Rocco Perri

Rocco Perri (born December 30, 1887 – disappeared April 23, 1944) was an organized crime figure in Ontario, Canada in the early 20th century. He was one of the most prominent Calabrian mafiosi bosses in Canadian history, and the spouse of Besha Starkman (also known as Bessie Perri).

Perri was born in Platì, Calabria, in southern Italy. Through the 1920s, he became the leading figure in organized crime in Southern Ontario. He was under constant surveillance by police. He specialized in exporting liquor from old Canadian distilleries, such as Seagram's and Gooderham's to the United States, and helped these companies obtain a large share of the American market — a share they kept after Prohibition ended. Perri diversified into gambling, extortion and prostitution. Starkman was the head of operations, until 1930 when she was ambushed and shot in a parking garage, though no one was ever tried for the crime.

Perri and Starkman's Hamilton residence was located at 166 Bay Street South in Hamilton, Ontario.

When the Government of Canada cut funding to the Welland Canal project, Perri was unemployed. After working in a bakery, he became a salesman for the Superior Macaroni Company. Perri and Starkman found a better life when the Ontario Temperance Act came into effect on 16 September 1916, as it restricted the sale and distribution of alcohol; the couple began bootlegging and, using Starkman's business acumen and Perri's connections, established a profitable business.

Three developments ensured Perri's bootleg operations would continue to be profitable. Prohibition was declared in Canada on 23 December 1917; in April 1918, it became illegal to transport alcohol in Canada; in 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment prohibited sale of alcohol in the United States. Perri expanded to the Niagara frontier and the Buffalo area. He was the first of the great bootleggers in Canada and was called "Canada's King of the Bootleggers".

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