown’s (state’s) evidence, thus requiring a replacement in Melo. Johnny Papalia, the boss of the rival Papalia Canadian mob family, came to detest Melo, once telling Cotroni to “Put a lease on Melo or I’ll kill him.” In 1989, at a pool hall on College Street, Melo assaulted a Mafiosi, which led to a murder plot against him with a hitman being hired to kill him.
Melo’s underworld connections came to light when he tried to resume his boxing career in 1994. Before Melo could resume boxing, it was discovered he had never obtained Canadian citizenship, thus leading the government to order him deported to Portugal. Melo fought against the deportation order, arguing: “My parents brought me here for a better life. I did everything in Canada. I have two daughters, and now a (new) baby. And I have to add I got in a lot of trouble here, too.”
Melo claimed to be taking prescription drugs to control his anger, saying he was trying to reform. However, the police remained suspicious of Melo, noting he was still working in the all-cash vending machine business, though Melo complained that police surveillance made it difficult for him to work in the vending machine business. The police also noted that Melo listed his annual income when filing taxes as being about $24,000, yet: he lived in a condo on Lakeshore Boulevard West which cost $2,000 per month; paid $1,500 in child support to his ex-wife every month; owned a second condominium; and owned two vehicles, a Jaguar automobile and a sports utility car.
Melo’s underworld employment and connections would lead to his untimely demise, and the story would ironically revive in 2022. On April 5, 2001, Melo planned to go out with his wife Rhonda to attend a concert by Andrea Bocelli at the Air Canada Centre. At about 5:15 P.M., Melo went to Amici Sport Café to meet his friend Joao “Johanny” Pavao. At about 6:25 P.M., Melo was in the parking lot talking to Pavao when the hitman Charles Gagné shot Melo in the head and then killed his friend Pavao. Melo died of his injuries the following day. On April 8, 2001, his widow, his daughter Jessica and his brother Tony were all charged with obstruction of justice and assault after they attacked officers of the Peel Regional Police who tried to seize Melo’s Jaguar for official evidence.
Gagné was paid 75 thousand dollars (either in Canadian or American dollars) for killing Melo Gagné was a career criminal from Montreal who was on parole for armed robbery when he took the contract on Melo’s life. In September 2003, Gagné pledged guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison, being eligible for parole after 12 years in exchange for testifying against his employer. The police believe that Melo’s murder was linked to a “historical conflict within the ‘Ndrangheta (in Ontario) and that the organization has had with other Italian criminalized groups (in Canada). The Canadian journalists Peter Edwards and Michel Auger wrote: “Ironically, Melo might have still been alive if he hadn’t recently won his fight with the Canadian authorities to keep him from being deported to Portugal. He wasn’t famous or feared over there, but then nobody there wanted him dead either”. On February 18, 2022, Gagné was denied full parole, but was granted limited release, continuing the Melo saga.
Eddie Melo, who died at age 40, is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 21 years after his passing, the legacy of Eddie Melo is honored through Sixteen years later, his legacy is being honored through the Eddie Melo Legacy Organization. Jessica Melo, Eddie’s daughter, started the organization to pick up where her father left off. In an interview with Global News some years ago, Jessica described her father as someone determined to help others through boxing.
“Boxing was such a big part of my dad’s life. He started boxing then he was nine years old. So to give back to the kids who are coming up and get them off the streets, and keeping them safe and giving them something to work towards and hopefully be as successful as my dad was in the ring, instead of always focusing on April 6 2001 (the date she lost her father), I wanted to put a positive spin and remember him for the incredible fighter he was and everything he did in the community, as the most amazing dad I have ever come across.” After her father’s death, Jessica remains today determined to help others in her father’s name. His death connected her to others who have also had to face such a horrific tragedy as the loss of a loved one under tragic circumstances.
The concern is a lot of kids lack support and guidance after a parent has passed away, and as a result, some of them head down the wrong path. To help prevent youth from heading down the wrong career path, Jessica then created the Eddie Melo Legacy Organization. The organization is about “Helping children who have lost a parent due to a homicide, so (we are) giving back to them and sponsoring them through athletics, academics, fine arts, anything (constructive activities) that can help lessen the(ir) burden, and give them support during such a tragic time.”
COMMENTS
English