Vito Rizzuto, the former head of the Montreal Mafia, died Monday morning at Sacré-Coeur Hospital following health problems.
Radio-Canada is reporting that the 67-year-old man was hospitalized on Sunday for pulmonary problems. His death comes just over a year after his release from an American prison.
"The man known as the Teflon Don dies quietly? [It was] quite a surprise to many, many people," said Julian Sher, the senior producer of CBC's the fifth estate and an investigative journalist who has covered the Montreal Mafia extensively.
Born in the Cattolica Eraclea area of Sicily, Italy in 1946, Rizzuto moved to Canada with his family when he was eight years old.
His father Nicolo Rizzuto, Sr. — the patriarch of the Rizzuto crime family — was assassinated at his Montreal home in November 2010.
